4amreader -
Helpful Score: 1
I was disappointed in this one.
Judith Stacy is an author I've liked for a long time. I recently read another novella of hers, an older one, that was great. This story fell far short. After 35 pages and only 6 or so sentences between the leads, they were already thinking how they loved the other? No attempt at reality at all. I want my main characters to interact a lot, especially in these shorter stories. We learned more about the town that we did the leads.
The middle story, Lauir Robinson's, started out with promise but then I ended up skimming and not finishing. Too much narrative repitition, which actually happened with more than one story in this anthology, with the characters rethinking what we just saw happening in the last scene. Come on, author's, move the story forward.
The last one, by Cowan, was the only one I read with true interest the whole way through. But when "razors" of emotion start slashing through a character more than twice in a few pages, I just had trouble not getting distracted by the overly stated angst.
I love these short holiday collections, but the newer ones sure don't seem to be retaining the quality of the ones from years past.
Judith Stacy is an author I've liked for a long time. I recently read another novella of hers, an older one, that was great. This story fell far short. After 35 pages and only 6 or so sentences between the leads, they were already thinking how they loved the other? No attempt at reality at all. I want my main characters to interact a lot, especially in these shorter stories. We learned more about the town that we did the leads.
The middle story, Lauir Robinson's, started out with promise but then I ended up skimming and not finishing. Too much narrative repitition, which actually happened with more than one story in this anthology, with the characters rethinking what we just saw happening in the last scene. Come on, author's, move the story forward.
The last one, by Cowan, was the only one I read with true interest the whole way through. But when "razors" of emotion start slashing through a character more than twice in a few pages, I just had trouble not getting distracted by the overly stated angst.
I love these short holiday collections, but the newer ones sure don't seem to be retaining the quality of the ones from years past.
