A Chance Encounter and Other Stories by Marie Astor (Kindle Edition) – Read November 12, 2011
Cost: $0.99 (as of this post)
Official Product Description: (From amazon.com) Marie Astor’s debut collection of short stories runs the gamut from relationships to everyday life to the supernatural. Two former lovers make peace with long forgotten versions of their younger selves, an unemployed producer finds her life turning for the better after an encounter with an enigmatic old lady, an overworked employee gets even with his manipulative boss, a Las Vegas cabbie tells a story of a mysterious woman who changed his luck forever, a lonely secretary confronts her controlling mother and finds unexpected romance at a bus stop, a wannabe trader returns to his hometown and learns that success has many definitions, a divorced mother finds love with the help of an optimistic babysitter, a former homecoming queen confronts her cheating husband, and the list goes on. This collection of twelve stories will keep you turning the pages as you follow a diverse cast of characters struggling with love, loss, jealousy, anger, but ultimately triumphing over adversity and finding hope in the process.
My Take: With the cover and the skimming of the description I did, I expected all these stories to be romance, love at first sight and stuff along those lines. I was wrong, of course, there were a few romance but mostly the stories seemed to be a lot of overcoming the odds and finding whats best for that person. Some were just encounters with old flames or discovering that you can’t escape those crazy parents. The writing was enjoyable, there were a few errors but they were very few. I would recommend this to those who like short stories of the hopeful type. The characters were well-developed in each story and you do get a sense of whats going on around them. It just goes to show you, you can tell a good story without it being a novel.
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