Calorie-free, Wither-proof Books for Valentine's Day

Recently I've read some "clever, cynical" comments by folks who assume that Valentine's Day is a "commercial, materialistic, manufactured, unrealistic view of romance." I understand some of the sentiment. It can be argued that equating being alone with not being romantic, and lack of diamonds and roses making one a bad partner is simple commercialism. However, the idea of seeking to validate both the hormonal desire for intimacy (which drives us all on some level, regardless of how we express it) and to invest in the hope of spring is not exactly an invention of Hallmark. I'm old enough (just barely, thank you) to remember that Valentine's Day used to be "St. Valentine's Day" before the Catholic church cleaned out saints they considered apocryphal, rather than real, like St. Christopher et al in Vatican II. In the case of Valentine there is a question of which of the identified three early Christians martyrs actually deserve sainthood (which simply means that the Catholic Church knows their souls are already in Heaven, as proven by a long complicated process that is irrelevant to this little introduction).

However, one could easily suggest that our current view of Valentine's day is actually a long historic parade of co-options of which Hallmark and Zales are merely the most recent on the bandwagon. Current theory is that St. Valentine was set up to replace the Roman Lupercalia. Celebrated Feb 13-15th, Lupercalia was a fertility, purification and health festival dedicated to the Roman interpretation of the Greek god Pan (the original "horny devil" as it were). It also honored Lupa, the she-wolf who suckled the twins Romulus and Remus. Part of the festival events included young men (think cabin-fevered, adolescent males who had eaten well and drunk a lot of wine) dressed in naught but goatskin and some sacrificial blood, running around the city, and striking with thongs clusters of young women, waiting just for their arrival, all to ensure their fertility. Remnants of this festival continued through the 5th Century, but by then Valentine had also arrived and his feast day was the 14th. By no coincidence, he blessed young lovers. St. V admonished lovers to exchange tokens and it is possible that the young men began wearing their beloveds' tokens on their sleeves at this time. Or that might have come later with the rise of chivalric love, but you get the idea.

And let's talk about those tokens. The Romans were not shy about their fertility symbols, which included imagery of erect phalli entering vulvae. This oh-so-subtle image was morphed into a much more palatable one for the libido-suppressed fathers of the Catholic Church. It's everywhere this time of year: The "heart" being pierced by an "arrow." I mean really, does a "heart" look anything like the images you've seen of real animal hearts or does it look like a stylized female genitalia? Think about it -- you may never look at a Hallmark card quite the same way again!

Further, when Christianity crossed the Channel, it has been suggested that Valentine festivities combined some elements of the Celtic cross quarter celebration of the goddess Brigid known as Imbolc. Fire and light, female fertility and love are all part of Brigid's domain. (Although we also have a remnant of Imbolc in Groundhog day, but that's another story.)

To all of this I would add that February is a hard month in the Northern Hemisphere. We are weeks beyond Yule/Solstice/Hanukkah/Christmas. The sun light is returning but the snow is still falling. It's cold and the hope of spring is still mostly just that, hope. Thus is it any wonder that cultures for generations have tried to find SOMETHING to hang on to as they looked toward spring? Toward the quickening green, toward returning life -- and what is life without love?

There, having said my piece about Valentine, I would point out a favorite genre of lesbian fiction. It's lesbian romance. If as a genre, romance is "women's stories" then, in my not the least bit shy opinion, lesbian romance is the epitome of all romance. There are more writers of lesbian romance today than at any time in our cultural history. A fact to revel in! Thus, I'm taking a few moments to point out some recent titles and some old favorites (with titles linked to the full reviews). Some, I meant to review more fully, and haven't yet, nevertheless, I certainly suggest you consider them, for yourself and your girlfriend. What could be a more lasting and romantic statement? As Rayann in Karin Kallmaker's Touchwood suggests, the perfect Valentine gift is "calorie-free, wither-proof books."

MJ's box of assorted calorie-free, wither-proof books for your Valentine reading:

Some elements of Curious Wine, by Katherine V. Forrest, primarily to do with it's 1978 setting, may seem a bit dated. However, it is THE place to start to exploring lesbian romances in the last 25 yrs. This highly sensual, although not explicit, story is very romantic. Lane and Diane will steal into your heart and you might find that like me, the ticking sound that an electric heater makes will never be the same again. If you need another reason, Curious Wine is also makes a good compliment if you've recently seen the bio-pic, Milk, because these are the times.

If you like your romance liberally laced with laughter, then Saxon Bennett's Date Night Club is an excellent choice. Her best work to-date, in the opinion of this long time fan, Bennett creates a funny, charming and very human ensemble cast of lesbians, all looking for love, then carries her readers through an arc of challenge and growth with them. I laughed out loud several times, you might too. It's a delightful story.

Love's Melody Lost is Radclyffe's tribute to the classic Gothic romances with an unabashed lesbian twist and is still my favorite of her stand alone romances. Graham is a concert pianist and composer who has gone into seclusion since losing her sight ten years ago in an auto accident. A graduate student in Landscape Design, Anna is the woman in transition who embraces life and possibility of love. The music these women finally create is rich and erotic.

What could be more perfect than a romantic confection from the Queen of Lesbian Romance, Karin Kallmaker? Sugar is that yummy treat! After months of no social life Sugar Sorenson suddenly finds herself under the romantic notices of not one, but three attractive, dynamic women. She is also temporarily without a home and under deadline to enter a cook-off contest that could make or break her nascent speciality bakery. With ingredients like that classically Kallmaker witty dialog, thoughtful insights and erotic moments make Sugar is mixed to be an excellent sweet.

Landing by Emma Donoghue juggles a long-distance relationship between women who couldn't be less alike. Jude is a 25-year-old archivist and self-proclaimed Luddite from rural Ontario, Canada. Síle is a globetrotting, biracial, tech-hound, cosmopolitan woman in her 40s. Unusual happenings have their flight paths cross, develop friendship, and slowly fall in love. But a Long Distance Relationship can be a flight fraught with turbulence. Landing is a lovely contemporary romance.

Last year's Lambda award-winning romance was Out of Love, by KG MacGregor. If you haven't tasted MacGregor's writing, this is a brillant place to start. Out of Love introduces two intelligent, career-focused women who fall fast and then struggle with the long distance relationship and a range of complications, personal and professional. MacGregor's wry wit shines. You won't want to fall Out of Love.

Lambda winning romance writer Georgia Beers is one of the rising stars in the lesbian romance genresince her debut novel, Turning the Page. First released in 2000, Turning the Page is a charming romance with interesting, intelligent, funny women, a richly detailed setting, and lots of captivating chemistry. Melanie and Taylor's falling in love also marks a period in the history (or herstory) of fan-doms, as Xenite Taylor introduces Mel to the Warrior Princess and her Bard. Mel's new career choices soon have her owning a women's bookstore and as Mel's coming out process evolves there is a respectful nod to Curious Wine among the lesbian cultural references. While not as polished as Beers' more recent works, Turning the Page is still a fine Valentine treat.

From the pen of the venerable Lee Lynch is a dyke hybrid of Keillor's Lake Wobegon stories and Maupin's Tales of the City. Sweet Creek aka "the poor dyke's Palm Springs" is a small town in the Northwest where an assortment of quirky (mostly queer) characters provide insight and entertainment to each other and to readers. Some characters find love, some find themselves, and others find peace in Sweet Creek.

Okay, the truth be told, Ruth Perkinson's Piper's Someday is not really a lesbian romance story but it is a kind of love story. Piper's Someday is the heartwarming story of Piper, a young girl who survives the deaths of her parents and sibling and the neglect of her grandfather through the love of her dog, Someday, and the help of some wonderful, strong lesbian role models. This touching, funny, grounded tale of the Southland is on my list of favorite young adult titles. Perkinson's literary nods to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird are thoughtful and evocative. If you've ever had a furry friend who held a part of your heart in those liquid love puppy eyes, you'll enjoy reading Piper's story.

There you have it: A lovely box of assorted tales of lesbian love and romance for you and yours to explore for Valentine's Day. Calorie-free, wither-proof books, as good as falling in love.

Happy Valentine's Day

MJ, not your average Cupid

Landing

Emma Donoghue

Harcourt Books

www.HarcourtBooks.com

May 7, 2007

ISBN-10: 0151012970

Life is about to change for Jude Turner in Emma Donoghue's novel, Landing. The 25 year old archivist/curator of a one-room schoolhouse museum in her very small town of Ireland, Ontario, Canada, is "celebrating" New Years Eve by flying to the United Kingdom to see her mother, who has been visiting her sister, Jude's aunt. This mysterious request from Jude's aunt heralds illness and loss for Jude. Thus for the first time Jude, the self-proclaimed Luddite, is on a plane. It will be one of many firsts as an unusual incident during the flight prompts her meeting Síle O'Shaughnessy, a meeting that will have long term effects on both women. Síle is a 39-year-old flight attendant of Indo-Celtic heritage with nearly 20 years of experience in her career. A resident of Dublin, Ireland, Síle is a cosmopolitan, high-tech, and high energy lesbian whose fast-paced vagabond life suits her. She was born, after all, at 40,000 feet.

The "LDR" --long distance romance-- that slowly takes off between the two women is witty and charming, though sometimes rocked by the bad weather of miscommunication and time zones, it is carried up like the magic of flight. Themes of distance, travel, and change are woven throughout the novel as the women re-prioritize their lives with each other. Landing is a romance filled with the ache of distance and longing, and Donoghue is wonderfully skilled in her quiet little illustrations of it as when "She conjured up Jude, or rather her absence, a hot ghost for Síle to wrap her body around." (151)

The charm of love's preoccupation is reflected as Jude confesses to a friend, "Daily life becomes this sort of epic: The First Time I Saw Her Face, Our First Walk by the Lake, The First Phone Call, The Night I Stayed Up Making Anagrams of Her Name ..."

Gwen stared. "Anagrams?"

"When I can't sleep ...," admitted Jude. (159)

Donoghue reminds us that life can be messy yet interesting in this story peopled with vivid and surprising individuals struggling to deal with the limitations of their communities, families and careers. Wry observations of the practical, political and legal realities for international relationships, as well as the internal conflicts of national identity and individuality, prejudice and labels, self-worth and love, commitment and independence, are deftly charted and navigated throughout the story. For example, there's Jude's view of history and her efforts at her museum "Uncutesy, I guess," she said, after a second. "In North America we tend to Disneyfy the past into this sugar-coated nostalgia product, all bonnets and merry sleigh rides--" (24) Or Síle's friend, Jael's struggle with herself as a "hasbian" now married with a child and revealing that she's also seeing a woman, "Without it, I swear I couldn't hold it together: the house, the husband, the job, the child. Maybe I need a secret." (298)

Would that most plane flights were as pleasantly distracting, charmingly complicated, and warmly engaging as Landing. Donoghue's writing is a pleasure to read, so much so that pulling quotes, for this reviewer, became a difficult choice. Frankly, I recommend reading the whole book. Please fasten your seat belt and enjoy.

-MJ Lowe

BN: BBC Audiobooks America has produced an unabridged audio version of Landing, skillfully narrated by Laura Hicks. You might check to see if your local library has or can get a copy, it's fun to listen to as well.

ISBN: 9780792748410

Gift of Time

Robin Alexander
Intaglio Publications
9781933113821, $16.95
www.intagliopub.com

For practical, grounded, thirty-something CPA Leah Marks, time is about to become far more complicated than she ever imagined possible. A chance stop into a local antique shop introduces her to Reagan Montgomery, a woman that Leah feels very attracted to and results in her acquiring an unusual, lovely, antique snow globe. The globe is one of a pair created by a local craftsman nearly 100 years ago. No ordinary globe, it would seem, as Leah discovers that its image changes while she watches it. A tiny woman who looks very much like Reagan appears from within the elegantly wrought Victorian house in the globe. Investigation of the artifact reveals they once belonged to two women who bear a striking resemblance to Leah and Reagan.

The story takes a remarkable and fanciful turn when Leah is propelled back in time to 1907 via the globe. In 1907 Leah becomes Leanne, a young woman who is in love with Elizabeth, who looks like a younger Reagan. Returning to 2004, Leah finds herself compelled to discover all that she can about the women, who for some magical and unknown reason, appear to be herself and Reagan in another lifetime. Leah decides the only way to understand the full story is to return to 1907. When Reagan joins Leah in the past, the women find they have set in motion a complex set of events. When Elizabeth's mother discovers the young lovers in a compromising position, they both experience the horrifically violent attitude toward lesbianism at the time. The situation looks dire. Still, Leah's humor is engaging, as she recalls, "I had been clawed, dragged, slapped and choked in less than twenty-four hours. This was the most action I'd seen since I tried to put the neighbor's cat in a grocery sack as a child" (110).

Gift of Time evolves from a "simple" time-traveling romance to a complicated, layered tale with several plot twists. The women struggle to minimize the impact of their actions on the future--and still win a life together in the 21st century. As Leah observes of the early timeline, "There was no central heat, the cold chilled me to the bone, no Internet, and heaven help me, no Mountain Dew, the main staple of my diet" (110).

Alexander has given readers a charming romance with some fast-paced action. Leah's internal voice is often funny and self-effacing; the romantic interludes are sweet and sexy. The first portion of the story was not quite as engaging to this reader, however, perhaps because some of the characterization seemed unsettled and forced. Within a few chapters the characterization improves as the action picks up and the surprises unfold. The result was engrossing and enjoyable. Alexander makes observations about racism and human relationships in the South, then and now, which are thoughtful, hopeful, and earnest. The settings of historic and pre-Katrina Gulfport are carefully realized. Give yourself a Gift of Time and enjoy every minute.

-MJ Lowe

Date Night Club

Saxon Bennett
Bella Books
9781594930942 $13.95

www.bellabooks.com

Meet Chris McCoy, a charming, neurotic lesbian mail carrier living in Albuquerque, N.M., and member of a group of middle-aged lesbian friends who find themselves single, AGAIN. They decide to commit themselves to finding not just a lover-for-the-moment but a "perfect mate." Thus they form the "Date Night Club" where "Instead of letting love fall to chance, they would research it, explore all the places where it might lurk or frolic and nail it to the wall of each of their futures" (40).

The club members are an eccentric mix of women who provide a great deal of heart and humor on their "quest" for love. There is Bernadette Chevez Maestas, known as B., a high-energy and highly successful realtor with a physique akin to Dolly Parton's. Sarah K. Roswell is the pastry chef/business woman behind a well known line of creme puffs available in upscale groceries. Sarah calls herself "Midge" because as a Little Person, she feels she might as well control and embrace her identity with disarming, self affirming humor. Luce is the resident bohemian-earth-mother-artist-type who works in large scale stained glass and may still be grieving her late lover. And Amadeus, a tall, blue-eyed, red-haired German Amazon, runs The Zoo, a hip restaurant that's popular with "club members."

The group makes monthly forays dubbed "date night" that include volunteering at the local pride-fest picnic and attending a book group sponsored by the local women's bookstore. In the latter scene, Alex Taylor, the author of the month's selection, is in attendance because she hopes for feedback from readers. (Her book, titled "The Heiress," bears a striking resemblance to the story line of Bennett's book Talk Back.) Particularly amusing is the hot seat on which the author finds herself when her literary use of pickles is criticized by two very uptight feminist readers. The discussion that results is bizarre and hilarious. While no reader should assume an autobiographical origin to any novel, one can not help but wonder if Bennett is exorcising some particular experience with this wickedly funny scene. Alex Taylor's rather plaintively confused comment, "The pickle heiress was meant to be funny," (75), says it all.

Date Night Club is a very fine example of what Saxon Bennett does best: She creates a funny, charming and very human ensemble cast of lesbians, then carries her readers through an arc of challenge and growth with them. I laughed out loud several times, especially in regard to B.'s type A dominating, if well meaning, approach to orchestrating not only her own life but those of her good friends. The scene with the duct tape still gets me to smile.Dog people will love The Pipster, who makes Lassie look ill-trained, and the flyball games. Date Night Club is one of the funniest books I've read in a very long time, and is in my opinion the best of Bennett's many charming novels, in that her characters are so clearly defined and articulated from the very beginning, making the story a pleasure to follow. Give Date Night Club a try, you might not find your true love, but you're sure to enjoy the evening.

-MJ Lowe

Running with the Wind

Nell Stark
Bold Strokes Books
1933110708, $15.95
www.boldstrokesbooks.com

Sail away in Promising First Novel.

Running with the Wind is an engaging engrossing debut novel by Nell Stark. Corrie Marston, a graduate student in engineering, spends her summer teaching sailing in Rhode Island. Corrie is talented, intelligent, fit, good looking and very good at sailing--Olympic-class good. Denise Lewis was Corrie's crew for the Olympic trials. Their relationship was intense, exciting and closeted, as Denise wasn't ready to come out. Before long, Denise left Corrie for the security and validation of a heterosexual relationship with William, Corrie's brother. The siblings have always had a competitive streak but this blow created a rift between them. Since Denise and William's engagement, Corrie has shut off a great deal of her pain, anger and her capacity for love. She has "made a point to hook up with friends--not random, but no strings attached"(47).

Corrie is one of the most thoughtful and articulate depictions of a bisexual woman this reviewer can recall. As a friend of Corrie comments, "I get the feeling that gender doesn't really matter to her. That it's just another physical characteristic like body type or something"(48). Still, Corrie admits to herself that "seducing men made her feel powerful, somehow. Whereas women just felt good" (49). Some elements of Corrie's view might make readers uncomfortable. She has not dealt with the emotional scars from Denise's rejection and that has pushed Corrie into a patch of windless water where she is foundering.

Quinn Davies, an intelligent, shy, 27 year-old woman in vet school has been convinced by an old friend, Drew, to take sailing lessons this summer. Quinn's gift with animals results in her helping Corrie's dog, Frog when she has an accident. The event places the two women in more intimate surroundings than the marina. Aware of Corrie's approach to sex, Quinn, despite her attraction to Corrie, is careful. For Quinn, "The entire idea of casual sex-- even between friends--made her uncomfortable. Sex meant losing control, and losing control meant whoever you were with could really, truly see you. Not just physically because you were naked, but emotionally--and what if they didn't like what they saw? Even if they did, you could never take it back. Sex wasn't like blurting out a confession by accident that you could then pretend was a joke. It was permanent"(48). With this thoughtful self awareness, Quinn refuses Corrie's causal overtures.

When Corrie realizes that William and Denise will be sailing in the annual Regatta, she decides to court Quinn in a face-saving plan to prove that she can get a girlfriend. Despite her sexual experience, Corrie is the naive one in many ways and the leaks in this boat appear quickly as Corrie, whose observing ego is not very strong, begins to fall for Quinn. Yet the more "innocent" Quinn understands more of herself, Corrie, and the nature of love and loyalty. The two women will have to find winds of trust and love for the relationship to sail.

Appropriately, sailing is one of the characters of Running with the Wind. How Corrie, Quinn, William, and other characters approach and relate to the sport is fascinating and revealing. The race scenes, both impromptu and formal, kept this reviewer turning pages. Further, Stark uses the various characters' understanding of sailing to explain sailing elements without distracting the reader with details. Corrie's frame of reference for a great deal of life is sailing and her analogies are nautical. She understands the boats, the sails, the wind, the sea and her role as a sailor. Corrie finds solace in the power and non-judging challenge of the wind and the water.

Running with the Wind is a fast-paced read. Stark's characters are richly drawn and interesting. The dialog can be lively and wry and elicited several laughs from this reader. Like Kallmaker's All the Wrong Places, the discussions of the nature of sex, love, power, and sexuality are insightful and represent a welcome voice from the view of late-20-something characters today. Stark also captures lovely, intimate, and vivid moments such as, "Corrie remembered how smooth and soft [Denise's] eyebrows had felt as she traced them with one forefinger in the aftermath of their lovemaking" (14). The love scenes between Corrie and Quinn are erotically charged and sweet.

Running with the Wind is a wonderful debut novel which holds great promise. It's a touching romance with lively, realistic characters in an interesting setting. This reviewer looks forward to reading Stark's future stories and in the meanwhile, recommends readers pick up a copy and set sail.

-MJ Lowe

Finders Keepers

Karin Kallmaker
978-1594930720, $13.95
www.bellabooks.com

In her latest romance, Finders Keepers, Kallmaker has once again turned the genre on its ear. She has given readers a hot, romantic story that bookends two complex journeys her lovers take in order to become and find the "keepers" they desire. In the course of the lead characters' struggles Kallmaker prompts readers to seriously consider two questions at the heart of romantic love in general and the romance novel genre in particular. She asks us to consider: what is beautiful? And what makes a perfect match?

Linda Bartok and Marissa Chabot meet in a lifeboat when the cruise ship they are on sinks. The vacation is saved when they find an island. Romance blooms in the languid and lush tropical resort. Both women find in the other someone who sees parts of them that most people never notice. In Marissa's case, Linda sees not only her intelligence and wit but past the excess pounds to the strong, attractive, and desirable woman. In the Linda's case, Marissa sees beyond the highly cultivated gorgeous exterior to the strong, capable, and intelligent woman. In the physical expression of their love, they find new aspects of themselves. The sweetly romantic week is a watershed for both women and a delight for readers. When their vacation ends, Linda and Marissa each begin a struggle to better integrate their exteriors and interiors and to fulfill the potential they glimpsed via the other's eyes. Both woman will deal with their past and discover their own strength and beauty.

Linda, frequently mistaken for a popular, beautiful actress, has been running to various far-flung and out-of-the-way locales to avoid the demons of her childhood and her mother's irrational expectations for an acceptable daughter. Hiding behind what she thinks of as her façade of beauty, Linda has engaged in empty sexual encounters but no one really saw her, none of the women really touched her. At the outset of one of these meaningless encounters Linda thinks, "What piece of me do you want? You have to pick because you don't get the whole me. There is no whole me anymore." (86) Until Linda finds Marissa. Time spent with Marissa allows Linda to see that she has to face and make peace with her past in order to heal and to find a future.

A computer geek with a wry sense of humor, Marissa has hidden herself in her work, oversized clothes and the all-too-easily acquired extra pounds of a sedentary job and a lonely personal life. Falling for Linda has been a wake-up call to for Marissa to stop the spiral and reclaim her body as part of herself. Since adolescence Marissa has been hiding her sexual attractiveness behind the protection of her size. Yet Linda's impression of Marissa is that she "had a passion for living and it had shown in the way she'd attacked the cliff. It showed in the way she made love. Even in the way she enjoyed water, sand and new experiences ..." (81)

Finders Keepers is not a light read, if you'll pardon the pun. It is a complex story with many layers. Marissa's struggle with weight-loss and fitness illustrates the "get thin quick without work" claims most American weight loss companies tout. (An attractive promise Americans are all too happy to buy.) Kallmaker provides insights into evaluating programs and understanding reasonable goals without being pedantic and Marissa's hard-won success is inspiring. Readers glimpse relatively small portions of Linda's childhood and the frightful and bizarre trauma at the hand of her mother. It reminds us that monetary success is no guarantee of love, health, happiness, or sanity. Yet the roots of her mother's obsessions are a dark reflection of American views toward perfect beauty, particularly epitomized by the beauty pageant circuit.

Further, Marissa is one of the owners of "Finders Keepers" a dating service that uses computer analysis of a complex and detailed questionnaire to match hopeful singles with their perfect partner. Thus the question of what makes a good match and, perhaps most interesting, what threatens to break even the best match, is an engaging thread through the story.

Despite the heavy topics and the "anti-romance" elements, Finders Keepers is a touching, powerful, sensual romance. In her trademark style, the author has breathed life into interesting, multi-faceted characters; she handles intense issues with care and insight; and perhaps most importantly, she uses humor and wit to keep the story from being too heavy. Marissa's tendency to write "letters" that she will never send to her mother, deceased father, or Linda are charmingly wry observations and the delightful scene wherein Marissa's mother announces her acceptance of her daughter's lesbianism is one that will stay with this reader. Indeed, her success in weaving all these themes into a moving romance makes Finders Keepers one of Kallmaker's best novels. Readers should make a date with Finders Keepers. You are likely to find it is a perfect and beautiful match.

-MJ Lowe

18th & Castro

Karin Kallmaker
Bella Books
www.bellabooks.com
159493066X, $13.95

Karin Kallmaker's 18th & Castro is a trick-or-treat bag filled with yummy goodies for her readers. This charmingly romantic collection of erotic short stories is set on a Halloween night in the Castro District. It opens with Suze and Amy, two baby dykes in their early 20s, who have found a building rooftop from which to watch the night's festivities. The girls serve as the framework of the book, with their story broken into three parts throughout the night. They have a perfect view of a mythical three-story apartment building across the street. All of its residents are women-loving-women and a whole lot of fun is goin' on! As the two women watch the revelers, 13 stories unfold with most relating to one of the building's residents or an apartment at 18th & Castro, hence the numbers.

New love, or at least a fine start on healthy lust, unfolds in "Borrowed Plumage 1C" when a femme, Carmen, borrows her best friend's old leathers for a costume and meets a woman who finds those leathers very inspiring. In "Please 2A" "Chosen 1B," and "From Behind you Looked Like 1D" Kallmaker allows the fates (and a few resident matchmakers) to nudge long term friendships toward a path to something more intimate.

Several of the stories include long term couples who are nurturing a romantic sex life in the midst of day-to-day logistics and life pressures. These stories range from the tentatively sweet and hot to the amusing and power charged. In the "Brand New Woman 2C," a couple are alone for the first time since their eldest child was born. Brenda spends time exploring the woman that her partner and co-parent of two children, Nancy, has become in the years they've shared.

In "Human Female Pon Farr 3B," Jax is suffering a very bad day of hormones. Her partner, Tate, sets out help scratch that itch, but events take a farcical turn when a handcuff key goes missing. That comic tone carries across the hall to handcuff key provider and artist, Jonny, and her Aria, a highly demanded and overworked surgeon. Aria is in need of some in "Down Time 3A" but the two initially find it difficult to focus with the interruptions.

In "Avast! 3C" readers are treated to a bit of Halloween role playing as Renee and Jane indulge a fantasy on the high seas. The teasing negotiation and the grounding late night snack that open and close this story puts a loving face on a highly charged scene.

Kallmaker provides a touching glimpse at how one couple strives to maintain a mutually satisfying sexual expression of their relationship despite chronic health issues. In "Nine-Inch Nails 3D," the years of communication, caring affection and heated desire between Pete and Keri allow them to cultivate new expressions for their love that are arousing and validating. In "For the Last Time 2B" Terra and Jeneen invite the latter woman's ex-lover, Claire, over for a little sex demonstration. This bittersweet three-way provides a complex lesson for all involved.

The stories in 18th & Castro interweave as various characters interact with others, several women are going to the party hosted by Neenah and Ace in1A. Some conversations are repeated from different points of view. Others merely pass one another in the hall. All of which gives the reader the impression of a complex set of happenings occurring in a relatively short period of time. All the stories are erotic and include an intensity likely to keep the reader's interest; however, the details of encounters are as varied as the women who populate the stories. Some are earthy and urgent. Others are sweet and hazy. Many are also touching and romantic.

As already suggested, Kallmaker's signature humor is sprinkled throughout the stories, but it is especially present in the setting. Halloween in the heart of San Francisco has to be one of the country's biggest, gayest party events outside of Pride, and adds outrageous color and humor. Glimpses of the costumed crowd include not only Xenas and Gabs, Vampire Slayers, Pirates, Flappers with Gangsters, and Batmans and Robins but "Diana Ross and the Supremes, the secretary of state, flaky first daughters, Ethel Merman and Sweet Potato Queens --it was all [there] in the Castro"(116). There are impromptu chorus lines of Dorothys kicking up their ruby slippers, a quartet of Veronica Lakes, and Satanic Leprechauns. (This last group is a corps of dark cloaked mysterious figures wearing prominent, green dildos and marching in cadence.)

Likewise, the characters represent a range of ages, ethnicity and self-awareness from the spectator baby dykes on the roof to the elegant older lesbians of "Please." The preternatural even makes a couple of appearances. Perhaps the collection's most touching story is "Tick Tock 2D" wherein a woman finds solace and protection in her memories of love and perhaps an eerie little something more …

Readers can depend on Kallmaker for intelligent, witty stories that are well-written and charming, and peopled with interesting characters. She gives us books that are just down-right fun to read. A "Bella After Dark" title 18th & Castro is highly-charged, accessorized erotic fun, in the same vein as her All the Wrong Places. A few quirky surprises are there as well as one or two stories that prompted this reviewer to pause and think about the nature of power and love. In 18th & Castro, readers will find the mass-market candy of their treat bags has been replaced by fine handmade truffles. Pick up a copy of this bag of goodies because there is something "good to eat" here.

-MJ Lowe

Back Talk

Saxon Bennett
Bella Books
www.bellabooks.com
1594930287, $13.95

"WKRP" comes out with some queerly quirky fun!

Intelligent, witty, and classy -- not to mention beautiful -- Anne Counterman, a successful talk show host in Seattle, is facing her 40th birthday with trepidation. Over a year ago, her husband Gerald left her for a man, an event that still hurts and haunts her. Further and more currently troublesome, Anne has become bored with her radio work. In an effort to improve her show and rekindle her own interest in work, Anne finds a new web wizard to revamp her website. Enter Hilton Withers.

Hilton Withers is also at a turning point. Reared by her grandmother after the death of her mother when she was six, Hilton is "Senator Percy Withers' estranged lesbian … daughter." (15) For the last few years Hilton has been trying to decide what she'll do with her life. Her grandmother's death has made her heiress to a pickle company fortune and she has fulfilled the estate requirement that she graduate college. Currently Hilton lives in a small garden cottage behind the Victorian house she shared with her grandmother. She moved there because of the perpetual parties hosted by her two roommates and her girlfriend, Nat.

Natalie was Hilton's first love, but it is a rocky, complicated, and increasingly disconnected relationship. In truth it's time they broke up but confronting issues is not Hilton's best skill. However, at the radio station Hilton finds that she enjoys her work, begins to think of herself as more accomplished and "adult" and finds that she cares about her coworkers, one in particular.

Add to this possible romance a group of quirky characters like: Veronica, the control freak show's producer who, it turns out, could give Martha Stewart a run for her homemaker money and is a "fourth-generation lesbian" (143); Lillian, the show's septuagenarian, hard-of-hearing, call-screener; Hilton's lesbian roommates, Jessie the "irresponsible" one who is looking for her future; and Liz the grad student who is dating a woman who carries around a teddy bear named Amelia Bearhart; and Shannon, Hilton's Great Pyrenees dog, who accompanies her everywhere and is remarkably clear at expressing her opinions. (She's been known to pee on people who are upsetting Hilton.)

Back Talk is an example of what Saxon Bennett does best; She gives readers a fast-paced, funny novel that is delightful to read. She creates the lesbian-centered sit-com that you WISH were on TV, a queer WKRP if you will. Her characterization, especially early in the story, is a little weak and can make differentiating some women confusing. However, the dialogue is quick and witty. The situations range from the outrageous and bawdy -- as when Shannon acquires a large purple silicon pleasure item as a chew toy -- to the touching -- as Amelia Bearhart gets lost (of course), found, and a woman grows as a result. Add a charming romance with some satisfyingly heated exchanges and you too will want to tune in to Back Talk.

-MJ Lowe

Dark Dreamer

Jennifer Fulton
Yellow Rose Books
http://www.regalcrest.biz/
1932300465, $16.95

Rowe Devlin is a best selling horror novelist and attractive butch who has hit a rough patch in her life. She's recently moved from the Manhattan scene to make a break from a fruitless relationship in the hope that she will be able to meet her next deadline. The move is not going well. Or, as she claims, she is "a washed up writer living in a haunted house in Maine in the middle of winter. She now had exchanged a hopeless passion for someone's wife for a doomed crush on her neighbors. Plural. And instead of finishing the piece of crap novel her agent was hounding her for, she was on some wild ghost chase with two young males who thought the government was spying on them." (68). Needless to say, this is not a high point in her career.

The neighbors in question, Phoebe and Cara Temple are identical twins and unusual women in their own right. Orphaned at age seven and reared by their grandmother, the Temple twins have a highly symbiotic relationship. Cara is the grounded, no-nonsense woman who works in the music industry. Phoebe is a more ethereal of the sisters. A few years ago Phoebe was in a car accident that left her in a coma. After she woke, she began having compelling dreams of women who had met with violent deaths. These women talked to Phoebe, asked her to send their love to their parents or spouses, and told her where to find their bodies. Recently Phoebe has begun using these communications to assist the FBI in tracking down serial killers.

Meanwhile Rowe's dogs will not enter her kitchen and the knives have a nasty habit of refusing to stay in their drawers. The writer begins to research former inhabitants of the house and in the process finds a tragic story with a possible connection with the Temple sisters. This revelation prompts more interactions with her neighbors and an offer to help with the ghost from Phoebe.

When the attraction between Phoebe and Rowe heats up, Cara becomes jealous, angry and conflicted. She'd been interested in Rowe herself and dreads what she sees as Phoebe's inevitable disenchantment with Rowe. -- Phoebe has a history of falling in love and failing to end relationships when she was ready to leave. More than once, Phoebe has convinced Cara to impersonate Phoebe for the needed break up. -- Venting about the relationship with Rowe, Cara decides "she'd been Phoebe's minder and interface with the world for twenty years. Twenty years! Enough was enough. She wanted a life of her own. Let Phoebe find out the hard way that the world was not her oyster just because she was sweet and sensitive and beautiful. In fact, the world chewed up women like her and spat them out. And let Rowe find out that Phoebe didn't just have issues, she had a subscription." (133)

However, other elements of Homeland Security discover that Phoebe's gift is "the real deal" and the plot takes an ominous turn. Fast-paced with an engaging and suspenseful mix of spooky -- the supernatural and the political variety -- happenings, Dark Dreamer is peopled with intelligent, witty, complex characters. The romance between Rowe and Phoebe is sweet with some fine lusty moments. Dark Dreamer is a highly enjoyable story that lives up to its series title of "A Heartstoppers Thriller Romance." This reviewer hopefully foretells that there could be future stories featuring Rowe and the Temple sisters and would look forward to them.

-MJ Lowe

BN: Dark Dreamer was re-released by Bold Strokes Books www.boldstrokesbooks.com in May 2007, ISBN 978-1933110745 , $15.95 as "A Dark Vista Paranormal Romance."

Sweet Creek

Lee Lynch
Bold Strokes Books
www.boldstrokesbooks.com
1933110295, $15.95

Drop a line in the waters of Sweet Creek! From the pen of the venerable lesbian author Lee Lynch comes a novel set in the small rural community of Waterfall Falls, Oregon, at the turn of the millennium and populated by an amusingly high volume of lesbians. One character suggests an inverted energy draws women to the community.

"A dyke vortex. I like it." Chick made a mental note to suggest it to the sheriff, a native who was completely baffled, and not particularly pleased, at the disproportionate numbers of lesbians in Elk County

.... [Jeep responds] "Cool beans! I moved to the poor dyke's Palm Springs."

"Yeah," added Donny. "We don't golf, we fish." (60)

The heart of the area's queer community rests in Natural Woman Foods, a small organic general store and cafe run by ex-hippie, earth-mother dyke, Chick, and her tough but mellowing, working-class, former player, butch partner Donny. Together nearly a decade, the two are struggling with the changes of advancing crone-hood. Chick has a family history of mental illness and worries her current struggle with depression might be symptomatic of something worse. Meanwhile men from their pasts are stirring trouble for both women.

If Natural Woman Foods is the heart of the community, Chick is its reigning queen, er, "femme in charge." (34) She looks after several women in this role, and has many amused, often indulgently affectionate observations about butches, the butch/femme dance in general, and the changes she's seen in community politics (gay and straight).

Up and coming television reporter, Katie, with her flame of the moment, Jeep, arrives looking for something new for her life. She finds herself quickly enamored with the leader of the women's land, a fierce, enigmatic woman named Rattlesnake, or R for short. Katie consequently develops an interest in documenting the struggles the local separatist commune has with the traditional logging industry.

Soon, Jeep, (a melding of "G. P." for Gina Pauline) who appeared in Waterfall Falls sporting a city-styled buzz haircut and a restless attitude, finds herself nursing a broken heart, looking for a new place to live, scrambling to make a living, and trying to sort out what she wants to do with her life. Jeep's coming of age is one of the themes of Sweet Creek and several of the story threads depict transitional life periods.

As is frequently the case with small communities, everyone seems to know everyone else's business. Still, a few surprises arise over the course of the book. Lynch portrays this ensemble cast of charming and interesting characters with humor and insight. Sweet Creek originally appeared as a series of short-short stories in Girlfriends Magazine and the brief episodic structure has been retained in the chapters. This allows for bite-sized consumption of the various storylines that struck this reader as a dyke hybrid of Keillor's Lake Wobegon stories and Maupin's Tales of the City series. While this format makes for easy episodic reading, it sometimes results in meandering plotlines that might distract some readers and could have benefited from some tighter editing. Nevertheless, Sweet Creek is filled with engaging life stories and charming snapshots of the locale. Fans of Lynch are bound to enjoy Sweet Creek, and hopefully new readers will discover her work as well.

-MJ Lowe

Just Like That

Karin Kallmaker
Bella Books
www.bellabooks.com
1594930252, $12.95

"Everybody knows that a single woman with good money is in want of a wife (1)." English Lit majors and fans of Jane Austen will recognize this paraphrase from the opening of Pride and Prejudice. Karin Kallmaker's latest romance, Just Like That -- set in the wine country of Northern California -- is a very modern, decidedly lavender, adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Syrah Ardani is 30, recently returned from years studying Oenology in France. The only daughter of the widowed Anthony Ardani, the owner of Ardani Vineyards, Syrah lives and breathes the vines like her father and is comfortably settling into life at home. Yet clearly something with the family business is… off.

Jane Lucas, Syrah's long time friend, struggling artist and former heart-breaker-butch, is about to fall hard for the new, very eligible dyke in the area, Missy Bingley. Initially Jane, who has decided to "settle down", appears to be on the calculating side about Missy with comments like, "... Definitely a dyke. And femme, so, hey, I'm thinking she needs a wife like me. I've got all the qualifications. I can fix stuff, dance, like to talk and think sex is really fun. My only strike against me is the money thing (3)."

However, Jane is thunderstruck when she meets Missy. Missy Bingley, forty-something, successful businesswoman retiring to rehabilitate her newly acquired historic Netherfield estate, appears equally smitten with Jane. Does love at first sight exist?

Before long, Syrah realizes that her gentle, intuitive, wine-knowledgeable father is the definition of naive with what has to be the antithesis of a head for business. While she was gone, he has incorporated the vineyards, over-extended his capital and been unable to cover his debt. The future of the Ardani Vineyards is in danger and the creditors have gone to court. An "axe man" is being sent to take stock of the situation.

Toni Blanchard is that "axe man." She is also very attractive. Syrah first sees a photograph of her from a Fortune magazine article and describes her thus: "Dark hair twisted at the neck and East Coast stylish, Toni Blanchard gazed out from the page with an expression Syrah could only describe as haughty. If the toes on her shoes had been any longer they'd have curled like some court jester's. Everything about her dripped wealth and superiority(12)."

An intelligent, thoughtful, skilled woman, Toni's job is to make difficult recommendations for companies that are in receivership, and she is well respected in her field. She is also the daughter of Anthony's old college friend. This connection encourages Anthony to believe that Toni will "fix" the situation. The vintner never seems to understand that Toni's role is to represent the court and creditors.

Toni arrives in the area emotionally shell-shocked. Her lover of several years, Mira, has dumped her for another woman, moved out and taken possession of funds that are not hers. Staying with her old friend Missy Bingley while reviewing the Ardani accounts, Toni begins to find some peace in the green hills of northern California.

She realizes that she had not been in love the last several years and that Mira's actions -- while unethical and unpleasant -- hurt her pride more than her heart. Still, Toni is jaded and that makes her doubt the sincerity of the woman who is courting Missy. Furthermore, falling in love is the last thing Toni needs right now; yet there is Syrah, a lovely, radiant, spirited earth goddess seeming to draw Toni to her.

Needless to say, several complications ensue. The future of the Ardani Vineyards hangs precariously. Both Toni and Syrah must deal with their preconceived notions of the other and their stubborn egos in order to have a chance at following their hearts. They must also contend with the nefarious manipulations of Mira and Caroline.

Indeed, Kallmaker has created a decidedly nasty nemesis in Lady Mira Wickham. Even after an unpleasant break up, Toni -- and this reader -- was surprised at how spiteful and meddlesome Mira could be. Missy's snarky nickname for Mira is "reech beech" and that seems mild by the end of the story. For that matter, Caroline, Missy's sister, runs a close second for the title.

Austen fans will recognize several familiar names in Just Like that. Bennett, Netherfield, Jane, and Bingley are among the names and characters borrowed from Pride and Prejudice and some of the structure of the story is similar to Austen's. However, there should be no question in readers' minds but that Kallmaker has written a contemporary novel, with complex realistic characters set in an engaging region. She also provides interesting viniculture background. This is a lively romance with hot sex. The lead characters are sometimes frustratingly stubborn, yet this reader found them compelling and was curious to discover out how Kallmaker would solve the problems they faced.

Austen has been called the mother of the romance novel and there is a nice symmetry to Kallmaker, today's best-selling writer of lesbian romances, paying tribute to the roots of the genre with Just Like That. She has given us a new look at prejudice and a different view of pride all painted with the dark purple of a fruity Shiraz. Kallmaker has bottled a wonderful year for her readers, Just Like That. Decant it and enjoy.

-MJ Lowe

Call of the Dark: Erotic Lesbian Tales of the Supernatural

Therese Szymanski (Editor)
Bella Books
www.bellabooks.com
1594930406, $14.95

Just in time for your spooky autumn reading, the latest Bella Books anthology, Call of the Dark, has arrived. The 23 stories represent the work of well-known authors as well as new writers. Selected and arranged by Therese Szymanski, this collection is thoughtful and entertaining, sometimes witty and touching, often creepy and always arousing. The focus of the collection is "erotic" and it is not surprising that most of the stories fall into two categories: possession by or seduction at the hands of a vampire or a spirit. Nevertheless the stories are neither repetitive nor entirely predictable.

The vampires range from the dashing, charismatic Daron in Szymanski's "Dream Lover" to the horrific entity in Patty G. Henderson's "In the Blood." Henderson's tale questions the price of life, the cost of loyalty and the pain of survival. Victoria A. Brownworth's "The Feast of St. Lucy" is an aching little tale of loneliness and survival filled with vivid images of the ancient and ageless New Orlean's French Quarter and the scent of bergamot. Perhaps one of the most interesting twists is Ariel Graham's "Games of Love" wherein she illustrates how a really long-term couple keeps the relationship … fresh, and answers that nagging question of what is the appropriate gift for your 500+ anniversary.

The spirits (formerly human, and now ghosts or demon) who haunt these pages are equally varied. An ultimate surrender overwhelms the lead in Radclyffe's "By the Light of the Moon." In Heather Osborne's "That which Alters," the succubus finds herself falling in love with her victim in a fascinating role reversal. "Specter of Sin" allows Kristina Wright to provide a new variation on a traditional kind of ghost story set in the lonely despair of the Texas desert. The switch in perspective is explored by several writers, as when Rachel Kramer Bussel (a contributing editor at Penthouse) opens the door to "The Haunted, Haunted House." There, a ghost provides a heated coming out for a lovely young visitor.

Without question, the most amusing entry of the collection is "Lilith" by Karin Kallmaker. In this wry tale of a queer succubus who outlives her creator and is left to drift through the dreams and fantasies of humans without intent to consume them, Kallmaker opens the anthology and a discussion of the nature of fantasy, focus, and consent.

Szymanski's skillful selection and arrangement of the stories provides valuable contrasts and flow for the reader. Thus, Julia Watt's charming "Visitation" is followed by Barbara Johnson's "Loving Ophelia." The former provides the reader with a satisfying "all is right" even in the "other world" with a psychic who helps a wronged spirit, and has several of her own questions answered in the process. In the latter, Johnson pens a creepy little story worthy of the Twilight Zone.

This placing and pacing of stories allows the reader to read several stories in a row, moving between the touching, humorous, and thoughtful, to the downright creepy, then back again. The lighter entries, like those sunny days or well-lit rooms in a horror movie, serve to lure the readers into letting down their guard for that unexpected twist or nerve-jolting revelation of the next story. And while readers might not find all the stories entirely to their taste, it is not from lack of imagination or skill of writing. None of the stories failed to elicit a response in this reader.

Kallmaker's Lilith laments at one point, "I gathered ever more fantasies and yet had no witch with whom to share them. Truly, to have tales and no one to tell -- is there anything sadder?" (7)

Thankfully, Kallmaker and the other writers in this collection have lots of readers with whom to share their fantasies and we are all the richer for the experience. Pick up a copy of Call of the Dark, light a candle, pour yourself a glass of rich, red wine, and enjoy.
-MJ Lowe

Walls of Westernfort

Jane Fletcher
Bold Strokes Books
www.boldstrokesbooks.com
1933110244, $15.95

For Natasha Ionadis, the rules of life are as clear as her reflection on the breast plate of her Temple Guard uniform. For the last few of her 22 years, her mantra has been the Guard maxim, "when in doubt, polish it." In Walls of Westernfort, this devout young woman is offered an opportunity by the Temple hierarchy to be part of a covert mission and she leaps at the chance to offer her life to her goddess, Celaeno. She is to be part of a team of three women who are to infiltrate a group of evil heretics, journey to their stronghold known as Westernfort, and assassinate their leaders.

Natasha's commanders doubt any of the women will survive their mission. Posing as a family interested in joining the heretics, the intelligence agents' journey will challenge the beliefs that Natasha has sworn herself to defend, force her to face her own internal crisis, and define the nature of loyalty and faith. Along the way, she also struggles with her definition of family, and finally, love.

Walls of Westernfort is a recent release from Jane Fletcher and part of her growing Celaeno fantasy series. Celaeno is an all-female society in a pre-industrial, pre-Enlightenment setting ruled by a strict theocracy. The idea of a female-centric, goddess-worshipping world is often symbolic of a utopian culture in lesbian-feminist founded speculative fantasy and science fiction. And a new reader to the Celaeno series might be tempted to adopt this view initially, especially as she travels with the naive and earnest Natasha on her coming-of-age quest.

However, it soon becomes apparent that not all is as it may appear in Natasha's world. The Temple authorities who oversee the worship of Celaeno, with its complex undercurrents of science cloaked in religion, will tolerate no deviance from its established policies and will stop at nothing to ensure compliance with temple law. Thus issues involving the nature of religion, particularly that of a fundamentalist view, and the dangers it can impose in politics is a primary theme of Fletcher's Celaeno world.

As a result, Walls of Westernfort, is not only a highly engaging and fast-paced adventure novel, it provides the reader with an interesting framework for examining the same questions of loyalty, faith, family and love that Natasha must face.

Refreshing in its original twists on old themes, the Walls of Westernfort is well conceived and Fletcher's characters are multifaceted and interesting. Through Natasha's eyes the reader is treated to layered discoveries of the complexities of these women. Indeed, it is through familiarity that the "evil heretics" are revealed to be intelligent, equally determined women struggling to survive within their own conscience. This humanization of the evil enemy creates increasingly difficult internal conflicts for Natasha, forcing her to think for herself rather than accept established doctrine.

It is unnecessary to have read any other Celaeno novels to follow the action and the unfolding culture. While some of the characters in Walls will be familiar to readers of other Celaeno titles, the series is not designed to be strictly chronological. Rather, it appears to be theme-based on the institutions of that world, with stories focusing on the ruling Sisters of the Temple, the Temple Guard, the Rangers, the Militia, the psychically skilled healers known as Imprinters and, perhaps most importantly, the heretics.

In Walls of Westernfort, we see the Temple Guard, inside and out. We learn of their strict code of discipline and life, including abstinence from alcohol and sex, and with Natasha we learn of the harsh, cruel methods the Guard employs to deal with heretics in the name of Celaeno. Natasha finds herself struggling with age-old conflicts faced by military personnel. Is it lawful to complete a mission that is morally wrong? Is it insubordination to refuse? Who gets to decide?

Related to Natasha's self-questioning is her growing attraction to Dani, one of the heretics assigned to guide the "family" to Westernfort. A potter by trade, Dani's short life is marked by scars from a great deal of loss and pain, courtesy of the Guards. And as the attraction and affection between the two women grows, it will become apparent that before Dani can allow herself the hope of loving Natasha, she will have to deal with those scars.

In Walls, Fletcher brings this chapter of Natasha's life to a satisfying conclusion. However, it is clear that many stories of Celaeno remain to be explored. This reviewer will be looking for other titles set in Celaeno and hopes that Fletcher continues with her storytelling.

Sugar

Karin Kallmaker
Bella Books
www.bellabooks.com
1594930015, $12.95

"She'd read a romantic book and thought maybe someday life would be like that, but it never seemed like women in books had jobs and families and worries -- things that made it hard to look around for somebody who might be fun, might want to see if where they were headed in life was the same destination." (79)

This passage defines a theme in Karin Kallmaker's newest romance, Sugar. Kallmaker, arguably the best-selling writer of lesbian romances, contrasts images of a "traditional romance" (if such a thing can be said to be portrayed in lesbian writing) with the realities of love as it exists in everyday life. The lead character, Sugar Sorenson, is a talented, intelligent woman in her thirties struggling to establish her own specialty bakery business in Seattle's post-Dotcom-boom. The action opens when Sugar's home is destroyed by fire and her plans for competing in a city-wide "Cook Off" contest, with its related monetary prize and boost in notoriety, are seriously threatened.

After months of no social life, Sugar suddenly finds herself under the romantic notice of not one, but three attractive, dynamic women. There is a gentle but strong social worker named "Tree," a tall, dark and handsome firefighter named "Charlie" Bronson, and the elegant and vivacious television producer named Emily. Their combined energy is almost more than Sugar can juggle after her long, self-imposed solitude, not to mention the stress of the fire. For a time, Sugar is confused because her apartment is not the only fire she is feeling. The sexual tension is palpable and Kallmaker serves readers a few deliciously hot scenes. Sugar tries to decide which woman really attracts her -- and, more importantly she realizes -- which woman's life is headed in the same direction as Sugar's.

With nowhere to go Sugar finds herself returning to her maternal grandmother's house and braces for the onslaught of judging, preaching and meddling that characterized her grandmother while she was growing up. But something has changed dramatically and Sugar discovers that she perhaps didn't know her grandmother as well as she thought. There are assorted complications and mis-communications to occur in the weeks following the fire and Sugar's life does not turn out as she'd expected.

Food and baking flow through the novel in many ways. Descriptions of complex baking projects occur through much of Sugar's day as well as the steady, comfort baking of Sugar's grandmother. Further, Sugar's world view is often cooking related with Emily's eyes being "the blue of four drops of food coloring into a quarter-cup of sugar" (p7) and a woman is "hotter than Tabasco." (132)

Sugar is a kind of "every lesbian" and the issues she and her friends deal with are those that most of us face in our day-to-day lives. Kallmaker's Sugar does not follow the "story book romance" formula; however, she plays with its themes. Even the cover art, which is reminiscent of a 1950s "happy home maker" image, tweaks at this "ideal."

Kallmaker's writing is charming entertainment. Her wry wit and gentle humor prompt smiles and quiet chuckles, as when Sugar dresses for her first date in months to discover "Good God in heaven, how long had that enormous black hair been growing out of her chin?" (p63) Or when Sugar mentions that she'd heard Charlie and Tree had dated for a time, and is told "We did not. We met at agreed upon places and argued." (p182)

In many ways, Sugar is a return to some of Kallmaker's earlier romances, like Painted Moon or Making up for Lost Time. However, if it is a return, it is not without the maturity that her writing continues to develop. Peopled with real women who are grounded in the realities of life and willing to accept the risk of love, Kallmaker's "romance" provides readers with simple, touching moments. As Sugar reflects, "The world seemed peacefully asleep. It was just her and the moon and the scent of Emily on her fingertips." (111) Sugar is a lovely dessert of a book made with real eggs, butter, and no doubt, chocolate. Light and fun it is, yet it's not an artificial confection. Readers of the lesbian romance genre will want to lick the spoon.
-MJ

All the Wrong Places

Karin Kallmaker
Bella Books
www.bellabooks.com
1931513767, $12.95

At 26, Brandy Monsoon is about to "grow up." In one week she will: face the ghost of her father and the pain of her childhood; realize that while she might not "know" that she can have "forever after" with one woman, she wants to try; and discover that a family of choice and community are options even for a dyke on an isolated resort island in the Southland.

Employed as a fitness instructor and staff member for Club Sandzibel, Brandy finds a ready supply of casual lovers among the resort's female guests but none of them are interested in more than their holiday fling. Meanwhile, her best friend Tess, though willing to share a more-han-friendly-night occasionally, is supposed to be straight ... a point that confuses both women.

Brandy is the wholesome, girl-next-door, phys-ed major. She clearly enjoys working at the resort, including her shifts teaching children tumbling and various team sports. In a charming scene from the end-of-the-week, Brandy observes, "I was set upon by the toddlers again, and this time I gave chase. We'd had a running battle all week and it was time to show these desperadoes who was the law. That would be me, Sheriff Monsoon.

I hadn't quite proven my superiority when their parents came to claim them for a last good-bye. One protested it wasn't Saturday yet, while the other said I was the best playmate ever. ... I have to say that part of the job is pretty cool. Kids give great hugs." (33-34)

When an all-lesbian tour group arrives for the week, Brandy finds the acceptance and validation that she has rarely enjoyed. Furthermore, the famous lesbian entertainer, Celine Griffin shows clear interest in some after-dinner Brandy. Meanwhile Tess' behavior is becoming less and less straight.

All the Wrong Places is the first erotic novel-length title released by the "Bella After Dark" imprint and there is truth in advertising here. Brandy's sexual encounters are explicit. Kallmaker does not shy away from earthy language during sweaty encounters and she opens the "toy chest" and lets her characters explore "accessories." There is a forthright and evocative negotiation of adult consent as well as a subtle but highly charged power exchange between Brandy and Celine.

Some Kallmaker fans may find themselves challenged by this bolder approach. Hopefully they will also find the story to be arousing entertainment. They can be reassured that All the Wrong Places is also one of the sweetest little romances that Kallmaker has written. For example: "Our bodies were suffused with the golden light that seemed to radiate from her eyes and smile. We were falling together, mouths feathering kisses on any skin we could reach. Touching her anywhere felt like touching sunshine. Her shoulders were as warm as her mouth and we were in danger of losing our edges, our form, as we melted together." p 139

Given the length and focus of the story, Kallmaker's characters show depth, humor, and heart with a willingness to grow. Thus All the Wrong Places has a number of elements readers have come to expect from Kallmaker; in addition to hot sex and sweet romance, there are touching side stories and delightful wit. Indeed the humor is bubbles throughout the story. And in a laugh-out-loud moment for this reviewer, Kallmaker tosses in what has to be the funniest variation on the classic "U-Haul joke" in years.

Brandy is the youngest lead character that Kallmaker has explored in her novels since Reese in Watermark. Hopefully a new generation of readers will find Brandy's voice familiar to their own experience and will consider Kallmaker's other novels as a result. Long time fans can enjoy All the Wrong Places as another example of Kallmaker's willingness to explore new elements in her classic story telling style. All readers can enjoy the affection, validation and respect that she gives her characters and by extension her readers. This erotic romance is a like a lovely slice of the chocolate bread that appears on the resort dessert menu; and like that confection, you'll want to savor it slowly and very likely go back for more.
-MJ Lowe

Dreams Found

Lyn Denison
Bella Books
www.bellabooks.com
1931513589, $12.95

"Wait on." Cathy held up her hand. "Maggie Easton and Jayne Easton?" She slapped the side of her head and her graying curls bounced. "Jayne's Maggie's daughter and your sister?"

"Ah, no. Jayne's Maggie's husband's daughter from his previous marriage," Riley explained.

"You mean your boss is your mother's stepdaughter?" Lisa laughed. "That makes you stepsisters."

"I think the butler did it," Brenna said dryly and they all laughed. (81)

In Dreams Found, the latest romance from Lyn Denison, an out lesbian and skilled carpenter, Riley has known she was adopted for years. However, Riley recently has taken steps to locate her birth parents. She finds Maggie living in Brisbane with a husband and three stepchildren. Imagine Riley's surprise when she also finds herself attracted to Jayne, a woman who, while not blood related, is her stepsister! The required misunderstandings abound, particularly in regard to secrets. Kept secrets are justified because Maggie wants to tell her husband first about Riley before her stepchildren learn of her. With the convolutions and secrets, the plot could have been for a bit more humorously treated without losing its serious quality. Instead Denison goes for the angst in a way that is not particularly engaging to this reader.

Dreams Found is one of Denison's shortest works and in this reader's mind something is missing. Perhaps it's the way the author deals with family issues. This is a primary issue to the story. Riley is depicted as a woman for whom family is an important support system. It is perhaps for this reason that she decides to reach out to her birth parents. The two negative, if not just dislikable characters in the book, Darren, Jayne's business partner and apparent love interest, as well as Lisa, a lesbian who is attracted to Riley, both belittle family relations. Darren could almost be tossed off as the self-centered, thoughtless male whose disrespectful treatment pushes Jayne to reevaluate her life. (Darren's stereotypically negative male qualities are acceptable in that several other male characters, family members and friends are depicted as caring, intelligent humans.)

However, the author seems to skim over the fact that neither character seems to have enjoyed the family support that Riley or Jayne do. This is particularly troubling of Lisa. Of her family, we're told that her "parents had been through a messy divorce, and Lisa and her three siblings had spent their childhood years swinging between an alcoholic father and his latest partner and their manic-depressive mother. Lisa left home as soon as she was able and she'd never gone back. She hadn't seen either of her parents for years and was happy to maintain that particular status quo." (9) The portrayal of Lisa's inability to bond with family is seen as a serious character flaw for the unsympathetically portrayed Lisa, but with a family like Lisa's, who can blame her?

Lisa's family of origin is almost implied as an excuse for some of her behavior: that of being tactless, blunt to the point of pushiness, and unwilling to accept Riley's declination that their casual relationship be explored in a more serious way. We're told, "Riley's sense of family had been a source of tension between them on a couple of occasions. Lisa couldn't or wouldn't recognize Riley's closeness to her family, the respect and love she had for her parents and older brother." (9)

This simplistic portrayal is particularly annoying when in reality many lesbians, gays and bisexuals have found their families of origin unsupportive in the face of their queerness and have as a consequence worked hard to develop support systems that are based on the love and respect of friends, i.e. "families of choice." A point that is itself personified when Riley hesitates for weeks to tell her newly found birth mother that she is a lesbian. This somehow suggests it is more difficult for Riley to risk Maggie's rejection because family is important to her. Further that Lisa, who did not enjoy that kind of relationship with her family, had it easy and shouldn't be so brusque about the importance of family to Riley. Lisa's point of view does not excuse her rudeness. However, it is Riley's inability to "get" Lisa's issues with family that made Riley, not Lisa, the one needing to work on her compassion. It is possible that Denison did not intend for this presentation. Indeed, given her other works, it is even likely that she did not. However, the impression left a bad taste with this reader.

Lesbian romances are not merely the idealized tales of love that heterosexual romances can be. Lesbian romances hold a much more complex role. They serve as a validating mirror for lesbians and our community. Hot sex is rarely enough for a lesbian romance to be a success. It can be, as it is in classics like Forrest's Curious Wine. While the erotic moments in Dreams Found will hold most reader's attention, they are not enough to be the primary focus. Denison has put the definition of "family" on the table for this novel and since she has only validated families of origin, those readers who have created families of choice may feel left out in the cold.

Dreams Found is a pleasant enough, albeit brief, read for a slow evening. However, overall the novel is predictable, and not particularly interesting, nor funny. Dreams Found does not hold up to the quality of Denison's earlier novels. Hopefully, this is not a trend. In the meantime, Dream Lover, The Wild One, and Gold Fever are all better reading in this reviewer's opinion.

Once upon a Dyke: New Exploits of Fairy Tale Lesbians

Barbara Johnson
Karin Kallmaker
Therese Szymanski
Julia Watts

Bella Books
www.bellabooks.com
1931513716, $12.95

Once upon a Dyke: New Exploits of Fairy Tale Lesbians is an amusing and arousing quartet of novellas from four well-known lesbian writers. Culturally speaking, fairy tales were created for several reasons; community identity, teaching morality, and of course, as entertainment. Thus it is fitting for a group of lesbian authors to reconsider fairy tales and ask in their introduction, "Why were the heroines always pretty, pure, passive little things who needed rescuing? .... What was so charming about Prince Charming anyway?"(viii)

Julia Watts pens an interesting retelling of Beauty and the Beast set in the rural South roughly 100 years ago. "La Belle Rose" questions the nature and quality of "otherness." Everyone sees Rosie as "normal" and yet this "pretty" young woman has always felt the different-ness of her internal self. Rosie escapes the expectations of others by joining a carnival show, and finds that her views of what is proper and normal resonate with the show's company more than with her family. When Rosie finds love with a "beast" many expect that it is only a temporary amusement because Rosie is "normal" and could return to the "normal world."

Watts challenges readers to look beyond the surface and our assumptions. "La Belle Rose" is a parable for many gender issues, including the ability for more traditionally "feminine" lesbians or bisexual women to "pass" in the "normal" world. She points out that these women who have a "choice" about their role and place in society suffer pressure from both the "normal" and "other" world. Rosie's solution to this quandary is a very touching one. For fans of Watts' novels, the tone of "La Belle Rose" is recognizably hers with its engaging characters, empathetic presentation of heartache, the rural southern setting, and the touching, unexpected, resolution.

Therese Szymanski takes her readers on a witty little romp in "A Butch in Fairy Tale Land." This trip through several fairy tales is a kind of "Queer Eye meets Quantum Leap." Cody is a sweet (but don't call her that), sexy, well-meaning, romantic butch who likes to rescue fair maidens, or meddle in the lives of friends, depending upon one's point of view. Thus, when she stumbles into an enchanted forest and runs into Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and a range of princesses, Cody finds she HAS to solve their problems. (This, despite the fact that the characters are rescued in the stories that come down to us.) The action grows erotic as Cody discovers Rapunzel in her tower, not to mention a totally new slant on Snow White and the seven ... dwarves. Cody's wry observations prompt several laughs. For example in this little bit when she evaluates her decision to kill the witch that Hansel and Gretel have met in the forest:

"The point I was struggling with was, what if this was a misunderstood good witch, a victim of patriarchal mistrust of feminine nature and oppression of old womyn and their unusual abodes? What if I chopped up a good Crone? How would I ever go [to the Michigan Music festival] topless and share tofu again? Well, now that I thought about it ... maybe the key was to just get it over quickly. Trust the fairy tale. Next time I was passing the talking stick around the bonfire, I just wouldn't mention this little episode." (820 Most contemporary fairy tale reinterpretations attempt to flesh out the stereotype or symbolic characters of the story. However, in this satirical survey of fairy tales, Cody is the opposite. She becomes "The Butch" a new queer fairy tale persona for the 21st century. Overall this characterization works as a way to keep the humors, as it were, flowing.

Barbara Johnson's "Charlotte of Hessen" is a sweet retelling of Cinderella with a sprinkle of "fairy dust." An orphaned Charlotte finds herself at the mercy of an unpleasant step-mother and two step-sisters. Charlotte takes solace in the animals of her woodland retreat and in Mina, a striking young woman sporting men's clothing. Mina's love makes her life worth living. Little does Charlotte know how true that will be! This charming story is after a fashion the most "traditional" retelling of the four. However, the erotic moments and amusing double lavender twist ending will please readers.

Karin Kallmaker's "A Fish Out of Water" turns "The Little Mermaid" on her tail and creates a "Mer" culture that is complex, magical, sensual and perhaps not as superior as it first appears. Ariel is the seventy-seventh daughter -- Not the most advantageous of birth order -- of the Queen of the Mer. When Ariel and some of her Mer friends go "hunting" for "human song" one night, Ariel accidentally breaks an edict from the queen and is punished for it. In a complicated twist, her sentence holds the possibility of a "cure" which is heavily laced with its own punishment.

Kallmaker reflects the original story's themes of love, redemption and self-sacrifice; poses questions about the nature of desire and obsession; and tweaks the reader's point of view in what is considered "perverted." As a tale about magic and fantastic beings, "Fish Out of Water" is more typical of her Laura Adams' fantasy novels than Kallmaker's contemporary romances. The story also carries Adam's lyrical writing voice with the Mer "song" imagery, dark mystic elements, and use of symbolism. This thoughtful, bittersweet story is a vast improvement over Andersen's original. Yes, it is definitely a fairy tale for this century.

Finally, Once upon a Dyke is a title in Bella Books, "Bella After Dark" imprint or as the editors say in their introduction, "Fairy Tales are about sex, and we're not shy."(viii) The sex gets steamy and sometimes may challenge readers. The novella formats make for a nice change of pace in reading. Once upon a Dyke is romantic, funny, thoughtful, and hot. Buy a copy and live happily ever after, for a while.
-MJ Lowe