Tag Archives: shorter stories

“The Lover” by Silvia Moreno-García

6 Nov
Illustrated cover for "The Lover", showing a young white woman with very light skin, long black hair and red lips sitting on a full moon; beside her lies a wolf. Vines laden with ripe berries wind around and between them. The background is a misty forest skyline at night.

I have wanted to try the work of fellow Mexican ex-pat Silvia Moreno-García for a long time, but most of her output is horror or horror-adjacent, and I don’t do either. However, when I saw this ARC, I hoped it would be more in my lane.

Beware: horror-adjacent fantasy; non-explicit sex on page; cheating.

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A Christmas to Remember (anthology)

20 Feb
Cover for the anthology "A Christmas to remember", showing two people, shot from the back, holding hands in front of a red door where mistletoe hangs from a red bow near the top. One of them wears a blue jacket and a grey glove; the other wears a white jacket and a red glove. They appear to be a man and a woman, but the shot shows only a sliver of their silhouettes in the bulky clothes, focusing instead on their hands. The bottom half lists the contributors: Jill Shalvis, Kristen Ashley, Hope Ramsay, Molly Cannon and Marilyn Pappano.

Over the years, I have realized that most genre romance Christmas stories are not a good match for me.

No, that’s not true.

Most genre romance Christmas stories at best irk me, at worst enrage me.

And yet, I have so many of them spread all over the TBR cordilleras of doom, both print and digital. (I blame poor impulse control when an author I’ve liked is involved, or if the blurb is clever.)

Anyhow, this anthology (one of several so named), was my choice for SuperWendy’s TBR Challenge for December 2022 (“festive”). I hoped that, being short stories, I could read it quickly (I did), and review it quickly (oh, sweet innocent past me).

For what it’s worth, here is the belated review. Beware: relentlessly hetero, relentlessly white; death of parents, death of spouse, death of child (all off-page, as character backstory); some sex, not terribly explicit, on page. Oh, and spoilers for a couple of the stories abound in the review.

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“The Governess Affair” by Courtney Milan

28 Sep
A white woman with long, curly reddish brown hair, wearing a long bright yellow gown, looking down to the daisy corsage she's holding

This novella is a prequel to The Duchess War; it establishes one of the most important relationships for the hero of that novel, and thus is the first installment of the Brothers Sinister series, despite having been written a couple of years after the release of that book.

Reader, beware: backstory of physical abuse by a parent, backstory of rape, difficult sibling relationships, general trauma, and a most lovely scene of consent, seduction, and sex.

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“The Year of the Crocodile” by Courtney Milan

16 Sep
Cover for "The Year of the Crocodile"; a Chinese young woman stands against a young white man, looking up at him over her shoulder. His arms come around her as he looks into his eyes.

This very short story is part of the Cyclone Saga, set a year after Trade Me, and as the events in Hold Me take place.

Reader, beware: there’s a rather high rate of swearing for the actual word count, and there’s also a sex scene.

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