Review: Picture Perfect by Dyanna Ashe
January 12, 2011 
8 Comments
The perfect snapshot…
Dorian Grey was on the fast track to becoming Hollywood royalty. All he had to do was play the part of doting boyfriend to Heather Parks, the studio’s volatile starlet, long enough to finishing filming their new movie. But when Dorian meets Jasin Tobin during a photo shoot, Jasin sets Dorian’s long dormant passions on fire. But as their steamy affair turns serious, Dorian’s pretend girlfriend discovers his secret and threatens to use it to destroy the one thing that’s most important to Dorian, his career.
Of a life that was a lie…
Faced with the impossible decision of choosing between the man he loves and the career he’s worked so hard for, Dorian must decide what’s worth sacrificing and what’s worth holding on to if he’s going to find the picture perfect life he’s always wanted.
Since this is such a short story I’m going to go ahead and use the blurb for the summary. I don’t want to giveaway the whole story and the blurb pretty much covers it.
First Impressions:
I read this story in about fifteen minutes, so my first impression came to me about 50% into the book just after Dorian and Jasin had their first sexual encounter together. I couldn’t decide if I was hoping for more steamy sex or a little more story to sink my teeth into.
The Hero:
Dorian is Hollywood’s latest darling. He is in town filming his latest movie when he meets Jasin and is attracted to him immediately.
The Other Hero:
Jasin is a local photographer and he knows that the ‘romance’ between Dorian and his costar is a sham. He sends the ‘sex-me-up’ vibes to Dorian who readily complies.
What worked:
This was a straight forward erotic story about two men who meet, click, have hot sex and eventually fall in love. There are not a lot of bells and whistles, but the sex is steamy and the heroes are likable. The only conflict is with Dorian who is not totally happy with how his life and career is going and it takes meeting Jasin to confirm that for him.
What didn’t work:
The cover. I don’t like to pick on covers, especially with small e-press, but I don’t like it when a cover misleads a potential reader and I feel that is possible here. At a glance I would say this is a menage story and that is not the case at all. This is an m/m romance. If I were browsing for m/m romance in an e-book store I’d pass this one by based on the cover.
Final conclusion:
As I said this is a very short story so going into it I did not expect much in the way of character development or story depth. It seems that’s the just the way of it with short stories. Of course I would have liked a little more depth to the characters, perhaps some back story or even some romantic tension but a short story is what it is. So, that being said, the story did not wow me, but it was a pleasant fifteen minutes with Dorian and Jasin.
Picture Perfect by Dyanna Ashe
January 13th 2011 by Rebel Ink Press
GLBT Romance (m/m)
Source: Author
GoodReads Reviews
Author’s Website
Purchase Links: Amazon
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Great review FV. The cover just screams 80s Harlequin.
Yes..I don’t like the cover..but it sounds short and sexy!
Short, sweet, and erotic just how I like ‘em (sometimes
I feel you on the cover. The guys are looking away from each other and one of the guys is looking at that chick- not saying m/m to me. Is it just me or does the cover model look a little like Lindsay Lohan?
@D.L.: Yeah, maybe. The girl on the cover is a bratty, spoiled, drug addicted starlet, so makes sense LOL.
I would say that it was a m/f/m story by looking at that cover..well I guess I would just have to read the blurb then
Thanks for your honest review on this. I will say that I agree with you about the cover! I also thought it was going to be a m/f/m romance not a m/m!