LitPick Review
A young man anxious about taking the next step toward marriage with his long-time girlfriend, an emotionally raw family living through a tough and dysfunctional family Thanksgiving, and tight-knit siblings trying to keep in touch when their lives take them in different directions, are all some of the touching short stories in Jayna Locke's, Somewhere in Minnesota. The short stories are all about the human frailties, emotions, and decisions that adult humans ruminate over and experience through various moments, events, and life decisions: the twists and turns of life.
Opinion:
Jayna Locke writes her stories with a relatable voice that makes you feel as though you might just be entering the inner sanctums and thoughts of the characters she has created. It is not a short storybook that feels like it is a narration compiled on the characters' lives; rather it is filled with a rich inner quality of details in each story that creates a beautifully detailed look into each chapter's diverse human perspective on life. Grief, love, loss, and relationships in many forms are just some of the heart-felt topics Locke takes on in her emotionally-intuitive short stories. The book is easy to read and the final short story introduces the fictional college town of Whimden, Minnesota which will be the backdrop for Locke's new mystery and ghost story book series, The Whimden Chronicles.