Title: Antique Charming
Author: Natalie-Nicole Bates
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Adult, Short Story
Publisher: Books To Go Now
Publication Date: September 24th 2011
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Third-generation funeral director Lizzie Morton is about to have her dream realized. She has purchased the long abandoned Nichols Funeral Home and its upstairs flat, determined to restore the funeral home to its once former glory. But a late night visitor, Adam Nichols, claims the funeral home still belongs to his family. Lizzie scoffs at his odd behavior and outlandish claims, but when a vintage photograph appears, she soon realizes, to her horror, that Adam Nichols did once own the funeral home more than one hundred years ago and now she has allowed this entity to pass into her home.Lizzie Morton buys the long abandoned Nichols Funeral Home, one of her life-long dreams coming true. Then one night, a man named Adam Nichols knocks on her door and claims to be the owner of the funeral home. Lizzie is skeptic at first, but after a little investigating on her own, and discovering an old picture of aforementioned Adam Nichols, she comes to a stunning conclusion…
I don’t write a lot of short story reviews. That’s mostly because I don’t tend to read short stories, and if I read them, I don’t normally end up reviewing them. Generally, my reviews tend to be long, but since this is a short story, it will probably be a lot shorter.
Let me start by saying that I enjoyed this story. For a short story specifically, the characters are strong and developed, three-dimensional, with an impressive array of emotions and feelings. Although the story is pretty simple, it did manage to grab me and it pulled me in from start to finish. I very much enjoyed Lizzie’s interactions with Adam, and her own little investigation in to what was going on. I’ve seen a lot of people rage about the length of this book – it is a short story, so if it’s only about 7 pages long, that doesn’t surprise me or annoy me at all. It is what the author meant it to be. Do I see potential in this story to be something more? Yes, of course. But the author meant it to be a short story, not a novel, and not even a novella, so I’m going to review it for what it is and now complain about what it isn’t.
I love short stories that spread out several clues but let the reader come to their own conclusion. Antique Charming does that very well. It lays down the foundations but leaves the conclusion in the middle. I thoroughly enjoyed that, and I wouldn’t mind reading more short stories by Natalie-Nicole Bates. She definitely knows how to write a short story that grabs your attention from the first page and doesn’t let you go. If you want an introduction to the author’s writing, this is it. A must-read both for paranormal romance fans and short story fans.
