Okay, I had a steampunk trilogy I'd collected but not yet read next on my reading menu. Except everyone seems to be bringing really, really good short stories/novellas to my attention. Apples should be Red was reviewed on Dear Author by Laura Florand.
This book is short but so damn good.
I was going to put a nice bookcover pic here but Blogger won't allow Firefox either. I downloaded Firefox because Blogger wouldn't allow IE. I guess Chrome is next. Bummer. It let me d/l a pic this morning, but not now. Go figure.
John's father Tom, and his wife Karen's mother, Beverly, are total opposites. Tom is curmudgeonly, profane and a hermit; Bev is always put together right and always has a plan. Due to termites and rotten plumbing, Tom is forced by his son and daughter-in-law to host Thanksgiving and Bev is forced to stay with Tom for three very long days.
What happens is the rest of the story. I swear I had a smile on my face as I read the whole book. And I had to read the book when I heard about the gnome. I wish here'd been more about the gnome. (As an aside, years ago I read a mystery series; can't remember the author or any of the titles, but one book had a traveling gnome. The gnome was stolen from the hero's mother's back garden and sent them notes from different countries and cities. They never knew where he'd turn up next, what the note would say or who had stolen the gnome. Either the author or the heroine was named Elizabeth.)
This story (I'm back to talking about 'Apples' now) does not have numbered chapters. Instead there are headings which by themselves ought to be enough to make anyone read this book. For example:
* Stepping in Chicken Shit
* Clean-up in Aisle Ten
* Gnomes R Us
We do get both POVs although I wouldn't call them deep. This is a book to savor. I loved Tom, I loved how both Tom and Bev compromised and I believed in their HEA. I wish I had written this book.
You can find it here.
Oh, I almost forgot! I hereby award this the Lori grade of ten inches. :-D
Wow - 10 inches! A must then. LOL
ReplyDeleteActually, you had me sold the minute it became clear that the parents were the love interest in the story, not the son or daughter. How refreshing!
The next part that sold me was your recollection of the missing gnome. This actually happened to us when we were in Townsville - a statue went missing from the front yard and occasionally we received postcards from around the country - having a good time, not coming home etc.
Mum and I were in on it of course (I couldn't keep a straight face) although I never let on who had him. Of course he was in a cupboard on the army barracks the whole time but Dad didn't know lol. Remind me to tell you about his 'homecoming' LOL
Oh, and I had the same issues with uploading too. Chrome seems to be the only one that will work now, so I've had to give up IE altogether. Hope you can find somethign that works ok and longer than five minutes for you.