by Mike Gayle
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The One That Got Away by Mike Gayle is a contemporary short story with humor and light romance elements.
This ~100 page yarn suffers a bit from mismarketing. It is not really a romance short story, though I’ve been seeing it listed as such in many places, including on the ‘zon. There, at the time of writing my review, it’s a #2 best seller in Kindle Singles: Romance and Two-Hour Romance Short Reads (along with being #3 for Marriage & Divorce Fiction, which is more appropriate imo).
There are some romance elements to it, but when I think about romance stories, I expect a HEA for the couple we’re following. There is a kind of HEA for both of them, albeit separately. But not together, so I really don’t think this is a romance. It’s not really the amorphous category that is “women’s fiction” either, as the story is being told directly from a man’s (Reuben’s) point of view. So I’ll just call it contemporary for now.
I really enjoyed Gayle’s prose, and I think I’ll try other works from them. There were blurbs for this story that noted that it’s a page turner and you’ll want to read it in one sitting. I found that to be true for me as well. But I wanted a little more from the story.
I feel like I could have really loved this if it was fleshed out a bit more. Like maybe having a bit of Beth’s point of view as well. It would have been really cool to really see how she was feeling about everything.
If you’re looking for a pretty quick but good read, though, I do recommend it. I could absolutely see this becoming a movie, especially if Reuben is played by someone like Chris O’Dowd.
I received a complimentary copy of this short story via my Amazon Prime membership. All opinions contained herein are my own.
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