(2) Short Story Reviews - Snowflakes; Ruth Ware and Treasure; Oyinkan Braithwaite

 I've long been an Amazon Prime member but, I've never really taken advantage of all the freebies being a subscriber affords: free eBooks, free movies and free music downloads and, I'm sure there are other benefits as well.  I decided to try some eBook downloads (10) maximum at one time and was pleasantly surprised by the (2) short stories I read.  What I loved about these short stories was that one was 37 minutes and the other 43 minutes so, it was perfect before bed reading on (2) consecutive nights.

Book #1 - HUSH Series

(a collection of 6 brief political mysteries and psych thrillers)

Snowflakes was a fast an engrossing read that I was able to finish in about  (35) minutes.

A father who seems to be obsessed with guns seems to be quickly losing grips with reality. He forces his children (2) boys (2) girls to gather huge stones to build a tall wall around the property because of something bad that is about to happen.  A gun shot and a shout-out by the father that "their coming" and suddenly the family, minus the mother, escapes by boat with some essentials. What happened to the mother? What has really happened here? 

A dark story that was well-written and left me pleasantly surprised overall. Told from the POV of Leah an older daughter.   4 stars

                                                       Book # 2 Hush Series

Treasure is a young girl who lives in Nigeria obsessed with becoming an Instagram influencer with a huge following. She shows off expensive clothing and accessories with a background of her opulent, gated community.

@Sho4Sure is a mechanic; he is obsessed with Treasure and flirts with her online. He is obsessed with meeting her in person and, he eventually finds a way to make that happen - think "stalker".

An eye-opener and warning to those who pretend to be people they are not.  A surprise ending too. This was described as darkly comedic. I found it dark, indeed, comic? not so much.  The author of this one has also written My Sister the Serial Killer, it's one book I had meant to try but never did.  I plan to remedy that soon. 4 stars