Horrified Valentine's Day

Backstory:

Daniel Hill was a jumble of knots on Valentine's Day as he was going to be meeting his girlfriend's Julia's parents for the first time and he wanted to make a good impression, but when he hit a woman pedestrian in the street with his car, the whole night went to hell in a handbasket quickly especially when he offered to take her home to let her get cleaned up and Julia shows up unannounced!

That is about all I can give on a backstory as this story is very short - around 25 pages but it packs a punch at the end of the book!

Thoughts:

This was my first time reading this author though I have owned some of his books for awhile, but I am just now stepping into them. The pacing was fast, but the story just seemed to be rushed and it was kind of over before it started.

The story was really good, but I wish it had been a longer to get more of a feel for the characters. I would have liked to know more about the character Daniel and his girlfriend, Julia, but the story opens up with Daniel driving and there is just no detail on his character as things escalate through the short story all the way to the end of the book. I have a few more books by this author, so I will be stepping into more of his work in the future. Giving this one three "Vindictive Valentine Woes" stars! ( )

This short story was entertaining to read. As you can guess, it is horror. The tension mounted quite quickly from the opening lines of the story and continued to mount until the twist at the end. I don't want to give away too much so I'm being purposely vague. I enjoyed the fast-paced nature until I reached the end. Then it began to feel rushed. I felt like the ending needed to be shown more than explained. By having one character tell the other what was happening and why, it took away some of the suspense and tension. Because of this, I had a less cathartic reaction to the drama and an even less empathetic reaction to the characters. ( )