Holy Cow!

By EM Lynley

American med student Duncan Stirling is traveling around India with his two best friends, who have just married. Their last stop is the magical city of Jaisalmer, a fort in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan. He feels like a third wheel on their honeymoon, though the three friends had the trip planned for years, to celebrate finishing medical school and have a last adventure before they start their residencies back in the States.

Akash Nandi is an Indian man from a wealthy and well-known family. At least that’s how he appears. He hides the truth that his family is descended from Nandi, Lord Shiva’s bull, and they’ve guarded sacred places for millennia. Being gay and immortal is tough, especially when his family’s expectations make finding the right mate impossible. As his grandmother, the family matriarch, nears death, a struggle for power puts Akash and his new crush, the charming American Duncan, in harm’s way.

A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2016 Daily Dose package "A Walk on the Wild Side".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
• Release date: Jun 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781634775038

EM Lynley

EM Lynley, a Rainbow Award winner and EPPIE finalist, has worked in high finance, high tech, and in the wine industry, though she'd rather be writing hot, romantic man-on-man action. She spent 10 years as an economist and financial analyst, including a year as a White House Staff Economist, but only because all the intern positions were filled. Tired of boring herself and others with dry business reports and articles, her creative muse is back and naughtier than ever. She has lived and worked in London, Tokyo and Washington, D.C., but the San Francisco Bay Area is home for now. She is the author of Sex, Lies & Wedding Bells, the Precious Gems series from Dreamspinner Press, and the Rewriting History series starring a sexy jewel thief, among others. Visit her online at www.emlynley.com

Book preview

Holy Cow!

By EM Lynley

American med student Duncan Stirling is traveling around India with his two best friends, who have just married. Their last stop is the magical city of Jaisalmer, a fort in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan. He feels like a third wheel on their honeymoon, though the three friends had the trip planned for years, to celebrate finishing medical school and have a last adventure before they start their residencies back in the States.

Akash Nandi is an Indian man from a wealthy and well-known family. At least that’s how he appears. He hides the truth that his family is descended from Nandi, Lord Shiva’s bull, and they’ve guarded sacred places for millennia. Being gay and immortal is tough, especially when his family’s expectations make finding the right mate impossible. As his grandmother, the family matriarch, nears death, a struggle for power puts Akash and his new crush, the charming American Duncan, in harm’s way.

A GOLDEN city rose out of the desert, the lines of the fortress taking shape in the pale-peach early morning glow.

Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. A city at the edge of civilization, in the western deserts of India. Its reality was even more exotic than the images Duncan Stirling’s brain conjured up at the name.

He rubbed his eyelids and blinked, wondering whether it was only his imagination.

Now you see what I was talking about? Bella Croft whispered as she dug a pointy elbow into his ribs.

Duncan nodded and straightened up in his seat. The bus company declared the vehicle Deluxe Tourist Class, but his back still ached from spending eight hours in the reasonably plush seat. He was glad he’d claimed the window seat and didn’t take his eyes off the incredible sight ahead of him.

Nearly two hundred miles from the next city, Jodhpur, where they’d boarded the Deluxe bus for an overnight journey on the crumbly line of asphalt the Indians called a highway.

Jesus loves Ganesh! Vik Mehra said on the other side of Bella. No wonder Brits, Americans, and Aussies spend hours on a bus to get out here. It’s far more impressive in real life.

There’re lots of Indians on this bus too, Bella said.

In fact, most of the other passengers were awake, already snapping photos and chattering at the scenery, though Duncan couldn’t understand most of them. Many spoke in English, but the rest used some of the myriad languages of the huge country.

While Vik and Bella argued amiably next to him, Duncan turned his full attention to the city, looming larger, its outlines becoming more distinct as they grew closer and sunlight chased away the shadows.

Duncan’s belly trembled, not from hunger or even the trepidation he’d felt at the prospect of a month traveling in India with Vik and Bella. This time it was sheer excitement, a pent-up anticipation of true adventure. Though he’d seen plenty of incredible things on the visit so far, Jaisalmer was in a class of its own, far more than even the Taj Mahal.

He wouldn’t say it out loud, but he’d felt a little let down at the Taj. Maybe because he’d seen a million photos of it before he stepped foot in India. The Taj looked just like he’d expected. It held no mystery, no secrets, no surprises.

Jaisalmer was different. No photograph could capture the golden aura of the city, the exoticism, and the possibilities that must lie inside its fortress walls. Duncan couldn’t wait to get out of this goddamned bus and start exploring. According to his watch, they’d arrive in less than an hour.

The occupants of the bus were fully awake now, stretching, making trips to the bathroom, or partaking of the strong tea and coffee the bus attendants poured from tarnished carafes. Next to Duncan, Vik and Bella held hands, the stone in her engagement ring twinkling over the brand new wedding ring, even in the low light of the bus’s interior.

They made such a great pair that Duncan couldn’t complain when his two best friends became a couple. It happened near the beginning of their third year of med school at Johns Hopkins. With their heavy course load and little time for socializing, the change in status didn’t have much of an effect on their activities, but after graduation, the new situation crashed down hard on Duncan. One thing that had drawn them together that first term in med school had been their joint commiserations of being single and knowing they’d have little or no time to meet anyone while they slaved away at their studies.

Now Duncan felt like a third wheel. Worse still, a gay third wheel in a country that didn’t exactly make gays feel welcome. No matter that his friends both insisted that he should and would make the long-planned trip to India with them. Vik had been born in Mumbai, and his parents still lived there, and Bella insisted Vik should show them around. None of them dreamed that three years later they would be in India for Vik’s wedding. Or his second wedding, the huge traditional extravaganza that his parents insisted he and Bella participate in. Bella had loved the idea as much as Vik hated it.

Duncan went along because neither Vik nor Bella gave him any option.

We’ll find someone to fix you up with! Bella had said.

"How

Reviews for Holy Cow!

[serenayates · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

‘Holy Cow!’ is a nicely different-from-the-norm shifter story. It’s full of the exotic charms of India and has quite a few more plot twists and turns than I expected in a relatively short novella. The main characters are Duncan, an American medical student, and Akash, an Indian businessman who is also a bull shifter. With them falling into lust as soon as they meet and getting physically involved very quickly, there are bound to be some issues in a traditional society - and the obstacles they encounter are not entirely unexpected. But there are also a few surprises, and they made for an interesting turn of events.

Duncan is traveling around India with his newlywed best friends and having the time of his life. But what he encounters in the old fortress city of Jaisalmer is beyond his expectations. The place feels magical to him, and when he runs into and then gets to know Akash, he knows he has found someone special. He has no idea how extraordinary Akash will turn out to be!

Akash is a successful businessman and member of an old family with a secret: they can shift into bulls, or cows, as the case may be. They are ruled by a matriarch, his grandmother, who has certain expectations and will not be denied. But marrying a woman is not something Akash wants to do, especially not once he has found Duncan. Not that he seems to have any choice – he will need a miracle if he wants to survive with his heart intact and Duncan at his side.

If you like shifter stories based on ancient magic, if you believe that two men from different worlds can have a loving relationship despite massive cultural prejudice against them, and if you’re looking for an entertaining read with a few twists, then you might like this novella.


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.