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A review by papercranestitches
HeartShip by Amy Jo Cousins
3.0
*** 3.5 Stars ***
Well, isn't this interesting...
I gave the original short story (The Christmas Ship) in the [b:Wish Come True|26400212|Wish Come True|Keira Andrews|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1444129075s/26400212.jpg|46402615] anthology a solid 4 stars. I even remember being tempted to bump it an extra 1/4 star at the time. It was an opposites attract Christmas story about a sparkly nerd catfishing a hot jock - how could I NOT love it?! Those tropes are like catnip to me.
As it turned out, Amy Jo's story was one of my favourites in an overall stellar anthology.
The longer, revised version of this story is still good. It still has all the delicious tropey goodness you love. It still has characters that can melt your heart with their ability to be startlingly honest with one another (something I think we can all agree is terrifying, even if you are really into your partner and you think they're really into you). The parts that AJ added blend seamlessly into her previous version and I loved the secondary characters that she threw in (I have hope that Gus might one day get his own story...?!), but in reading this version, I found that the story had lost a little of its intangible magic. Nothing major and nothing I can put my finger on, but it was definitely missing... something.
Maybe the reality of day to day life and long distance relationships are just not exciting as a whirlwind Christmas romance (this story takes us into March) and a casual but very public coming out story.
Well, isn't this interesting...
I gave the original short story (The Christmas Ship) in the [b:Wish Come True|26400212|Wish Come True|Keira Andrews|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1444129075s/26400212.jpg|46402615] anthology a solid 4 stars. I even remember being tempted to bump it an extra 1/4 star at the time. It was an opposites attract Christmas story about a sparkly nerd catfishing a hot jock - how could I NOT love it?! Those tropes are like catnip to me.
As it turned out, Amy Jo's story was one of my favourites in an overall stellar anthology.
The longer, revised version of this story is still good. It still has all the delicious tropey goodness you love. It still has characters that can melt your heart with their ability to be startlingly honest with one another (something I think we can all agree is terrifying, even if you are really into your partner and you think they're really into you). The parts that AJ added blend seamlessly into her previous version and I loved the secondary characters that she threw in (I have hope that Gus might one day get his own story...?!), but in reading this version, I found that the story had lost a little of its intangible magic. Nothing major and nothing I can put my finger on, but it was definitely missing... something.
Maybe the reality of day to day life and long distance relationships are just not exciting as a whirlwind Christmas romance (this story takes us into March) and a casual but very public coming out story.