Anna M reviews Frenemy of the People by Nora Olsen

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Frenemy of the People is a YA novel by Nora Olsen, who wrote the YA science fiction novel Swans & Klons (also on my to be read list).

Lexie, the daughter of two disinterested business executives, spends her time doing all she can to resist The Man. She’s a self-styled punk rock rebel–a vegan out lesbian and dumpster-diving, sheeple-loathing activist. She hates everything so much that she’s doing her best to get into a college that accepts kids who want to skip the end of high school.

Clarissa’s family exceeded its modest income by purchasing a luxurious house with a bad mortgage and compounding it with more ill-conceived debt. As a result, Clarissa’s seemingly idyllic life is now crumbling. Her beloved horse is sold without her knowledge and her sister with Down Syndrome is single-mindedly pursuing a campaign to be homecoming queen. She’s also had the sudden realization that she’s bisexual, which prompts her to found a gay-straight alliance at the high school.

The narration alternates between the two girls’ points of view. The reader is told by both Clarissa and Lexie that they dislike one another intensely, but their antipathy doesn’t really seem that strong, and it’s pretty easily overcome after they start working together on Desi’s campaign. Soon, Lexie and Clarissa find themselves developing feelings for one another. Lexie uses knowledge gained from her investment banker parents to advise Clarissa in the face of the bank’s imminent foreclosure on her family’s home, but (naturally) obstacles arise in the path of their romance.

On the whole, I enjoyed the story and was interested in seeing it through to the end. I appreciated that Desi seemed like a real, three-dimensional character rather than a handy plot accessory. The scenes where Clarissa was thinking about or interacting with her sister were among my favorite, along with those where the characters were allowed to air their quirks. I’m not sure the story was believable, but I didn’t end up caring too much. There was an oddly detailed amount of information about the mortgage crisis and foreclosures and so on, so much that it sometimes seemed to veer into nonfiction. If you like this type of YA setting, try Sister Mischief by Laura Goode.

Anna M reviews Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones

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Daughter of Mystery is a debut historical fantasy/romance by Heather Rose Jones set in the tiny, fictional European country of Alpennia in the early 19th century.

Baron Saveze of Alpennia has spent his life amassing a prodigious amount of wealth. A capricious man, Saveze has long kept a female duelist in his employ, despite it not being quite “the thing.” Barbara has spent many years serving as the Baron’s personal bodyguard and duelist, but the ailing Baron has–in her eyes–promised her freedom upon his death. Margerit Sovitre is the baron’s goddaughter, though connected only distantly and from a much more humble background. She’s being introduced to society and is expected to make an eligible marriage, but Margerit would much rather be studying philosophy at the university than finding a husband.

Upon the Baron’s death, Margerit suddenly finds herself in possession of a large fortune…and Barbara. Enraged that she’s been denied her freedom–at least until Margerit comes of age–Barbara nonetheless accepts the task of keeping her new employer safe. One person in particular, the new Baron, bears a grudge after inheriting nothing but the title from his uncle. When Margerit decides to pursue her mystical studies in the capital, there are unforeseen threats that even Barbara might find difficult to overcome.

It may sound strange to say that a fabricated country felt well-researched, but it’s clear that Jones did her homework in terms of crafting Alpennia from a combination of historical and fantastical detail. All the subtle pieces, down to the particularity of the names and their pronunciation, felt like they contributed to a vibrant and compelling whole. If you like women with swords, court intrigue, mysticism, interesting female characters, dashes of romance, scholarship, and family secrets, give Daughter of Mystery a try. Especially recommended for fans of Sherwood Smith.

I’m an avid reader of historical romance, particularly Regency and Georgian, and Daughter of Mystery had just the refreshing twist I’ve been looking for. News of a sequel in the works made me very happy indeed. See this post for more about how Jones approached her work.

Anna M reviews Like Jazz by Heather Blackmore, Wingspan by Karis Walsh, and Safe Passage by Kate Owen

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Like Jazz, by Heather Blackmore

Although newcomer Cassidy “Cazz” Warner finds herself entranced by the most popular girl in high school, Sarah Perkins, their mutual attraction doesn’t go beyond more than a few kisses before Cazz abruptly moves away without saying goodbye. Many years later, they are reunited as Cazz, now a fraud investigator, finds herself investigating Sarah’s charitable foundation. The company’s questionable finances seem to be tied up with the recent death of Sarah’s father and Cazz, through her investigation, finds herself uncovering a truth that endangers them both. In the meantime, the women discover that the intervening ten years have done little to dull their feelings for one another.

I enjoyed this book, despite the fact that the name “Cazz” made me twitch a little each time I read it. The best part was that the flashback to high school was in one big chunk at the beginning of the book, rather than being tediously drawn out throughout the narrative. Cazz’s logic for leaving Sarah in high school without saying a word, and never subsequently getting in touch—especially given her strong feelings—still doesn’t quite make sense, though.

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Wingspan, by Karis Walsh

Architect Kendall Pearson has spent her adult life trying to play by the rules and hide as much of her personality as she possibly can, but it just keeps peeking out at inopportune moments. When she spontaneously decides to move to an island, she loses her girlfriend but gains a bit of freedom. She unexpectedly encounters an injured raptor and brings him to the local bird rescue center, run by the beautiful Bailey Chase. Bailey has only ever wanted to help birds, and she’s frustrated by the ongoing involvement of outside forces who claim to help but only manage to interfere with her regimented system. For the sake of the birds, she knows she has to accept the new facility offered by a local university, but she’s reluctant to give up any control. However, she finds herself trusting Ken and wanting to know more about her, even as Ken struggles to keep herself buttoned down. The two women find a little bit of what they both need in each other as Ken designs a beautiful sanctuary for Bailey, and Bailey helps Ken become more comfortable just being herself in the world.

This was a pretty low-key romance with just the two main characters having multiple dimensions to them. I wasn’t completely sure how Ken’s traumatic experience from her young adulthood was informing her current behavior, but it didn’t impede my enjoyment that much. Walsh was very good at showing the developing level of trust between Bailey and Ken, and I learned a little bit about bird rescue!

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 Safe Passage, by Kate Owen

This novella is set in New Orleans in the present day, but features a mystery that involves some family history from 1939. While remodeling the house she inherited from a great-aunt, Jules discovers a safe that contains a gun and some old letters—written in French. She enlists the help of the extremely attractive French teacher at the school where she’s a math teacher and crew coach. They discover that the letters are written in code, and work together to solve the mystery and unravel the truth behind Auntie’s secret love—and Jules’s great-grandfather’s death.

Safe Passage was my favorite of this bunch—short and sweet, with great chemistry between the characters and a good balance of romance, humor, and mystery. Plus, it was so short that there wasn’t time for angsty separation! I look forward to reading more from Owen.

Anna M. reviews The Blush Factor by Gun Brooke

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Gun Brooke’s The Blush Factor, released this month by Bold Strokes Books, features a May-December romance between a savvy businesswoman and an entrepreneurial YouTube sensation. Eleanor Ashcroft has kept her distance from most people in her years as a corporate shark, but something about Addison Garry’s self-made celebrity catches her attention. Addison, also known as Blush, runs an amazingly popular YouTube channel featuring makeup and styling tips, and Eleanor is in the market for an expert to help her revitalize her aunt’s former makeup company. It doesn’t hurt that Addie is very easy on the eyes–Eleanor finds herself watching the videos over and over again.

Addie takes the job primarily to help her kid sister–their parents died many years ago, and she’s responsible for the teen’s well-being. Stacey has a medical condition that will require surgery, and they need all the money they can get. Addie proves competent as well as beautiful, and the women find themselves intrigued by one another. Despite their age difference, Addie and Eleanor’s business relationship progresses toward intimacy; however, Stacey’s condition leads to an episode that puts their future as a couple in jeopardy.

I’ve read and enjoyed many of Gun Brooke’s books, and I will likely keep reading after The Blush Factor, but there was something about the book that felt unfinished. There was definitely chemistry in the romance between Eleanor and Addie. Perhaps it was that beyond those two characters, and the younger sister whose illness is the catalyst for much of the dramatic action, there wasn’t much definition. Addie is hired as a consultant on the beauty industry, and The Blush Factor seems to be set up as a workplace romance, but very few scenes actually took place at work. We didn’t get to see Addie’s expertise actually come into play on Eleanor’s behalf, we were just told after the fact that the business was revitalized. Conflict between the characters over the payment of medical bills was fraught but, even after Addie explained her extreme reaction, still a bit confusing. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t my favorite of her books.

Readalikes:

For a good lesbian “boss romance,” try Too Close to Touch by Georgia Beers or even Rulebreaker by Cathy Pegau.

Anna M. reviews How Sweet It Is by Melissa Brayden

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How Sweet It Is is the third novel by Bold Strokes author Melissa Brayden. It has been more than four years since chef Molly O’Brien’s wife Cassie died in a tragic plane crash, and she’s recently been thinking about testing the dating waters. She’s also struggling to keep her family business, a small town bakery/coffee shop, afloat in the Starbucks era. While her in-laws have always been incredibly supportive, it’s her sister-in-law Jordan with whom Molly always felt a particular kinship. Jordan was also wounded by the death of the older sister she could never quite live up to, and has been dealing with Cassie’s loss by avoiding their small Illinois town.

Jordan returns to town at a moment when she’s reevaluating her filmmaking career and the direction of her life. At the same time, Molly returns to the dating world and her shop’s financial woes approach a crisis point. Nothing can completely distract the two women, however, from the spark of attraction they feel when they’re together. Brayden does a good job of portraying the complicated dance between Molly and Jordan (and Cassie’s ghost) as they progress from denial to relationship.

Molly is understandably nonplussed by her attraction to someone she’s always thought of as a kid sister, and struggles with what feels like a betrayal of Cassie’s memory–especially since her attraction to Jordan is stronger than what she felt for her dead wife. Her resistance is neither short-lived nor too drawn out, but ebbs and flows as she and Jordan work things out. For her part, Jordan is willing to pursue a relationship with Molly, despite the disapproval they might face from her family. But she’s also worried that she will never live up to her sister, and that Cassie’s ghost will always be there between them. There are also subplots involving Jordan’s gay best friend, Molly’s sassy best friend/employee, and the quest for the perfect truffle. There is plenty here to like, and Brayden takes her time filling in the details of their small-town life.

I picked up How Sweet It Is in advance of publication through NetGalley, and it was just as sweet as advertised. In fact, I subsequently bought a paper copy for my collection at home. It’s not flawless, but it has an admirable heart and I recommend it, especially for fans of chocolate. For other food-related lesbian romances, see Karin Kallmaker’s Roller Coaster and Starting from Scratch by Georgia Beers.

Anna M. reviews Homestead by Radclyffe

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Radclyffe’s Homestead is a departure from the romances featuring doctors and first responders and so on that usually characterize her books. It’s a sequel of sorts to 2007’s When Dreams Tremble (which I don’t think I’ve read–sometimes it’s hard to tell them all apart), exploring the same upstate New York setting and featuring that couple in a minor role.

Tess Rogers has always wanted to be an organic farmer, and she finally has the chance to put her plans in motion when she inherits the family farm from her uncle. It’s not easy operating a small farm, especially as a woman in a male-dominated field, but Tess is determined and has laid her plans very carefully. However, things get complicated when a powerful oil company rolls into town with R. Clayton “Clay” Sutter as their representative. There’s precious, precious oil under the farmland in Tess’s town, and the easiest way to pump it out involves access to the farm that Tess is trying to get certified as organic.

It has been many years since Tess and Clay had their summer tryst at Lake George, but neither ever fully recovered from the end of the relationship. Clay, who was vacationing incognito before beginning college, never told Tess that she was the presumptive heir to a global energy business worth millions. When Clay’s father threatened to interfere, she left abruptly and hasn’t spoken a word to Tess since. For her part, Tess has tried to move on but never found anyone who made her feel quite the way that Clay did. Now that big oil has driven them together, the stage is set for a reawakening of their love!

So here you have a romance that involves multiple conversations about fracking and a lot of hurt feelings about the way things ended however many years ago. Throw in Clay’s attractive assistant/bodyguard, town resentment that results in an attempt on Clay’s life and sabotage on the drilling site, a betrayal courtesy of Tess’s dead uncle, and a check-in or two with the protagonists of When Dreams Tremble, and you have a romance with a lot of parts that don’t always flow smoothly together.

Despite all this, I ended up believing that Clay and Tess could make it work. My major complaint is that Clay’s father, portrayed as a distant and controlling businessman whose interference ruined the young lovers’ chance at happiness, is consistently set up as the villain. However, there is no scene where Clay is given the opportunity to confront her father and truly become independent of him. It felt like a lot of buildup and no payoff, at least as far as that aspect of the plot was concerned.

Beyond that, it seemed like Clay could have gotten in touch with Tess at any point in the intervening years of her own volition before being forced to do so as part of her job. Coming into Tess’s town as an antagonist and trying not to still have feelings for her might have been an excellent dramatic decision–there would hardly be much of a story otherwise–but it makes Clay’s character seem particularly ineffectual and/or insensitive. It’s a little hard to root for someone to reunite with their lost love when Clay could have reunited with Tess at just about any point–or at least allowed her to make her own decisions.

I might go out and read When Dreams Tremble to see how it ties in with Homestead, but I probably wouldn’t re-read this one. I was glad to have the opportunity to read an advance copy through Netgalley, but it wasn’t my favorite Radclyffe effort by a long shot.

Anna M reviews Small Town Trouble by Jean Erhardt

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Jean Erhardt’s Small Town Trouble is the first in a series of mysteries that features the somewhat reluctant detective Kim Claypoole. As the action begins, we find Kim returning to the small Ohio town of her youth to advise her mother on a potentially shady real estate deal. Behind her, she leaves a successful restaurant, which she runs with her best friend; her double-wide trailer; and the married and closeted Martha Stewart-esque hostess with whom she is currently involved, Nancy Merit.

Kim’s mother Evelyn has always had a “spend first, ask questions never” mentality, which has gotten her into financial difficulties. Evelyn’s remaining assets include a palatial estate and her dead husband’s unprofitable country radio station, which a mysterious benefactor has recently offered to purchase for $250,000. Kim arrives to counsel her mother and discovers that the proprietor of the town’s topless bar has been murdered and that the person offering to buy the radio station is also interested in the family farm of her junior high kissing partner, Amy.

Curious against her will, and faced with an increasing number of odd occurrences, Kim tries to put the pieces together while juggling her mother, the married Amy’s rekindled interest, her disgruntled restaurant partner, and her relationship with Nancy. With Amy playing George to her Nancy Drew, Kim pokes around and gets more trouble than she bargained for, putting her life in danger to uncover the secrets of Fogerty, Ohio.

Erhardt has a dry, tongue-in-cheek delivery that makes Small Town Trouble a lot of fun to read. For example, when Kim has resolutely decided to ignore her concerns and have her mother take the money and run, a small voice that sounds “a lot like Jessica Fletcher” prods her to keep investigating. I appreciated Kim’s cultural references and her dogged approach, even though her judgment in her personal life is clearly questionable. Kim’s history shares several details with Erhardt’s bio, and I would be interested in reading the next book to see where Kim goes from here. I expect that Erhardt’s experience as a private investigator will provide her with a lot of fodder for both comedy and tragedy.

Anna M. reviews At Seventeen by Gerri Hill

I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but I established a habit of purchasing and reading every Gerri Hill book as it’s released. I tend to like her generic romances more than those with thriller elements, but I foresee myself reading her new books until I am seriously disappointed by something she writes. The curse and benefit of this extensive knowledge of Hill’s back catalog is that I can compare the books to each other, and At Seventeen (released July 2013) explores some familiar narrative territory.

When she was ten, Shannon Fletcher moved into Brook Hill’s finest house–the Lansford mansion, where her mother worked as a maid and cook. The elder Lansfords were wealthy and distant, but their daughter Madison became Shannon’s clandestine friend. Over time, their friendship grew into love, and Shannon and Madison spent every moment they could together before high school ended. Even though Shannon knew that Madison was destined to take up her rich girl mantle and someday marry a rich boy, she threw her heart into their relationship and has never quite recovered from its end.

Fast-forward twenty years, and Shannon is planning to move back to Brook Hill. She and her older brother own a chain of fresh markets and are looking to build a new store, and their retired mother has been struggling with illness. Shannon’s run-ins with Madison over the years since their split have been painful and unsatisfying, leading her to avoid Brook Hill as much as possible. But now that she’s moving home, Shannon knows that she probably can’t keep avoiding the past.

For her part, Madison is unhappy with her marriage, although she has a precocious son, Ashton, who is heading off to college at the age of fifteen. Her mother hand-selected her husband and her house, and still picks out her clothes, and although she is thirty-seven, Madison feels so unfulfilled that she allows her mother’s interference to continue. But with Ashton leaving home and Shannon returning to Brook Hill, Madison feels like it might finally be time to take control of her own choices. Even if she and Shannon can only be friends.

And of course they aren’t just going to be friends.

The backstory of the young love between the girls is revealed in a series of flashbacks as Shannon tells her friends of six years’ standing all the reasons she’s been avoiding Brook Hill. I appreciated that we got the “history” portion of the narrative out of the way quickly, but the frame story was clunky and left me wondering why Shannon claimed to be friends with these people when she hadn’t really told them anything about her life. I guess it could be an illustration of how she hasn’t really been living since Madison left for college, but it still seemed awkward, especially when those characters were reinserted later in the story to cause some drama. The other problem is that it means the reader’s view of the past is all from Shannon’s perspective.

After Shannon’s return to Brook Hill, the story’s perspective alternates between Madison and Shannon, and things proceed as you might expect–they try to be friends, Madison has difficulty with her old money family, particularly her mother, about leaving her husband, etc. There’s a feeling of inevitability about the resumption of their relationship, and not just because this is a romance. Everyone in both main characters’ lives that actually cares about them sits them down at some point and says “I know you were in love with her then and you’re still in love with her now.” It’s not clear to me why it took the twenty years for Shannon’s mother (who loves and cares for both Shannon and Madison, who became close to her in Shannon’s long absences) to talk to her daughter about her obvious emotional pain. And why on earth would Shannon spent twenty years pining for someone without even the wherewithal to pick her own clothing? Why wouldn’t she at least tell her mother she was gay at some point? I ended this book with too many “why” moments.

I purchase Hill’s books to easily re-read them when I have a few hours, but I’m not sure that I’ll be picking up At Seventeen again. Not only is there a serious Winger earworm to contend with every time I so much as glance at the cover, but I prefer Behind the Pine Curtain (2006) as a story of young love revisited, or even Love Waits (2010). I don’t mind going over the same ground again–what dedicated romance reader would?–but the structure of the story, and Shannon and Madison’s sometimes perplexing choices, put me off.

Anna M. reviews Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule

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I became aware of the movie Desert Hearts (1985) when I (like the protagonist of the film It’s in the Water) was scouring my local video stores for movies with lesbian content. It was the mid- to late-90s, and there were still stores with actual videos in them. I have watched Desert Hearts–and Go Fish, and The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love–many times since then, having procured my own VHS copies in order to avoid having to make eye contact with any video clerks in Salt Lake City. But for some reason my search for lesbian content never lead me to Jane Rule’s Desert of the Heart (1964) the book on which the movie was based. When I got the opportunity to read it via the Lesbrary, I also re-watched the movie (just as Mary did for her recent episode of Queer Books Please–I swear, I was working on reading the book before then!) for the purpose of comparison.

The general plot of both the book and the movie are the same–in the middle part of the 20th century, a college professor moves to Reno in order to procure a divorce. While staying at a boarding house set up for divorcing women, she meets a young and vibrant artist who also works in a casino. They fall in love, disrupting the professor’s vision of herself and her future, but at the end it seems like things just might work out for them.

Rule herself co-wrote the movie, which is a lot less . . . cerebral than the book, which concerns itself with questions of morality and other philosophical ideas. There is also a great deal more musing on casinos, especially Ann’s job and how it informs her artwork. Ann and Evelyn (Kay and Vivian in the movie) often came across to me as creatures of great, almost impenetrable complexity. Perhaps it was because I’m unaccustomed to reading works that require my absolute concentration, but I found the book a bit difficult to parse at times, although the prose was lovely. It made me miss the desert, which was a frequent background to my childhood in Utah. Rule’s way of describing it was utterly clear and evocative.

I’m glad I read the book, and would be interested to read more by Rule. If nothing else, it was a good exercise in comparing movies to the books from whence they came–in this case, I can see Rule’s hand in both, and I noticed certain things while experiencing each medium. For example, in the book Ann’s family is much kinder about her involvement with the outsider Evelyn, wanting primarily for her to be happy. The Frances of the movie is strangely in love with her adopted daughter, and that emotional entanglement is very painful to watch play out. My advice is to experience both–the movie for its great visuals and almost wry humor and the book for that rich internal life of both protagonists. The words “lesbian classic” definitely apply here.

Edited to add:

Apparently a Desert Hearts sequel is in the works!

Anna M. tweeted “Now that @booksnyarn has seen Desert Hearts, she wants to know what happens next. Any fic out there? pic.twitter.com/OoMvlT5geb”

and Donna Deitch (@DesertHearts), director of Desert Hearts, replied “@helgagrace @booksNyarn Not sure about any fan fiction, but if you can stand the wait, a sequel is in the works!”

Anna M. reviews The Blue Hour by Beatrice Donahue

Beatrice Donahue’s The Blue Hour is a historical short story set in 1920s England. It was released May 2013. Rosina (Rose) King is unhappily married to an abusive and controlling husband. She’s well aware of her seemingly fortunate position, having married up to become a middle-class housewife. Virtually friendless and unable to bear children for Charles, she spends more and more time sleeping to avoid the realities of her life. A chance meeting with a vibrant American artist names Eve disrupts Rose’s existence dramatically.

Eve is daring, independent, and alluring, and almost immediately asks Rose to model for her, which I understood to be the equivalent of asking her to come up and see Eve’s etchings. Rose’s captivation does not escape her husband’s notice, however, setting up a collision course with Charles and a choice for Rose between the person she has been–cautious, quiet, and invisible–and the person who feels seen by Eve.

I’m a fan of historical romance, and this did not disappoint, although I was sad that it ended so quickly. However, after thinking about it for a while, I appreciated the economy of words; the story was poignant and intriguing. Rose’s awakening felt familiar, but the setting was a clever twist. I recommend it, and would like to read more of Donahue’s work.