Showing posts with label short story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label short story. Show all posts

Monday, August 18, 2025

The Cul-de-Sac: A Short Story by Clara Wren: Book Review

 4/5

I was sent this story by a publisher for review, which has not impacted my review in any way. The opinions are mine and mine alone.

Clara Wren does really well in writing this story. The Cul-de-Sac has a great opening line that makes you curious about what is going to happen, drawing the reader in. Using a good grasp of descriptive writing, she expertly paints a picture in your mind of what she is speaking about. This serves to make you want to find out more. This trail and the people of the cul-de-sac make for an interesting and unique focal point or theme of the story. Fresh themes are a gem to find.

Introducing these few characters in such a short amount of time, can be challenging, and I feel that she was creative in finding the best way possible. It was executed well. My main complaint about the short story, is that it was missing that hook. There were things to draw the reader, in but that extra something to make me say wow, wasn't there.

Overall, it was a great short story. I would recommend it to someone who is looking for a quick read, or who wants a good example of descriptive writing.


Thursday, March 18, 2010

Book Review- Louis L’Amour- Riding for the Brand



Louis L’Amour- Riding for the Brand (Bantam Books 1993) 3.25 Stars



Riding for the Brand is a collection of short story western tales. They paint a beautiful picture of the old Wild West. From fighting to keep what’s yours or fighting to find a place to call your own, to fighting just because it is the right thing to do, Louis L’Amour does what he does best, story telling.



I gave this a low rating mainly because I do not enjoy short stories. I find that just when you are getting into the story, it ends. There is no real detail about anything, you don’t get to know your characters, and there is just a shallow plot. Any of the stories in this book could have been expanded to make a book and I would have enjoyed each one much more; that being said, if you enjoy short stories then this is a great book for you. The actual quality of writing is excellent, as is to be expected from a writer of this calibre. I did notice a fair amount of punctuation errors and unintentional spelling mistakes, which I thought was odd as I do not normally notice this in Louis L’Amour novels.



For more of my reviews check out my website, www.tonypeters.webs.com



Tony Peters


Kids on a Case: The Case of the Ten Grand Kidnapping


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