Review: Heart: A Romantic Short Story Collection by Rose Fall

Publisher: Amazon

Publication Date: July 10, 2015

Rating: 2 Stars

Source: Ebook From Author For Review

Pages: 143

Summary (from Goodreads):

These are stories about first kisses, near death experiences, adventures in indie clubs, and European bucket lists. 

These are stories about wanting love, searching for it, finding it, losing it, and beginning again. 

These are stories about finding yourself and learning to be brave. 
These characters are bonded together by the things they want, the things they’re afraid of, and the things they’re still trying to figure out. 

This is about growing up but staying young. This is about HEART. 

In this collection are 5 romantic short stories and a special preview of the author’s upcoming novel How to Get Your Heart Broken.

Alright, I received an email from the author of this book asking me if I'd like to review it. Pretty exciting!

Buuuuut.. I did not really care for this book. Besides the fact that I'm not a giant contemporary fan, this book felt to me like it still needs a lot of work. It didn't feel done at all. I was left feeling really confused or totally lost at some parts and I have a lot of unanswered questions.

This book consists of five really short stories about love in different stages of life pretty much. 

The first story was called The European Boy. This 16-year-old girl is in Germany (I think?) hanging out in a bar with some boys, one of which she has a big crush on. The girl struck me as kind of dumb. Basically this story is just them leaving the bar and going back to their hostel and it truly felt kind of pointless to me. I felt like it just plummets headfirst into the story with no introduction or background information. I had a lot of questions after reading this story.

The second story was Loveless. I felt like this story just jumps around and abruptly changes scenes. The main character, Mae, felt to me like she had a superiority complex and treated the other girl in the story like she was just below her. And says they're not friends, but then goes to a party with this girl and asks her about boys like they're friends. And it felt like it just ended.

The third story is Seven Seconds in Heaven. This story felt the most complete and least confusing for me! So it was probably my favorite of the five. The main character runs into the girl he lost his V-Card to at a college laundromat/cafe and they get a second chance. The main character kinda seemed like a douchebag.

*THIS PARAGRAPH ESSENTIALLY SUMS UP WHAT HAPPENS IN THE 4TH STORY SO YEAH SPOILER ALERT*

The fourth story is We Met At Target.  Basically this chick trips over herself at Target and gets caught by some totally gorgeous dude and they don't speak, but she thought he was SO charming and she thought about him for months afterward. Then she miraculously trips over herself again at Target and the SAME dude catches her and he starts walking away until she asks him if that's the part where he asks her out and they just start kissing in Target... And then some confusing stuff happens and she's freaking out on everyone at his funeral and throws his urn into a pond.... I couldn't deal with this story.

The final story is What Scares You. It's about a girl on a date with some incredibly boring guy, but after the date he saves her from getting turned into roadkill by a taxi and has a sudden change of heart and wants to get to know him. And I didn't really like her either.

I liked that the stories were nice and short. It's got a really lovely cover. I really wanted to like it, but it just didn't work for me. I think if it had a little more work, it would have been a LOT better. The author seemed nice. I really wanted to like it.