Like songs on a concept album, each story in Heather Paul’s riveting Love and Other Disappointments stands alone and in conversation with the others. In this relatable, wry, and often darkly comedic collection, Paul manages to vacillate between sparse prose and lush description, employing tension and inventive metaphors to explore the emotional landscape of women at various stages of life and love. Each story asks the protagonist, and by proxy the readers, to grow, to become, and even perhaps to question expectations—both their own and the ones placed on them. An entertaining yet profound collection of short fiction for anyone who has ever loved, or been in love, and lived through the inevitable disappointment.