Book 57 of 2013: The Perfect Treat by various authors

After my long slow trek through Louisa M. Alcott's Little Women I knew I needed something light-hearted and fluffy to lift my spirits.

This was around the time that I started getting ridiculously excited for Christmas and so went on an epic downloading spree for free Kindle books featuring some kind of Christmas content. One of these was The Perfect Treat; a short story collection comprising of five stories by Claudia Carroll, Julia Williams, Liz Trenow, Miranda Dickinson and Mhairi McFarlane. The stories were all either little shorts or sample chapters from larger works.

It was a lovely quick little read. I started it on the 11th of November and finished it the following day. After the long time I'd spent on Little Women it was good to have something I could pick up, read and get through relatively quickly.

Most of the stories had a hint of Christmas in them but it wasn't really too big so it was perfect for the time of year I was reading it. One of the stories was set at New Year's Eve and I think one didn't actually mention the season anywhere at all.

The stories were all pretty much the right length. You got some sort of conclusion even if it wasn't completely perfect. The only one which I felt could have been a bit longer was the New Year one which was a bit like a take on It's A Wonderful Life. It covered a lot of ground in a very short space of time but it could've benefitted from slowing down and taking more time to tell what was essentially quite a complicated story.

I think I may look out for more stories by these authors in the future next time I'm looking for something a wee bit fluffy. They definitely helped me to get back on track with my reading after feeling so swamped by my course's required reading!