Always Bake Cookies by Kacey Laine

from the August 14, 2017 issue

Tagline: Abby loved her new house...and her handsome neighbor made it feel like home!

Observations: This was a sweet story. What stands out to me is the heroine. It has always been my assertion that Woman's World likes the traditional woman who waits for the hero to make the first move. She is still very present in stories. However, just as popular is the confident woman who sees an opportunity and takes it.

Here, Abby acts, and sort of as a throwback to that traditional woman, she feels like she was too "forward." So, maybe she's a hybrid, after all.

I also wanted to point out the misunderstanding, a common plot device in WW stories. Very often, one of the characters makes an assumption that the other is married or otherwise spoken for and it turns out that this isn't the case. Here was a fresh take on that plot device: the heroine assumed the man was moving away when he wasn't. Well done, Kacey!

Photo credit: Wen Tong Neo (Flickr cc)