Absolution – S Anne Gardner

Tragedy overtook Cristina Uraca Alacala when she was 9 years old. Her socialite parents, linked to the Spanish Royal family, killed in a road traffic accident along with her adored younger sister. Ever since her loving grandmother has shielded her from the world and refused to talk about her family.

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But inside she seethes with the need to know what really happened. She knows there was scandal, but nobody will explain why. She knows she has blocked memories – she didn’t speak for a year after the trauma – but nothing has yet triggered her recall.

Eventually she breaks away from her grandmother’s enforced cocoon to search out the answers in America. Her research uncovers just one name, Annais Francesca D’Autremond. So when the opportunity presents to meet the woman who can explain her past Christina cannot resist.

She knows her life will never be the same, but has no idea how far her discoveries will take them both.

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This is the third of S Anne Gardner’s books I have read and reviewed. They are all well written, well crafted and, most unusually, all completely different.

Unlike the more traditional lesbian romance of “The very thought of You” (which I loved) I complained that “Till there was You” was melodramatic and bodice ripping. It was. But now I have read “Absolution” I think there is also a trace of madness in the overwhelming passion.

“Absolution” was an interesting read. Almost the whole book is written in the first person. We only get Grandmother and Francesca’s emotions from Christina’s viewpoint. Inside Christina’s head is not a settled and balanced place to be. As the story unfolds her moods and emotions take increasingly wide swings which make it heard to follow and sometimes hard to empathize with. As her memories wake she is literally torn between the desire to forget and stay in a cocooned ‘here and now’ with Francesca, and the history which is dragging her into reality and self realization.

I am not going to discuss the end of the book, not even close, as the concluding chapters take us somewhere I didn’t expect to go. No matter how clever you are you wont have guessed all the twists this plot unfurls.

What I can say is that what we witness is a character unraveling as the truth invades her sheltered mind on all sorts of levels. From her own memories, the poignant reminders Francesca brings, visiting Spain, everything leads her to a tortured place which took me back to the “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Having spent her life believing she was different from her selfish and uncaring parents she gradually recognises quite how like her family she really is.

What the book left me with was a sense of disquiet. I think I enjoyed it, I was certainly challenged by it. I am glad I read it. And now I can’t quite decide if I am really looking forward to Ms Gardner’s back catalogue or feel like following Christina’s example and walking away from reality.

First published 2014 

Publisher: Affinity Ebook Press NZ LTD (20 Jan 2014)

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Also published on Lesbian Reading Room
By Velvet Lounger

 

Secret Lies – Amy Dunne

Jenny is one of those popular girls who appear to have it all. She is attractive, put together, confident. The other girls want to be her, the boys want to have her. But underneath the false bravado is a mess. She blames herself for the death of her adored Gran, hates what she has made herself into and the never-ending pretence to keep it up. She hates herself to the point of self harm. She has sought help, but that doesn’t stop the feelings, doesn’t stop the pain.

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Nic is the outcast. Wearing her winter uniform in a heatwave, ostracized as an oddity, she doesn’t mix, doesn’t integrate. She is bullied and abused by the girls at school. She feels invisible. But under the long sleeved top she hides a terrible secret, one of violence and abuse. Away from the nastiness of teenage girls she is fighting for her very survival.

Nobody would ever expect these two 17 year olds to be friends. They inhabit polar opposite places in their social world. But a chance encounter makes Jenny reach out in kindness, revealing to Nic that there is another side to her from the shallow, selfish, bully. And as Jenny coaxes Nic to open up a friendship starts to form.

Nic is the observant one, more sensitive to other people’s emotions. Soon she recognizes that Jenny also has a secret. And although it takes her a while to break through, her gentle persistence eventually allows Jenny to open up for the very first time.

As their friendship develops so does their attraction. Thrown together by an accident, they quickly become each others strength. Together they can escape from the secrets and lies, from the pain they have both suffered.

They both know that ‘coming out’ is a huge step. They plan to keep their love secret while they sort out their lives. But Jenny’s bitchy and dominating older sister, alerted by her spys, comes home for the very purpose of removing Nic from Jenny’s life. When she discovers that Nic is a lesbian, she uses every means to separate and destroy them.

Will Jenny fight for her new found love, fight to be the person who is emerging from under the brittle façade or will she cave in to the social pressure and bullying older sister? And while Jenny is deciding who she wants to be, can Nic hold on to hope for a future and stop the abuse to reclaim her own life.

This is an excellent and enthralling first novel.  Amy Dunne has caught the mood of 17 year-old emotions and experience brilliantly. On the one hand it is a tale of young adults emerging and exploring, with all the angst and melodrama that entails. On the other it is a serious exploration of both abuse and self harm and the impact they have on these girls internal and public lives.

The two main characters are wonderfully complex and layered. They are still children, investigating live and love, finding their sexuality and passion, learning who they are and who they want to be. But they are also adults, at least partly because of the secret pain they both suffer and the growing up that has caused.

What we see is the juxtaposition of those – the young adult emerging and trying to balance their teenage hormones and dramas with adult sensibilities and emotions. One minute they are falling in love and in lust, they next they are sulking and fighting like children. They both understand the pressures of their social world, but are not yet quite sure how to manage it and be themselves.

The story resonated with me. Despite being old enough to be their parent it brought back memories of those angst filled days. The pain of falling in love, the fight to be oneself, to create a space and a separate identity while still wanting and needing parental support and love.

Ms Dunne’s portrayal of the abuse was hard to read. I can’t speak to its realism as a survivor, but it felt all too real. Nic’s internal fight to stay alive, stay sane, stay together under the brutal mental and physical torture was intensely emotional. And Jenny’s self loathing and self abuse was extremely well written, along with her Rizzo like shell and underlying vulnerability.

The book flows. It is well written and well crafted. The dialogue is realistic. It is a well paced story which kept me reading into the night. As well as the teenage melodrama of first loves and social pressure the novel contains real tension. There are places you can see the pain about to descend and almost want to stop, but were dragged forward waiting to see how these two girls would survive, if they would survive.

There are also ongoing and layered peaks and troughs. Jenny and Nic face emotional battles coming to terms with their new sexual identity both internally, between them and with family and friends. At the same time they are facing a literally physical battle to stop Nic’s abuse, and in the build up and aftermath there is real fear for the outcome.

My only criticism, and this is minor, was that Elizabeth’s complete reversal from Bible-bashing super-bully bitch to supportive sister was hard to believe. Unlike Laura and Jack who are lightly drawn and allowed to develop their natural goodness, Elizabeth’s transformation feels forced. Her ‘protective’ excuse for her overbearing behavior is not enough to explain her extreme volte-face. In retrospect she was, perhaps, too viscously drawn as a homophobic bully to realistically change so completely.

But that slight jar does not detract from a wonderful book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, couldn’t put it down. Congratulations to Amy Dunne for an excellent first novel and to BSB for picking it up. While the American audience will no doubt complain that they don’t understand our school system (we Brits have had to learn yours) I for one am delighted to see a new British talent emerge. Looking forward to watching Ms Dunne develop this gift.

Also published at Lesbian Reading Room
By Velvet Lounger

Hoosier Daddy – Ann McMan and Salem West

Friday (Jill Fryman) is stuck in a dead end town doing a dead end job at a truck factory which appears to be on its last legs. Processes are failing, management only cares for profit, and the safety and welfare of the assembly line workers is bottom of the list. After 10 years of trying to improve things in her own way, keep the peace and help as much as she can without management authority Friday has lost her way and doubts her own value. Add to that a series of poor relationship decisions and she is pretty far down on the scale of self worth.

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When the UAW agitators arrive to drum up support for a Union vote the future of the factory seems even more dubious, but Friday finds herself attracted to the gorgeous El who may be the catalyst which destroys the local towns economy.

As the plant management fail to protect its workers and support for the Union vote increases, Friday is torn between her growing attraction for the agitator and her knowledge that once the union campaign is over El will be off to the next battle, leaving her even more empty and alone.

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As a Brit who has never been to the Midwest, let alone a small town dominated by the automotive industry I have to put my hands up and say there were may things in this book which took some time to understand. Having read a huge number of US based LesFic romances I thought I had read a reasonably broad range of American experiences from blue collar to high society and from Southern Belles and California babes to East Coast Alpha power players.

If you don’t have any reference points then the assembly line practices, the family interactions and the small town society can all feel alien. To be honest the first third of the book felt like I was reading about a different country, possibly even in a different language. In the UK all auto factories are unionized, it’s a given, so even thinking through the choices US workers face was a challenge.

But these characters grow on you. They are warm and human and well rounded. Their relationships are founded in love and knowledge, and a huge amount of small town tolerance for each other.

The story takes us on a journey, it challenges us to think about the politics and the implications for a small community whose whole economy is routed in one failing industry. Both Friday and El are aware that there are 2 sides to every argument and while in a poorly run plant the union might be essential to protect the workers, it wont benefit everybody.

At the same time we have the budding and yet troubled romance between the two women. El who has run away from a personal mess and Friday who has lost herself. Their attraction is obvious and their growing affection is humorously written and lovely to watch. The interaction and intervention of Friday’s friends and Grammy as the story unfolds make this a tale set in a level of love and understanding not many of us have encountered.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. And if you struggle at the beginning because it isn’t a familiar environment I would strongly recommend working your way in to the town, the people and the romance. It will definitely be on my re-read pile for the future.

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Also published at Lesbian Reading Room

By Velvet Lounger

 

Exception to the Rule - Cindy Rizzo

Available: Amazon Kindle (£3.05)
 


Two strong young women, both self confident, opinionated and passionate  meet at College slowly become friends despite the rules they set for themselves. They overcome pre-judgemental notions as they each learn about themselves and each other, exploring a relationship neither of them wanted or expected. 

Both ambitious, determined and focused on their goals at university, with an expectation that all they need is themselves, as they get to know each other, they realise that by working together that can accomplish so much more, and be fulfilled in a way they had never previously imagined.

Exception to the Rule explores many of the issues young people face when they take that first step into adult hood and feel like they already have everything figured out. 

Different characters, butch and femme, both strong in their own right, cynical of each other at first, the book does a great job to show that being a loner or going it alone is not the only way, and there's a lot to be gained from letting people in. Even if there is a risk to getting hurt emotionally. 

While it's possible to have fun with superficial relationships and sex,there's so much more to gain from a satisfying emotional connection... and happy endings can happen!

Well written, gripping, full of substance and a gentle reflection on the ideals and passions many of us had at 18, Exception to the Rule is an enjoyable forray into times and experiences past. Set primarily in the nineties, there's a chance to relive our glory days!

By Katie

High Desert – Katherine V. Forrest

High Desert is the ninth in the Kate Delafield detective series and once again plunges us into a combination of crime and personal crisis.

 

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Nearly ten years after the last installment Kate has retired and now faces an empty world without ‘the job’ which has filled her world for 25 years and the love of her despairing partner, Aimee. She even has to cope with the imminent prospect of losing her best friend, Maggie Schaeffer.

Kate has always struggled with her own demons, and in this book they provide the biggest battle. She can still front aggressive bikers, sweet-talk nutty neighbours, out-think pyromaniac murderers and out-run a ring of fire. But she has yet to deal with her own internal issues.

The plot finds Kate helping her old lieutenant, now Captain Walcott, who is concerned that Kate’s ex-partner has vanished while on enforced leave. Kate soon discovers that he has disappeared on purpose and carefully covered his traces. As her off-the-record investigations develop she tracks down his sister and finds the reason for both his long-term reticence to share his family background and his current precarious hideout, where he is waiting for his vengeful brother to appear.

Of much more importance to long-term Detective Delafield fans are the personal stories threaded around and through the ‘detective’ novel. First Maggie Schaeffer, owner of the Nightwood Bar and Kate’s closest friend, confidante and rock, is dying of lung cancer in a hospice, and pleading with Kate to help her end her life with dignity. Second, Kate’s forced retirement has left not just a void, but a vacuum in her life. She was ‘the job’ and without it she is lost. But even more than that, the horrors of a life filled with death can no longer be buried by the next case and the next crisis, and so they come back to haunt Kate in blood-drenched dreams.

Kate’s reaction to a lifetime of loss, a lifetime of suppressing her feelings and protecting those around her, both physically and emotionally, is to drink until she can no longer feel. And so the adorable and long-suffering Aimee, on-again, off-again partner of 19 years, has gone as well – relegated to a cold and empty rented cottage, living out of boxes and reading magazines while she waits for Kate to sort out her life.

For those who just read this book as a one-off crime novel this may all come as a revelation. But for those of us who have been reading Forrest’s books for 30 years, Kate and Aimee, Maggie, Joe and all the rest are old friends. They have lives and histories and have been part of our psyche since the first novel, Amateur City, was published in 1984. Revisiting their lives, remembering the earlier stories and re-engaging with them 10 years on is like going to a school reunion with a bunch of people you had forgotten, but never stopped loving.

Forrest’s brilliance is in the depth of her characters and the honesty and integrity of her story lines. Both her main players and the minor characters are very real. Kate has always touched the lives of many during her investigations; indeed, it is her interactions with the people she meets which make her more than just a detective – from women at the Nightwood Bar who became her family to the Hollywood has-beens of the Beverly Malibu. High Desert reminds us of them and introduces new faces. The lightest of touches brings back Patton and her yachting cap, Taylor’s retirement to grow avocados in Fallbrook, Tori and the friendly fire.

We have a myriad of lesbian crime and lesbian romance novels these days, in no small part thanks to the pioneering work and leadership of Forrest herself. What sets the Kate Delafield novels apart is that they are painful for their characters, they are not easy rollercoasters to follow and they don’t have happy emotional endings. The characters have matured as the series has progressed, as have we, the readers. The only person who hasn’t developed is Kate herself, because she has refused to face the biggest truth: that ‘protecting’ those closest to her has allowed her to hide from herself.

The importance of Katherine V. Forrest in modern lesbian literature cannot be overstated. Curious Wine was the first unabashed, modern and full-on lesbian romance written by a woman for women. While today it may strike some as tame and dated, at the time it was groundbreaking in its honesty. Before Curious Wine we had the depressing melodrama of Radclyffe Hall’s Well of Loneliness and the pulp fiction novels of the 1950s and ’60s that felt more like male porn than something women could relate to. Forrest gave us something romantic and soppy, unrealistic in its simplicity, but real in terms of how we felt and how we loved. Then she introduced a whole new genre – the lesbian detective novel. Before the hugely successful Val McDermid, before Claire McNab, Radclyffe and all the others who have followed, there was Katherine V. Forrest’s Kate Delafield.

Forrest has won multiple Lambda Literary Awards, a Golden Crown and the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Pioneer Award. She was senior editor at Naiad for 10 years, and supervising editor at Spinsters Ink during the critical blooming of lesbian fiction. She has edited hundreds of women’s works and dozens of anthologies, and has written book reviews and articles for many major publications. She served on the Lambda Literary Foundation board as president for many years and was instrumental in founding the LGBT Writers’ Retreat.

For many writers and readers Forrest is not only a groundbreaking leading light who opened up lesbian literature for new authors and audiences; she is one of the cornerstones who has supported, improved and developed the whole genre. Perhaps now she has retired from her key roles her fans can look forward to a flurry of books to make up for the long silence. Roll on the next Kate Delafield story – I can’t wait.

Product info:

Paperback: 264 pages First published 2014 Publisher: Spinsters Ink Books (18 Jan 2014)  ISBN-10: 1935226657

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Also published at Lesbian Reading Room
By Velvet Lounger

Heart Stopper by RJ Samuel

Heart Stopper By RJ Samuel

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Available: RRP $4.99 All e formats


Heart Stopper is RJ Samuel's first novel, and allows the author the opportunity to explore and demonstrate her first hand medical knowledge.

Opening with the discovery of a dead body, Priya quickly recognises her boss has died and possibly been murdered in his own apartment, where she finds herself but can't remember how she got there.

Part medical drama, part crime thriller, part romantic drama, the story follows Priya as she tried to unravel what happened to her boss that night, her role in his death and a complicated new love interest. 

Heart Stopper is right on the money with the scientific detail - reminiscent of early Michael Crichton - and an intriguing love story between two appealing female characters, and both are stories of the heart.

A fantastic first novel that combines drama, attention to detail and a compulsive attraction. 

We caught up with author RJ Samuel about the writing process and the story behind Heart Stopper. 

Samuel explains, "Heart Stopper was my first novel so I had to do a lot of research on writing novels first. Then I focused on the pacemaker-specific research. My background is in medicine and IT. As I hadn’t been near anything academically medicine-related in over 20 years, I needed to re-learn some basic physiology, learn about the pacemaker/medical devices industry and pacemaker programming, and study electrophysiology. 

"I was very conscious that readers in the technology-based thriller genre can be very critical if the technology is not accurate or at least plausible (if invented from scratch). I did not have access to pacemaker specialists (as I was reluctant to take up anyone’s time), so I used old textbooks, websites, company brochures etc. I wanted the details to be as accurate as possible and I wanted to make the scenario as realistic as possible, so I ended up having to work out a plausible technical solution to an invented problem (I’m a little frightened that it could actually work).  

"I tried to incorporate it into the story and tried to explain much of the medical side in a non-technical way, in the way I would like to get it as a reader myself. I thought I had managed that, but I do get a few readers who would have preferred less medical detail. And I have to say, when I re-read it after a year, I couldn’t remember my research and found I had to pay close attention when I got to the medical bits. The great thing is that readers have been gripped by the story and the characters and those who don’t seek out medical nitty-gritty have said it didn’t take away from their enjoyment of the book."

As the role of  geography plays such an important part in both Heart Stopper and the Vision Painter series, Samuel talks about what Ireland means to her, "I’m only realising now that location has had more of an influence on my writing than I thought. I describe myself as an outsider looking out and my first three books are written from the point of view of characters like that. So my sense of place colours my descriptions i.e. even though I ‘ve live here for almost thirty years, the Ireland I describe might highlight little details that an Irish person living in that location all their lives might not focus on, might not even notice as special. 

"My experience of the weather in Ireland, for example, is influenced by my childhood in Nigeria and (a little bit) in India. Again my descriptions of Kerala are based on my visiting there as an outsider who has an ‘in’ i.e. I appear Indian, I have family there, but I have not got the insider’s experience of living there. Sometimes, visiting the locations also has a direct influence on the story line e.g. a character appears in Heart Stopper (and affects the story) who is based on a chance meeting when I went to research an area in Connemara. I’m finding it difficult to write protagonists who should feel like they belong in a location i.e. Irish-born, Irish-grown, Irish-stayed, so I’m having to working twice as hard to describe the locations from their point of view."

On genre, Samuel says "I found it challenging at first to write in the thriller genre. I started Heart Stopper intending it as a pure medical thriller and I tried to follow the rules of writing in that genre, but I found myself telling a story of how an ordinary character would react when facing extraordinary circumstances, circumstances that were not necessarily dramatic and obvious, but were the result of decisions made over a period. Issues came up in the story that I had not expected to write in a medical thriller, - outsider, racism, family, cultural issues. 

"As a result, readers and reviewers have expressed a difficulty in categorising Heart Stopper, but the consensus is that it is more than the sum of its individual genres."

By Katie 

Virtual Book Tour Event: The Beginning of Us by Sarah Brooks

‘The Beginning Of Us’ is a lesbian romance story. A 21-year old college student falls in love with one of her professors’, you could say it was love at first sight for Tara.

 

The Beginning of Us is available from Riptide Publishing for $3.99

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The Beginning Of Us - the review

The book begins with Tara sitting alone in her room writing a ‘letter’ to Eliza who has disappeared. It is Christmas break but Tara hasn’t gone home, she wants, needs to know what has happened to Eliza; she didn’t turn up for the final exam and hasn’t contacted Tara to let her know why.

I love the way Sarah Brooks has laid out the story. Tara is writing this letter to her absent love and in it she is explaining how she feels about Eliza & her disappearance but she also moves back in time telling us how they met, how they fell in love & everything they did along the way. A very gripping story, in fact I read it in two days because once I started reading it I couldn’t put it down. 

I, just like Tara, wanted to know what had happened to Eliza, why she disappeared without a word & will she ever return?

Review by Amy 

From the author:
 

Hello!  This is Sarah Brooks, author of The Beginning of Us.  Thank you for joining me on my blog tour this week!

Every comment you make on this blog tour enters you in a DRAWING for a $25 Amazon gift card!  Entries close at midnight, Eastern Time, on February 2nd, and the winner will be announced on February 3rd.  Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. 

Planet-of-the-Book:  I haven’t seen an epistolary novel in the form of an email before, although it’s an obvious evolution.  How much have you drawn on the form, or veered away from it and why did you make the choices?

SARAH:  I’ve always loved the epistolary form, particularly because I love handwritten letters and the different grace and tenor of that kind of communication.  I actually set out to write this story as a series of letters between the two women, but in today’s world of technology, that didn’t seem realistic. . . and I wanted to build a faster pace than the days that elapse between mailed letters allows.  Thus:  typed letters, emails, and texts.  

The major way I’ve probably veered from the classic epistolary form is that Tara is not sending these letters.  She’s addressing Eliza, but she doesn’t believe she’ll see her or talk to her again.  The letters are actually more of a journal Tara is keeping.  Also, I don’t allow the reader to see much of Eliza’s perspective, as most of the book is what Tara is typing.  The reader wonders where Eliza has gone, but also what she is thinking and feeling as Tara addresses her in her writing – that’s the tension of the story.  

I decided to make the book epistolary because it’s how the story came to me.  I created Tara and then dropped her into this situation, and this is how she reacted. The letters are addressed to Eliza, but she’s really talking to herself, trying to understand everything that has happened since she met Eliza.

PLANET-OF-THE-BOOK:  The professor/student relationship is often the subject of fantasies – how important was it to you to create the sense of reality even though the subjectivity comes from the student?

SARAH:  I’m always interested in the places and ways love finds us – often in inconvenient situations, with inconvenient people.  That’s part of the allure of the professor/student relationship.  It’s an immediate obstacle, something forbidden.  I think we also love the tension between the wise mentor and the naïve student, and we love to watch those roles get flipped.  In The Beginning of Us, Eliza is eight years older, confident, accomplished academically – but she panics when she begins to discover she’s a lesbian.  It’s Tara, the student, who embraces her new-found identity.  

It was important for me to ground the story in reality, even though it’s told from the perspective of 21-year-old Tara, who can’t quite understand the danger to Eliza’s professional reputation or the jolt to Eliza’s sense of self.  I wanted the reader to both hear Tara’s story and read between the lines to find Eliza’s fear.  When I researched college policies on relationships between students and professors, I found unanimous language like “highly discouraged” and “considered inappropriate”.   

It’s not illegal for two consenting adults to be in a relationship . . . but it’s problematic when one of those adults is in a vastly different position of power.  That’s why Eliza attempts to solve the problem by suggesting they put off their relationship until Tara is no longer a student in Eliza’s class.  

Although Tara tells this story, the reader begins to sympathize with Eliza’s reactions and choices.  Is love worth the risk?  That’s the question of the book.

Go to http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/the-beginning-of-us to read Tara and Eliza’s story.

About The Beginning of Us (Excerpt):

Eliza, where are you? I'm listening, watching, waiting for you. I need you. How dare you run away? Where’s the courage, the fearlessness I fell in love with?
I don’t know what else to do but write. It’s dark in my dorm room, and the wind rattles the panes of my window, and I’m supposed to be driving to my parents’ right now for winter break, but I can’t feel my arms or my legs, and my chest aches because I don’t know where you’ve gone. Or why. 

I know I shouldn't have fallen in love with my professor. But you inspired me when you stood in front of the class, telling us to find our authentic selves. And I did—with you. How could I know that you would be so afraid of this, of us? That you'd be so terrified of . . . yourself? Wherever you are, Eliza, hear me—and come back to me.
Love (yes, I'll write that word, Professor), Your Tara

About the Author:
Sarah Brooks was born and raised on a farm in Iowa, traveled through Europe and Central America, and lived in Alaska for a decade before she moved to Colorado to live near her family.  When she's not writing late at night, she raises her beautiful, sassy six-year-old daughter Mitike; teaches middle schoolers how to love writing and reading; and hikes in the mountains.
Sarah holds English and religion majors from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa; an MAT from the University of Alaska Southeast; and (nearly -- in one more semester) an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University in Boulder.

Published mostly as an essayist (in Sinister Wisdom, Room, The English Journal, and Iris Brown, among other places), Sarah writes the lesbian fiction she wishes she could read.
 

Virtual Book Tour: Post your comments and questions below and Sarah Brooks will respond on Monday 27th January at 8.00pm.