Riding Pillion with George Clooney by Geraldine Ryan Blog Tour

 Over the past couple of years I've come to realise that I really don't have a lot of spare time. Between work and kids, moments to myself seem somewhat rare so finding little pockets of space to read can be tricky. 

And that's where my love of short stories has evolved from.

They allow me to escape from the world - even if it is just for minutes at a time - and I certainly feel better for it.

Geraldine Ryan has come up with Twelve moving short stories inspired by the everyday lives of women under the title of Riding Pillion with George Clooney (catchy right), I was eager to read this small collection of tales.

• A single woman on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Italian lakes still dreams of adventure. Can she find it closer to home?

• A grieving widow finds comfort in the company of a stray cat that bears striking similarities to her dead husband.

• An estranged daughter confronts an unspeakable tragedy from her past as she attempts to reconcile with her long-lost family.

Geraldine Ryan is a prolific short-story writer whose work has appeared in Woman’s Weekly and Take a Break’s Fiction Feast magazines. The women in this, her first published anthology, may be at different stages of life but all of them are experiencing the ground shifting beneath their feet. Their tales of love, longing and redemption will touch your heart and bring a smile to your face.

Short and sweet.

It's surprising just how much depth can go into these miniature tales.

Each one has a different narrative but although every one is individual, there is a strange contrast between them, a feeling of hope, all meaningful in their own way.

I suppose the best way to describe this collection is that they engage your emotions.

Plenty of themes including grief and loss, lay the path to acceptance.

What makes these stories so powerful is the fact that they are so ordinary. Real day to day life is seen and it's this honest outlook on normal situations that Geraldine has managed to capture oh so well. These seemingly common occurrences that shape us as people.

Riding Pillion with George Clooney is a group of tales that you can easily dip in and out of and each one leaves you with a certain comfort.

If you haven't dipped into the world of short stories, this would be a good place to start.