A review by blogginboutbooks
Hungry Hearts: 13 Tales of Food & Love by Elsie Chapman

4.0

I'm not a big fan of short stories. I prefer a greater depth of character, conflict, and setting than can really be achieved in fiction of this length. However, I needed to read an anthology/short story collection for a couple of reading challenges, so I grabbed HUNGRY HEARTS. I knew the collection had to do with food and romance, but I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of stories it offers—not only does it address different kinds of love (between siblings, parent/child, and romantic) there are also a few different genres: family dramas, a mystery, a ghost story, magical realism, and more. It's also a diverse collection, with a lot of different ethnicities represented. As far as the stories themselves, some are kind of blah, one is flat-out weird, and several were swoony and sigh-worthy. Since I'm a mystery fan, my favorite one was "A Beautiful Film." Overall, I didn't love HUNGRY HEARTS. I really liked some of the stories, didn't care for others, and felt ho-hum about several. As a whole, I would give this collection 3 1/2 stars if I could. I can't, so I'm rounding up.