The Last Train Home & Other Stories

by Erin Lawless

Available for Kindle from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com and to read online and in all other digital formats on Smashwords.


An exciting new collection of sixteen short stories.

Big stories in bite-size, perfect for commuters or a quick read before bedtime.


* [The author] capture her audience's imagination within an instant over and over again...
* This is not light fare, but the poetic intensity, dazzling at times, makes for an arresting read...
* Poignant, thoughtful, funny and wonderfully human...
* Erin Lawless's first collection of short stories is varied, colourful and beautifully written...
* Once I started I couldn't stop until I had finished...
* There is such a broad range of themes, surprises and twists that you just want to keep reading on. An impressive collection...
* Promises great things in the future from this new author...
* Would thoroughly recommend!

Genres: Short Stories

47 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Erin Lawless would probably love to be your Goodreads friend.

Although she's predominantly on here with her reader hat on, she's published a book of short stories and flash fiction - The Last Train Home & Other Stories - and two bestselling British contemporary romances for HarperCollins' award-winning romance imprint Harper Impulse, The Best Thing I Never Had and Somewhere Only We Know .

Her most recent release, The One With All The Bridesmaids , follows one bride and her four bridesmaids from proposal to altar - and according to one review is like the film Bridesmaids, but funnier..!

Outside of Goodreads (and the third person) she blogs about dreadfully interesting things at www.erinlawless.co.uk and chats rubbish / spams pictures of her baby on Twitter and Instagram as @rinylou.

Reviews

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories are rich in imagery. The author is a master of brevity, and some of the stories are only a few pages long, reading more like prose poems than standard narratives. Lawless, a young writer who lives in London, is at her best when she turns her perceptive gaze toward the relationships between men and women, capturing the tension, ambivalence and contradictions found in them. She explores some very dark, painful moments: loveless sex, abortion and infidelity. This is not light fare, but the poetic intensity, dazzling at times, makes for an arresting read.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erin Lawless has succeeded in creating a series of tantalisingly brief episodes that capture her audience's imagination over and over. These short stories are essentially dreams (or nightmares) captured on paper.

Perfect for a quick delve into fiction on the commute home.

And while each story is self-contained, there's certainly room for some of these snippets to evolve into novellas, serving as prologues or key chapters in a longer creation. I can't wait to read more by this author!

[Book-shelf Shelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book of short stories which is perfect to read inbetween the school run, cooking dinner and other every day jobs. Stories will excite, confuse, bring joy and tears... a mix bag which is excellent for everyone.

[Michelle O'Broin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely collection of short stories from a new author who I am very much looking forward to reading more of!

[Rhianan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of stories, well written with some modern characters that drawn you in immediately. This was the first set of short stories that wasn't fan fiction that i'd read since i was probably a kid. And its taken me a while to sort out what i think about short stories. So it took me a while to review this, but having read a second collection of short stories, and enjoying a few of them i realised that you just have to really separate short stories from novels. So when i re-read The Last Train Home 'Deadlands' 'The Advantage' stood out as probably my favorite although i really enjoyed 'Succubus' too. Although i still come down on the side that i want them to be apart of a bigger story that i can delve into.

But as far as short stories go if you enjoy them i would recommend this set, beautifully written and definitely a author to look out for.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of short stories. Wonderfully written and delightfully entertaining. Once I started reading I couldn't stop.


One small point was that I found the title story 'the last train home' as slightly confusing to understand but I liked the story behind it.

I've not read many short story collections and I always feel as if the story ends too soon. An undeniable attribute for a short story I know but I did feel some of the stories could have had a few more revealing details for the plot line. Not so many it ruins the sense of wonder after reading but a few more to clarify what had actually just happened. Own personal feelings here.

Other than that it was a brilliant collection of stories and definitely worth a read.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite being a short read, Erin Lawless' novel leaves a lasting impact that belies its size. Numerous relationships - particularly of the romantic variety - are presented and displayed that make for fascinating reads, as each short story and centre relationship leaves its own mark on the reader. Erin Lawless also shows a remarkable command of tones; from the humorous 'Reputation' to the eerie and unsettling 'Deadlands', this short insight into this new author's talents will leave you grappling with anticipation while the wait for her longer reads commences.

[Loz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ethereal without being vague. A number of the poignant stories concern betrayal, but they are balanced by a few at the more sweet, hopeful end of the scale on messy human relationships.

The dark 'Deadlands' was particularly intriguing, 'Worm' was somewhat chilling and both 'The Night Bus' and 'Scar Tissue' sad in different ways.

Really rather good. Although personally I think the front cover sells it short!

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are books that make you realise you've been waiting YEARS for: this is one of them. When I started reading, I just couldn't stop! A 'don't miss' treat. One day this author will be a best seller all over the world, don't miss out on reading her first book of short stories while waiting for her first full length novel.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very well written, exciting and addictive book. Once you start reading, you get engrossed and you will never be able to put the book down! I highly recommend this book and hope that this author will go far in life. I would really love to read more books from her. This deserves 5/5 :).

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the entire book in one session. Diverse collection of short stories that kept you engrossed throughout. Left me longing for more from this author. Don't normally give 5* reviews but felt well deserved in this case.

[Chantal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mainly read full-length fiction but thought I'd try out my new Kindle app with a short story collection. This one caught my eye and I'm very glad it did.

Each story/piece of flash fiction had something that resonated, intrigued me or in some cases left me aching to know more. There is such a broad range of themes, surprises and twists that you just want to keep reading on.

An impressive collection, definitely worth four stars - more like 4 and a half really!

[Lisa Bentley · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you were expecting the usual Erin Lawless style found in The One with the Wedding series or Somewhere Only we Know then this is probably not the short story collection for you. Don’t get me wrong, the stories are really good but they are very different than what I would normally come to expect.

This collection has been described as ‘perfect for commuters’ and you can see why this is the case. The longest story takes just over 10 minutes but the rest are much shorter.

A mixture of modern and historical fiction among others, The Last Train Home and Other Stories is well worth the investment.

The Last Train Home and Other Stories by Erin Lawless is available now.

For more information regarding Erin Lawless (@rinylou) please visit www.erinlawless.co.uk.