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It seems like every writer is attempting to write a menage these days.  They get randomly inserted into established series and used as a selling point even if its just a random scene in a motel room. The end result always seems flat and, well boring.  Marie Harte’s The Lost Locket is a pleasant change from the normal menage formula, bringing depth and feeling to the story.

Why Read:

Outstanding example of M/M/F, emotional growth, interesting world, links to Circe series, heat factor

Quote that best sums up (one of) the lead characters:

“For days he’d struggled with what it would mean if he succumbed to his desires to bed his best friend.  Worst case, he’d lose their friendship and everyone would know he’d done a guy.  Big friggin’ deal if anyone called him names.  Of course, he had no intention of letting his family know anything about this.  They’d never understand, and he couldn’t afford to lose the only people in the world he loved.”

Review:

This is a great example of what Marie Harte does so well.  In so many menage stories the guys relationship with each other isn’t given a chance to grow emotionally because they’re so busy making sure the female is happy. A menage is generally treated as a standard M/F romance except that there are two males instead of one.  How they feel about the other male isn’t addressed and if they’ve never had an encounter with the same sex before then it’s brushed over and considered normal.

In some ways the plot-line of this story is deceptively simple.  Two guys working for a private agency are sent to retrieve a locket that was stolen from their client.  Along the way they act on the attraction for each that had been brewing for a while and are just getting comfortable with that when they meet the woman who has the locket.  It’s a menage story so you’re not going to be surprised when I say that they both fall for her. Yet it’s the simple plot that allows for the writer to focus on emotional growth within the characters and their relationship.

What makes The Lost Locket different from most other menage stories out there was the way the M/M relationship was given a chance to develop and work before they met the female.  The fact that it was a different relationship that not everyone would accept was handled well and Keegan was actually given a chance to feel weird about the fact that he’d just had a sexual experience with the guy he had always considered a friend.  Bringing Rory into the story changed their relationship, but it didn’t lessen it by making it all about her.  The emotion between the characters is then used with superb skill to enhance heat factor in the book.  And oh, boy is there some heat in this book.

The Lost Locket is a linked series to Harte’s Circe series in that it exists in the same world but not to the extent you need to have read the previous series.

Check Out:

http://www.marieharte.com/