Guest Lesbrarian Relme reviews Radclyffe’s romances

Note: Oh no! Another post that was swallowed in the drafts!

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Thanks for the review, Relme! You can find her at her tumblr, Reluctantly, Me. If you’d like to submit a guest review for the Lesbrary, email me at danikaellis@gmail.com!

When I read for pleasure, I want escapist entertainment

• Minimal drama/angst
• OK with predictability as long as I care about the characters
• Care enough to keep reading but not so much it keeps me from sleeping at night
• Want to feel good if I think about it days/weeks later

Radclyffe writes everything from erotica to romances

• Even branching into paranormal with new series
• In romances continues chars through other books
• Sometimes as a series
• Sometimes as secondary chars in other books

My favorite lesbian romances are like really well developed light erotica stories with characters I care about and a decent plot

• Buy it for the relationships not the plot
• Writes characters I care about and want to follow
• Crafts good relationships
  • Platonic
  • Sexual

Writes about lesbians

• Unapologetic lesbians
• Not queer; lesbian
• Few gay men, bis, trans* (I can only think of one gay man)
• Even coming out stories are about lesbians, not angsting straight women
• Coming out is an awakening not a conversion
• Professionals in 20s to 30s
• Almost always one of the primary chars is a dr or surgeon
• Main chars all hott
• Most are child free but some have children
• Not overly tender/sentimental

Romances almost always have some hyper-driven/broken/isolated/alienated functional recluse as one of the main chars

• Even if the brokenness is only self-perceived
• Loss
• Death
• Break up
• Disability/illness/injury
• Broken main character isn’t rescued as much as discovered/uncovered

Friendship and chosen family are big subtexts

• It’s a whole lesbian family + chosen family
• With and without kids
• Different ages, incl. mentoring

Quality of books can be shockingly uneven

• Some are real clunkers
• Dull
• Undeveloped
• Some are repeats of existing books (Trauma Alert and Fated Love are darn close to the same book)
• Characters repeat (witty best friend)

Some clunky writing

• Sex scenes get repetitive
• Lots of repetitive description
• Hard fist of arousal
• Suddenly, painfully/ terribly, painfully/etc.