All or Nothing

By: Alp Mortal

Narrated by: Stewart Campbell

Sam is gay, lonely, and depressed and lives next door to closed-book Steve, a practical, godlike motorcycle mechanic. Sam harbors a dream of a happy ever after that is so far removed from reality it is painful. Things take a decided turn for the worst when Steve announces that he is emigrating to Canada. The separation, loneliness, and depression are just about enough to finish poor Sam off.

An invitation to visit Steve after a year of excruciating longing gives Sam a glimmer of hope. But dare he risk all and admit to his feelings and end up with nothing?All or Nothing is a short romantic story written in two parts. Part one was originally published in eBook format in 2013 as Pain & Suffering and appeared in Liberty Short Vol. 2.

©2013 Alp Mortal (P)2015 The Carter Seagrove Project LLC

Bravery in love

Alp Mortal has done it again an amazing story about love! It's sweet but captivating and keeps you guessing till the very end. And as for the ending itself, it was perfect!

Decent

Short stories are often the hardest things to write, as well as to review. The author only has a short time to accomplish what they want to accomplish. Usually either the plot or the character gets sacrificed for the other. With All or Nothing I’m not really sure what the main point was.

Sam is a lonely man with a crush on his neighbor, Steve, and says nothing about it for a very, very long time. The only thing that really happens in the story is Sam pining after his neighbor, as well as jack off thinking about Steve.

Then, after so much time of hiding his feelings, Sam visits Steve in Canada, both men admit their feelings and they get their HEA. It was a tad Insta-love-ish for me and I would’ve like to have seen more of them together before they confess their love.

Regardless of what I thought about the plot and Sam’s wishy washy attitude, I did like the character. He was realistic and a genuinely nice person. Since it was written in Sam’s POV, Steve is seen very little and is somewhat of an enigma. I never really got why Sam liked him, other than from a physical stand point.

The writing is strong here and I will have to check out other stuff by the author.

Narration Review:

Stewart Campbell nailed Steve’s voice here. However, there were so few other characters it was hard to see what kind of talent the narrator possessed. I echo my statement about the author and will look for more books narrated by Campbell.