5/15/04

This modern fiction romance collection, all the 3 short stories reveal how different women fall in love under unexpected situations.
In the first one titled 'Cupid at Work' Ashley finds herself facing a mystery as she gets beautiful roses on Valentine's Day from a secret admirer.
Who could the culprit be? Her nice and absolutely perfect neighbour or her strict and
all-business boss?
In the second tale, a woman suffering from hurt from a past relationship gets a chance at love as she finds herself healing under the gentle and warm words of a man. The question is 'Is she willing to risk and take another stake at love'?
In the third story 'A Date with Mr. Rival' humour and chemistry sizzles as arch rivals face something more than just plain annoyance.
Laura hates the sight of him while Jack simply loves irritating her to the limit.
Can rivals become lovers?
The answers to all the above questions lies in ‘Cupid Traps’.
From the Author’s Synopsis

When I first was assigned to review this book I was concerned because it was an E-book. I don’t like to read on the computer, it hurts my eyes. However I was delighted to see that the font and spacing were kind.

My delight ended there.

This book was, in a word, boring. I was surprised to see that it was only 57 pages and was eager to read a tight fully formed story within them. I was sadly mistaken.

I found this collection of short stories frustrating to read because of the lack of sensory detail. There is no description of place. We are told “nursing home” or “office” and left to imagine it for ourselves. The extreme lack of detail is shocking.

The events in the three stories are filled in with exhaustive dialogue, all of which is way too telling. The dialogue also seems unrealistic at times. Characters that don’t use contractions suddenly start using them at random points.

It is also hard to distinguish between characters in the three stories. They are one sided, dry, and cannot be related to. Except for the fact that they all of different names, it would seem as though each story is about the same two people.

The stories all end far too well; everyone gets together at the end as promised but in very predictable ways. From the author’s Synopsis I was expecting a little bit of mystery, a little intrigue, but I was entirely let down.

Cupidtraps is available for free by following this link: http://www.geocities.com/cupidtraps/