Welcome to my Sunday Book Review. I’m delighted to be sharing my review for Sally Cronin’s newest release – Life’s Rich Tapestries – Woven in words. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Sally’s writing, you’re in for a treat. For those of you who are familiar – you’re in for a treat. Sally’s versatile writing shows up in this smorgasbord of tales. Whether short stories, flash fiction or poetry, Sally can sweep us up with her words, no matter the genre, her stories always include a sentiment that will tug at your heartstrings.
Blurb:
Life’s Rich Tapestry is a collection of verse, microfiction and short stories that explore many aspects of our human nature and the wonders of the natural world. Reflections on our earliest beginnings and what is yet to come, with characters as diverse as a French speaking elephant and a cyborg warrior.
Finding the right number of syllables for a Haiku, Tanka, Etheree or Cinquain focuses the mind; as does 99 word microfiction, bringing a different level of intensity to storytelling. You will find stories about the past, the present and the future told in 17 syllables to 2,000 words, all celebrating life.
This book is also recognition of the value to a writer, of being part of a generous and inspiring blogging community, where writing challenges encourage us to explore new styles and genres.
My 5 Star Review:
Sally Cronin certainly is a master at weaving with words. No matter how many or few, her words will paint a complete story and leave us with a satisfactory optimism or a tug at our heartstrings.
In this author’s newest release of tales to inspire, we’ll find a smorgasbord of forms of writing from various forms of poetry – Haiku, Etherees and Cinquain poetry to condensed micro fiction, where stories are wrapped up complete despite a minimal word count, to short stories on speculative fiction. A wonderful mixed bag of tales covering topics such as: random thoughts, seasons, aging, nature, holidays, fairies, romance, pets, to the human condition and life lessons.
My favorite Flash Fiction story – The Witch’s Handbook Spell #356 – Removal of Inhibitions for ‘The Devilish Mojito’, and her heartwarming short stories like The Ugly Mutt that will keep you engaged as evil doers try to do harm, kept me cheering for Brian. One story in particular had me glued from beginning to end – Great Aunt Georgina. This story begins with a little girl and her family visiting her Grandma. The little girl looked forward to those visits where Grandma would pull out the old photo albums and introduce her to family of the past era. In later years, after Gran is gone the girl now in her twenties learns a never told family secret, discovered by looking through old letters sent to her Gran Elizabeth by her sister Georgina. From the letters we learn about betrayal, grief, karma, and reckoning (no spoilers), and ultimately, forgiveness.
The last half of the book is focused on the short stories. Among them, I also enjoyed the story about Onions that ended a marriage, a magical tale – A Moment of Alignment – about love, loss and a chance to meet up with a lost loved one when the sun and the moon align, and The Enhancement Project– a sci-fi short where Cronin manages to zing in her ‘known for’ sentimental ending.
Sally Cronin has the knack for bringing in emotions to her stories no matter the genre. She wraps up the book beautifully with a fashionable tribute to ‘The Duchess‘, a tribute to Cronin’s mother.
A wonderful book with something to satisfy all genre readers. I highly recommend.
You can visit all Sally’s books on Amazon
Adding a note here since I just discovered Sally has added a generous offer today on her blog FREE books!
Note from Sally:
I know that your TBR piles are in danger of collapsing with all the books that you have bought over the year but, if you would like to add a few more to the list waiting to be read then I would like to offer you one a selection of my eBooks for FREE.
Would I love some more reviews, of course, but there are no strings attached with these books, if you can drop me a line to let me know you have enjoyed at some point then I am more than happy.
There are nine Kindle (mobi) and Epub for other devices books included in the offer … all you have to do is email me on sally.cronin@moyhill.com and let me know which book and which version you need.
Visit Sally’s post and choose one of her beautiful books!
DGKayewriter.com 