Second Chance at Love

by Tina Radcliffe from the March 31, 2014 issue

Tagline: Who knew a worried mother's rush to the emergency room would lead to romance? (Um, I did. LOL)

In a Nutshell: When Emily's daughter visits the emergency room with a "superficial laceration," Emily notices the handsome doctor. An affinity for beagles is agreed upon, then lo and behold, they meet again at the dog park.

Stream of Consciousness Observations: Risky business to have the daughter be born after the dad died, but Radcliffe managed it without turning off the editors or getting too sappy in describing the situation.

I like Maggie. She's spunky. Radcliffe does great job of showing us Maggie's personality quickly. (This is just another adventure to Maggie. And Most children are afraid of doctors and nurses. Not Maggie. Sitting on the exam table, she holds the compress with one hand while she inspects the room.)

Funny guy: "Which one of you young ladies is seven-year-old Maggie?"

"Tetanus shot up to date?" - This says authentic doctor's office visit so much to me! They engage the child and still talk to the parent about the necessities.

Oooh! An unwitting child matchmaker. We see a lot of matchmakers, but most of the time they're working their magic purposefully. Maggie doesn't even know she's doing it which makes her so cute.

Love this line. So symbolic of her situation and poetic at the same time: I feel a hopeful expectation I haven't felt in a very long time. It's sort of like being gently roused from sleep.

Hm. I wasn't crazy about Emily's behavior at the end. I didn't like how obvious she was in her question, "Do you and your wife take Henry here often?" And then, "Are you and Henry ready of this, Steven?" Seemed just as forward. If I were Henry, I'd be like, "Ready for what?" I half expect Emily to take his hand.  Otherwise, cute story.

Photo credit: Cmee2 via Wikimedia Commons

"There's Something About Elaine"

by Mary Jo Young from the March 26, 2012 issue

Tagline: Elaine had a nice life, but it wasn't exactly a fun life. Until some steps outside her comfort zone set her on the road to romance...

In a Nutshell: Almost Amish "plain", Elaine comes out of her shell and gets a tattoo at the urging of her friends. After that, everyone at the hospital where she works notices something is different, but they can't figure out what it is, especially Ed, chief surgeon. It takes him a while, but he eventually asks her out and realizes what's been right under his nose all the time.

Observations: Wow! I never would have guessed that Woman's World would "approve" of getting a tattoo (or red lingerie for that matter!), and yet, look at the message in this story: sometimes you have to heave yourself out of your comfort zone in order to evoke positive change. That's a Woman's World attitude if ever I saw one. Do-it-yourself happiness.

There are several things I admired in this story.

1. We actually see Elaine's transformation both inside and outside.
2. I liked Elaine's unwillingness to explain what caused the difference in her stride and attitude. No need to broadcast it to the world.
3. Elaine flirted with Ed, but didn't cross the line into game-playing.
4. The story covered so much ground, so many days. Amazingly hard to do in 800 words.

All in all, terrific story.

Also, I think that even though the demographic indicates older readers, even we middle aged women, perhaps even especially we middle aged women want to be literally attractive and attract male attention and in this story Elaine did it from within. Wow. Another powerful message. "It's what's inside that counts," is a theme that could be applied to more stories than this one. 

Fairy-tale Beginning

by M.L. Hickerson from the October 26, 2009 issue.

Tagline: The last person Jim expected to meet in the park was a real-life Show White!

In a nutshell: Jim is dressed as a prince for the Halloween party in the children's ward at the hospital where he works as a doctor. His car breaks down near the hospital and he's forced to walk the rest of the way across the park. On the way, he surprises a woman dressed as Snow White. When she hits her head after falling, he convinces her to come to the hospital with him. Her daycare class (the seven dwarves) join the hospital party and Jim and "Snow" make a date to see each other again.

Observations: Making the Snow White story come to life is an adorable idea for a story, but challenging. Jim has to dress as a prince because there were no other costumes left. Check. I buy that. I can believe that he has to trek into the woods of the park to get to the hospital. I can even believe he happens upon Snow White in the park, with her dwarf-like charges. However, my imagination was stretched a tad too far when I saw her name was Miss White. I'll admit to rolling my eyes a little there. Otherwise, I thought this story was very cute.

Woman's World Stand-bys: Car trouble

My Favorite Part: I laughed when I read, "...so he locked his car and took off into the woods." Oh, brother, that cracked me up. It was that classic, "What NOW?" moment for poor dressed-in-a-puffy-shirt Jim.

Just the Right Fit

Author: Patrice Howell

Issue: February 16, 2009

Tagline: Lizzie was attracted to Michael, and Michael was attracted to Lizzie. They just needed a little push...

In A Nutshell: Lizzie has a wedding to go to and needs a second opinion on a dress she's trying on. As she emerges from the dressing room in search of the saleswoman, she meets an admiring man (a doctor, no less!) His mother easily manipulates the situation so that Lizzy and Dr. Right go to that wedding together.

Teaching Points: Lizzie is all of us, unsure about how attractive we are in the hell that is the department store dressing room, which helps the reader identify with her right off the bat.

Loveable heroes are a must, and Michael is a man we'd love to meet. Quick-witted ("I would've noticed you.") Humorous ("I can give you [a second opinion]," the man said. "I'm a doctor.") A good wage-earner (see above). And he treats his momma right (even if it's his medical obligation. LOL)

This plot moves along, showing the characters making a connection via the jokes, his obvious interest in her, the deft establishment of Lizzie's bachelorette status. Then, when the two potential lovebirds might have taken much longer to get around to a first date, Matchmaking Momma hustles them along.

As often happens, you see a Woman's World Happily Ever After in the form of a first date. So many of the features in Woman's World aim to uplift and their romantic fiction is no different. After every story, you want the reader to be content in the knowledge that the hero and heroine of the story have a bright future.

Woman's World prefers more middle-class characters, but once in a while a professional will sneak in, like this story's orthopedist. So, don't completely ban lawyers, and the like from your stories.

WW Standbys: a matchmaking relative, a wedding