Tagline: Lisa and Joel were a perfect match but up to now, neither of them had been willing to admit it!
In a Nutshell: As good friends, Lisa and Joel are at the zoo together to take photographs. At Joel's insistence, she signed up for a photography class after she lost her job. While at the zoo, Joel finds the courage to tell Lisa he wants to be more than friends.
Observations: There are many elements in this story that I wanted to point out. Since I'm way behind analyzing the stories and want to do two today, I'm going to just list them.
1. In the very first paragraph we see a darling indication that Joel is sweet on Lisa. As usual, she didn't have to ask him to smile--he always smiled when he looked in her direction, whether or not she held her camera.
2. I had a moment of skepticism when the chimp smiled. I bet you could wait for three days and not see a chimp smile. Not sure they even smile at all or if they only bare their teeth when threatened, like many other animals.
3. I wasn't big on the "say cheese please" joke.
4. I did think the teasing about his receding hairline was good. It showed me that they are that comfortable with each other that she feels okay with teasing him about it.
5. I loved the way he talked about eagles mating habits as a way to lead into what he was really trying to say to her. Smart guy! Smart author, too.
6. I also adored when she realizes and she snaps a picture at the moment she sees the love in his eyes through her view screen. That paragraph was amazing. You get her physical reaction, her sudden seriousness. You see her thought process as it finally dawns on her. The final sentence warms your heart, and then you get the one word paragraph that means, to me, she took the picture and will have it forever, and that everything just clicked for her.
7. After that perfect paragraph, the author made sure we see Lisa confirming that the feeling is mutual and a sweet kiss to seal the deal.
Ah romance!
2 comments:
There were shades of When Harry Met Sally, with friends taking the next step to love, but for me this was more sweetly done. I love photography and I love animals so this was right up my street. The relationship was nicely drawn and the zoo setting was one I could connect with, although, like Kate, I'm not sure chimps really smile - that tooth-baring thing always looks more like a grimace to me! Good story, though, Rosemary, very enjoyable.
I thought it was a great little story and I can see why WW picked it. The hero was well done and the combination of photography and zoo setting was different. I too liked the scene where things clicked for her. Nice job.
Post a Comment