A Bit(e) of Discretion, Please

Dreamer #1

by T.A. Miles

Caught in the act of being a supernatural creature, Stuart, a former Prince of the Dreaming has been brought into mortal custody. As part of his sentence, he's required to perform public service duties, assisting other supernaturals and gifted mortals in solving cases of an other worldly nature. Armed with only a fraction of his faerie glamour, and an intense passion for tea, Stuart partners with a young spiritualist to resolve a case of missing souls.


A lighthearted and humorous approach to the varying fantastic and supernatural realms and beings as they intersect with a not so defenseless or unsuspecting mortal world. This is the first in a series of short stories/novellas.

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, LGBT, Vampires

ebook

First published August 12, 2011

About the author

T.A. Miles is a being owned by curiosity and fueled by internal magic. She claims to have fallen down a rabbit hole as a child, but in reality seems to be living in a semi-permanent out-of-body experience where she meets fantastical people and magical creatures in lands unknown to earth. She believes her characters are real people, and she publishes for one reason only: to share these people and the experiences they relay in carefully constructed stories unmarred by common human perception. Which sounds very complicated. It's easier to say she prefers to write about exceptionally human experiences.

Let's not try to explain that, actually. It's simpler to read one of her books instead. Remember to read with your head and your soul.

Reviews

[Nemo ☠️ (pagesandprozac) · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was a quite nice short story but the world was really intriguing and the short story format really doesn't do it justice... might read the next one to see if it develops the characters and world more

[Caron · Rating 4 out of 5]

★||Actual Rating: 3.5 stars||★

I received this book from the author on Instafreebie in exchange for an honest review.

A Bit(e) of Discretion, Please tells the story of Stuart who was revoked of his fairyism and sentenced to help other supernatural creatures. As the story progressed it felt like Stuart's punishment was basically making him a cop...or a criminal informant.

I don't always reread the synopsis of a book just before I start it because I like the element of surprise but with this book I had to go back and read it since I was quite confused. I'm not entirely sure if that was because I forgot what the book was about or because of how the book started. The synopsis gives you the introduction, and it's not repeated again in the book. And that's where I got lost.

As I continued reading, my interests were piqued enough for me to want to continue this story. As it was only about 30 pages, I was wondering how much the author would reveal. Would it read like a full novel and would I get a good feel of the author's writing style? All my questions seems to have been answered. This did not read like a full-length novel but enough information was given that it filled in some holes.

I wondered about Stuart's name. I'm used to fantasy characters having these weird and sometimes complicated names and here we get Stuart. I thought that maybe he was unlucky in that regard but it turns out that it was part of his cover, among other things to help hide that he was a Dreamer/Fairy-this wasn't fully explained. I was a few pages in and I still didn't know much about Stuart. All I knew was that he loved tea and didn't like this punishment.

I found the concept of an empty town that wasn't empty extremely fascinating. It was described as being hollow but it was obvious that there were dark forces in the area. I was confused by what a night angel was. I'm still confused. Is it an angel? A vampire? They mentioned the fallen, actual angels and some vampires made an appearance. I would've appreciated a more detailed explanation though.

I rather liked Daniel. I found him to be quite cunning and devious and while I know now what his story was, him jumping like some macho man brandishing that gun was grounds for heart eyes. Mei Lin was awesome and I easily forgot that she was a child.

The story showed a lot of potential and I liked what the author was trying to say. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style and found it to be easy to read.

I'll admit that were some confusing bits but they didn't take away from the enjoyment. I do wish the book was slightly longer though. I'm very interested in seeing what happens next.

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[Raventidebooks]

It's official: Stuart and his partners in (preventing) the most heinous of supernatural crime are going to be featured in full-length novels! T.A. Miles made the official announcement today on her blog. Go check it (and some hilarious quotes) out now:

Stuart is Missing. Everybody panic.

[Gypsy Madden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the idea of this story. I loved that it had a fairy prince living in disguise in London, and I loved the Night Angels, and other creatures that haunted this short story. And, yes, Daniel’s attentions were quite amusing as well as Stuart’s love of tea. There were gay scenes in this, but nothing that a YA audience couldn’t read. What bugged me the most though, was that it seemed like someone had warned the author against info-dumping and it got taken to heart, to the point where there is no explanation of things. They just left things to be brought up in conversation, but all the characters already know what we’re dealing with, so there’s no background info/explanation of anything. And as readers, we just hit these things and go “wait…what?” but they’ve already moved on to the next thing to happen. I really wish I could have been a Beta for this since I would have told the author that, yes, you want to avoid paragraph long info-dumping, but a line or two here and there to explain things is perfectly permissible. For instance, it didn’t feel like a first book since we had absolutely no explanation on who Stuart was, why he had been exiled to the human realm, how he had gotten partnered with Mei-Lin, or even who he was working for.

[Angie Lisle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting idea and concept; a couple passages didn't read smoothly to me but I'm starting the second installment of this short story series because I want to see where this goes.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. It left me a little confused frequently. I do not feel compelled to read the next.