Cold Snap by Sam Clover.

Iddy is a gay 20 year old homeless man. The city is covered in snow and rumours are that a monster is hunting the streets at night. Can Iddy and his homeless friends stay safe from the cold, the snow and the monster?

I really enjoyed reading Cold Snap. It allowed me to enter a very different world to the one I live in. A world of homelessness and homosexuality. Cold Snap has gritty urban issues, gay sex and horror from the monster seeking it’s prey. I think this story would make a great film.

I think Sam is a great author because she engages the reader with situations they may not have any experience or understanding about. Her talent shines when she writes about man to man emotions and gay sex. I naively assumed that only homosexual male authors could write about gay sex. But Sam covers the gay sex so well and I feel it should not offend straight readers of either gender.

I thought the character development was very good, especially Ben, the bi-sexual police officer. There was a good discussion about sexual politics and diversity of lifestyles.

I found Sam’s writing high quality and loved her wide range of language. She made good use of informal North American words which made this British reader tap his Kindle to pull up the dictionary to confirm the meaning. The use of these local words gave the story colour and context.

I loved the banter and humour shared between the characters. The dialogue was very witty and constantly made me smile. For example…

“You know, in case the pretty one turns up dead and you crave some hardcore street cock!” Ben kept going. “I mean, if you’re gonna do dirty, do it right!” Gary insisted. “This meat is ripe! I haven’t showered in three weeks, and it burns like fucking acid when I pee!” He caught Bot nodding and quirked a brow at him. “What, you too? Man, we gotta spring for some ointment.”

...I think Cold Snap is an OUTSTANDING 5 star read from Sam Clover and I hope she writes more books of the same high quality.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher NineStar Press for giving me an ARC on the understanding that I write a review.

Cold Snap was written in 2020 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.