kidnapping cupidRating: 4 stars
Buy Links: 
 Amazon | All Romance
Length: Short Story


Cupid is bored and looking for some fun when his mother, Venus, asks him for a favor.  She wants Cupid to stir up some trouble by playing a prank on Neptune, the stoic god of the sea.  Unable to turn down his mother, and looking for a bit of distraction, Cupid strikes Neptune with his arrow, waiting to see whom Neptune’s love falls upon.  As it turns out, Neptune’s obsession turns to Amphitrite, daughter of a fellow sea god, who just happens to be in love with Diana and has no interest in Neptune at all.

Neptune quickly realizes he has been struck by Cupid’s arrow, and decides to take matters into his own hands, kidnapping Cupid and bringing him to his undersea palace until Cupid breaks the arrow and Venus coughs up the dowry for Neptune’s upcoming marriage.  Despite the “kidnapping,” Neptune is a gracious host and he and Cupid spend their days riding undersea horses, hanging out together, and soon moving into a more intimate relationship.  But Neptune agreed to marriage with Amphitrite when he was under Cupid’s thrall and now it looks like the wedding must go on, even though neither the bride nor groom is particularly excited about it. It is up to Cupid to get there in time to set things right.

Kidnapping Cupid is a charming story, cleverly placing us in the world of gods and goddesses.  Cupid is sort of this fun loving guy who likes a good cup of ambrosia and enjoys watching football games with his friends.  But he is also a goodhearted man who cares about others and takes care of animals.  When his boredom and duty to his mother has him stirring things up with Neptune, Cupid knows he has no one to blame but himself for what happens next.  So even though he is source of all this trouble, I couldn’t help but like him.  We are in Cupid’s POV and he is just such a fun, friendly guy who never blames others and just figures out what to do to fix the mess he created.

Neptune is a bit harder to know because this is a short story and we only see things through Cupid’s eyes.  We never really know exactly why he is going through with the marriage or what he thinks about how things end up, both of which are sort of large plot holes.  But we do know he is a sexy thing with his black dreads and leather pants, riding his undersea chariot.  Neptune comes across gruff, but he is warm hearted as well and overall a likable guy.

The story is short, so we get a HFN ending between the men.  I did wish to see more of a connection between them, as most of the story is set up and then dealing with the pending wedding.  They men don’t have much real on page time together.  But there is a nice bit of cleverness with Venus, who clearly has grander schemes in mind than those she shared with her son.  We definitely get the sense she engineered things to happen just as they did, and that there is a bright future between the two men.

I also think the set up at the start is a little complex, just with all the different characters that are introduced.  Cupid is at a party and there are host of gods and goddesses attending and we get introduced to many of them.  Most of these characters never appear again and we don’t really need to know who they are.  But so many folks are mentioned that it got overwhelming just trying to figure out who everyone was and their role.  It almost felt like too much “name dropping” in that the story wants to make sure all these folks are represented so they get called out even though they are not important to the story.  So not a major deal, just confusing for me at the start.

And the last thing is that I was never clear just how Neptune ending up falling for Amphitrite after being struck with the arrow, out of everyone at the party that night.  We see Cupid grazing him with the arrow, then learn it is Amphitrite Neptune has pledged his (enthralled) love to, but since Cupid didn’t stick her as well, I never understood how she happens to be the one he goes for, especially because he had never been interested in her before.

But overall I thought this one was a lot of fun. It is short and sweet, but there is enough here to make an interesting story.  There is some nice cleverness related to the gods and goddesses, especially their particular skills and powers.  And I liked the idea that there is more happening here than even Cupid, our POV character knows.  So I liked this one and I’d recommend it if you are looking for a fun, light read, and especially for fans of mythology in their stories.

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