Kelli Jae Baeli

Always the best reason to read a story, eh? Because it's been on my possibilities list for a longish time, and I'm tired of it being there. Plus, it's only 12 pages in length. So . . I'm going to 'get rid of it' now. I go in knowing that this is just a snippet, a scene, a not-complete story. So maybe I'll get something out of it, eh?

This will be my 11th thing read by this author.

Well, story started off interesting - a woman, Veronica Polk, is floating in the ocean recalling how she ended up there (hmms, I've read at least one other book like that, I don't think it's going to be like Pincher Martin, though, since that one involved someone getting flashes of their life while dying/drowning out on the ocean . . . at least I hope it isn't like that).

She pushed herself upright in the water, kicking to stay afloat, and studied the shoreline. It appeared like the view of a photograph held in front of her face. Not exactly to scale. Who'd be fool enough to believe she could swim that far? (Kindle Locations 32-34).

Interesting little itty bitty tiny snippet of a story. A police officer goes undercover. Goes all out to try to do her duty. The end. hmms. Ah well, I knew it was just a snippet.

Oh, and by the way, there's no sex, no indication of gender orientation, no nothing like that. It matters, to the storyline, that the character is female, but otherwise she could have been an asexual blog of flesh for all it mattered to what occurred in the snippet.

March 16 2016… (meer)

Late at night, or early in the morning, whatever 2:30 am would be, it's too early to be writing a review. So I won't. Just leave some notes. Write review . . um . . later? I just didn't want to say something like 'shortly' then have someone see 'shortly' and notice the date on the review was five years ago.

Lots of stuff happening. Some of the things, of the tension, from the prior book has been lifted. So it was a somewhat easier read. It's strange, but I unexpectedly rather liked the goth girls. Even though they were doing stupid things. Kidnappings, etc. That one scene involving being tied up, with toys, and cameras, and everything was both funny and exciting.

Oh, I just remembered, slowly, why I decided to write something here now - how the heck did I end up having read my tenth book by this author? All along it has been something of a random decision to read. Well, I guess I know why. There was that first series I read, of three novels. Then that time-traveling one with dinosaurs. So that's four. Then decided to try this series, and I just kept devouring them until I've now read all them currently published. And so that's six more, to make ten. Still, I never set out to specifically read this author, I just kind of did. And now looking back I have read ten books by her. I glad there was that dinosaur book to try. I mean, I didn't really like the last book in that other series whose name now escapes me. The name of the series. But I immediately tried and liked that dino book. So, even though it took awhile to try the AKA series, I knew I'd keep trying this author. And there were some issues here and there, but I'm glad I kept reading away.

I suppose, while my mind flutters, and morphs, and grows and shrinks due to the time I write this, I suppose one fleeting thought that comes to mind is - what happened to the kitten? I mean, that was a neat little scene of rescue and . . I kind of expected the 'gang' to arrive back and have someone make some comment about the kitten. I might have overlooked that. My brain is swiss cheese at the moment.… (meer)

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.… (meer)

It was like a breath of fresh air, an injection of . . um . . something, when I started this book here. And the story returned to the 'control' of the AKA people. Mostly Jobeth. I enjoy reading Jobeth's sections. She's funny and amusing. I wish some method had been attempted to keep it just told from her point of view because I'm much less interested in the others.

Also, I feel like something got lost when the veil was pulled back and Phoebe's thoughts came to the forefront. I mean, this is the fourth book in the series. Up until a certain percentage complete point in this book, none of her direct point of view was present. And, quite frankly, once her point of view arrived . . . I quite wished it hadn't. So, now, in addition to everything else the story has in it, we now have that tired old cliche of a rich woman who feels inadequate and feels the need to 'do something' to have an impact on life. So. That happened.

I really have no idea how many point of views occurred this time. I don't think POV's shifted mid-chapter before, but that occurred several times in this book. Once someone was thinking about another, I think it might have been Izzy. And called them. They answered. Some talk. Chapter continued . . . from Ginger's point of view. mmphs.

The best parts of this book involved Jobeth. The worst parts? The rehash. I mentioned in my notes for the last book that the police interactions were seen from non-police point-of-views despite having two police officers having POV's elsewhere in the book. Well, their point of view appears this time. As in, the same stuff that happened in the last book? Retold, from the police officer's perspective. Which was a downer.

There's no mystery. Not unless you hadn't read the prior book. There is a lot of new stuff in this book, related directly to the AKA people, but the mystery itself is just the same mystery in the last book, seen from yet another angle. For the most part. There were some more after-effects from rape attacks, and one break in that were not in the prior book. Otherwise, though, nothing new on the mystery front.

The entire thing would have been much better as one book. I realize that the author intended one book, and the side characters got all pushy and stuff, and so she had to tell their story. But still. Make the book be 700 pages then, if that's the case. Or, with some scenes cut, 500 to 600. The book just doesn't work as well cut in half. Especially since this isn't a chronological book. Well, I mean, the events in the last book do not lead to the events in this one. The events in both books happened at the same time. So once you read the last book, you know how everything turns out. I think the only really new thing was the arrival and interaction of Izzy's mother. Oh, and Rosemarie Free(sp?) the battered woman.

This would have been a solid 4 star book, maybe even 4.5 star book if it had just been a completely new book. Without pulling up the mystery from the past. At least if the amount of rehashing was less. Police officer, private investigators deal with multiple cases all the time. Most of the time the other cases get little mention, or, get tied to the main case somehow. This would have been the perfect opportunity to have a 'brand new' mystery to follow, in addition to some 'this is how the mystery in the last book impacted the AKA people' scenes.

Sure, it's nice to see how Ginger handled things during the mystery, I guess, but if the Ginger sections had just involved new aspects of the mystery, that'd have been great. For example, I didn't need to see the scene in the forest again.

Therefore, I cannot give as high a rating as this book might have otherwise deserved. I don't know, this probably might even have been a 4.5 star book if I hadn't read the prior book. Though probably not, since despite my mention of rehashing and the like, I'm not sure if someone who only read this book would understand what the heck the mystery was about. Actually, I'm fairly certain they'd have no clue what the deal with Dr. Bishop was about. I think.

As it is, I give this book 3.5 stars.… (meer)