By the Moonlight by Jaxx Steele
Dreamspinner Press
Contemporary, Paranormal
Short Story, M/F, M/M, Multiple Partners
Review by Dandelion

Happy with an eternity of seducing women for both pleasure and blood, vampire Jared Sinclair is surprised when his longtime friend Byron encourages him to sample the pleasures that might be found in a man. It's during a sensual encounter that Jared discovers the real reason Byron wants him to expand his palate … because he wants Jared to taste him.

♥ ♥ ♥

“By the Moonlight” is an intense short tale of male loving that is hot from the opening pages and does a pretty good job of sustaining that heat all the way through to the end.  Byron and Jared are vampire friends, and have been for centuries.  But now Byron is introducing Jared to the possibilities of enjoying male lovers as well as female ones.  The various settings here match the dark intensity of the story: strip clubs, shadowy homes, a forest at night.  And Byron’s character is strong and certain, while Jared’s is less so – they match each other well.  This story features several hot, well-written sex scenes, between both Jared and the women he brings home, later between Byron and his male lovers and then, finally, between Byron and Jared. 

At times, I did feel that the character development of Jared was a little uneven – midway through the story, after he’s exploring the possibility of turning to men for physical pleasure, he still ends up with a woman, in a rather awkward and forced scene that didn’t make a lot of sense within the plot.  And in a few spots, I felt the dialogue read formally and too stilted. 

Aside from these issues, “By the Moonlight” is pretty successful in celebrating the glory and pleasure of male-male love – and now that these two have the next few centuries to spend together, you can be sure they’re going to take advantage of this intense, newfound attraction and love!