Why I read it: This book of “novelettes” contains offerings by some of my favourite authors and proceeds go to a worthy cause. Which is a bonus but not why I bought it. (Does that make me a bad person?)

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) What happens when love gets caught in the rain?

In this romance anthology, RITA-Award winning author Molly O’Keefe shows us the power of a city thunderstorm from the top of a skyscraper, while Amy Jo Cousins soaks us in a rain in Spain. New York Times bestselling author Ruthie Knox’s heroine is devastated by a winter storm, while a summer thunderstorm grants Alexandra Haughton’s hero and heroine a second chance at love. Rain sparks self-awareness in the robot in Charlotte Stein’s story and allows Mary Ann Rivers’s heroine to fall in love with her hero and her own art. Rain causes romance between the college students in Audra North’s and Shari Slade’s stories, while romance causes rain in Cecilia Tan’s myth-inspired tale of a sacrifice to a demi-god. Nine romance novelettes, edited by Sarah Frantz.

All proceeds from the volume will be donated to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (www.rainn.org), the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the United States.

Note: Some of the stories deal with issues of abuse, sexual and otherwise and/or violence. Some readers might find them triggering to read/read about.

Redemption by Ruthie Knox: There is a “Dear Reader” letter in the front of each of the novelettes. Ms. Knox says Redemption is a sad story. And it is. Both Jessie and Mike are sad. They’ve been beaten down by life and are just about at the end of their respective ropes. Unfortunately and partly because the story is short, I found the characterisation, especially in relation to Mike to be a little thin and I didn’t see what attracted him to her and from her side of things, what made him someone more than she wanted to have sex with. Because for a year, they didn’t talk and he didn’t smile and they didn’t share anything important apart from some good sex and in the end, I didn’t buy the commitment because I didn’t see enough of those things within the story itself. The writing has a kind of haunting melancholy quality to it and there were parts which we quite lovely. Short stories often work better for me when they are about people who already know each other. But this story seemed to take pains to tell me they didn’t know each other that well really so I was left a little unconvinced.

The Heart Of It by Molly O’Keefe: Gabe Peterson is a children’s book author who was sexually abused as a child. His parents were very supportive and he had counselling at the time but he still has deep scars. He has been unable to have sex except for when he’s very drunk and he’s trying to put and end to that. He seeks help from Elena, a high class call girl. They both have their individual pain and Elena finds that his calls to hers. Their connection is beyond the transactional but it is a long time in between their business arrangement and a hopeful ending. There were some lovely characterisations but again, I think the shortness of the word count meant I didn’t see all I would have wanted to. I could happily have read a longer story about these two people.

Sacrifice by Cecilia Tan: The man is a demi-god and the woman is a beautiful virgin sold into slavery by her father and produced, eventually, to the man as a sacrifice for rain and bounteous crops. The man has come to regret the bargain he made with the people all those years ago. The first sacrifice was willing (or so it appeared) but there was an unhappy end, the next, in his efforts to not repeat the mistake he made with the first, had an even worse one. He does not want to be like his god-father. He’s an interesting ‘romance hero’ because he has clearly done Bad Things but he also clearly has sincerely regretted those bad things and does not wish to repeat them – is in fact, determined not to do so. He treats her kindly and perhaps he would even allow her to leave if she wished. But with no money, no clothes and no friends, where could she safely go? I would have liked that question to be explored a little more. She chose him but there was a dearth of choices and what does that do to “choice”?

The couple have no common language and so they observe and communicate via gesture. I thought it was a very interesting story and I liked it quite a bit. It had an organic ending – there was a fairy-tale quality to it but again, I could have wished for a little more – because really, the concept was fascinating and it was ripe for a more detailed exploration of some of the themes.

Real Feelings by Charlotte Stein: I decided to review this one separately because I had so many thoughts about it. ~~Watch this space.~~

Rainy Season by Mary Ann Rivers: This story was also kind of sad. Lisa is an artist working as a barista in a coffee shop. She has a psychic “gift”. She can see what people need in little pictures around their heads (it sounds better in the story). She likes to give people what they need. Whether it is encouragement, or permission to have a fattening drink or to have someone else make a decision for them. No-one appears to be seeing to her needs however. There is a man who comes to the coffee shop and he his pictures reveal happiness and contentment – no needs. He’s not broken or missing something. And he sees her. The prose was gorgeous and even though there was a bit of maths (oh the horror) in the chapters, it was quite lovely. Again, too short though. I wanted more of Mark and Lisa. Some things were hinted at and perhaps those readers who are better at subtlety than I am will understand it but those parts were too vague for my brain to fathom. I wanted to now more about Mark. It was a first person story about Lisa and even when she was with Mark, the focus of the emotional interaction was very much her. Heroine-centric readers may react better to this. As it was, I liked the story very much, but was again left wanting more.

The Rain in Spain by Amy Jo Cousins: Magda and Javi are having a honeymoon of sorts in Spain. They had a whirlwind courtship and Magda (from whose perspective the story is told) is convinced Javi is suffering from buyer’s remorse. They are very different and it seems those differences are destined to pull them apart. The short only spans one night and it was difficult to get a full picture of Javi but I think I got enough to be hopeful about their future, even though I would still have liked to know some of the plan for how it’s going to be. Again, the story has a melancholy tone which seems to be a feature of the anthology. I liked this one – that it began with an established couple is always a plus for me in a shorter story. I am happy to infer love and connection with an already established couple but with a new pairing it’s a much harder sell. I also liked the setting (Seville). It didn’t overwhelm the piece but provided a somewhat unique backdrop and gave the story an extra flavour.

Fitting In by Audra North: Stas is a guy raised by two dads and he has long felt a stigma associated with it. When he left for college, he distanced himself from his parents and pretended his dad and his papa were one and the same – so he could fit in. In fact, he’s made such an effort to fit in, to not be subject of teasing, sly remarks and gossip, he’s kind of lost himself. Leila is a woman who had an abortion and for reasons which weren’t clear to me (to be fair, I don’t think they were clear to Leila either), it became public knowledge but presented with malice so her actions were viewed as extra heinous. She’s comfortable with her decision but also can’t help but be aware it’s caused her to be ostracised from most of her peers. Stas takes a while to realise his hypocrisy. While being so desperate to fit in himself, he buys into the same awful sideways glances, slurs and gossip which plagued him in high school. When they have an opportunity to spend some time together, Stas rediscovers himself and becomes aware of his own attraction to Leila.

The beginning themes are not dissimilar to those in Eleanor + Park (I think the Rowell book did it better) only aged up. In some respects, I was surprised that Leila and Stas were not still in high school but perhaps I have just distanced myself so much from that kind of dynamic that I’ve forgotten that 21 year olds can be horrible too. The theme of shame felt heavy handed to me. I had a much better idea of where Stas was coming from than I did Leila. She was the one who talked about shame very openly and I admit I didn’t always understand her way of thinking – that is, I felt some of her words were more about pushing the theme rather feeling naturally explained in the text. There don’t seem to be that many romances where the heroine has even considered an abortion (at least in a non-pejorative way), let alone had one so definite kudos for writing a heroine who not only has terminated a pregnancy but one who is comfortable with her choice and not angsting about it.

Private Study by Shari Slade: This was a confronting story in some ways. Tess Bell has been “protected” by her father her whole life – access to the internet and information seriously restricted. When she goes to college, she discovers a freedom she hadn’t known and, as someone who likes to know the why of things and how things work, she starts a Vlog about sex. She’s not sorry even though it leads to some skeevy emails from slimeballs and some skeevy confrontation from a guy in her ECON class. Jameson is also in her class. He’s a nice guy but Tess doesn’t want him to be her white knight either. I really liked how patient Jameson was with Tess but at the same time, he confronted her too.

“Would you stop judging me before I’ve had a chance to say anything that deserves to be judged? You don’t know what I’m thinking.”

Prickly Tess didn’t make it easy for me to like her but I liked that Jameson did and I liked his kind of apology. This is very much the beginning of Tess and Jameson and, while I would have been happy enough to read more about them, this story felt like the right length with the right amount of detail. Tess and I are almost nothing alike but it was kind of fascinating to read about someone so very different to me and I like the idea of happy endings (or, in this case, happy beginnings) without there being a strict conformity to some kind of “criteria of the deserving”.

Storm Warning by Alexandra Haughton: I enjoyed this story, about Amy Collier, who moves back to her small Texas hometown with her metaphorical tail between her legs, deeply in debt and feeling like a failure. Tom Wilson was her best friend growing up but just after college graduation they had a falling out. Tom objected to Amy leaving for the bright lights and big city of LA to be an assistant to a bigwig event planner. When Amy returns home to the old farmhouse which her parents no longer live in, Tom rides up on his horse (literally) and in between helping her unpack the car and riding out a potentially nasty storm, they discover that there is a still-burning attraction. They do talk and sort some things out about their past but what was missing for me was any clear sense of what Amy was going to do now. Tom is a vet and is very settled where he is. Amy has no clear plan for the future beyond taking odd jobs to get out of debt and then re-think her goals. Perhaps I was reading in too much, but I wondered if Amy’s plans (when she had some) would be subsumed by Tom’s settled life, and/or whether she’d fall into whatever kept her around Tom but which would not necessarily make her happy from a career perspective. While happy ever after is all well and good, for me, a sense of the heroine’s satisfaction in other areas of her life is an important part of it. This novelette was very much only the beginning though. It ends on a hopeful HFN rather than a HEA (which was entirely fitting for its length). I did get a clear sense of the connection and bond between Tom and Amy – once again, I’d have been happy to read more. The style was very engaging and I liked both characters.

Overall: Perhaps I am a greedy reader but almost all of the stories in this anthology suffered from being a bit too short for me. I wanted a little bit more for them to be truly satisfying, or to clarify/bed down certain issues which were left a little unclear. (Recall: I’m not a fan of ambiguity.) Other readers no doubt will be happy to set their imaginations to work to fill in those spaces but that’s not generally the kind of reader I am. That said, there was beauty, emotion, connection and innovation in the anthology and it was certainly worth my money. While I could have wished for perhaps one less story and each of the remaining tales having a few extra pages, I can’t really say which one I would have left out. It was also a nice way to try some authors who are new to me and there are now more on my radar – which both makes me happy and terrifies my TBR.