Story: "A Second Chance" by Beverly Giroux from the March 13, 2007 issue.

Tagline: Katie realized tha ther happiness did not depend on Michael's career choices...

What follows is an analysis of a Woman's World story with a mind toward what works and doesn't work for me as a writer, peppered with some personal opinion, too. :)

Katie is facing the big 3-0 birthday and her boyfriend tells her he's moving to L.A., without her. Bummer! She has a good reason to splurge on four pieces of birthday cake. I totally sympathize with her! This spurs her to move on with her life. I love when characters learn and grow during the course of a story, and it's hard to do that inside of 1000 words. Katie's a real go-getter. She even throws herself a party, something I would never have been brave enough to do.

I really liked the surprise Giroux sprung on us--that the good-looking man at the party was really Michael, the boyfriend. She really had me going!

Best Part: "I was afraid. Afraid you'd say no. Afraid that if you said yes, I wouldn't make you happy." That sounds like a real, honest-to-goodness guy. I'd forgive him.

In My Humble Opinion: However, as much as I liked the heroine, then ending fell flat for me. I didn't "feel the love" between these two. While on the one hand I admired Katie's ability to bounce back, I don't know if I believed she really loved him because I didn't see that much heartache.

Grade: B-