The blurb on the cover of Beer and Groping says that “Fans of Star Trek, Star Wars, Monty Python, Firefly and Marvin the Martian will enjoy this romantic comedy.” Enjoy? How about “absolutely love”? Because I adored this short, sweet and very funny read immensely!

Set in a hotel playing host to a fan convention (and this story is SO much better if you’ve attended one of those), Beer and Groping sees geeks Mirjam Linna and Riley McGregor brought together by mysterious forces. Mirjam, dumped by her boyfriend, decides that dinner with a stranger is as far as she’ll go… before discovering her date is the guy she lusted at back in high school.

Drawn together by a shared love of science fiction and British humour, Mirjam and Riley go on to have a very hot night in her hotel room, but neither wants to leave it at that. Neither wants to admit to that either. Characters who don’t communicate annoy me a little, but the length of this story saves that awkwardness from lasting too long. There is a happy-for-now that leaves the reader on a fluffy cloud of happiness.

Beer and Groping is a short, and I think it works well as one. However, I would love it if the author wrote a similar, longer work, because the geeky humour mixed with the hot sex was a combination that really worked for me. I even forgave the one-night-stand-leading-to-everlasting-love trope, which usually annoys me to be honest.

As it is, if Angela Quarles writes something else like Beer and Groping, I’ll definitely be reading it.

Genre: Erotic Romance
Length: short
Primary Book Format: e-book
Publisher/Imprint: Secret Cravings Publishing
Blush Quotient: red
Smart Girls Rating: 4

Blurb:

Can a djinn and a magic slot machine bring two geeks together?

Riley McGregor is a geek trapped in a Good Ole Boy body and as owner of a microbrewery, smart chicks never look at him twice.

Rejected by a geek who wanted to “trade up,” Mirjam Linna would rather immerse herself in work than be the girlfriend-of-the-moment. Stranded in a Vegas hotel, she makes a wish—a night of hot sex with the man of her dreams. It’s granted. She agrees to dinner, but afterward, she’ll say thanks, but no thanks, and see what’s on the SyFy channel. But when they meet, they’re surprised to find they had a shared connection in their past. Sparks fly as these two learn to be in the moment, be themselves and find love.