Nine Romantic Stories by Carla Sarett is not a stereotypical collection of love stories. I had specific expectations going into this book and not many of them were met. That is not to that there were no standouts among the collection though.

My preferred stories were A String Theory Valentine, Victor’s Proposal, and Stand-By. Though not without their faults, the stories were quirky, cute and interesting, which is what I believe the author was aiming for. I believe they should have been longer and gone into much more detail but those three were good, stand-alone stories that were entertaining and, in one case, bittersweet.

Others, like Lenardo’s Smile , were a confusing and it felt as though parts of the story were missing and had the romance take a backseat to the story’s plot. Mandolinata seemed senseless as none of the characters changed by the ending and nothing was learned. The story In Rittenhouse Square had a great beginning but seemed to just cut-off just when the story seemed about to take off.

As a whole, these stories don’t go into much detail about the romances, they seem to be an introduction into a larger storyline for the most part and it can be frustrating. There are also instances throughout the various stories where the characters make broad generalizations regarding gender and culture that I personally do not agree with.

Nine Romantic Stories is full of pros and cons but ultimately, this book wasn’t for me.

Reviewed by Jazmin Gousse