Oh, hey. Were you looking for a book about a lesbian badass MacGuyver-ing herself out of tight situations while taking out the bad guys and saving the world? Then you should read This is Devin Jones by Kristen Conrad. Former model and actress turned Beverly Hills Police Detective Devin Jones is on the blind dateRead More
Mfred reviews Slow Burn in Tuscany by Giselle Fox
What a sweet and emotional book! Slow Burn in Tuscany by Giselle Fox is light on plot but heavy on love and romance. Recently divorced, Brianna decides to take a tour of Italy with her best friend. Amazingly, her high school nemesis, Madison Blake, shows up on the same tour. Brianna discovers some shocking truthsRead More
Mfred Reviews Out of Time by Paula Martinac
Out of Time is one of those books that had everything going for it, except conflict. Interesting premise, solid characterization, good writing– but lacking that fundamental tension that gives the reader a reason to keep reading. Ducking into an antique shop to get out of the rain, Susan Van Dine finds and then steals an oldRead More
Mfred Reviews A Field Guide to Deception by Jill Malone
I feel a little like I got tricked into reading Malone’s A Field Guide to Deception. I downloaded a ton of books to my eReader, started one, started another, and then finally got sucked in by Malone’s beautiful prose. It really is such a pleasure to read a well-written book; it can even get aRead More
Mfred Reviews Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
Well, I finally read Rubyfruit Jungle. I’m not entirely sure what to think of it. Is it well written, tightly plotted, compelling, and interesting? Not really. One meandering story runs into the next, sometimes without pause. It is very picaresque in that sense; so perhaps Brown purposefully sacrificed plot in order to maintain that genre’s style. IRead More
Mfred Reviews Fire Logic by Laurie J Marks.
A friend recommended Fire Logic to me, partly because I am a long-time fantasy novel enthusiast, but also with the specific note that it is one of those “invisibly queer” books. By invisible, I do not mean closeted, repressed, or filled with subtext– instead, Fire Logic presents a world where queer characters are never explained;Read More
Mfred Reviews Fearful Symmetry by Tash Fairbanks
This review is the result of one of those serendipitous fishing expeditions on Paperbackswap.com. I found Tash Fairbanks’ Fearful Symmetry completely by chance. It is an enjoyable, engrossing read. Unfortunately, I can’t find any other fiction novels from this author. A coastal town in England is in the grips of hysteria– a teenager claims toRead More
Mfred reviews Nicola Griffith’s Stay and Always (Aud Torvingen #2 and #3)
I really loved the first Aud Torvingen book. And was pretty disappointed in the sequels. This review contains a lot of plot spoilers, so consider yourself warned. Stay (book #2) started off strong, and because I was so committed to the first book, I was as lost in Aud’s grief as she herself was.Read More
Mfred reviews Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity edited by Rose and Camilleri
I felt somewhat disconnected from the essays in Brazen Femme. Many, especially in the beginning, were written in that stream-of-consciousness, grammarless, spoken-poetry-confession style which does nothing but irritate me. I also do not respond to “I am Woman! I am Femme!” type essays that revel in celebrating something without taking it apart a bit first.Read More
Mfred Reviews The Blue Place by Nicola Griffith
Within the mystery genre, I’d place Nicola Griffith’s The Blue Place closer to James Ellory than to more typical whodunnits and detective stories. Similar to Ellroy’s noir thrillers, Griffith’s book is populated with unreliable narrators, deep psychological complexities, and intense, frightening violence. Griffith uses descriptive language much more lush and lyrical than anything Ellroy writes,Read More