{"id":133,"date":"2026-05-02T06:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T06:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/?page_id=133"},"modified":"2026-05-02T06:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T06:07:09","slug":"tough-love-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/?page_id=133","title":{"rendered":"Tough Love Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>\u201cTough Love is Thomas Shess at full stride, and fair warning\u2014he does not play it safe. These stories roam from San Francisco to Paris to Barcelona with a confidence that feels earned, not borrowed. Shess has a knack for dropping you into a room\u2014a bar, a bed, a quiet corner of regret\u2014and making you feel like you\u2019ve been there too long already.<\/em><br><em>His characters don\u2019t ask for your attention; they take it. They are flawed, seductive, reckless, and often one bad decision away from disaster. The dialogue crackles, the situations turn on a dime, and beneath it all runs a current of longing that gives the collection its weight.<\/em><br><em>What sets Tough Love apart is Shess\u2019s voice\u2014wry, knowing, and just a little dangerous. He writes like a man who understands both the thrill and the cost of desire. These are not tidy stories, nor should they be. They linger, they unsettle, and, at their best, they hit with the quiet force of recognition.<\/em><br><em>A sharp, stylish collection that reminds you love and trouble have always been close companions.\u201d<\/em>CHRIS BARNETT, SAN FRANCISCO-BASED NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE JOURNALIST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cTough Love is Thomas Shess at full stride, and fair warning\u2014he does not play it safe. These stories roam from San Francisco to Paris to Barcelona with a confidence that feels earned, not borrowed. Shess has a knack for dropping you into a room\u2014a bar, a bed, a quiet corner of regret\u2014and making you feel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-133","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134,"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/133\/revisions\/134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}