Assorted Flavours: A Collection of Lesbian Short Stories

by Lois Cloarec Hart

Whether you're thirteen or thirty, or past the age when a lady likes to tell, it's an enduring pleasure to enter an ice cream shop and contemplate what to select from the variety of flavours. Some may... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0975436627
• ISBN13: 9780975436622
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: P.D. Publishing, Inc.
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Variety

Lois Cloarec Hart's Assorted Flavours: A Collection of Lesbian Short Stories is a delightful and engaging read that illustrates the author's talent and range.The ten stories are well written with enough variety for any reader who enjoys terrific fiction. The fairy tale, Rude, gives us a woman with special powers who goes a little too far with them and it backfires. The story recognizes that what one person may deem a good cause, another may not. It is truly a fairy tale with a moral, but is never preachy. Grandmother's Cup is a touching story of how a mother and daughter's love for each other can overcome prejudice. It is a coming out story that brings together rejection, cruelty and finally acceptance and love. Hart, in just a few pages, makes this turnaround believable. Walking After Midnight includes ghosts and spirits with a setting in a cemetery that creates an eerie effect. This story has a few pleasant surprises that keep the reader totally involved. The final story, Lion and Lamb, is exceptional, inventive, has a sensual erotic ending, and is my personal favorite. Jac and Vic, two best friends, make a bet that within a month Jac can bed Vic's co-worker Christi, who is engaged to be married. The story takes some turns along the way. Jac wants out of the bet, but Vic won't let her. Hart develops convincing characters and a credible plot quickly in Lion and Lamb to hold our attention until the final pages, which is no small feat. Any one of these stories could be expanded into a novel. Hart gives the reader a delicious taste of her genius for telling charming stories. Each one reveals a love story wrapped with a different setting, time or plot. I highly recommend Assorted Flavours for anyone who takes pleasure in reading wonderful fiction.

Truly delightful collection of stories

A wonderful writer - and this is an excellent collection of stories, some short and others much longer but all of them were wonderful to read. You will read '9 minutes' and than read it again and again just to make sure you didn't miss a word. I loved 'Lost and Found', I've read that a couple times too. 'The Lion and the Lamb' was a super story and the ending came as a nice surprise. I can't wait for more books from this super author. 'Postscript' and 'Thursday's Child' were wonderful and heartwarming. Keep them both to read for a rainy day! from the publisher's web site - Whether you're thirteen or thirty, or past the age when a lady likes to tell, it's an enduring pleasure to enter an ice cream shop and contemplate what to select from the variety of flavours. Some may stick to their tried and true preference; some may pick and choose among established favourites; and some may dare to taste a strange new offering. (Licorice pistachio, anyone?) Whatever a patron's choice, odds are they'll leave the shop with a smile on their face and a satisfied palate. Assorted Flavours offers up a similarly diverse bill of fare, with stories that range from the whimsical "Flea" and the poignant "Grandmother's Cup," to the suspenseful "Nine Minutes" and bittersweet "Lost and Found." Love is the silken thread woven through all these stories, as one woman picks up the pieces of a shattered heart, another gets her comeuppance after an ill-advised wager, and yet another risks all in an uncertain future where a nation's only hope resides in the courage and tenacity of a few. What would you do if you suddenly had an immense and inexplicable power to change the world? Or if you encountered a friendly vampire with a distinct family resemblance and a penchant for matchmaking? Enter the world of Assorted Flavours, and encounter a rich assortment of characters thrown into circumstances where love is often the only lifeline. Make your selection, and savour your choice. Whatever your flavour, satisfaction is assured.

Brilliant!

What a thoroughly delightful collection of short stories by a talented writer.This book contains a wee bit of something for everyone. "Grandmother's Tea Cup" is a piece that was included in the Lammy Short-listed anthology "The Milk of Human Kindness". The futuristic "Tenebrae" seems almost foreshadowing and the touching "Lost and Found", a story of elder lesbian love, will melt your heart.All the stories are wonderful and carefully crafted by this clearly gifted authors

Midwest Book Review, June 2005 Issue

Author Lois Hart, who has two novels under her belt (COMING HOME and BROKEN FAITH), has tried her hand at a collection of short stories and obtained terrific results. Love and relationships, conflict and oddities abound in this well-written collection of thoughtful and interesting pieces. With a keen eye toward human nature, Hart's new story collection paints a rich and colorful picture of life on the margins. Two of my favorites are about an angry lesbian daughter in conflict with her mother in "Grandmother's Cup" and a frightening and realization-filled flight from Halifax to Toronto in "Nine Minutes." The book ends with a lovely novella, "The Lion and the Lamb." Because Hart is an old-fashioned storyteller of the very highest order, each offering is solid and engrossing, relying more upon character development, careful plotting, and seamless writing than on stylistic flash. She writes lovely sentences and scenes, at times elegant, at times whimsical or witty, all of which affect the reader in surprising and delightful ways and often with unexpected consequences. The power of most of these ten stories is cumulative. By the time you arrive at the middle of the volume, you will already be regretting that there is an end in sight. Each of these stories is dazzling and inventive, with the underlying promise of something utterly unexpected waiting just up ahead. Don't miss this short story collection. It's one of the best of 2005. ~Lori L. Lake, Midwest Book Review and author of Stepping Out: Short Stories