Etiquette for the End of the World by Jeanne Martinet

Etiquette for the End of the World (2012)
Jeanne Martinet
Grade: A
Genre: funny / contemporary / chick lit
Sex scenes: mild
Source: NetGalley

Tess Eliot is 39-years old and has just lost her column in a respected newspaper. Apparently, her recent Tess Knows Best article, with the line “The best way to a man’s heart is through his rib cage, preferably with a hack saw” went too far. Unemployed, with her agent no longer sending out her book proposal for Tess Eliot’s Quick Fixes for Life, Love, and Your Mother-in-Law, Tess is desperate for work.

She stumbles across the World Organisation for Omniscient Solstice Harbingers who are offering an inordinate sum for someone to write an etiquette guide in preparation for the end of the world. A visit to the offices of WOOSH reveals that they really do believe that the world will end on December 21 2012, as the Ancient Mayans had predicted, and they really are serious about paying Tess that much money for effectively a how-to guide. She may think they all need their heads checked out, but these are dire circumstances.

Seven Day Loan by Tiffany Reisz

Seven Day Loan (2010) (short story)

Tiffany Reisz

Grade: A-

Genre: erotica/contemporary

Sex scenes: scorching

Source: NetGalley
The Original Sinners (The Red Years): (prequel) Seven Day Loan (1) The Siren, (2) The Angel, (3) The Prince, (4) The Mistress

Ms Reisz gives a new meaning to the term ‘short story’. I’d wanted to read Seven Day Loan before The Siren after it was recommended Heroes and Heartbreakers, but it was only available in e-book form and shock-horror in this digital age, I don’t have an e-reader. Thus, imagine my elation when I saw that it was available on NetGalley and then I received confirmation the next day saying that it was ready for download. As mentioned in my review, The Siren is a substantial work: nearly four-hundred pages long. In my head, I equate the term short story with novella; I generally don’t like either because I feel that the authors cannot do the story and characters justice in such a limited arena. Ms Reisz managed to prove me wrong in just twenty-five pages. Yes, that’s right: Seven Day Loan is a mere twenty-five pages long. This is the sort of length that I’d expect my five-year-old cousin to be reading – though clearly of a genre more suited to his age group.