BadSquirrel

It is funny in it's way. One of the reasons I decided to try this book was because it involved an undercover police officer. More directly, because it involved said police officer operating undercover as a stripper.

And nearly the first scene, or around there, involved a lap dance by said undercover officer given to a woman. Who promptly orgasmed. One of those 'quickest to orgasm' type moments, eh?

Who knew, from that background, what I'd actually find when I continued reading? The two main characters, Rachel and Stevie, are probably my two favorite characters I've come across. There's family turmoil, religious turmoil, crime, passion, thrills and chills.

This might be the best family/religious/LGBT-related book I've read.

While reading I was thinking several thoughts, one of which is - why am I able to read this book for free? Other than a few mentions here or there of green eyes, I noticed nothing that would put either woman as being stamped from the mold of the two main women from Xena. Maybe Stevie and Rachel are modeled on some other couple?

There was one moment wherein I think the author or someone got confused (maybe it is I who got confused), but there is one moment when it appeared that Rachel, for one brief scene, had her name switch from Rachel to Teresa, to Rachel again. Other than that specific issue, this was a lot more polished than I'd have expected (granted I'm not talking about the formatting, that was annoying how scenes/etc, meshed together; while other scenes kept getting interupted by large blocks of text informing everyone the name of the book and the page number). Right, think I lost my focus there, I had meant to just note that I did not see anything specifically that would have kept this book from being published for pay.

Not sure which would have lead me to it quicker, free, published for pay, or published for free. *shrugs* No matter. I rather enjoyed the book.

August 17 2016… (meer)

This book involves two people who are ‘messed up’ by past events. One is proceeding with life and believes they are ready to ‘live again’, while the other is still trying to hide from life as much as possible.

Maureen Baird, the one ‘ready’ to try things again, is a 30-something (just short of 40 if I recall correctly) librarian (as in the county librarian, which is, apparently, super important). Three things to know about her immediately: 1) she got absorbed into a prior relationship to the point wherein she basically lost all of her friends except for a husband and wife and their kids – and she kept them, to a large extent, because she grew up with the wife and they kind of see each other as almost sisters; 2) she’s gorgeous (apparently) but thinks she is fat and not gorgeous; 3) one and two are somewhat related – she’s had some bad relationships and hasn’t exactly had much in the way of healthy people as girlfriends – none of whom seemed to mean it sincerely when they mentioned her looks; and one of whom probably, though not outright stated, tried to degrade her on her looks (since we, the reader, know that she did outright attempt to degrade her in other means) – which leads to three – no, not that she has had some bad girlfriends, but that one is in prison now for beating Maureen to an inch of her life.

One of the things that got her through her recovery period was a specific voice that she heard on her radio. Though she’d heard it before that hospital and recovery stage. It was just there during that specific time as well. That voice belonging to one Shine Avery.

Shine Avery is the other ‘damaged’ woman in this story. Another 30-something woman. 8 years ago ‘something’ happened that caused Shine to sever all ties with friends and she hasn’t ‘been with anyone’ in the same amount of time. She has also not really felt the desire for sex in that amount of time. She’s lived a life of almost constant travel, though about . . hmm, 2? 4? Years ago she arrived in this Edgewater place. She was on the way out of town when she learned her last connection to another living person had been severed due to death. She almost continued on to her next location, but she didn’t really feel up to moving right then. Needed to recharge. So got a job at a radio station as a radio personality/DJ.

None of this is, for the most part, known by Maureen, or Jim and his family (Jim being 1) one of Maureen’s few friends; 2) Shine’s coworker at the radio station). This is important in its way, of course. So, that stuff above was unknown when Maureen asked Jim for a favor – to introduce her to Shine. Jim proceeds to invite Shine over for a meal, mentioning wife, kids, himself, and a family friend but not mentioning how it is a ‘set-up’. He fully expects, even with this modified invitation (i.e., not mentioning blind date aspect), for Shine to decline the invitation. Because that’s what she does. Always keep herself apart. But Shine accepts. Reluctantly.

So, a meal is had. More or less immediately upon Shine’s arrival at the house she senses she has been tricked and confronts Jim. She sticks around, though reluctantly. As much as possible, she attempts to avoid Maureen.

Maureen, though, is still interested. She doesn’t know what to do, though, and Jim suggests that she do what men do. Pursue the woman, wear her down. Like Jim did with his wife (is it obvious yet that I can’t recall the wife’s name? hehe). So, Maureen turns up once a week and asks Shine out. Weeks go by. Finally, ‘just as friends’ ‘something’ starts up between Maureen and Shine. A door is shoved open.

So, Maureen first had to break down the wall to get Shine to accept her in her life before even thinking about breaking any more walls to get close enough for potential dating.

For the most part, I liked Maureen, Shine, and to a lesser extent Jim and his family. It was a better than okay book but not an outstanding one. Interesting, kept my attention. Didn’t annoy me too much. Reasonable first book by an author.

Another book wherein I’m confused as to why I have access to it free as opposed to it being offered for sale. Nothing here that would limit sales. Shine has a kind of ‘Seven of Nine’ vibe in her approach to emotions, though not in 99% of the rest of her make-up (I can’t really imagine Seven of Nine being as playful and joyful as Shine is when her guard is down and/or she’s near children). That’s the only thought I had re: fanfiction type things, and I’m fairly certain that’s me noticing a similarity in one aspect of a character’s personality that has no real connection to something done by an author on purpose (as in, I’ve no idea if the author has even heard of Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager).

And, shockingly, no one is referred to by hair color, eye color, height, or job occupation. And considering how much Shine was kind of reluctant to have anything to do with the county Librarian, and how . . . important Shine’s job as a radio personality was to Maureen, I’d not have been too put off if one or more people did slip in a few ‘the librarian’, ‘the dj’ type references.

Basically I’m just saying that this did not seem to have anything that would keep it from being sold, as is, copyright wise, nor was there anything ‘fanfictiony’ about the book – at least in terms of the tricks that get used and or picked up from writing fanfiction (referring here to the part here I mentioned referring to people by hair, eye, height, or occupation).

A good book. My second by this ‘BadSquirrel’. I gave the first book I had read by this author a solid 5 star rating, while seeing this book here being closer to a solid rating of . . . hmm . . . 4.25.

September 20 2016… (meer)

I feel somewhat bad saying this since I think I might be the opposite of most people who have read the same books by this author that I have, but I think this was my least favorite of them. This is my fourth book by this author. Two of the books got 5 star ratings, 2 got 4 and a quarter (or something near there).

First up on my list of things to mention, something not too hard to state or take: this author likes public nudity. Heh. I only really noticed with the prior book I read, ‘One Good Memory’, but yeah. ‘One Good Memory’ has the two main characters wander around outside for four days naked; ‘Warriors of the Heart’ stars a stripper who gives a revealing lap dance (well, she’s an undercover cop working as a stripper); I’m not actually sure if there is any public nudity in ‘Shine’; but there is again in ‘Rumors’, albeit brief (a visit to a ‘nice spot’ includes a river and some skinny dipping (though one is reluctant, more because they can’t swim than because of the nudity aspect, though they are somewhat nervous about that as well)). So – author likes nudity and I have no problem with that.

So this specific book here stars Hannah, the femme (that part is important) and Kelly the butch (again, super important point). With some very important less major players, like Cricket the dog, Jill the ‘everything I wanted but . . . something is off’ woman; Brenda the ‘no I didn’t really kill her and bury her in the backyard’ ex-girlfriend; and Freddie and Jay – gay men couple who are friends of Hannahs. Kelly is an auto mechanic and Hannah is a dog groomer.

Butch femme? Really, it matters? Yes. There’s this quite odd vibe that runs throughout this book. One that I do not exactly understand nor expected to see. This is something like the . . . wait, no, seriously? 534? That can’t be right. One moment. Huh. Well, this apparently is my 534th lesbian fiction book I’ve read. And this is probably the only time I’ve seen this specific topic pop up. Something similar? Probably, just not blatant enough for me to notice, I assume. That topic? Butchness (or more clearly - the 'eww, butch' aspect/topic).

Hannah has certain ideas of what and who she is attracted to. This is how she ended up dating Jill, despite feeling no spark with her when first meet (because she mostly ‘checks off’ all the right boxes). Femme, successful, sophisticated looking . . . um . . . other stuff as well. Before she ever goes on a date with Jill, though, Kelly asked Hannah out. And Hannah flatly refused. Because she’s seeing someone (technically she has a date later in the week, but she isn’t actually seeing anyone yet). On one hand that’s good – not putting yourself into risk of potentially putting yourself in a bad situation (if, say, you end up finding a spark with both, go on a date with Jill, find no spark, then go on a date with Kelly if both still interested); except I have the strong impression that Hannah said what she said because of one very specific aspect (an aspect that pops up a lot in this book) – Kelly is butch.

I do not think the words ‘eww, butch’ actually occur in the book, but that’s the very strong vibe that comes up. Hannah doesn’t want anything to do with Kelly, and kind of looks down on her and/or is afraid of her a little because of it. And others bring it up as a sign that Kelly is unworthy (she’s, you know, butch; Jill, for one, brings that up - that Kelly is butch (I think it was Jill who 'went there')). 534 books. I’ve seen more books where a very butch woman says ‘no, I’m straight’, than I’ve seen this aspect here. The ‘eww, butch’ aspect.

Well, against her inner trauma at having to allow herself to date a butch woman (okay, now I’m going too far, Hannah’s reluctant re: butch, but she’s not evil about it . . . I think; though it did take seeing Kelly in a dress for Hannah’s reluctance to begin to fold (Hannah was at a birthday party with her date, Jill; a performance by drag queens occurs – one of the normal participants was not around, so Kelly had to step into the dress to perform in his place); then there’s the aspect of Hannah thinking to herself about how womanly Kelly looks out of clothing, how . . . ‘less-than-butch’).

There’s an interesting story here. And while I was initially annoyed that I’d stumbled upon yet another book, seemingly, wherein the main character would date someone else before ‘finally’ dating their ‘match’, it actually worked better here. The book has both a bad and good ex; and another thing I’ve only very rarely seen in lesbian fiction – a functioning gay couple operating in the same book as a functioning lesbian couple (other than Kris Ripper’s series, the only other time I specifically recall this happening . . . wait no, there is a functioning gay couple in the second book of Redmann’s Micky Knight series, but Micky isn’t . . . ah, no, there’s at least 3 lesbian couples in that book, at least one of them could probably be described as being ‘healthy and functioning lesbian relationship’ – maybe Elly and Danny (though Danny and Micky aren’t that friendly to each other in the book; and Elly stand by her woman; plus Torbin and his geeky boyfriend are very much barely there characters, while Freddie and Jay are a large part of this book here).

Lost that last paragraph, I did.

A lot of lesbian fiction works I’ve read include a ‘gay bff’, who, a lot of the time, is super annoying. Here we have two, but healthy helpful kind. A lot of lesbian fiction includes that ‘dated someone but she’s horrible and now a bitch because she’s actually evil’, while the real life concept of ‘ex’s tend to become friends’ rarely gets seen develop – though occasionally one friend or another will admit to having, at some point, dated the main character. I mention because this book here has both the ‘ex’s will turn out to be evil bitches’ and ‘ex’s can, over time, become friends’. I rarely see the second actually in operation in a book (the moving from dating to ex to friends; mostly I see 'yes, we dated . . .years ago'). It is barely seen here (to a certain extent), but it was nice to see that side of things for once.

I’ve rambled. And haven’t really said much about the book itself. Which is bad. Bad me! Especially since this is another book without much of a description on GoodReads. Heck, the characters names aren’t even in there. Soooo….

Main character Hannah is best friends with Freddie and Jay, a gay couple. Jay (I think) invites a woman to come by for dinner. That woman is named Jill. None of the three, Freddie/Jay/Hannah actually particularly like Jill, but Hannah ‘goes for her’ anyway. Since . . . um . . . both are lesbians? And Jill kind of matches some of what Hannah thought she might like? Something like that. Though no spark.

Meanwhile Hannah has some car trouble which has her interacting with Kelly, an auto mechanic. Kelly is one of those auto mechanics who will literally come out to help you if you are stuck on the side of the road (despite the part where Kelly isn’t a tow-truck driver; I believe it's directly because it was Hannah asking for help). Hannah has been aware of Kelly for a good long while, but they do not exactly operate in the same social circles. Plus, Kelly is butch (figured I’d state that again, for reasons). Kelly, on the other hand, has known of and l-worded Hannah for 14 years.

Both Hannah and Kelly had rotten child-hoods, though since everything is from Hannah’s point of view, most of Kelly’s issues, at least in childhood, are not explicit (though Kelly had . . . a very rough transition from childhood to adulthood; the traumatic event kind).

I actually liked the book. Just vaguely confused by some aspects that turned up.

Rating: 4.25

February 27 2017… (meer)

I wasn’t going to review this one but then noticed that the book description is very . . . brief and that there is only one review for the book at the moment. And so . . .

Two point of views – Robin and Maryl. The book opens with Robin wandering away from a camping site which includes her entire family (mother, brothers, brother’s wives, kids (father died some time before this book started)). When she gets far enough away, she calmly strips herself of clothing. And then proceeds naked but for shoes. ...

A quick thought: last book I read, ‘Don’t Feed the Trolls’, had a female roommate who always watches anime while naked (and she constantly watches anime), while the main character is quite casual about whether or not a top is worn; then started (well continued) a book in which a young woman is forced to spend time on campus naked but for shoes or be kicked out of school (she had cheated on a paper) – I paused that one as that isn’t something I can read during the day (I guess?) and moved to this one . . . to find more nudists. My week is odd.

... Somewhere along the way, Robin starts spotting certain clothing items that had been picked up by and carried by the river. She collects them and continues walking. To come upon a woman sunbathing wearing nothing but one shoe. That woman is startled and covers up until she notices that the person who is approaching is also naked and female. They get to know each other, and here I mean have great conversations. Turns out that the other woman is named Maryl and is on a camping trip with her support group (several women who have suffered some form of relationship woes).

Over a course of four days the two women grow close. And even though they’ve just meet, both feel that they love the other and express this love . . by using words like ‘I love you’. But then their time camping comes to an end and . . . everything falls apart. Both knew that they lived some distance from each other, and that maybe they might just have a moment together. Though Robin hopes for more. Maryl, while both loving Robin, and knowing that Robin loves her, doesn’t really know Robin – and knows this. The next step, some form of long distance relationship, is likely to ruin this ‘one good memory’ and so . . . she breaks them apart (there are some reasons that seem vaguely reasonable though made me have vaguely unreasonable negative thoughts about Maryl).

Months pass. Maryl feels hurt inside but continues. People around her notice that she seems distracted. Then Maryl starts seeing, or thinks she sees, someone that looks a lot like Robin. More time passes. Maryl is vaguely curious about whether or not she’s insane.

Maryl works with a medical group. It doesn’t really matter in terms of story, but I think she’s more of an office manager type? Bah, maybe she’s a nurse. For reasons of my own memory – her best friend is a straight woman named Janelle who works with her. Maryl’s relationship with her family is very thin and filled with disappointment on the part of her parents and siblings. Disappointment that Maryl allowed herself to be a lesbian. Maryl lives a great distance from her family.

Robin is an assistant manager (at the start of the story) at a grocery store. She has a big family and everyone loves each other. Though the impression is given that part of this ‘love’ developed as adults – as kids they constantly pranked each other and did thinks like sew pants legs closed and the like. Or toss sisters off buildings with ‘the good sheets’ to be used as a parachute (naturally that didn’t work and Robin almost died).

1) I rather enjoyed both Robin and Maryl and felt both to be rather well-developed;
2) The couple from the first Edgewater book pops up in this book. It’s been a while so I might get their names wrong but I think it is librarian Maureen and radio personality Shine.

Rating: 5 or 5 - still thinking about it.

Review written: Feb 24 2017… (meer)