A Nightmare Come True by Sage Marlowe
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
A Nightmare Come True is basically porn in written form. It has a weak storyline to set the two men up but the focus is on the sex and an equally weak ending to give the characters some kind of an ending. Or not an ending since I guess this is a series. It’s not the worst thing ever but it’s inane and boring and lacks any kind of plot structure. It’s a vehicle for lots of sex, which may be what some readers want. I’ve reader hotter and better erotica/porn in the genre so I wouldn’t recommend this. However I also didn’t want to throw it across the metaphorical room so that’s why I gave it another half star, rounded up.
The premise actually made me roll my eyes because it’s so weak and the story doesn’t even bother to put any effort into it at all. Mikey gets a handyman job on a porn set where he sees his all time favorite porn star, Colin, staring in several films. Eventually Mikey gets in on the action and takes it a step further to actually fall in love and date Colin. However, Colin is hiding a deep dark secret that may change everything. (Spoiler…it doesn’t)
To be honest, I would have thought this resembled porn in written form even before the clear connection, but it does strike me as a lack of effort that the story doesn’t even try to build on the obvious setup. The sex scenes start almost immediately and Mikey has an obsession with Colin well before they first have sex. Interspersed with sex scenes are these weird attempts to show a connection between Mikey and Colin that go beyond just screwing each other. However, these scenes are so awkward and make little to no sense. There is no ‘getting to know each other’ kind of discourse. Instead they banter back and forth about sex and their preconceived judgmental attitudes about most things. Which while annoying is fine, except it shows neither man is really interested in knowing more about the other. They’re just interested in talking about themselves.
Furthermore the two finally have sex together, and then Mikey obsesses about said sex. They have more sex, more obsessing and so on. Eventually Colin makes a comment about how he’s in love with Mikey but I had no idea where that came from. Their entire relationship is sex, sex, and more sex and the story shows little to no real interaction beyond that to indicate a deeper, more lasting connection. And even then I didn’t get the idea the two men were that attached to each other, more so both liked their chemistry and easy access to all the sex they wanted. I was honestly surprised when they talked about a real relationship, which was absent the entire story.
There is an additional supernatural component but I have to say this was incredibly weak and actually hurt the story. If the point was to make an erotica based story, then do so unabashed of a pseudo supernatural vehicle. This additional “plot” point was simply unnecessary. Mikey comes across eager, desperate, and ridiculous in his response to Colin’s supernatural nature. I liked the idea of it and how Colin’s nature fit into the porn world but I don’t think the story did a good job of executing the entire plot and especially this part.
I think the story has some good ideas and could have been a decent supernatural story with a fun bit of erotica thrown in but the execution fails. The men are one dimensional, wooden, and lack any deeper feelings to base their relationship off of, additionally what plot exists is simply robotic, predictable and uninteresting. Ultimately, this story is a good concept that fails in the execution. I honestly wouldn’t recommend it at all sadly.
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