Last updated on May 31, 2024
R. Cooper has a new short story out and it’s very sweet. It’s about two mages that run rival businesses. Or do they?
It starts out with one of the MC’s having been cursed into cat form. His assistant calls for help, much to his dismay. Shenanigans and interesting discussions ensue.
Anyway, it’s cute. It’s MF, with a trans woman main character. It has a very low heat level. You can get it on Smashwords in the format of your choosing. It’s price is “you set the price!” so it can be free, or you can give her money. 🙂
Cover, blurb, and links below. (Also, you should go here to sign up for her newsletter. I don’t know why, exactly, but out of all the author newsletters I get, hers is my favorite.)
After a curse gone awry has turned him (more or less) into a cat, Melchior Duban’s devoted assistant calls in Scarlett Waterhouse, Mel’s rival in the mage-for-hire business, to help. Well, Mel thought they were rivals, or at least competitors, despite his admiration for Scarlett’s skills and insight. But he’s never been good with people—it’s how he wound up cursed in the first place—and it takes Scarlett’s cheerful assistance for him to realize that the two of them might actually be friends. Scarlett uses magic differently from Mel, and thinks differently than Mel, and yet Mel, who is particular and reticent, doesn’t mind. He has even come to like her more intuitive style, something he’s never had to think about before. But now they are alone in his giant, magical library, collaborating on finding a cure to Mel’s problem—any cure but the old standby, the cliché so many mages use to end their spells, the unquantifiable and confusing notion of True Love’s Kiss, and Scarlett seems to be all he can think of. But true love, even if it were real, which it isn’t, isn’t precise, and it’s not definable, and Mel has no interest in it. All he cares about is his studies and his work, his family and his loyal assistant… and Scarlett. Now, if he wants to be himself again, he has to think about that, and what something as nonsensical as True Love’s Kiss might mean for someone like him. A queer romance for the unromantic. M/trans f