Well, another book in this "mystery" series that moves things in a different direction. Again. Well, at least it involved Jobeth and Phoebe. But no mystery. Not even anything pretending to be a mystery, or in the same general region as a mystery. Just romance.

Phoebe feels that she and Jobeth have been drifting, and not spending any time together. Heck, they haven't even had sex in two weeks. And this time not because of injury, because of "too much work". Wait, I was going to write that they were "too busy". So, she mentions the issue to Jobeth. Mentions this great sounding lesbian and gay place in Colorado (they are already in Colorado). Um. Elsewhere in Colorado. So they go. More or less immediately.

They arrive to find two old lesbians. A couple together for 40+ years. Hattie and Ethel Sweat own and run the place. Also there, though not immediately met, is Cecil. The handyman. That's the sum total of the workers of the establishment. Two women in their 70s, and one crotchety . . .um, middle-aged? man. Also staying at this resort is an artist, never met though spied upon, Jeffrey Sweat, and Bonnie Sweat. Who arrived separately and live in separate treehouses. Oh, I forgot to mention. The resort involves treehouses. Mason visits as well, though he's not staying there. That's the sum total of the visitors to this location in Colorado. I might be forgetting someone, but that's it. Izzy and Ginger are heard by phone while off on their own vacation in Maine.

I hadn't thought of that before. Okay, I had a passing thought but pushed it aside while reading. Both Jobeth and Phoebe are too busy at the moment. So . . . everyone involved in AKA Investigations up and went on vacation at the same time on a moment’s notice. Without any indication of a sudden lull in business, or arrangements made. Strange that.

The possibility of bisexuality never seems to rear its head in most of the lesbian books I've read. Certainly don't recall any such thing in Baeli's books I've read. I mention for two reasons. One of the main characters, Jeffrey, is a married man of 51. Everyone but him 'knows' that Jeffrey is actually gay. Not straight. Or, heaven forbid, bisexual. It's true that he hasn't had marital relations with his wife in years. And has a boy toy that visits him. So it's quite possible that he's hiding his own nature from himself and is in fact gay. I have no problem with that idea. Jobeth, on the other hand, struck me from the beginning as being bisexual, not lesbian, and not straight. Didn't matter until this book though. And it might still not 'matter' on one level as the things Phoebe wants are not, in and of themselves, things lesbians don't want. But I'll note that stuff in a moment.

So. Jobeth and Phoebe arrive. Jobeth's all happy and stuff. They do stuff together. Jobeth's all confused by Phoebe's refusal to stay and cuddle, like normal, afterwards but doesn't say anything. Then one thing leads to another and Jobeth keeps, apparently, pissing off Phoebe. And then it leads to why. Because Jobeth won't open herself totally to Phoebe, give up control. Allow herself to be penetrated. Jobeth's confused, and then realizes the truth of the matter. Suggests repairing to the bed for some attempts to fix this matter.

They have fun in the bed. Phoebe again leaves. All seem happy. Phoebe returns wearing a strap-on. Jobeth stares at it in horror. Thought penetration just meant fingers. Which she liked. Not strap-on. Goes with flow. Flow hurts really painfully. Phoebe is pissed off. Make one of those comments that drives me to begin to hate Phoebe a little bit. One of those jackass comments normally reserved for men fumbling with their female friends in high school. ‘If you really loved me you’d let me fuck you with this thing between my legs. Since you won’t, and/or don’t seem to really want to, then you don’t love me.’ (I paraphrase).

This work out to my own satisfaction, but that’s one fucked up comment. Not all lesbians like and enjoy strap-ons. Hell, I’ve had conversations that consisted of basically person one: ‘those porn videos involving two women screwing around with each other were obviously made by and are for men.’ Person two: ‘why?’ Person one: ‘because they fucked unlike real lesbians, see *points* they are using strap-ons.’ That’s also a fucked up thing to say. Like all people are built the same and fuck the same? Bah. Stupid. But the point is some seem to believe that. Jobeth did allow, and did enjoy penetration, with fingers. Also allowed, but didn’t like strap-on. That means, apparently in Phoebe’s mind, that Jobeth doesn’t really love her. That’s fucked up.

Not to say Jobeth isn’t fucked up herself. Her ideas regarding marriage are fucked up. But, meh.

Oh. I forgot I was going to mention something, but then got all distracted by woman on woman strap-on sex. This book sure did seem fixated on penetration sex. There were women penetrating women while wearing strap-ons (well, one couple, already mentioned), men penetrated women (yes indeedy, straight sex is displayed), and, lo and behold, men penetrating men. Whole hell of a lot of penetration sex in this here book. A lot more gay sex and straight sex than I’d expect in a lesbian romance novel. But enough about that.

All-in-all, despite my mumblings above, the book was in fact good. I don’t know about enjoyable, but was good. ( )