(Blog Blitz) Book Review: Love, Loss and Life in Between by Suzanne Rogerson

Today I’m taking part in the one day blog blitz for Love, Loss and Life in Between, a lovely short story collection by author Suzanne Rogerson who has written so many amazing fantasy books.  This is her first non-fantasy collection of short stories (although there’s a bit of light fantasy in some of them) and it’s a really great book which you can find out more about below.  I just want to first say a huge thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources and the author for the chance to be a part of this one day blitz and for a copy of the book.  Now, let’s find out how much I enjoyed this 😀 …

Title: Love, Loss and Life in Between
Author: Suzanne Rogerson
Publisher: Independently published
Genre: Short stories
Book format: Digital
Sweet Strawberries:

Description:  This collection of short stories gives a glimpse into life, love, loss, and the inexplicable in between.
With themes of grief, finding hope and second chances, facing the consequences of your actions and getting help from the unlikeliest of places.

• As Cecilia helps the dying, she questions what happens to their spirits. But is she ready to find out?
• Can a mother’s race through the New Forest save her son?
• Will visiting a medium bring Christina the closure she needs?
• Can an intruder help an old lady with her loneliness?
• Will the start of another wet and miserable Monday morning end with Maeve’s happy ever after?

The anthology includes the prize-winning flash fiction story – ‘Spirit Song’.
Spirit Song judge’s critique – ‘Unusual, emotional, warm, surprising — a warm, unusual story. It moved me when I read it.’
Full story list:
Spirit Song
Goodbye Forever
Garden Therapy
Starting Over
A Cat-Shaped Hole
The Phone Call
Knocked Off Her Feet
Catalyst
Not Just For Christmas
A Mermaid’s Tail
From the fantasy author of Visions of Zarua and the ‘Silent Sea Chronicles’ trilogy, this story collection features multiple genres including romance, supernatural and thriller.

*Free copy provided by author for review…

Review: This is a lovely set of short stories, each of them quite different from the others but all of them centring on the subjects of love and loss. There are ten short stories and one extra excerpt of a short story at the end and each of them is interesting to read.  The stories range from simple and light to some getting quite dark and also featuring some interesting fantastical twists.

The ten short stories are: Spirit Song, Goodbye Forever, Garden Therapy, Starting Over, A Cat-Shaped Hole, The Phone Call, Knocked Off Her Feet, Catalyst, Not Just for Christmas and A Mermaid’s Tail.  The first story ‘Spirit Song’ is short but a wonderful beginning to the collection followed by ‘Goodbye Forever’ which is a more gripping tale about a woman escaping her past.  ‘Garden Therapy’ is an especially brilliant story which might be my favourite as it has some interesting twists in it as there are also in the story ‘The Phone Call’.  ‘Starting Over’ along with ‘Knocked Off Her Feet’ are more charming romantic tales and the two stories ‘A Cat-Shaped Hole’ and ‘Not just for Christmas’ are special to read featuring the love animals bring to our lives.

I did enjoy ‘Catalyst’ which for me was an especially dark story and very different from the others.  It was brilliant though with a creepy twist and then the collection ends with ‘A Mermaid’s Tail’ which is a beautiful if sad story of a young girl coming to terms with her mum who is dying.  This last story is a short tale about some of the characters which will appear in the author’s upcoming ‘The Mermaid Hotel Romance Series’.  There is also an additional excerpt of a longer short story called ‘The Guardian’ which features in the author’s other short story collection ‘Fantasy Short Stories’ which I’ve read and which is brilliant!

Overall this is a lovely collection of very different tales, with there being a story or few which will appeal to everyone.  While some of the tales felt a little too short for me, like the story about the dog which I had hoped would be longer, overall this is still a great collection of short stories from an author who up until now has only released fantasy tales so it’s good to see how well they write contemporary tales too.  I can’t wait to read more of the author’s work in future, especially the new Mermaid Hotel romance series which is hinted to in the last story in this collection and would say this is a good set of short stories for anyone interested in reading the author’s work but who isn’t sure of picking up an entire book, although I will say I still prefer her fantasy short story collection better, but then I am fantasy obssessed! 🙂

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About the Author

Suzanne lives in Middlesex, England with her husband, two children and a crazy cocker spaniel.

Her writing journey began at the age of twelve when she completed her first novel. She discovered the fantasy genre in her late teensand has never looked back. Giving up work to raise a family gave Suzanne the impetus to take her attempts at novel writing beyond the first draft, and she is lucky enough to have a husband who supports her dream -even if he does occasionally hint that she might think about getting a proper job one day.

Now an author of four novels including the Silent Sea Chronicles trilogy and her debut, Visions of Zarua, Suzanne hopes the dreaded ‘W’ word will never rear its ugly head again!

She loves gardening and has a Hebe (shrub) fetish. She enjoys cooking with ingredients from the garden and regularly feeds unsuspecting guests vegetable-based cakes.

Suzanne collects books, is interested in history and enjoys wandering around castles and old ruins whilst being immersed in the past. She likes to combine her love of nature and photography on family walks, but most of all she loves to escape with a great film, binge watch TV shows, or soak in a hot bubble bath with an ice cream and a book.

Visit author’s website    Visit author on Twitter    Visit author on Instagram    Visit author on Facebook

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed my stop on the blog blitz today for this lovely collection of short stories. 🙂  If you like the sound of it do pick up a copy as well as the author’s other short story collection.

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What do you think of this short story collection?  Do you like reading short stories or do you prefer loonger novels?  Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂

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