Tag: Less Than Three Press

Less Than Three Press

Review of Winter Love by T. T. Kove

Rating: 3 stars

Lasse and his friends head to Oppdal ( a ski resort in Norway) for a vacation filled with fun, partying, and lots of skiing.  After a day on the slopes, Lasse gets into a confrontation with a man named Armas who won’t take no for an answer. Coming to Lasse’ rescue is Markos, Armas’ brother and fellow vacationer. Markos and Lasse are instantly attracted to each other and spend the rest of the vacation together.  But Markos is Finnish, and the vacation is coming to an end. The stress of a long-distance relationship is only one of the tests their love comes under as Markos and Lasse struggle to keep their winter love  alive.

Upon finishing the story, I wondered why I found it so dissatisfying. On the surface, the story is plausible and well constructed, the characters of Lasse and Markos likable. Further reflection crystallized several problems I had with Winter Love.

The first is characterization or the lack thereof.  All of the characters here are so bland as to be interchangeable, with the exception of the group slut, Oliver, and homophobe Armas, who sleeps with men.  Otherwise, you can switch out Markos, Lasse, Dimitri, and Mathias with each other based on personality alone and no one would notice.  It’s just one note character after another. When  glimmers of depth or layering comes up, or when we think that a backstory is about to be discovered, it is either immediately forgotten or dropped.

These lapses in character and story development are so frustrating that the reader is tempted to skipped ahead to see if it (whatever it is) comes up again.   And of course, it doesn’t.  At one point, Oliver is described as being bitter, which would give meaning to his promiscous behavior but it is never mentioned again.  Also during the epilogue, Lasse wonders if he should bring up  his past as a alcoholic and drug addict to Markos’ parents and the reader starts going “what? what?” because this is the first mention of this side of Lasse’ character. Had we had a backstory on Lasse earlier, it would have made him a more relatable person, instead we have a bland personality masquerading as a main character.

Plot lines within the story are handled with the same nonchalance as character development.  A major character in one of the main story lines threatens suicide because of a trauma that has driven a major section of the plot. He then disappears for the rest of the book, leaving the reader to wonder why this character was introduced at all if he could be so easily discarded.  Also disturbing is the manner in which the potential for suicide is treated by the other characters.  One singular moment of tears then nothing.

T. T. Kove is Norwegian so the thought did occur to me that some of the issues I had with the story might be due to translation or language difficulties.  Also, I have not read any Norwegian fiction so perhaps story development or plot outlines diverge along cultural lines.  I am not sure.  I would like to give her the benefit of the doubt, rather than using Winter Love as a standard for her prowess as a writer.

Cover:  Beautiful cover by Megan Derr.  I loved the image but wish the author’s name could be more legible.  A larger font in the same color as the title would have been better.

Review of The Wrong Note by Isabella Carter

Rating: 4.45

Rue has a problem.  The new store next to his is blaring its music so loud he can’t think, and the new owner is taking his parking spot.  What is a guy to do?  When he can’t stand it anymore, he rushes over to confront the owner and meets Jocelyn.  Green eyes, triple earrings and oh so hot.  Now he has a new problem.

This was such a cute story, perfect for Valentine’s Day.  There are really only 4 characters in the whole story, all well done in such a short length.  I could feel Rue’s frustration building as the heavy metal pounded through the walls, and his snarky assistant rolling her eyes at her boss.  Short, sweet but not sappy.

At 3,800 words, it is part of the Kiss Me Quick collection of short stories celebrating love from Less Than Three Press.  If the rest of the collection is as sweet as this one, I can’t wait to read them. Great for Valentine’s Day or any day where love is in the air.

Cover:  The cover is just a picture of storefronts.  I wish that a little bit more of imagination had been used to make it more relevant to the story.

The Wrong Note is published by Less Than Three Press.

A Review of Opposite Day by Erica Kealey

 

This review was first posted on JoyfullyJayblog where I am a guest reviewer:

Rating: 4.75 stars

Davis Wheaton is having the bad day of all bad days.  His live-in boyfriend has cheated on him (not the first boyfriend to do so), his job and family are strangling him in expectations and demands, and it is pouring outside.  Unbelievably,  his day gets worse.  Standing at the bus stop, a passing car hits the puddle in front of him and he’s drenched.

Enter Brody Simons, hot, handsome, and the driver of the car that just soaked him.   Brody is the opposite of every man Davis has ever dated and not the type of man his family would find acceptable.  When Brody offers Davis a ride home to make up for the soaking, a range of choices appear before him.  There is the safe, normal path…refuse the ride and go on as usual.  Or take a chance and do the opposite of what he has always done.  What will Davis choose?

This is a delight of a book.  Winning characters, great dialog, and realistic scenes combine to present a picture of a life on hold until an unexpected opportunity offers him the chance to make a change.   Davis charmed me right from the beginning.  Erica Kealey makes it so easy to empathize with him. Davis’ frustrations are our frustrations.  The tone is just right for someone feeling boxed in but stymied in his attempts to move forward. Brody is another great character, sympathetic, easy going and willing to take a  chance on rejection from a “suit”.  Brody has layers to him and that pulls in the reader and Davis at the same time.

All of this happens in 11,000 words.  Opposite Day is a book small in size but not in heart. By the end of the book, I wanted to buy a “Opposite Day” t-shirt or make Opposite Day a national holiday. Trust me…it would do us all good.  So does reading this book.  You’ll love it.

Cover:  I wish they had chosen any color other than red here.  The color choice makes me want to look away and the black font makes it hard to read the author’s name.
Opposite Day [Ebook]
Blurb: Davis has it all: the wealth, the connections, the job, the car—and the cheating ex. His long weekend with his lover ruined, tired of his life and the way it always goes wrong, Davis just wants to go home and enjoy a stiff drink. All that changes, however, when a moment of carelessness results in a chance meeting. Brody is everything that Davis is not supposed to want, so far from his tightly-regulated world that spending even thirty seconds with him would be a foolish waste of time. Any other day of the week, Davis wouldn’t waste his time. But every other day hasn’t worked out so great, and Davis decides that for just one day, maybe he should try something different… Word count: 11,000

Available from Less Than Three Press