The writing in this was okay. I didn't notice particular mistakes, but I didn't find it particularly inspiring. I feel that the quotations from reviews/authors on the back and the cover line "Twelve unforgettable portraits of heartbreak and desire" mostly reflect the author's own view of her work.
I felt that this book read like it was written by a sorority girl who had read some Hemingway and watched some episodes of "Thirtysomething." So, that's not going to set me on fire. And I was annoyed that the story "Mongoose" started with a reference to the protagonist's "indomitable" father, which strikes me as a basically a misuse or a misunderstanding of the word "indomitable." He's "indomitable" and he summons people--therefore he's "domineering"? And then he's described as a patient with prostate cancer spreading to his brain. So I think all that's meant by "indomitable" is "dying," as in "dying but not yet dead." It's pretty clumsy. Maybe he is indomitable, but in the context of the first paragraph of the story the father doesn't sound particularly praiseworthy, and "indomitable" is pretty much only used in a context of praise and admiration.
I felt that this book read like it was written by a sorority girl who had read some Hemingway and watched some episodes of "Thirtysomething." So, that's not going to set me on fire. And I was annoyed that the story "Mongoose" started with a reference to the protagonist's "indomitable" father, which strikes me as a basically a misuse or a misunderstanding of the word "indomitable." He's "indomitable" and he summons people--therefore he's "domineering"? And then he's described as a patient with prostate cancer spreading to his brain. So I think all that's meant by "indomitable" is "dying," as in "dying but not yet dead." It's pretty clumsy. Maybe he is indomitable, but in the context of the first paragraph of the story the father doesn't sound particularly praiseworthy, and "indomitable" is pretty much only used in a context of praise and admiration.