Written by: Nell Iris

Short Story / 11 pages

Some stories are short stories. This is definitely in the “flash fiction” category. More than that, this is even higher on the confusion scale because the title clearly states “9 Willow Street – Book 1”. However, when you start the story, it is CLEARLY a sequel. You have to do some digging to realize that the book title is WRONG and that this is actually a flash fiction short sequel to an existing short story which costs $1.99 to read.

I’m not sure I would call this a romance. It’s a moment in time that a happy couple share. If anything, it’s probably properly in the paranormal literature section. It’s about a couple and a young rabbit-shifter they are fond of. I’m all for flash fiction. I love flash fiction. But again, this is labelled as a BOOK 1 and it isn’t. That responsibility falls wholly on the author.

The story has a variety of grammatical errors in it. A simple pass in Word or Grammarly would have highlighted them. I’m not sure why a modern author would skip that quick, free step. Even more strangely, this seems to be published by an actual publishing company. How would they have let it through their editing process in this state?

Also, there is an enormous info-dump barely a page into the story. Content like this should be woven organically into a situation so it feels as if we are learning it as part of the ongoing plot. Instead it’s as if we see a rabbit shifter and then decide to sit there reading the Wikipedia page about it. It just doesn’t provide a smooth reading experience.

I like the overall environment and the premise. The author has some interesting ideas to present. Really, it’s the failing of the publishing house for allowing this to go live claiming it was a BOOK 1 – and also for allowing it to go live with the editing and grammatical issues that easily could have been fixed.

Rating: 2/5 stars.

Book cover images are copyright to the original author. They are used in this review as a fair use usage.