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Justine Avery

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It Gets Easier: A Short Tale of Comical Catastrophe Kindle Edition

by Justine Avery (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

3.9 198 ratings

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He'd never guess that his very courage to commit could be the cause of his own _downfall.

Jake's loved and lost, suffered failed relationships and felt real sorrow, but the new girl in his life may just be the one to finally put an end to that life.

His girlfriend Samantha is sweet and kind, full of joy, and the kind of girl Jake can be perfectly content sitting in complete silence with. It's so comfortable, so easy, to fall completely for her. In fact, Jake would do anything for Samantha, anything at all.

Just returned from attending Samantha's family reunion, Jake's high as a kite, basking in the realization that he's been officially accepted as one of the family. He can't believe his luck, especially as he's driving off into the sunset with Samantha herself and so looking forward to those precious, anticipated moments alone with her. What could possibly go wrong?

Thump thump resonates from the trunk of the car as they speed along the highway together.

Thump thump.

He falls head over heels for her... but not exactly in the way he intended.

♦ 2nd Prize International Short Fiction Award (Writers' Village) ♦

Enjoy the Read...

If you delight in a touch of horror, crimes of passion, humorous murder mysteries, award-winning twist endings, and funny suspense, you'll relish reading It Gets Easier.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Justine Avery's writing indulges in enticing story above all else: the tales you're drawn to regardless of genre preferences, the stories capable of changing your view of the world around you, the narratives that become part of you. Her storytelling brims with the weird and wonderful, the unexpected and alluring, the mysterious and magical.
"A teasing story that ... segues by many a clever twist into noir comedy and horror. It confutes the reader's expectations all the way to a shocking close." --John Yeoman, Writers' Village International Short Fiction Awards

"A fascinating fictional work ... The art of writing a short story includes the elements of character, setting, plot and conflict; Justine Avery skillfully molds these elements together in her fictional short story. Ms. Avery is certainly a master writer in the short story genre ... you simply have to read the story ... One way to judge a superb short story is the 'unexpected twist' test. The reader should want to re-read the story immediately, to see all the overlooked subtle hints and clues. Ms. Avery's short story met this test. It is an exciting and surprising romp that the short story lover will not want to miss!" --Readers' Favorite

About the Author

"[Her] writing is nothing short of brilliant. Avery knows her way around words and uses them with expertise to captivate the audience." (Reader Views)
"She's a master of grabbing the reader and pulling them into the story. ... Her writing is off-the-wall ... and always, ALWAYS spellbinding." (The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards UK)
"Justine Avery is one writer who knows how to wield words that wake us up....and in very short order. ... Her words paint pictures... Her metaphors intrigue. ... [She] has remarkable insight into human nature. ... [She] tells it like it is. And so well. (Loretta M. Siani, author of Everyday Miracles: Nine Keys to Miraculous Living)
"Justine Avery is such a clever, clever writer. She'll pull you in, mess with you a little and ... when you think you have a handle on the story, she'll pull the rug from under you. Wonderful stuff!" (The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards UK)
"To be able to draw in the reader and make them root for or stress about a character's decisions in such a short space is a positive reflection on an author's skill. ... Avery sets the scene perfectly with those first few lines, and her imaginative, gentle take on the inanities of the so-called civilized world sweeps the reader from the banal to the fantastic, almost before you know it." (Readers' Favorite)
On Avery's short stories...
"Justine Avery is a powerful writer and a master of the tantalising short story." (Edward Trayer, founder, The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards UK)
"[She] makes you pause and think. And that's the hallmark of a powerful and compelling short story. ... The art of writing a short story includes the elements of character, setting, plot and conflict; Justine Avery skillfully molds these elements together. Ms. Avery is certainly a master writer in the short story genre." (Readers' Favorite)
"There's a craft to the short story and Justine Avery has ... mastered it." (publisher, judges panel, The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards UK)

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00QB6ZEJE
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Justine Avery (November 27, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 27, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2923 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 22 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #2,101,737 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #960 in Humorous Dark Comedy
- #1,043 in 45-Minute Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Short Reads
- #1,323 in Horror Comedy

Customer Reviews:
3.9 198 ratings

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Justine Avery

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Justine Avery is the #1 international bestselling and award-winning author of stories large & small, for all.

Born in the American Midwest and raised all over the world, she is inherently an explorer, duly fascinated by everything around her and excitedly noting the stories that abound all around. As an avid reader of all genres, she weaves her own stories among them all. She has a predilection for writing speculative fiction and story twists and surprises she can’t even predict herself.

Avery has either lived in or explored all 50 states of the union, over 36 countries, and all but one continent; she lost count after moving 30-some times before the age of 20. She’s intentionally jumped out of airplanes and off the highest bungee jump in New Zealand, scuba dived unintentionally with sharks, designed websites, intranets, and technical manuals, bartered with indigenous Panamanians, welded automobile frames, observed at the Bujinkan Hombu Dojo in Noba, Japan, and masterminded prosperous internet businesses—to name a few adventures. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree that life has never required, and at age 28, she sold everything she owned and quit corporate life—and her final "job"—to freelance and travel the world as she always dreamed of. And she’s never looked back.

Aside from her native English, Avery speaks a bit of Japanese and a bit more Spanish, her accent is an ever-evolving mixture of Midwestern American with notes of the Deep South and indiscriminate British vocabulary and rhythm, and she says "eh"—like the Kiwis, not the Canadians. She currently lives between Los Angeles and London with her husband, award-winning British film director and author Devon Avery, and their adored children. She writes from wherever her curiosity takes her.

Avery loves to connect with fellow readers and creatives, explorers and imaginers, and cordially invites you to say "hello"—or konnichiwa.

You can find her at JustineAvery.com >> Join the mailing list for exclusive fun & freebies!

And follow along for further adventures at...

Twitter.com/Justine_Avery

Goodreads.com/JustineAvery

BookBub.com/authors/Justine-Avery

LibraryThing.com/author/AveryJustine

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5

198 global ratings

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Colin Flosi

Perfect length and ideal pace: THIS is a short story worth reading

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2017

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This is the first piece that I have read by Justine Avery, and I have to say that I was wholly impressed by the ease with which she was able to fit the plot into such a compact number of pages without sacrificing quality in her writing as a result.

I am a big fan of short stories and their ability to make use of limited space with extraordinary results, and Justine has done an exceptional job of pairing her style with nearly-perfect pace. The story begins unassumingly, but also in a manner that alerts the reader to something waiting to reveal itself once the story has progressed a bit. That progression builds up perfectly though--never long enough for the reader to lose interest in what might be coming, but at a speed that pushes you to read faster and faster in order to reach what you believe the story is about to share with you.

And then the plot below the surface reveals itself, and you're blown away. At least I was. So I re-read it again, and I dissected certain sections more. I allowed short passages and single word choices to marinate on my mind and the story had even more of an effect on the re-read. Often, I am disappointed because a writer will try to fit too much information or too many unnecessary details into a short story. Justine does not make this mistake, and it has me eager to read the rest of what she has written.

The dialogue flows smoothly between the characters of opposite sex, those same characters have depth that is difficult without providing too much backstory, and the entire short left me in a mood to read anything I could get my hands on today.

The short story has been becoming a bit of a lost art in recent years, and now i'm hoping that Justine Avery can keep cranking out stories like this and prove that trend false moving forward.

One person found this helpful

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Samara vega

A Dark Comedy of Errors

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2017

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This is the first piece I've read by Avery, and I was not let down. Although the beginning starts off a bit too sugary sweet for my taste, it is quickly balanced out with the sinister, darker content later on in the story. The darker subtext is hinted at throughout, and I found myself wondering if I'd read the line correctly, or if it was simply my own macabre sense of humor picking up on something that wasn't there to begin with. It was there, and this is where the story really shined for me.

Although I did see the first twist coming, and was grateful for its arrival, the final blow did catch me off guard, and kudos to Avery for that little bit of trickery. I appreciate the subtle POV switch,which is easily overlooked due to its natural feeling shift. This is difficult to pull off, so I particularly enjoyed it and some of the other writing tricks that were employed.

The premise itself was good as well; two young lovers on the road headed to a destination in the woman's mother's car. The man, our main character, spends much of the story fantasizing about his new love and how beautiful and girl-like she is. This is where I had some issues with the writing, but as I stated earlier, they ended up balancing out. We are blasted right from the beginning with this man's love for a young woman with Helen of Troy-esque beauty and allure. The problem is, it offers little depth. It IS possible the author chose to do this to show how naive the young man was, and how he is so head over heels in love with her that he'd do anything, but it felt kind of forced to me. I didn't have a lot of value that I was able to see for myself in their relationship or the girl.Even adding one small paragraph about a date prior to the family reunion would have given more weight to the relationship, and I think therefore the ending would have even more punch.

The story, nonetheless, was very enjoyable, and I found myself chuckling in a few places, especially when the trunk was opened. You can see the craftsmanship that went into it, and I highly recommend it for people that like unorthodox stories.

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ben gregory

Well-written but poorly executed twists

Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2017

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"It Gets Easier" by Justine Avery is a short, sweet, funny story about a new young couple. Avery's general prose is admirable and her dialogue is very well-done, but I found myself enjoying the first half of this story more than the second. A mystery develops alongside the reader's understanding of the relationship between Jake and Samantha. We can see that Jake is head-over-heels in love with Samantha and that he will do anything he can to impress her or make her smile. Avery's descriptions of Jake's feelings towards Samantha are excellent and really drew me into Jake as a character. But at the same time, we can tell that something is going on between the two of them that we don't know about. In an effort to not spoil the book, I will be vague and say that the twist that came halfway through, and the one that came at the end, were both very predictable. I can tell that Avery was attempting comedy and that she was going for a goofy sort of feel, but it didn't quite land for me. The 180 that the story takes is obviously intentional--it's supposed to shock the reader--but I really feel like it was nothing but jarring and threw what was becoming an interesting story into a tailspin. The dialogue felt less genuine and the prose was rushed. In short, the shift in mood that Avery wanted to be comedic, really just ended up feeling tacky and cheap. Overall, I enjoyed the story enough to give it three stars, but wish that Avery had transitioned more smoothly between the two parts of the story and executed her desired twists more carefully.

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Chris Wells

A Happy Tale With A Dark Side.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 15, 2019

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Justine Avery gets the tone of this story spot on and explores the emotions that surround being in love and feeling that this time it’s something special. A quick short read that happily leads you onward to understanding this young couple and what they’d be willing to do for each other when… Well, there’s more to it than JUST that but you’ll get no spoilers from me. As with everything I’ve read by Justine Avery I loved this one right from the start. I was lucky enough to resist temptation and read it not knowing anything about the story as I was so confident with this writers work. Really good stuff that I just can’t recommend highly enough.

Amazon Customer

Driver's Seat

Reviewed in Canada on March 17, 2017

Verified Purchase

It Gets Easier is a feel-good road trip for the wrong reasons. The characters are masterfully painted from the pen of Justine Avery delivering a portrait of dark unthinkable profiles. The story digs deep into the madness that surrounds us every day in news stories that haunt our subconscious. Avery’s ability to put the reader in the driver’s seat on a highway with surprises around every corner makes this a must read for any fan of dark comical tales.

R Gibbs

Good Twist

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2016

Verified Purchase

This short story is really has a great twist. Loved it. Great again from this author

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