Give An Inch by K.D. Sarge

Give An Inch Reviews

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  ~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semi-colons~✡~

  So there were KITTENS.
  
  NINE of them!
  
  
  
  And Lord of the Rings.
  
  Also, peach preserves.
  
  Hurt/comfort? Check.
  
  Two somewhat damaged MCs? Yup.
  
  But ... wait. What happened to Marlow exactly? If he was such a big move star and seemingly openly gay and engaged to a man, how did he fall so quickly?
  
  And Pax ... not one person in this unspecified BFE diagnosed his severe dyslexia?
  
  Until Marlow and the KINDLE came to the rescue!
  
  
  
  The Kindle, people. It's a fucking miracle product. I've been saying it for years.
  
  Whateves. I can bend with reality. Or ignore it completely.
  
  But the ending double sucked.
  
  This is the first couple chapters of ... something.
  
  There was no finish to this story, no HFN, no HEA ... just sex and kittens.
  
  
  
  So many answered questions. Where the hell is my epilogue?
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  Optimist ♰King's Wench♰

  
  
  KITTEHS!!!!!
  
  Mostly kitteh fluffery.
  
  The author did a great job with the prompt and the back story of both characters. It was rushed though and a WHOLE lot is packed into this short, so prolly too ambitious, but it's free so... *shrugs* I will say as much as I enjoy LOTR a lot of page time was spent there that could've been better spent elsewhere.
  
  Marlow is? Was? a movie star. He and his boyfriend had a bad break up that sounds a little Knots Landing to me. So he takes off for the well known, hard to pinpoint yet ubiquitous BFE.
  
  And then there were kittehs. 9 kittehs with no momma.
  
  Bitch.
  
  
  
  Marlow hits the feed store for supplies and runs into Pax, but makes a hasty retreat when the rude twit of a cashier extracts her nose from her Entertainment Weekly long enough to realize she's "helping" a movie star forgetting some key items.
  
  Pax follows him home? On a bike?
  
  Damn Bro!
  
  You'll need to suspend reality a bit because Marlow, newly hermitified, possibly ex-movie star extraordinair invites random stranger in. Where he stays for a couple days. He did have his mom bring homemade Shepherd's pie, though.
  
  I'm not saying I'd do the same, but Shepherd's pie + hot guy + help with screaming kittehs = he could be the anti-christ and I'd prolly be all, c'mon in and here's my social security number as long as we're making ill-advised decisions.
  
  One thing leads to another and Pax discloses that he's dyslexic and Marlowe not only diagnoses him lickity split but magically remedies his problem.
  
  
  
  Naturally this calls for frotting and other sundry sex related activities with some chortle worthy stilted...grunting? Dialogue? Exclaiming?
  
  Fuck it. IDK what to call it but I chuckled. More than once.
  
  If you can suspend reality OR love the kittehs you will like.
  
  It's cutesy so 3 stars from me.
  
  Thanks to the author and her team for contributing to the LOR event.
• 
  SheReadsALot

  
  
  It could be more of a me thing, so I won't rate it.
  
  
  
  a) I'm a city girl - not as a trusting as the MCs so it was a little weird for me with a stranger just planting their self into another's stranger's house and life. This led into my other issue.
  
  b) Pax came off younger than 25 y.o. - I kept reading to see the 2nd diagnosis on him because it didn't seem to me like there was only a learning disability. Again, it could be a me thing due to the field I work in. (Not saying there is a 'right' way to portray a learning disability though Marlow figuring out Pax's dyslexia for him...no one else caught it? Doctors? Teachers? No one else? It took the actor to figure it out?)
  
  So those two things kept me from fully enjoying this story. More of a me thing. If you like damaged hero, men with pets and sweet hurt/comfort, this could be for you. Oh and LOTR fans might also like this. :D
  
  Interesting plot with a scandalized celebrity actor (Marlow) seeking refuge in small town, USA after a bad car accident and a big messy, tabloid, gay Hollywood scandal in a secluded house and week-old feral kittens. A feed store worker named Pax brings Marlow his forgotten nipples from the store to Marlow's house on his bicycle and stays to help with kitten care. And then they remain together for a day or two and then cabin fever commences.
  
  Fave part? The kitties!
  
  
  
  My thanks to the author and the team behind the story and the event!
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  Tully Vincent

  This story was written from my first prompt for a DRitC event, so I couldn't resist reading it right away. Wonderfully written story that lived up to the prompt from all the sweet adorableness to the touches of dark... I enjoyed reading this and thanks so much to the author for bringing my prompt to life so eloquently! Pax and Marlow are interesting characters, and I really wish for a sequel or expanded version to show more about whether their initial hook up continues and how it changes their life and of course, whether they keep a kitten! :-). So intriguing that I was totally not ready for it to end. Very lovely.
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  Kristan

  Give an inch and they'll take a mile.
  
  That's what happens to Marlow, who feeds a stray pregnant cat, only to inherit her newborn kittens. Now he has nine furballs to care for, and no idea how to do it. Enter Pax, who chased Marlow home, and ended up offering to help with the round the clock kitten feedings. There's that inch – mile thing again. Now Marlow, who escaped to the middle of nowhere to be as alone as one can possibly be, will be spending days with the cute but helpful stranger.
  
  Now here's where things get interesting, because this story is told from Marlow’s perspective, but it's Pax who steals the show. In fact, I have a lot of questions about Marlow, mainly what happened in his past that led up to the circumstances he's faced with now. While the author hints here and there, there are still gaps and a backstory I that I wish were fleshed out. I would have liked to get to know him far better.
  
  Pax, on the other hand, is a 25 year old man who takes what jobs he can get because he thinks he's too stupid for anything else. In reality, he's dyslexic. And I don't care how the author wrote him; Pax is a 16 year old puppy dog - man hybrid who, as a side effect, is too adorable for words. I wondered a few times where on earth this story was set, because how could everyone overlook his severe dyslexia and pass it off as stupid?
  
  But this is fiction, and it was rather adorable, so I digress.
  
  It does end on a strange note though; rather abruptly and just off a sex scene. This is a case where an epilogue was a necessity.
  
  Overall, nine sleepy, fluffy kittens worth of adorable, and a touch of two damaged men who can find some comfort in each other, make for a sweet read.
  
  My thanks to the author for their participation in the Love is an Open Road event.
  
• 
  Meep

  Thanks to the author for participating and offering this freebie
  
  KITTENS
  Count them NINE of them. KITTENS GALORE!
  
  And peach preserves I desperately wanted to taste, despite not being fussed on preserves.
  And geeky tv watching - though it ran the risk of it being a little more commentory on Lord of the Rings than getting to know the characters, it was a nice homely touch.
  
  The cute sweet aspect was adorable but as the prompt requested there was some darker vibes, it was those didn't work for me.
  
  I couldn't get my head around a big movie star being reduced so low, if he had a fiance then people surely knew he was gay, and a child star suggests a high profile family so where are they - it's not answered. and attempted murder is not something you slink away from - you go to the police Mr Marlow
  
  Also Pax, he's a cute kid. I know people who are dyslexic and they have no problem with what they hear (Pax on hearing the word dyselxia says it wrong!) and where are they that not only is he not diagnosed but it's not been considered? He came across a little to simple in nature and is treated by mother and neighbour as though a child.
  
  Kindle as the miracle/immediate cure. I am embarrasingly attached to my kindle but, well..
  
  And KITTENS. KITTENS. KITTENS. Hungry mewing kittens.
  They have sex - Marlow and Pax, not the kittens they're too young for that. Then...
  
  
  Didn't feel like it had an ending. Two days and a night is too early for HEA and there wasn't enough for me to see it as much of anything. This story actually felt like the middle bit of a book, drama before missing, this cuteness here, then some resolution to the drama and HEA needed. Potential but not enough, I finished wondering where the rest was.
• 
  Lelyana's Reviews

  
  Fluffiness alert!
  
  
  
  A sweet fluffy story with nine kitties and two adorable guys.
  I liked it how they're hand in hand taking care of the kitties.
  It's definitely love at first sight. And I don't mind at all.
  Though the ending was only HFN, it's quite satisfying. For now.
  Good pick.
  
  
  
  
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  Wax

  I had to take away some stars for the sheer incredulity I had during parts of the story. I think several have been addressed in reviews already, but it's basically two things: 1) who invites a perfect stranger into their home and lets them stay for days? 2) how does a twenty-something not get diagnosed with a learning disability (as so many do nowadays) and how is it magically improved with a Kindle's dyslexia format? But, on the flip side, there are adorable kittens and LOTR! So that and the writing really brought the stars back up. Until the end. Where there was just an abrupt end.
  
  Otherwise, it a sweet story about Marlow, who was a Hollywood child star. He had the seemingly perfect life with a fiance. Turns out the fiance was a cheating bastard who set him up to die in a car accident so he could inherit it all with the pool boy he was boinking. Now Marlow is trying to begin anew in the the boonies away from all the attention and the spotlight since he's scarred and hurting. He suddenly has the charge of nine kittens, and Pax (who works at the store where Marlow went to buy feeding supplies) invites himself in to help with the care. If you're a LOTR fan, you'll love the references to both the books and the movies.
  
  Thanks to the author for participating in the LOR event.
• 
  Jeanne 'Divinae'

  Marlow got caught up with a scandal back home in the land of movie stars and celebrities. People who he thought loved him turned their back on him and out-casting him. Due to an accident he was in, he left the business behind to live in a secluded small town.
  
  There he finds a very pregnant cat on his property and ends up with a huge litter of kittens and needs help taking care of them.
  
  In comes Pax, who is a good-looking, honest, down-to-Earth type of guy who wants to help out. During the short time frame of this story, they find out more about each other and the chemistry sparks.
  
  This 'romance' was pretty quick.
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  Lisa

  This started off well, with the promise of hurt/comfort fluff and kittens, ....but I struggled with the story. Having never watched the Lord of the Rings films and only ever having read the Hobbit back in High School, the references were tiresome and made no impact with me. There were too many unanswered questions about Marlow and the main one niggled - why he had become a recluse? And the ending......seriously......that was an ending????? Left me feeling very *meh*…………
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  Tj

  Great job! I selfishly wanted an epilogue... a few months or a year down the road to look in on Marlow, Pax, Sam and Frodo.
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  Tamara

  
  
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  DC

  Ok, so what am I missing that others who rated this higher saw? I feel like something was missing; like a prologue and an epilogue. Yes, kittens are cute and it was admirable that Marlow saved them. But who is Marlow really, and how did he wind up there? The blurb about the story mentions that a judge awarded it to him in the settlement, but the story itself give zero information on this. Marlow is described as an evil gay seducer? Huh? He was allegedly engaged and he caught his fiance messing with the pool boy. How did that destroy his life and how was he awarded a house that wasn’t his? Pax was super sweet and genuine. But are they in the middle of bumfck that no one knew what dyslexia is? This story could easily be a five star read, but it is just missing too much.
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  J

  had the bones to be a great full novel
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  Erin

  This one was just okay for me. I liked the beginning, but I felt like it got physical pretty suddenly and then ended pretty abruptly. There was no cliffhanger, but I would classify it as a HFN instead of a HEA.
  
  The main character has some pretty serious emotional and physical issues. They were described well, but I feel like he didn't tackle them enough to be ready for a relationship.
  
  There was also one little detail that bugged me. You can't change the background color of the screen on a Kindle. Maybe a Kindle Fire, but that is a tablet, not a reader. Just a little thing, but it took me out of the story when I saw it.
  
  If you dig the blurb, read this one. It's free so you have nothing to lose and you may like it more than I did.
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  Eve

  read this within 2 hours, so it's basically a breeze read. it was enjoyable. the homophobia surrounding the backstory of the reclusive celeb Marlow seemed unreal with today's lgbt+ lib (in fact people are more shamed for being rapists these days than for being gay), although as Marlow mentioned lgbt+ friendlienss isn't a homogenous liberation, parts of cities are really homophobic, while others are lgbt+ allies AF (think San Francisco during The White Riots)
  
  I love cats, in fact my cat was on my lap the whole time I was reading this. but yeah stressful af when you got to feed a litter (hell, even just one unweaned kitten is hard to take care of).
  
  also I'm not initiated into the Lord of the rings universe so I think a lot of that was unfortunately lost on me.
  
  3-3.5 stars = 3.25 stars.
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  kory.

  rep; marlow (mc) is gay and has depression, ptsd, and chronic pain. pax (mc) is gay and dyslexic.
  
  this is pretty cute romance. there’s kittens, a lot of them, but i would have liked to see them being adorable a little more. it’s kind of weird that pax follows marlow home from the store, sort of invites himself to help with the kittens, and then just...never leaves. some notes: marlow’s past/trauma isn’t really explored/explained as much as it could have been, “he/she” is used when “they/them” are right there, the description “stuffed it in his face” is used during a blowjob scene...why, and there’s a bit of ableism.
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  melek

  whats not to love about this there are kittens nine of them, Boths guys were hurt marlow an movie ex movie? pax an worker at an store also maybe has dyslexia but not diagnosed. Marlow had an accident him who did it what happened then both guys have ex? there were some things that need to feel the gaps but its ok i guess. Together they feed the kittens, and slowing but surely they get together but then pretty much ended. Hope these guys made it and wouldve love to know what happened to the kittens.
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  Sandra

  Mother.Fucking.CUTENESS!
  
  Offered for
  FREE from the M/M Romance Group's Love Is An Open Road event. Thank you too all the amazing authors who participated!
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  Anna Goerlitz

  3.5 stars. This was a very interesting story with an angsty premise, that I would have loved to have known more about. The two MC are great together, but I really wanted to know more about both of their pasts! The bits and pieces we are guven are intriguing! I really wish this had been longer! I wanted to know more!
  
  
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  Aya

  ★★☆
  
  KITTENS! *squeal*
  
  This was all fluffy sweetness and it was awesome! I particularly loved watching the two MCs interact. I’m still curious about who Marlow is and what happened before he moved, I also wished their relationship and Pax’s learning hadn’t progressed so quickly, or that the end came so abruptly.
  
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  Bookbee

  3.5 Stars
  
  Puppies and Kittens...they get you every time! ;)
  
  Story has a very promising start; then there is sex, and it ends! No, no, no! I need to know what happens to the kittens!!!
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  Judy Stone

  Oh my goodness! This was sooo good! LOTR movie marathon, nine newborn kittens depending on the MCs after mamma skedaddled. Great world building, story arc. Please, with chocolate sprinkles, tell me you've written an epilogue or a coda.
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  Janie

  Wasn't a bad story. I would have liked way more of a back story on Marlow for me to completely like him. Pax was definitely the winner in this story. My one big issue was that the author made Pax sound like he was mentally challenged when I thought he was only dyslexic.
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  J.J. Carroll

  Quirky characters and kittens. I'd really like to see an expanded version of this, with some more fleshing out of the characters and their background and the way forward for them.
  
  Thank you to the author and the organisers of the event :)
  
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  Jae Moran

  My only issue was that I was left wanting more more more MORE!
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  A.J.

  3.5 stars
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  Kevin

  I really enjoyed this story about two cute guys and some kittens in a rural setting. The dialogue and narrative flowed very well. I could see reading as longer version of this.
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  Liz (Bugetta)

  This was really cute! Love the prompt picture (kittens!) and the author did a great job interpreting it.
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  Shaztwirl

  Totally adorable. I would definitely read more about Marlow and Pax if the author chose to write a follow-up.