Blog Tour: Review of Kissing Lying Down by Kate Tough @lovebookstours

Today is my stop on the tour for Kissing Lying Down by Kate Tough. I have a review of this short story collection for you today and if you like the sound of that you can click here to order your copy now. Don't forget to check our the other stops on the tour for more exclusive content and reviews. 

Here's what it's all about...

Gordon knows what Gabby wants but he hates to do what he’s told; Chrissy stalks the internet to find what her fiance wouldn’t give her; three friends reunite during a heatwave and their evening gets better and better, until it doesn’t.

In these relationship tales, many are burned by their pasts while scanning their horizons... A woman wonders if passing strangers have a better sex-face than her boyfriend; a birthday meal goes sour at the offer of no-strings dessert.

Navigating the on and offline worlds of pairing up, this spiky collection of short stories delves deep, with dark humour, into what it takes to strap on a smile through thirty-something failure and make human connections in the modern age.

Review: What I loved most about this short story collection was the variety between each of the stories. I felt like I could relate to each of them on some level. Some I found disturbing on some levels which thrilled me and others I found amusing or touching. That's the great thing about a collection like this there really is something to connect to on every level. I definitely didn't connect with a couple of the stories as much as I did the others but I found enjoyment in each of them in some way. 

I was also truly envious of the way the writing style differed between each of the offerings in the book. Some are written in first person, some in third and some in a poetic almost staccato way. I loved this change between each one and really enjoyed the fact that the first story in this book is thoughts interspersed with snippets from online dating messages. I have always said that you could fill many humorous tomes with just online dating messages we've all received!

Another thing I really appreciated in this book was the variety of settings between the stories. Although many have a common theme of Glasgow (my favourite city in the world) many are set in other places as well and so not only are you meeting new characters with each story and experiencing a whole new narrative, you're also traveling to new homes, inside new minds and exploring new settings. 

On a final note. I also really enjoyed the different take on relationships be they casual or long term, new or old. No relationship fits the cookie cutter mould that we read about in romance novels and whilst that is often a nice escape I really enjoyed getting a taste of the real ways people experience their relationships or the journey to get there. Parts of one story were definitely hard to read (there are content warning included before that story) but it was also very really, totally believable and easy to empathise with. Overall I really enjoyed this collection and would definitely recommend giving it a go!

About The Author

 

Kate Tough is a fiction writer and visual poet.

Her novel, Keep Walking, Rhona Beech (Abacus, 2019) is available from all usual outlets. It’s the retitled second edition of, Head for the Edge, Keep Walking (Cargo) which has had five stars on Amazon since 2014. The book is a funny and moving account of how a thirty-something office worker in Glasgow, with a clumsy tendency to speak her mind, puts her life back together after it spectacularly falls apart.

Readers have noted that the novel reminds them of a book about someone called Eleanor Oliphant, although Kate’s novel appeared prior to that one, in 2014, when it got good attention in the Scottish media. It’s great that readers can enjoy both books and a bonus that people who like one character have an opportunity to discover the other one.

Kate’s poetry pamphlet, tilt-shift, was Runner Up in the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award, 2017 and her piece, 'People Made Glasgow’, was selected as a Best Scottish Poem 2016. Recently, her work was included in Makar/Unmakar: Twelve Contemporary Poets in Scotland and she’s an invited poet at STANZA in 2021. She has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow.

Last year Kate adopted a cat with very long tail who shares his name with the Prime Minister of Britain – the rescue centre gave him that name – but now that she knows him better (the cat, not the Prime Minister) she’d have chosen the name Rocket, because of the way he shoots from underneath furniture at unbelievable speeds.

Kate understands that life isn’t an easy ride and she lives in perpetual awe of her fellow humans; getting out of bed each day and getting involved. On a general basis, if she sees the sun rising and swims lengths in a tide pool, then its not a bad day.

For occasional updates from the author about new work, writing tips and audio clips, subscribe via the button on Kate’s website at www.katetough.com