Lost & Found by J. Holland

Lost & Found
by J. Holland
Pages: Unknown - short story
Publish Date: April 19 2017
Publisher: Less than Three Press
Series: None

Review
Rating: 5+
Read: March 24 2017

*I received this book from NetGalley, and Less Than Three in return for a fair review.*

I'd probably have to check my asexual shelf to be sure, but, even without doing so, I am fairly certain that this is the best asexual fiction short story that I have read. I just loved it, I did. The characters were well constructed - mostly the two mains, though there was some meat on the bones that made up the side characters, the story was solid, the descriptions were sound. Lovely story.

An overweight woman, Lorelei, finds herself bent over gasping and seriously considering that she might be dying. She isn't overweight in a 'thin woman looking in a mirror "my ass is so large"' but overweight in a woman acknowledging that she's, at least according to the BMI (Body Mass Index). She's the owner of a bakery and she's put on the pounds testing food and getting her shop up and running. Running - that's what she had been attempting to do - run.

I have, in fact, read stories that involved people dying fairly early into the story (or, it turns out, they had been in the process of dying, and the story was the rapid firing, albeit last, of neurons in the brain). But no, this is not that type of story.

She did find herself on the sand though. And as she was wiggling, her hand wacked something painfully. Driftwood. She has driftwood furniture. She likes driftwood. Eagerly she pounces on the wood and . . . wait, no, this is an actual treasure chest. Buried in the sand. She eagerly digs it up and flees with it.

Meanwhile a woman named Nerissa is rushing to her job - a job she's almost late for. She works at the library and it is a 'make work' type job. She works a few hours there - I just about said much stuff, but, I'll let others read, eh?

Nerissa, at the end of her work day, returns to her favorite beach. She's horrified to discover that her chest had been stolen. How will she return home? Her skin was in there - the one that allows her, a Selkie, to turn into a seal and swim in the ocean.

One thing leads to another and Nerissa and Lorelei encounter each other and grow close.

Lovely story.

Rating: 5+

March 24 2017