Friday, September 22, 2017

Review: Twelve Stories for Summer by Linda Mansfield


Genre: Short Story Collection

Description:

"Twelve Stories for Summer offers a baker's dozen of fictional but realistic short stories set in summer. It's for teenagers through senior citizens who could use a few minutes of relaxation. Some of the stories take place at typical summer destinations like a state park, an amusement park, a baseball stadium, a public auction, a Fourth of July parade, an outdoor concert, a riding stable and an auto race. Others show people volunteering during a church mission trip and tornado relief efforts. One story features two college friends reminiscing over dinner. A bored boy at the beach is another subject.”

Author:

Linda Mansfield is a former editor at a Manhattan publishing house and current owner of a PR firm in Indianapolis.

Appraisal:

I’m not sure what to make of this collection and therefore what to say or even what rating to give it. I’ll try to explain.

Generally, the writing is solid, from a technical standpoint. The characters are interesting. But too often I’d hit the end of the story and think “is that all” or “what was the point.” One story that springs to mind as an exception to this is the tale of a guy on his first date in three years and how he messes up. It was good, made a point, and could have ended strong. Instead the ending made me want more, wanting to know what happened next.

As I’ve stewed about this I’ve come to the conclusion that the issue here might not be these stories, but that these aren’t the right stories for me. Yeah, that’s it, it’s not you Twelve Stories for Summer, it’s me.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Although one of a series of 4 short story collections (each collection stories about a different time of year), the author indicates that the books stand alone.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 25-30,000 words

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