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Love Bites
Love Bites is a series of short stories about relationships that bite. Relationships between men and women, friends, families and women and women. The protagonists are from different ages, and places, but they have one thing in common, love.
Relationships are complicated. Is there ever really such a thing as happy ever after? After all even in the happiest of relationships one person is usually left alone at the end, by death if not divorce. Each of the stories explore the complexity of the question, what is true love, and what happens when it ends. The stories vary from whimsical to dark with shades of light and humour.
In Grace, the first story, we meet the protagonist starting life over. The story is set in Spain in 1973, three years after Grace was on trial accused of murdering her husband. Grace had found out just what her ex-husband had been involved in after his death, and she has her own secret. Grace ponders what she learned about her past and how she will choose to move forward.
In All Change and Mind the Gap, Polly Brisbane a sixty year old single mother, who has been celibate for twenty years, survived breast cancer and the menopause, takes a lover. The sexual romp is not a success, as predicted by Speech Bubble, Polly’s nemesis, the voice of her long dead strict Presbyterian Grandmother. The story is contemporary set in 2018
In Fresh Compost, when Greta chooses Oscar, the shy professional architect has no idea how the trauma leaving Germany at the age of four has affected her. A fear of losing everything dominates her and drives her to ruthlessness. The story is set in Surrey and Lucerne, and begins in 1956.
In, A Moment in Time, the reader is invited into a relationship between Pam and Geoffrey. Pam is an older woman who takes a younger lover after they have both been widowed. However the resulting opinions of their respective families tear into the fragile beginnings of what could be a happy ever after love story, but results in loss. This story is set between the Pennines and London in 2006.
The Herbalists, explores the love between two women, Maggie and Jo, a gift shop owner whose same sex relationship in a small village brings them under the evil eye of an evangelical priest. Maggie’s research for her book takes her into the underbelly of former conflicts between the church and women who practised herbalism, midwifery and what was referred to as the black arts. This story is set between 1957 and 1967 in a coastal village in Fife.
In Neighbours, a famous foodie, Mike and a wannabe Burlesque dancer, Anna, have a fling. Their affair sets the stage for personal change and recognition of his “sins” in the foodie and a surprise pregnancy for the dancer. The story is set in Bexhill and Catalonia in 2006.
In the final story, Sweet Dreams, we meet Henry who had just lost his beloved wife Brenda, As a result of the pandemic, she died alone without him to comfort her. But Harry realises he had already lost Brenda, when her mind was stolen by dementia.
Relationships are complicated. Is there ever really such a thing as happy ever after? After all even in the happiest of relationships one person is usually left alone at the end, by death if not divorce. Each of the stories explore the complexity of the question, what is true love, and what happens when it ends. The stories vary from whimsical to dark with shades of light and humour.
In Grace, the first story, we meet the protagonist starting life over. The story is set in Spain in 1973, three years after Grace was on trial accused of murdering her husband. Grace had found out just what her ex-husband had been involved in after his death, and she has her own secret. Grace ponders what she learned about her past and how she will choose to move forward.
In All Change and Mind the Gap, Polly Brisbane a sixty year old single mother, who has been celibate for twenty years, survived breast cancer and the menopause, takes a lover. The sexual romp is not a success, as predicted by Speech Bubble, Polly’s nemesis, the voice of her long dead strict Presbyterian Grandmother. The story is contemporary set in 2018
In Fresh Compost, when Greta chooses Oscar, the shy professional architect has no idea how the trauma leaving Germany at the age of four has affected her. A fear of losing everything dominates her and drives her to ruthlessness. The story is set in Surrey and Lucerne, and begins in 1956.
In, A Moment in Time, the reader is invited into a relationship between Pam and Geoffrey. Pam is an older woman who takes a younger lover after they have both been widowed. However the resulting opinions of their respective families tear into the fragile beginnings of what could be a happy ever after love story, but results in loss. This story is set between the Pennines and London in 2006.
The Herbalists, explores the love between two women, Maggie and Jo, a gift shop owner whose same sex relationship in a small village brings them under the evil eye of an evangelical priest. Maggie’s research for her book takes her into the underbelly of former conflicts between the church and women who practised herbalism, midwifery and what was referred to as the black arts. This story is set between 1957 and 1967 in a coastal village in Fife.
In Neighbours, a famous foodie, Mike and a wannabe Burlesque dancer, Anna, have a fling. Their affair sets the stage for personal change and recognition of his “sins” in the foodie and a surprise pregnancy for the dancer. The story is set in Bexhill and Catalonia in 2006.
In the final story, Sweet Dreams, we meet Henry who had just lost his beloved wife Brenda, As a result of the pandemic, she died alone without him to comfort her. But Harry realises he had already lost Brenda, when her mind was stolen by dementia.
152 pages, Paperback
First published August 2, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 1, 2020
To quote Mary Turner Thomson, Liza has penned stories that are beautiful, frightening, surprising, mysterious, eye-opening, heartbreaking and uplifting - just like love itself. The stories have a big range of characters who come in and out of love from many angles. A lifelong love that nears its end in the COVID era; dating and sex in the age of dating apps; fleeting love affairs that either make or break people. You won't be bored. This book is entertaining, touching, and wise without being preachy. Each story is its own little gem.
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September 23, 2020Beautifully written
A beautifully written collection of short stories each with their own powerful message that leaves you pondering choices you have made in your own life. The final story I could hardly read for the tears pouring down my cheeks, I thought of my own grandparents as this could have been them, a love that endured a world war only to be cruelly robbed of time together at the end of life by a cruel disease and an even worse pandemic. A truly wonderful collection of well crafted words ❤
A beautifully written collection of short stories each with their own powerful message that leaves you pondering choices you have made in your own life. The final story I could hardly read for the tears pouring down my cheeks, I thought of my own grandparents as this could have been them, a love that endured a world war only to be cruelly robbed of time together at the end of life by a cruel disease and an even worse pandemic. A truly wonderful collection of well crafted words ❤
October 24, 2020
Love Bites is a book about relationships that had an impact on people’s life’s in different ways. This is a book that was written thinking about a wide reading audience. I assumed from the name of the book and the happy art on the cover that it would contain a collection of soppy love stories. In fact, a number of the stories did not contain anything that could be described as romance at all and were more about different types of relationship people experience in their lives.
The characters in each of the stories are from different ages and backgrounds and all of them had their own complicated relationship and a different way to see what is truly important to them. This book is very inclusive with characters with different sexualities, beliefs and nationalities and doesn’t hold back in including topics which could be controversial. I really like that the main characters were all unique and well portrayed and once I had started a story I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. There were times were I actually wished a story had continued as the plot was really well conceived and could easily have been the foundation for a book on its own.
Short stories are great for a quick read but the message each of them contained were powerful and meaningful which makes the book as a whole well worth reading.
I definitely enjoyed some stories more than others as a few were more every day and grounded while other were much more exciting and full of suspense. For example, my favourite story’s was ‘The Herbalist’ and how once upon a time people who worked with herbs were called witches. It followed the adversarial relationship between one of these women, her girlfriend and a priest who hated them and contained a complex backstory. We can definitely see that the author loves mystery and in a few of her stories this is clear as she managed capture elements of suspense really well.
Overall the book is enjoyable and if you are looking for a quick read this can be an especially good option.
The characters in each of the stories are from different ages and backgrounds and all of them had their own complicated relationship and a different way to see what is truly important to them. This book is very inclusive with characters with different sexualities, beliefs and nationalities and doesn’t hold back in including topics which could be controversial. I really like that the main characters were all unique and well portrayed and once I had started a story I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. There were times were I actually wished a story had continued as the plot was really well conceived and could easily have been the foundation for a book on its own.
Short stories are great for a quick read but the message each of them contained were powerful and meaningful which makes the book as a whole well worth reading.
I definitely enjoyed some stories more than others as a few were more every day and grounded while other were much more exciting and full of suspense. For example, my favourite story’s was ‘The Herbalist’ and how once upon a time people who worked with herbs were called witches. It followed the adversarial relationship between one of these women, her girlfriend and a priest who hated them and contained a complex backstory. We can definitely see that the author loves mystery and in a few of her stories this is clear as she managed capture elements of suspense really well.
Overall the book is enjoyable and if you are looking for a quick read this can be an especially good option.
December 7, 2020
Loved this book - a collection of short stories looking at love in many different situations and with various outcomes. Funny; whimsical; empathetic; touching. Variety is definitely the spice of life. Looking forward to its sequel.
February 8, 2021
I have had amazing reviews for this book of short stories about relationships. The most recent from a kind reader in the USA said: It’s an intriguing collection of stories. The common theme is the evolution of relationships from beginnings to ends, which are usually death or divorce. Some nice slice of life narratives involving well written characters. Especially older women that are free and unapologetic about pursuing their desires.
Some highlights include the twisty mystery called Fresh Compost about two couples whose relationships intersect and get tangled up in crime. And The Herbalist about another couple in a small town with secrets and the lengths the town folk will go to for them to stay buried. And the collection ends with the bittersweet story, Sweet Dreams, involving a couple in their 90’s whose 75 year marriage ends as neither expected, alone in a nursing home in 2020 during Covid 😢
If you’re looking for something new to read, I’d definitely recommend this short story collection.
Some highlights include the twisty mystery called Fresh Compost about two couples whose relationships intersect and get tangled up in crime. And The Herbalist about another couple in a small town with secrets and the lengths the town folk will go to for them to stay buried. And the collection ends with the bittersweet story, Sweet Dreams, involving a couple in their 90’s whose 75 year marriage ends as neither expected, alone in a nursing home in 2020 during Covid 😢
If you’re looking for something new to read, I’d definitely recommend this short story collection.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews