Cobb Island

Blayne Cooper
Renaissance Alliance Publishing
1930928394

Olivia Hazelwood, Liv to her friends, has agreed to take her younger brother, Doug to spend a week on Cobb Island, off the coast of Virginia. Since an accident claimed their parents a decade ago, Livi has been more of a mother than sister to Doug. The 29 year old linguist and openly lesbian, Liv is recently back from a Peace Corps tour in Africa and is looking forward to catching up with the changes in Doug's life. One of the biggest being that he is very much in love with Marcy Redding. Marcy's family moved last year and the teens have been nursing their love over distance. This separation has prompted Marcy to invite Doug (and Liv) to visit Cobb Island, the colonial era, ancestral home of the Redding family. Marcy has also coaxed her older sister, Kayla to help with the chaperoning duties.

The tall redheaded Kayla seems to take an immediate dislike to Doug, and possibly, to Liv. Certainly the gorgeous 25 year old has difficulty communicating with Liv in anything other than an abrupt, rather rude, not to mention secretive, manner. Her behavior is even more odd given that the women seem almost magnetically drawn to one another. Liv is surprised, confused, and a little overwhelmed by the intensity of her feelings for Kayla. Impossibly, at times Kayla seems to read Liv's mind. Or is it impossible? The three century old Redding house itself, with its secret rooms, strange noises, and a library filled with generations of Redding enigmas has as important a role in the story as any of the characters. Several things about Kayla and the house are a little strange, yet enchanting. Liv finds herself falling under the spell of both mysteries. Meanwhile, desperate for time alone, the lovesick teens decide to visit the mainland just as a storm arises, leaving their older siblings stranded and forced to confront these powerful emotions.

Trapped by the storm, the women begin researching the early years of the house. Finding a hidden journal, Liv and Kayla discover possible answers to the Redding family legacy via a third romance. Bridget Redding, and her sister-in-law, Failynn, lived on Cobb Island in the late 1600s and struggled to find a place for their love in an unforgiving time for women, and condemning of those who dared to love. Could their story hold the secret answers to questions about the Redding family, the house on Cobb Island, and possibly even why Kayla and Liv seem destined to have found each other? Thus Cobb Island contains three love stories entwined in its pages along with a number of witty interactions, sweet moments and endearing scenes between the various couples. There is even a dreadful villain who demands being detested.

Overall, Cobb Island is a magical little romance and a charming mystery. A few of the plot threads are not neatly tied at the end and some elements of the historical period appear a bit anachronistic to this reviewer. Nevertheless, the overall effect of Cobb Island is a fun and fast-paced romantic mystery with a touch of spookiness thrown into the mix. It provides more than enough pleasure to justify its purchase. In fact there is enough pleasure to anticipate future stories from Blayne Cooper, including the continued adventures of Kayla and Liv in the forthcoming Echoes from the Mist.

-MJ Lowe

BN: Echoes from the Mist was released in 2006.

Body Check: Erotic Lesbian Sports Stories

Nicole Foster, editor
Alyson Books
1555837387

You don't have to be a jock to enjoy this book. Nicole Foster, who has edited several collections for Alyson, has filled a team roster of 20 erotic lesbian sports stories with a range of sporting women and lots of intense, sweaty moments. There are Olympic hopefuls in the bittersweet "The Art of Running" by Rosalind C. Lloyd; while M. Christian provides a mesmerizing view of an up-and-coming swimmer's relationship with water in "Naiad." Unsurprisingly, those popular lesbian team sports are represented. Volleyballs are "Spiked" by Laurel Hayworth, in a story about healing old wounds and looking for greener courts. "Legend of Teddi Jo" by Gina Ranalli has a few things to say about softball and doing what and whom one loves.

Lest one think this anthology is mostly for the fiercely athletic, there are several amusing entries that feature women who, well, never really passed the President's Council on Physical Fitness Awards in school. Like the delightfully Walter Mitty-esque, adolescent "butch in training" starring in "Black Belt Theater" by Catherine Lundoff, and finding herself along the way. There's the strangely sweet encounter with rock climbing in "Going Up" by Anne Seale as a woman frees herself from a dead-end relationship and finds her own strength. Trixi's "Mulligan on the Green" is the charming story of golf and a young fan on her 18th birthday.

Perhaps this reader's favorite -- for the narrator's sharp wit and cynical view of aerobics -- is Dawn Dougherty's "Sports Dyke." The unnamed, less fit narrator decides to take a class after chatting with a woman in the locker room. After all she muses, "I've done worse things than yoga to get a girl horizontal." (196) The class and the evening hold a few surprises and the woman discovers a "gym that satisfies all [her] needs." (205)

The stories in Body Check include a wide range of sports, athletic skill, dynamics, humor, characters, and settings. This anthology should be part of every lesbian's sports gear. As Foster urges in her introduction, readers will be inspired to get sweaty tonight.

-MJ Lowe

Madam President

Blayne Cooper and T. Novan
Renaissance Alliance Publishing (November 2001)
1930928696

The year is 2020 and the United States has, for the first time, elected as president, a woman. Blayne Cooper and T. Novan present this fascinating premise in Madam President. Yet, it seems very unlikely that the first woman president will be 38 years old, a single (actually widowed), openly lesbian, mother of three, which describes Devlyn Marlowe. Cognizant of the history making role of her administration, Devlyn has chosen a successful young historian/writer to observe her term in office and act as her biographer. Thus Lauren Strayer enters the White House and prepares to chronicle Devlyn's administration for history. The novel follows the events of the first year of her term.

Despite the premise, Madam President does not succeed as a futuristic political yarn. Novan and Cooper make reference to a number of interesting issues and incidents in Madam President, including Devlyn as a successful third party candidate, the trauma of domestic terrorism, the changes in gay and lesbian civil rights issues, and an international arms crisis; but there is little exploration of these issues. While the writers clearly researched the primary setting of the White House, the creative detail in their view of the U.S. 18 years from now is thin and it does not prompt the reader to consider possible changes in the coming years.

Instead the novel focuses primarily on the relationship between Marlowe and Strayer as it evolves from professional respect to personal friendship and romantic attraction. However, for this reader, the more than 300 pages of courting and foreplay became tedious. They are marked with cliché and repetitive incidents; such as the illness/recovery theme with three serious health problems between the two leads in less than six months. Indeed more personal and political crises occur in the first year of Devlyn's term than many Presidents ever see. And they apparently occur primarily to postpone the consummation of the couple's love, which began to feel saccharine after a while. This combination of elements feels like a caricature of the Xena uber genre, from which the story originated.

Several of the comic scenes felt too predictable. The lead characters did not come alive for this reader. The somewhat slapstick quality of the humor is belittling of the premise, given that other elements were not fleshed out to provide balance. Indeed some of the humor slips into what this reader considers dangerous territory. For example, Strayer writes a popular fictional adventure series under a pseudonym. When she considers having the lead character come out as a lesbian, her editor warns her that research shows one-third of Strayer's readers would lose interest unless there "was a sex scene every 63.4 pages." (323) Thus Strayer's readers, and potentially by extension, Novan and Cooper's readers are lampooned. For the humor it provides, this scene was annoying.

For this reader, Madam President is disappointing, both as a speculative futuristic political tale and as a lesbian love story. Certainly there are several amusing and charming moments in the novel. One of the funniest is when Devlyn, who would have been in her teens during the original run of the Xena television show, recalls her frustration and disappointment with the writers and producers failure to present the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle as an open lesbian couple. By contrast, Cooper and Novan's Road to Glory is very charming as a fantasy and an erotic, romantic love story. Cooper's Story of Me which satires a range of subjects, manages to tap into a genuine counter balancing sweetness that is not present in Madam President. As other reviews point out, many readers might feel quite differently about Madam President; however, this reader would prefer their future novels be more like Road to Glory or Story of Me.

-MJ Lowe
BN: This title has been released several times now, I don't know if any significant changes have occurred.

Above All Honor

Radclyffe
Justice House Publishing
0970887426

The Secret Service in Radclyffe's Above All Honor has their hands full. They are trying to guard Blair Powell, the daughter of the President of the United States. Blair, a prominent artist in bohemian art circles of NYC, has grown tired of the oppressive consequences of her father's political career. The polished, beautiful, and politically savvy, Blair is willing to play her role within reason -- speaking for special events, sponsoring charities and making appearances in political venues that are all accepted parts of her public persona; however, she is tired of the constant invasion into her personal life. In her private life Blair is unabashedly lesbian. That private life her father prefers she at least keep discrete. Frustration has led Blair to taunt, tease, annoy and evade the security detail whenever possible. She leads them on merry chases through a range of ... bars in the city, particularly enjoying opportunities to lose the easily spotted "straight laced" agents in one of the leather clubs. Much to the embarrassment of the agents, Blair is quite skilled at her disappearing act.

Senior Agent Cameron Roberts has just been given a clean bill of health after a near fatal shooting during an undercover operation that went badly. Displeased with her new assignment in charge of a security duty for the President's daughter, Roberts quickly realizes that her own lesbian identity is one of the reasons for it. Roberts is determined to treat Blair with as much respect and professionalism as possible without being stymied by her little games. Despite her handsome, butch lesbian, appearance, Roberts seems immune to Blair's charms. This impression is not entirely true of Roberts, but Blair is quite willing to rise to the challenge of the enigmatic agent. Both women carry painful secrets in their past making the possibility of a romance professional inappropriate and personally difficult. No light romantic comedy, the courtship dance in Above All Honor has an edgy, tense quality, although at times it is predictable. Meanwhile, Roberts' charge to protect Blair becomes more challenging when she begins to receive "gifts" from a stalker.

A fast-paced read, Above All Honor has some entertaining and erotic elements. It does not, however, entirely succeed as an "action and suspense thriller" reinterpreted through a lavender lens. The novel is too short in that it leaves too many questions unanswered and too many allusions unexplained. Blair and Robert's pasts are hinted at, but not explored enough for this reader. Blair's behavior almost goes too far for her to be "redeemable" without more background. And one storyline is left hanging in an un-fulfilling, even annoying, manner. Because of the weak character development and the incomplete plot, Above All Honor does not hold up to the promise of Love's Melody Lost, Radclyffe's lavender, tongue-in-cheek tribute to gothic romances. Hopefully, Radclyffe will find better ways to express these elements in future stories.

-MJ Lowe

BN: Above All Honor was re-release in an all new, expanded edition by Bookends Press in 2002 and again by Bold Strokes Books in 2004.

Unexpected Sparks

Gina L. Dartt
Justice House Publishing
0970887477

Forty years old and a prominent businesswoman in her town, Kate Shannon is about to change her life. The owner and manager of Novel Companions, an independent bookshop in downtown, Truro, Nova Scotia, Kate has spent much of the last year becoming friends with a regular customer, Nikki Harris.

The 26 years old Nikki is a shy, intelligent, beautiful and openly lesbian woman struggling to survive small town life in the economically depressed Canadian Maritimes. A book lover, Nikki enjoys the cozy atmosphere of Novel Companions, especially since Kate started carrying gay and lesbian fiction. She also enjoys the detailed discussions with Kate of novel plots, characters, favorite authors and related political themes. In fact, Nikki has become painfully aware that she is quite attracted to Kate and has recently cut down on her time at the bookstore, in hopes of weaning her affections away from the charming, presumably straight, owner. A bleak February is looming long and lonely for Nikki.

When the insurance office across the street from the bookshop burns down one night, Nikki rushes to the scene to make certain it's not Novel Companions. A perplexed Kate had noticed the new distance from Nikki. Seeing Nikki standing out in the cold, Kate invites the young woman into her apartment above Novel Companions. The two women watch the fire and begin to speculate about its origin.

Nikki's natural curiosity is piqued when the body of Sam Madison, the owner of the insurance office, is found in the ashes. She convinces Kate to help her investigate the fire. Kate, willing to go along with an opportunity to spend more time with Nikki, agrees to help. Unexpected Sparks is a classic armchair mystery with old fashioned, timeless clues and important character revelations leading Nikki and Kate to answer the questions of why and how Sam ended up in the burning office.

Via their amateur sleuthing project, Kate and Nikki find themselves drawing closer together. Their attraction and developing romance is another theme of Unexpected Sparks. Dartt illustrates falling in love and coming out in a charming and touching manner with respect and humor for her characters. Indeed, her characterization is realistic and perceptive. The elegant and composed Kate is surprised and delighted by the depth and range of the emotions she feels for Nikki. She is also startled by the attention, positive and negative, from customers, friends and neighbors as they begin to hear about her new lavender relationship. Dartt's Truro setting is nicely detailed and provides insight into Canadian small town life, particularly for lesbians.

Unexpected Sparks is Dartt's first novel and there are some elements that could be explored more. Several aspects of Nikki's past are still a mystery and readers who know Dartt's Star Trek fan fiction stories might be surprised at the slightly reticent quality of her love scenes. However, these details are minor and take nothing away from one's pleasure in the story. In fact, the possibilities for just such future revelations have this reader looking forward to the next two Kate and Nikki mysteries. In the meanwhile, if you enjoy armchair mysteries with a lovely lavender flair, pick up a copy of Unexpected Sparks. This book is a perfect cozy evening read.

-MJ Lowe

BN: Unexpected Sparks was re-released by Bold Strokes Books in 2006 and has been followed by Unexpected Ties.