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kaje_harper's review
This is a collection of short fiction stories, the majority M/F romance, but also one F/F and a few that don't have any romance content, all donated by the authors. The profits from the sales go to Australian charities to help with bushfire recovery.
I'm not going to rate the collection, because, like most such anthologies, it's a very varied and uneven collection. Many of these are very short, and fitting a complete story arc into that kind of page limit is a difficult challenge. But I did enjoy several of these, notably:
Apple Crisp by Terry Graham - a slice of life story about a young boy whose father has been off fighting the fires and who has been having a hard time keeping his balance while living with his grandmother. The characters are just hinted at, in this short format, but I felt the boy's sadness and frustrations, and the father's pain at needing to be in two places at once. Very realistic.
A Lark by Gabbi Grey - the one F/F story in this collection gives us a young woman waiting at the airport for her first-responder girlfriend, who has been in Australia fighting fires. The established-couple episode of romance and banter and love is well-judged for this short format, and there was a good touch of warm emotion here. I would read more about these two characters.
Unexpected Love: Chase Allen by Anna Lores - this one is like the first 2 chapters of a novel, giving us two people with difficult pasts and a meet-cute. The characters were interesting (and I liked the brother as well as the MCs) and the set-up had some promise for conflict that, in the hands of a skilled editor, would make it a book worth reading, although this just worked as a teaser.
The Relaxation Response by Darcy Lundeen - another couple seen in a start to a relationship, with a nice simplicity to it.
Wings of Fire by Jana Richards - very short with just a hint of an early relationship, but I liked the homefront WWII setting.
Over all, I found a few authors worth watching, and the sales go to a good cause. I wish them well.
I'm not going to rate the collection, because, like most such anthologies, it's a very varied and uneven collection. Many of these are very short, and fitting a complete story arc into that kind of page limit is a difficult challenge. But I did enjoy several of these, notably:
Apple Crisp by Terry Graham - a slice of life story about a young boy whose father has been off fighting the fires and who has been having a hard time keeping his balance while living with his grandmother. The characters are just hinted at, in this short format, but I felt the boy's sadness and frustrations, and the father's pain at needing to be in two places at once. Very realistic.
A Lark by Gabbi Grey - the one F/F story in this collection gives us a young woman waiting at the airport for her first-responder girlfriend, who has been in Australia fighting fires. The established-couple episode of romance and banter and love is well-judged for this short format, and there was a good touch of warm emotion here. I would read more about these two characters.
Unexpected Love: Chase Allen by Anna Lores - this one is like the first 2 chapters of a novel, giving us two people with difficult pasts and a meet-cute. The characters were interesting (and I liked the brother as well as the MCs) and the set-up had some promise for conflict that, in the hands of a skilled editor, would make it a book worth reading, although this just worked as a teaser.
The Relaxation Response by Darcy Lundeen - another couple seen in a start to a relationship, with a nice simplicity to it.
Wings of Fire by Jana Richards - very short with just a hint of an early relationship, but I liked the homefront WWII setting.
Over all, I found a few authors worth watching, and the sales go to a good cause. I wish them well.
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