by Wendel J. Potter from the January 15, 2024 issue
Tagline: When Miranda's friend invited her out to the local seafood restaurant, she never imagined she'd end up catching feelings for a new man.
Observations: I liked this story. I like the meta aspect of the heroine being a budding romance author, even if I wondered if Miranda had a day-job, because graduating from college to be a romance novel writer is ambitious and risky. I identified strongly with her writer's block and the fact that she has a writer buddy to help her through the tough times. Also, Shrimp Boat Charlie's sounds like the kind of restaurant I want to go to.
However, other than Naomi saying at the beginning that she might be able to help Miranda figure out what the perfect man looks like, it wasn't crystal clear that this was matchmaker story. Miranda might have wondered if her friend Naomi might be interested in Charlie for herself, but she didn't. This is a very nit-picky point but I would like to have seen some other clue that Naomi meant for Charlie and Miranda to meet. Maybe Naomi could "suddenly remember" she had somewhere else to be. Or maybe Naomi could have been engaged.
Another small point--it's my nature to focus on the tiny details--Charlie would most likely not refer to his son's teacher by her first name.
But otherwise, great story!
Photo by Yoppy via Flickr CC License
3 comments:
I liked the story. I agree with you, Kate, that it wasn't clear if Naomi had planned on the two of them meeting. (Did she plan on him spilling the wine on her?) But I didn't find it strange he would call his son's teacher by her first name. It appears to me that they had somehow become friends.
Ah, the wine, yes. Good point.
Those things mentioned didn't bother me because in a WW story I always think 'small town.' So I figure everyone knows everyone...Mostly.
I loved that she was a romance writer. Since she'd been out of college for 'a while?' (Implied) I just assumed she had another job. Maybe it's due to these stories being such a low word count or that I've read so many. 52 times 34 or 35 years is a lot of short romances. I tend to fill in blanks.
Anyway, it was a wonderful story...well written.
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