Nava Renek’s beautifully crafted stories in Mating in Captivity cover every aspect of mating anyone couldthink of—between single lovers, married lovers, friends, the divorced, the soon-to-be divorced, best friends,former friends, former enemies, the childless, those with children, and those who obsessively desire children—people whose compulsive mulling and wondering why they do what they do leads them nowhere. Except maybeback to bed. Read Mating in Captivity and you will surely recognize yourself.Lynda Schor, author of Seduction and The Body Parts Shop
After reading the collection of stories in Nava Renek's Mating In Captivity, I felt like a voyeur of sorts. Her writing lets you momemtarily step into the lives of others as they navigate their love, hurt, desire, longing, loneliness, desperation and, most of all, their relationships. With each tale she serves up a slice of someone's life and lets you taste it for brief moment. I really enjoyed this book. I like her writing style...she has the ability to give us an honest view into the men and women in her stories.
Review copy won on Goodreads.com on 2-21-12. Received 3-3-12.
I found the short story, Fertility Diary, as on of the best in this book. Raging hormones, mood swings, and anything but spontaneous moments together reads true for the quest to produce a baby for this couple. The other shorts delve more into beginning affairs, ending affairs, or using sex as a means to climb the social food chain. Not a bad book but I prefer to read about more loving relationships in books.
Each story gives a brief glimpse into the life of a different couple. The stories tend to end rather abruptly. Some I quite enjoyed and wanted more while others were just okay. Overall though I enjoyed the book. I received this book through goodreads first reads.
This was a really good collection of short stories revolving around relationships. It was pretty light hearted, there was nothing here that I would describe as action packed or anything. Not my usual type of book but h=very good and I would read something from this writer again.