Beyond Her Majesty’s Men by Marquesate

[reviews_and_ramblings]

I absolutely loved this short story, there is practically no sex and despite this (or maybe thanks to this) it’s one of the most romantic and sweet story I have ever read, and if you considering it’s about rough soldiers, it was not an easy job to make it like that.

Tom and Alex are buddy friends and something more; no one wants to really admit the deepness of their feelings, but it’s obvious and binding. Waiting for Alex to leave for a six months shift abroad, Tom has the chance to question his own side of the relationship and to arrive to the right conclusion: he is in love. But in their world, and mentality, it’s almost impossible to be open with this type of feeling, and so Tom is not able to say the words, not even to think at them. Alex will leave and Tom will wait at home, like a friend and not a partner.

Tom is probably more near to the point in which it will be impossible to deny it’s love, but it’s not that Alex is doing something to push him away; on the contrary, even from abroad, he is cultivating their feelings, and maintaining the contact, so that when he will be back home, Tom will be there waiting for him. Does it matter that their friends and relatives believe them to be only best friends? By the way, I think Tom and Alex want to think their dear ones are not aware, but I think it’s one example more of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: in this case it’s a benigne example, a way for Tom’s family to letting him know that he will be always welcome in their comforting embrace.

This is a Christmas story, and as such is tender and with an happily ever after, maybe a macho man HEA, but nevertheless a good one.

This is a charity publication, strictly no-profit for the author, and the £0.40 revenue of each book go to Médecins Sans Frontières

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