I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

An anthology of heart warming and heartbreaking stories as told to the author sitting on a Brisbane street with a typewriter. It’s an emotional collection of ordinary people’s experience of love and different types of love, from all walks of life. A beautiful read in these post-covid times.

An absolutely stunning book. Two stories in and I've already ordered this online. There are times when an e-copy just won't do. This is a book that I'll treasure forever, it made me laugh, it made me cry and everything in between. Simply sublime.

A blind man yearns to see the face of his wife of 30 years. A divorced mother has a secret affair with a travelling priest. A widower miraculously finds a three-minute video recorded by his wife before she died. A lumberjack’s heart falls in a forest. A working mum contemplates taking the photographs of her late husband down from the fridge. A girl writes her last letter to the grandfather she adored, then sets it on fire. A palliative care nurse helps a dying woman converse with the angel at the end of her bed. A renowned 100-year-old scientist ponders the one great earthly puzzle he was never able to solve: What is love? This was a compelling and thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t finish this read. Well actually, I managed about 10%. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

This is a new author for me. I’m a sucker for a good love story. Who isn’t? As soon as I read the blurb for Love Stories I knew had to read it. The stories in this book are true. I loved the idea of the author sitting at a desk on the street with a typewriter asking people passing buy to tell him a story. There’s something almost magical about that image. Each story in this book is very different from those before it and you’ll find love in all its different colours, shapes and sizes between the pages. This is worth a read.

'Love is Dickinson and Keats and Kipling, he says. And love is Einstein, too. Love is all around us and love is inside the emu yards of Adelaide Zoo. Love is biology. Love is biochemistry. Love is blood chemistry. And love is discovery, otherwise known as something new.'

'Boy Swallows Universe' was my book of the year when it was published in the UK a few years ago. Somehow I missed the next one, but Trent Dalton is back with a collection of stories garnered from sitting on a street corner, equipped with an old typewriter, and listening to people tell him their love stories. Is it fiction? Is it non-fiction? Is it fictionalised biography? Who cares. What it is will make your heart soar and leave you either with a huge grin on your face or with tears rolling down your cheeks - or probably both. Dalton can wrote prose that will reach in and rip your heart out as you wonder at the beauty of his writing.

A book to be savoured. Dip into it, read a couple of stories at a time, then put it carefully down, to return to later on. Keep it on your bookshelf and pick it up when you need affirmation that actually, amidst all the crap life throws at us, it's ok to love, even when it hurts. 5 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

A really great collection of stories all with great stories and great characters, there wasnt a single one that i didnt like.