Enchanted Soles, edited by Sasha L. Miller

Enchanted Soles
by Sasha L. Miller (Editor), A.D. Truax (Contributor), Archer Kay Leah (Contributor), Katey Hawthorne(Contributor), A.M. Valenza (Contributor), Corinna Finley (Contributor)
Pages: 304
Date: July 6 2016
Publisher: Less Than Three Ress
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 3.8 out of 5.0
Read: June 3 to July 10 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Less Than Three Press in exchange for an honest review.

A collection of five short stories connected to the concept of 'enchanted soles', or magical shoes.

Three Nights by A.D. Truax
'Three Nights' magical shoes involve sandals. Specifically new sandals acquired by a man named Synder to replace his old fallen apart sandals.

There's a vague underlying current of humor in this story. Though maybe that's just me. I mean, i found this here to be vaguely tinged with humor:

"Synder, what's happened?" called his mother, who always seemed to know when he'd broken or ruined something. Perhaps a talent that came with her gift of spellweaving, or a natural intuition about her son.

And then other bits here and there were quite humorous. I might have even giggled once or twice (like a mother telling her son that he works to hard - well that scene, not specifically that comment; I just can't be more elaborate without spoiler-y stuff).

The village area was nicely described. There's apparently some Indian (as in Indian subcontinent) connection to this story, judging by the inclusion of Indian words (and names - specifically the words appear to have a connection to Hindi). Which my Kindle, oddly, had no trouble translating (well, the first two or nine, the rest refused to be translated; I still don't know why a woman was described as wearing bile, since the word before it was untranslatable (well, it said choli meant bile; and ghagra, the word before it, was untranslatable (hmm, okay, kindle said choli meant bile and couldn't translate ghagra, Google says that ghagra means skirt, and choli means brasserie - mistranslating brasserie as bile is odd). Though I knew what most meant before double checking.

Right so - story starts with Synder noticing that one of his shoes is broken. He kicks off the 'good' shoe and gets ready to wander into the fields that need . . . whatever he was going to do in the fields, without anything on his feet. His mother noticed and tossed money at him to buy some shoes. Synder was reluctant but left.

As would be expected in a book with the title of 'Enchanted Soles', shoes in this world can and a lot of times do have enchantments embedded into them. Mostly of the kind to help keep them lasting longer - a kind of 'anti-wear and tear' enchantment. There are still shoes without enchantments, though, which is good because that's what Synder wants. Since those with enchantments tend to just cost too much money.

But then he bumps into some shoes going for a really good price for their quality. The reason for the discount? They are enchanted. And no one knows what the enchantment might be. So . . . never worn shoes made from the materials they were made from? Synder buys them.

What will the shoes do? Cause him to take a step and his next would be ten thousand leagues away? Burst into flames? Hold up really well? Synder doesn't know before putting them on.

Hmm. I was going to leave it as a bit of a tease, what may or may not have happened. But then that means it's basically impossible to comment on the rest of the story. Like parties at mahals, and dancing, and parties, and meeting three different people, one of whom was apparently a woman wearing just a skirt and bra (or bile; though I'm fairly certain that there's a mistake in the translation somewhere; especially since my Kindle translated paan as if the word was actually pain). Or the bit of unexpected and unplanned romance that broke out.

I suppose there are a few things I can note even if I was intentionally attempting to stop with the questions. Snyder is, at the very least, not overly alarmed to find himself in the arms of another man; though that doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t have minded being in the arms of a woman (as in, he might be bisexual). And the man in Snyder’s arms appears to be, at the very least, bisexual – based on the information given.

The story is/was an interesting neat little glimpse into a tale involving a magical fantasy like setting involving Indian words, clothing, and food. And, likely, people. I liked it well enough. And, to a certain extent, I probably especially like the part about the shortness of the story (not that it was that short, 23% of a 304 page book is roughly 70 pages). Specifically because of how stubborn one of the two main characters turned out to be. Full length novel involving this character would probably have frustrated me beyond endurance. Perhaps.

So, hmms, I tentatively state that I’d rate this story somewhere around . . . hmms. 4.3463 stars.

Dame Fortune by Corinna Finley
A three part poly story. Um, no, that isn't the right way to word that. A poly story that involves three people.

Saidah meets a witch named Betry. The witch gives her a gift, a coupon, to Dame Fortune's store. Saidah's shoes break and she's in need of new shoes. One thing leads to another and she finds herself inside Dame Fortune's shop, whereupon she uses the coupon for new shoes.

Magical shoes. Saidah puts the shoes on. They are comfortable. They are nice. She whispers to herself something about taking her to love and . . . . she winds up in some closed off street. She drools over the man she finds there. One thing again leads to another and Saidah and Gavriel - the man she found in that closed off street, find themselves at Betry's place. The three hatch a plan to save Gavriel, and warn the Queen that the Mayor is corrupt.

I'm not really sure what to say about this one. This story.

This is not the first poly story that I've read. Though I believe it is the first that involved all parties loving each other (the other great poly story that I read and loved involved a women and two men - the woman was forced to chose between them and couldn't; the men had been great friends before this situation developed, though not in love - romantic love, with each other). So this one involves a woman (S) in love with a woman (B) and in love with a man (C); B is in love with S and C; C is in love with S and B. Mutal love all around! Yay! heh, sorry.

A rather magical story it was. So magical it took me exactly a month to read it. But, meh. heh. I kind of got confused a month ago when I was reading the LGBT short story collection book and found a woman who had been dating a man named Ethan, and asked her shoes to take her to true love and found herself . . . next to another man. I hadn't been looking for a MF romance. So . . . I paused my reading. And finally got around to resuming just now.

Sad, I know. I should have finished both the story and this book a month ago. mmphs. Well, I've finished this story now, at least. So, what did I think? What would I rate this specific story here? This roughly 57.76 page story? (it took, about, 19% of the book's length, book is 304 pages, so 57.76 page story). Well, I'd give it a rating of 4.44.

Hopefully it will not take me three more months to finish the last three short stories in this book

Heart, Lace, and Soul by Archer Kay Leah
Despite the placement of this story in the book, I accidentally read it fourth. No idea how it came about that I ended up skipping it. Especially since I seem to have gone from the ending of one story to the beginning of another without hitting this story here.

They, whoever they are, say good things about stories that make you 'feel'. Well, this one made me feel like I wanted to beat my book reader to death and then tear it into tiny pieces. So . . . there's that. No idea really, but 'once upon a time' and 'princess' kept repeating in this story. And . . . it drove me batty. Made me rage, weirdly.

Story is about a maladjusted mental health worker (gee, how original) who uses special magical shoes to help 'read' other people. Reading them activates the microchips in the characters brain which allows them to read them even further, in that they now can read their digital files and know all about them.

She meets a guy she can't read. She's both flustered that she can't read him, and realizing that she's finding out things like little gifts of surprise that she would have learned immediately otherwise. And stuff.

I'd rate this one 2 out of 5 stars.

Aelfwear by Katey Hawthorne
I may or may not have accidentally skipped a story somewhere along the way. No matter, I'll get to it. So, read another story, and without it taking me a month to do it this time.

So this one is kind of a mix of modern technology and fantasy. Elves that make shoes. Using computers to display their wears. Etc. This specific story stars one of those elves, Frida, who works for Aelfwear - they make shoes (which I think I've already conveyed).

A man she and her sister dated (at the same time) has become engaged, and the sister is sad. The woman set to marry that man came in for some shoes. One thing leads to another and it turns out that she doesn't want to marry Morgan (the man). But is being forced into it by her parents. If she doesn't do it, she'll be disinherited. But if she can get the man to break things off, then she'll be, somewhat, off the hook. She starts on a plan with Frida to bring about this break in the engagement. Meanwhile the two become closer and flirt.

Interesting enough story. Passed the time well enough. I'd probably rate it somewhere around 3.9 to 4.15.

Into the Hollowed Veil by A.M. Valenza
Another triad romance. This one involving two of the three who actually are or are close to being asexual. If I understand terms correctly, the woman in the story is or possibly is demisexual. While the main character, the one whose point of view we follow, appears to be more asexual. Dare, the other man in the triad, appears to be open to being bisexual.

Interesting story. Wasn't sure how the last story would go and went in with an open mind. Thereupon I almost immediately thought that I'd end up giving a super low rating, maybe even 1 star. Then things grew on me. Long and short, this is a super weird story that takes a little time to get anywhere, but is quite interesting. In the end I'd rate it 4.31 stars.

Overall
An interesting collection of short stories. In the end I think everything I have shelves for in terms of LGBT got hit. Except for the coming out one and the nonfiction one. Since this is fiction, checking that one off would have bene hard to do, eh? Well, so. We had homosexuals, bisexuals, lesbians, asexuals, some version of polyamourous people (both of which ended up in triad romances - romances involving three people; technically since one involves asexuals . . . . well, let's not think too hard about word choices).

Let me see, I rated the first them: 1) 4.3463, 2) 4.44, 3) 2, 4) 4.025, 5) 4.31. For a combined average of rating of 3.82426.

July 10 2016