Marry in Haste by Debbie Young is a lively selection of short stories around marriage, love and relationships in general. They are arranged in three sections, Seeking, Committing and Enduring.
And here I have to come clean: I don’t usually much enjoy short stories. And yet, I read Marry in Haste in two evenings flat.
I enjoyed the first part, Seeking, most, but then as a romance fiction writer, I guess this is the part of the relationship which I find the most exciting. There’s a short tale of a woman who finds love in a lunch queue, and an amusing story about two very different friends, Joanna and Clare, and their conversation about men.
Joanna, more of a cat person, never took much notice of Clare’s dog. She secretly regarded George as a poor substitute for the ideal man that Clare had yet to find. Joanna was never short of men.
The second part, Committing, has a hilarious story about a couple whose conversation about wedding lists takes a surprising turn. This section ends with ‘An Appetite for Marriage’, which recounts the effect different tastes in food can have on a relationship.
The third and last part of the book is called Enduring, with five stories on the more mature relationships. Out of this final collection one story stood out for me. ‘The New Coat’ features a man buying a new hiking jacket for his wife. It’s a clever juxtaposition of the attitudes of the young versus the old, and of modern political correctness.
And it is Debbie Young’s cleverness as an author and storyteller that shines through in this collection, which I highly recommend. Debbie Young may have changed my attitude to short stories for ever.
Marry in Haste is available on Amazon, click here for more information on the book, and here for more about the author, Debbie Young.
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