A review by colleenlovestoread
All Is Bright by Sarah Pekkanen

5.0

I am usually not a huge fan of short stories but when I recently got a Kindle Fire and saw how many great authors have short stories to inexpensively download I thought I should give a few a try. When Sarah Pekkanen announced on Facebook that she would be giving away her new short story, Love, Accidentally, to her fans as a Thank You I was really excited. Since All Is Bright is a prequel of sorts to Love, Accidentally I thought I would go ahead and buy it and read it first. I am SO glad I did!

This short story is so touching. It is a twist on a typical love story, with our heroine, Elise, still in love after her long term relationship comes to an end. She isn't still in love with her ex boyfriend, Griffin. No, she is in love with his mother, Janice, who has always been a comforting influence and a surrogate mother to her since Elise's mother died when she was young. Now that Griffin and her or no longer together, and now that he is moving on without her, how will she still fit into Janice's life? How can she stand to see another woman someday become the "daughter" to Janice?

I am amazed at how much heart can be put in such a short amount of pages. We get the heartache of Elise, relatively alone and trying to find her new place in the shifting world around her. We get Elise's Nana and the other "Seven Widows of Windham" which give a wonderful humor to the goings on in Elisa's life. And we get a touching conclusion that lets us know that Janice will always be in Elise's life, no matter what.

I am excited to find out that Love, Accidentally continues the story from a new perspective. I will be reading that in the next few days since I am dying to read what happens next!