Of Swords and Parasols

This is a collection of short stories by Wann, all focusing on love. Most focused on romantic love, rather one-sided or unrequited, though there was also a cute story about a teenaged noblewoman who becomes the “mother” of a winged boy she finds.

The stories are pretty diverse, ranging a wizard blamed for a plague to the curse of a witch in the early Protestant era to a Casanova figure to whom women are invisible who loves a woman to whom he’s invisible. My personal favorite involves futuristic robot pseudo-lesbians. That description is more out there than the actual story. I’m not sure any two stories actually fell into the same category.

I enjoyed it, despite hints in a couple of stories that longer works may include melodrama tropes that don’t work well for me. I’m disappointed that the other two licensed books by the manhwaga-100% Perfect Girl and Can’t Lose You-sound guaranteed to irritate me.

And I’m sad that none of the stories seem to be for the gorgeous cover illustration.