Chapel Orahamm

Arthur MacArthur is in desperate need of a better paying job. Before Arthur dropped out of school to support his younger sister, he loved being a research assistant at the university, and becoming a personal assistant to a famous historian like Dr. Jones is a chance for Arthur to, sort of, live his dream again. But though Arthur was told Dr. Jones is a dragon, one of the most powerful and least understood of the beings, he didn’t anticipate what that could mean—or that he would be so immediately attracted to his boss.

Dr. Philbert “Bertie” Jones is a brilliant historian, but he can’t keep track of the days of the week, much less find his own notes without help. His house is a hoard of books and antiques, and yet unlike all the stories about vicious, possessive dragons, he seems to have no problem with Arthur taking over the clutter and setting the house to rights. In fact, he seems to delight in it, treating Arthur as if he is something precious.

Arthur isn’t sure what to make of that. There is nothing special about him, even if Bertie disagrees. Dragons are supposed to collect treasure, and Arthur isn’t treasure, is he?

I genuinely think I’ve found an author’s style I vibe with. I keep reaching out to other stories and finding myself going back to Cooper’s works as palette cleansers. I can’t call that a bad thing, but it does feel like I shouldn’t become so obsessed with a writing style. But, I’ve read all of the Pern and Ransom series by Anne McCaffrey and almost all of the Dark series by Christine Feehan, so I guess that’s just my course with some writers.

So, I figured I’d adventure around in a different series by Cooper and taste tested Being(s) in Love. I went with one of the longer stories because I wanted time to develop in the world. I’ve ran into too many novelles recently from a lot of authors and am just not really into them. At least not unless I’ve read longer pieces. I like a good short story on a rare occasion and even more rarely writing one, so it’s not so much of being a purist for long form.

This one was sweet. It was that considered pining style where both the MC (main character) and LI (love interest) are into each other, but due to their stations – Employee and Employer – are in a bit of a fuddle about being honest. Well, the MC is. But to be fair, he has a lot of anxiety for good reason and so doesn’t feel like breaking a good working thing.

There was just the one instance of the non-spicy climax (there is on page spicy climaxes too, but that’s different) where the story line depended on a misunderstanding and thank the gods it was very quickly resolved. Grant it, it would have gone better if they had been capable of talking it out in the moment – but again, the MC has *Anxiety*. So, a misunderstanding like it was lined up for the story felt pretty on point. There weren’t any dramatic twists, turns or surprises. I rather like that about Cooper’s writing. It’s just predictable enough to feel, I don’t know, cozy? I don’t think that’s the right word. Comforting. I like that one better. Also, Cooper’s writing and character development gives neurospicy undertones, so the characters are relatable and pretty logically laid out for me.

I do sense that there was some bit of magic left unanswered. I got the sense that the MC could command some form of magic, but it wasn’t addressed fully. I feel like that was probably intentional, as if to leave a bit of room for either interpretation or bringing out a follow up story. I haven’t gone through the whole of Cooper’s portfolio, so for all I know there is a follow up novella somewhere.

Having the characters talk past each other as a way to show how both of them thought differently because of either culture or heritage felt pretty representative to how it feels being neurospicy talking to someone more neurotypical or of a different spicy persuasion. Both know what they are saying, and both have to work just a bit harder to understand each other’s intent. I liked how this one was executed.

The editing could use just the ever softest touch of copyedit clean up – just a couple of typos and grammar things that I find I would rather ignore for the story. And that’s where I call Cooper an excellent writer. I’d rather read their works than a clean trad-press because it actually has heart and solid character development, both of which seems to not fit the bottom line of mass publishing right now.

Would I suggest this one? If you’re into m/m on page spice, then it’s a matter of if you care for Employee/Employer dynamics – which I don’t even feel like was really there. The LI being the Employer wasn’t demanding or on some kind of kink power trip – so it doesn’t come off as manipulative. It genuinely came off as a gentle, rainy day with a cozy fire and a nice pot of tea sort of story.

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