The Wild Rose Press, $1.50
Fantasy Romance, 2008

I’m glad to see that Tamelia Tumlin has moved on from PublishAmerica to a more respectable publisher. Her debut with The Wild Rose Press, For Better or for Worse, is a very, very short story, which is reflected in its $1.50 cover price, but it’s also a gripping and somewhat different story that is unlike many of the werewolf stories out there.

The story can be summed up in one sentence since this is, after all, a very short story. Kate Wentworth rushes to her fiancé Colten James’s side to stop the werewolf from committing suicide. Despite all the limitations of its length, the story has plenty of interesting ideas that have me most intrigued. Kate cries a lot in this story, but I suppose I would too if I discover that I’m about to get married to a werewolf. Colten is a hero patterned after the standard tormented werewolf/vampire archetype. But these two are so sweet together as they melodramatically proclaim their love for each other.

There is something about this story that appeals to me. For a story of its length, the author has many things done right. The amount of information dropped into the story, for example, is just enough to fill in the blanks. The pacing is right – the author starts the story by dragging me right into the action and the momentum keeps going from that point onward. I also enjoy how the author has all these raw and even lurid emotions pouring from her characters.

For Better or for Worse is a quick and interesting story that offers me fifteen minutes or so of fun emotional roller coaster ride. I like this one, but I do hope that the author’s next effort will be longer than this.