{Short Story Sunday} {New Adult} Review: Keeping Her by Cora Carmack

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Short stories are awesome.  They give us in-depth insight into characters, providing anecdotal proof of why some characters are they way they are.  They entertain by creating a certain mood or focusing on a singular effect...some instance in a previous body of work (or one to follow) that might have been glossed over or ignored completely in a longer novel. 

And so, every Sunday for the foreseeable future, I would like to highlight short stories and novellas set in worlds I've already come to love and learn a little more about some of the secondary characters in my favorite novels.  I'll be underscoring some of my favorite aspects of these short works of fiction, in addition to offering up a mini review of each work.

This week I'm featuring an alternate perspective from the Losing It series:

Title: Keeping Her
Author: Cora Carmack
Series: Losing It, book #1.5
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: August 13, 2013
Source: from publisher via Edelweiss
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Garrick Taylor and Bliss Edwards managed to find their happily-ever-after despite a rather . . . ahem . . . complicated start. By comparison, meeting the parents should be an absolute breeze, right?

But from the moment the pair lands in London, new snags just keep cropping up: a disapproving mother-in-law-to-be, more than one (mostly) minor mishap, and the realization that perhaps they aren't quite as ready for their future as they thought.

As it turns out, the only thing harder than finding love is keeping it.

Oh, Garrick.  What is there not to love about this guy?  He's sweet, totally enamored with the klutzy, blushing Bliss, and then there's the accent.  *sigh*  And now we get to read from his point-of-view!  Well, technically, *I* already read several of the pivotal scenes in Losing It from Garrick's POV, as well as the first chapter of Keeping Her, so I already knew what I was getting myself into with this one.  Or so I thought.

But Keeping Her isn't just from Garrick's perspective.  It's also split with Bliss's as she freaks out at the mere thought of meeting Garrick's mother.  It's actually hilarious to go back-and-forth between Garrick's seemingly calm facade and Bliss's anxiety.  At first, I was kinda sad that it wasn't all from Garrick's POV, but I think it worked out better this way.

Best of all were all of the new characters we get to meet, even if they are fleeting.  Garrick's best mates were charming and funny, and I especially liked the razzing they gave Bliss about being "hot for teacher".  And then Garrick's mother...she was scary at first.  And I was absolutely certain this trip to meet the parents was going to end in disaster, especially when Garrick's exes showed up, but the story ended on the perfect note.

I love Bliss and Garrick and their whole relationship, even if it was a little taboo in the beginning.  I was glad to see them turn up in Faking It and I hope we get another glimpse of them in Finding It, though I don't know how likely that is with Kelsey halfway around the world.  Which is why I was so glad to get this novella from Cora Carmack.  Such a fun series!

Rating:  

the Losing It series

About the author:

I'm Cora Carmack, a twenty-something writer who likes to write about twenty-something characters. I've done a multitude of things in my life -- boring jobs (like working retail), fun jobs (like working in a theatre), stressful jobs (like teaching), and dream jobs (like writing). I enjoy placing my characters in the most awkward situations possible, and then trying to help them get a boyfriend out of it. Awkward people need love, too. My first book, LOSING IT, was a New York Times and USA Today Bestseller.

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