Title: "Love Struck"
Author: Melissa Marr
Publisher:HarperCollins
Price: $1.99 for Kindle
"Love Struck" by Melissa Marr is a short story that was first seen in the anthology, "Love is Hell" (published in 2008). The short story was recently released as a Kindle Single.
A Kindle Single simply refers to a story—sometimes a novel, sometimes not—that is released for the Kindle (or Kindle apps, if that is how you read Kindle books) for a price between $1.99 and $3.99. "Love Struck" was released as a Kindle Single on July 12, 2011 and, immediately, fans of the anthology took notice.
The story starts with the internal thoughts of the protagonist, Alana, who is at a party that she determines is lame, despite its setting at the beach. Within the first page, readers are introduced to an interesting character that Alana refers to as Dreadlocks. Dreadlocks offers her what she initially thinks is a leather coat – which is quite out of place at a beach party – and Alana attempts to ignore him. She declines the coat and he moves so that she has to look at him, while mentioning a character named Murrin. Alana is spooked by Dreadlocks' sudden fondness and attachment to her (and confused as they had never met) and threatens him with pepper spray, at which point, Dreadlocks issues a warning that "it'll be worse if he finds you." Alana does not know how to respond to a comment that does not make any sort of sense to her. So, she shrugs it off and holds the pepper spray up in an attempt to scare him off. He begins to walk away, and as he does so, he turns back and sighs, saying "I'll be back after he breaks you."
After this encounter, Alana is still confused by Dreadlocks and goes to the place which calms her and makes her feel the most at peace—the exposed reef. She looks out into the ocean and sees a man who she thinks at first is Dreadlocks standing in the frigid water, but she quickly realizes it's not him. The man invites her out into the water, at which point, she cuts her bare foot on the edge of a mussel shell and backs onto the shore. Walking away from him, she reaches the shore and sees what appears to be a dark leather coat, darker than the coat Dreadlocks had offered her. Angry at the repeated intrusion into her life, she steps on the coat with her bloody foot and grinds the sand and blood into it. She realizes it is not leather, rather a pelt.
"Love Struck" is a riveting urban fantasy romance story, very much akin to Melissa Marr's normal writing. There are twists and turns in the story, and no one is who they claim to be. "Love Struck" leaves the reader yearning for more. This story is not the average romance story and depicts a desire for someone who those who desire her cannot have.
Melissa Marr is also the author of the faerie novel series "Wicked Lovely".
