Review: How Much the Heart Can Hold: Seven Stories on Love

How Much the Heart Can Hold: Seven Stories on Love by Carys Bray
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

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Despite reading 5 of the stories contained within this 7 story collection, I was unfortunately unable to finish and put the book aside.

Now I would like to say from the outset that if from the title you are expecting romantic stories this is not the case, the premise behind this book is that each of the seven stories are written around the Greek terms for different forms of love.

I however, did go in with my eye's open but was disappointed to find two dimensional characters, un-relatable and selfish characters and a female character with pretty much no self respect.

There are two stories I enjoyed, the first was relating to the love one has for oneself, this felt extremely of the moment on a valid and relatable subject. The characters were emotive and I was invested in the story they were telling.

The shining light however, in this collection, from those that I read was that of Carys Bray. As a first exposure to her writing I was delighted and completely immersed in her story telling style. The pace flowed with an absorbing grace that took you into the situation her characters were feeling and wrapped around you like a welcoming blanket.

Due to this story alone I will be pursuing purchasing all of Carys Bray's works but unfortunately this group of stories was not to my taste, but I would never take one persons word for it.

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