More Thorns Than Roses

More Thorns Than Roses is a remarkable collection of short stories from H. A. Howe.

It's an interesting collection of disparate ideas and themes.

It's light and frothy, yet it is also tart and salty. It's as if someone has made a really rather splendidly fluffy meringue and replaced half of the caster sugar with some crunchy pink Himalayan salt.

There are tales of love, of betrayal, of fears, real and imagined and tragedic events of the kind that make people shake their heads and say: "We should have seen that coming" but, somehow, nobody ever does.

There's guilt, sometimes where there should be none, and an absence of guilt where guilt should be a crushing remorse.

There are cruelties upon cruelties and acts of stupidity, thoughtlessness and of fecklessness.

Yet there are also moments of great tenderness, of love, and of sacrifice and of hope. And of situations that are beyond all realistic hope. And, finally, of light.

This book is published in paperback by Victory and it is her second collection of short stories.

It is available through the That's Books and Entertainment book shop, which is to be found on the right hand side of this book review.