Title: Astrid Parker Doesn't Care (Bright Falls #2)

Author: Ashley Herring Blake

Publication Date: 22 Nov2022

Genres: Small town f/f romance

Author's links: Website / Twitter / Instagram

This was lovely and fun and very, very queer.

This is a story of self-discovery and growing into your own self and coming out as queer later in life. As someone who is not queer myself, I don't feel knowledgeable enough to discuss how this was presented in the story. From an outsider's perspective, I liked seeing Ashley's journey and felt convinced in her happiness in the end of the book.

This is an opposites attract kind of kind of romance where a buttoned up, closed-off heroine meets am open and self-confident heroine. Both of them are in difficult stages in their lives, trying to hide the fact they are basically falling apart from everyone. For Astrid this means being perfect in everything - the perfect daughter, the perfect friend, the most successful designer. For Jordan it means not sharing her dreams and hopes and fears with her closest people anymore and finding a new direction in life.

Just like in book 1, I felt the characterisation was really good - both Jordan and Astrid stand out as real people to me.

I liked how well-rounded the whole story and how in synch all the different elements in it were - there is lots of humour and funny dialogue, great sexual tension, supporting friends (Astrid's) and family (Jordan's).

Astrid's relationship with her mother is especially fraught. They do reach some reconciliation but there is no magic cure - it takes time and effort on both sides.

I have mixed feelings re Jordan's ex-wife. I can't help but feel she is a terrible person. She did try to help Jordan but at the same time she was completely ignoring Jordan's wishes/boundaries, speaking and acting over her on numerous issue. Her actions were the nudge Jordan needed in her career but I just can't let go of all the hurt she caused her before.

Finally there is a bit I don't feel very competent to comment on but feel it should be mentions and it's about the language regarding gender and attraction used in this book. I felt there were one too many instances of "women and non-binary people". It is most often used by Jordan to describe the people she is attracted to but sometimes it read like equating non-binary people with women and I am not a fan of that. I could be reading things wrong but a couple of instances really stood out to me. I would recommend checking reviews by queer, especially non-binary and trans, readers for their take on these instances.

Iris' book is next and there was a whole plotline with her that I found unnecessary and superfluous to this book but still I am very much looking forward to her finding her own HEA/HFN.

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Gorgeous, moving, full of magic and suspense!

Often the second books in series loose the momentum of the first one. This was very much not the case here. It very much upped the stakes on the romance, the magic, the suspense.

The story continues where it left off at the end of book 1 with Malini on her way to the throne and Priya trying to rebuild Ahirniya. We meet a bunch of new characters, often seeing things from their POV. It’s never confusing or too much, rather it creates a very vivid world. It is amazing to me how distinctive and well developed even the minor characters in this series are.

As the story unfolds we see court intrigue and priestly manipulation abound. All the while Malini and Priya and Bumikha and Rao and Aditya try to follow their destiny without losing themselves completely. The author consistently gives us outstanding female characters, they all have different strength and lead a fight to live their lives on their own terms. We see women leading armies and fighting, providing spiritual guidance and wielding magical powers, giving political advise. It is a powerful you-have-a-choice-and-can-be-anything-you-want-to-be message for me and I found it really uplifting.

I loved the writing, loved the magic with all its darkness and demand for sacrifice and how the women try to carve a place for themselves in a world that’s essentially hostile towards them.

While I fully empathise with Malini and Priya and Bumikha and Rao and Aditya, I really found Chandra’s chapters fascinating as well. A villain through and through but with layers, with motivation – a living breathing human being. He is petty and vindictive, with delusions of grandeur but also there are moments where we see him lost and vulnerable and scared while still being very much the bad guy.

The romance between Malini and Priya is intense, facing one too many obstacles, embroiled in power struggles and magic that is too powerful, too demanding, too consuming. I can’t wait to see how things between develop in the next book because they don’t look very hopeful right now.

I am not ready to talk about Bumikha and all that happens with Ahiranya. Avoiding spoilers, I can only say it offers a fascinating take on what gods and monsters are and the choice we make to follow one or the other.

There is no cliffhanger, some plotlines are completed, though the major resolution is forthcoming in the next book. And it promises to be an epic struggle to make things right for everyone.

This is shaping to be an awesome series, one of the best fantasies I have read and I highly recommend it.

CW: violence, dark magic, sacrifice, burning alive, torture

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Title: Delilah Green Doesn't Care (Bright Falls #1)

Author: Ashley Herring Blake

Publication Date: 22 Feb 2022

Genres: Small town f/f romance

Author's links: Website / Twitter / Instagram

CW: death of parents (in the past), family neglect (in the past), cheating (in the past)

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This is a charming cozy mystery a la Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes but with a f/f marriage in trouble romance subplot and I greatly enjoyed it.

The writing is brilliant as usual and had me engaged throughout the whole story. The murder mystery investigation is so over-the-top and charming and hilarious and I loved it. The marriage in trouble was my favourite part though. I found it to be very touching and real and I loved seeing two people who in a long-term relationship dealing some serious issues that have come up in their relationship. They love each but it does not automatically fix things between them. There are a lot of honest talks and confessions and apologies to be made but the support and the care are there and I am hopeful that Liza and Hanna will find their way back to each other.

The story is full of clever nods to staples in the detective novel genre - a group of strangers are snowed in (at Easter, mind you!) with no wifi/telephone connection, a slew of murders, a criminal mastermind, a femme fatale, a meddlesome amateur detective. It's ridiculous but also a lot of fun to read.

I highly recommend it if you like gorgeous writing telling a story that explores a romantic relationship in trouble while solving a classic murder mystery in the mean time.

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Title: The Jasmine Throne (Burning Kingdoms #1)

Author: Tasha Suri

Genre/Themes: Fantasy, f/f romance, Indian setting and MCs

Release Date: 8 June 2021

Author's links: Website / Twitter / Goodreads / Instagram

My rating: 5 Stars

I read the first book in Tasha Suri's previous series, Empire of Ash, and I liked it ok. This one though completely blew my mind. I loved everything in it - the Indian history/mythology inspired setting, the MCs and the secondary characters and all the complex relations among them, the high-stakes suspense plot, the tender f/f romance, the magic elements. 

It's a brilliant, very evocative and complex fantasy with strong f/f romantic elements.

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Note: I am adopting a new rule regarding Content Warnings in my reviews. I will quote them from the author's site if available, adding things on my own discretion is necessary. 

CW: per author's website: 
Explicit violence including immolation and self-immolation
Gender-based violence (this does not include sexual assault)
Homophobia and internalised homophobia
Suicidal ideation
Self-mutilation
Abusive family dynamics
Child murder
Body horror (plant-based, cosmic)
Forced drug use and depictions of addiction/withdrawal

Title: The Unspoken Name

Author: A. K. Larkwood

Genre: Fantasy, f/f romantic elements

Release Date: 11 Feb 2020

Author's links:

Website / Twitter / Goodreads

My rating: 4 Stars

Blurb

What if you knew how and when you will die?

Csorwe does — she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.

But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard's loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.

But Csorwe will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

Review 

This is a debut diverse fantasy with f/f romantic elements which I mostly enjoyed and had no major issues with it other than the pace being rather slow at the beginning. It's an engaging, complicated story involving death cults and sacrifices, all-powerful gods and magicians. 

The story has a slower start, descriptive, understated, very much reflective of who Csowre was at that time. As the story progresses we see her grow up, completely transform herself and through trial and error become her own person. I loved seeing her complicated relationship with her mentor and saviour and master. Csorwe and her friend/enemy Tal also had a turbulent relationship which brought forth major life-altering decisions for both of them.

Title: Proper English

Author: KJ Charles

Genre/Themes: Historical, f/f romance, murder mystery

Release Date: 8 May 2019

Author's links: Website / Twitter / FB Group / Goodreads

My rating: 4.5 Stars

Review 

This is a f/f country house murder mystery romance which I greatly enjoyed. It's light-hearted and fun, as much as a romance developing at the background of a murder investigation can be. It's an opposites attract kind of romance and it worked brilliantly for me.

This story works as a prequel to Think of England where we see Pat and Fen as an already established couple. I haven't read the other book yet but this didn't affect my enjoyment of Proper English in the slightest.

As usual, I found KJ Charles' writing engaging and I was deeply invested in the plot even more the murder investigation which only happened in the second half of the book. I liked both heroines who were complete opposites in many ways but who also had more things in common than one could imagine. Their romance was tender and sweet, with little angst and lots of care and understanding.

Both are strong, smart heroines and while Pat is very open about who she is, Fen is hiding her true self behind a bubbly, light-headed personality.

I liked seeing the complexity of family and other relationships and in particular appreciate the closeness between Pat and her brother. The support and care for each other without being over affectionate and while also respecting the private space of the other, giving each other room to breathe and be themselves. The pride he took in her shooting accomplishments, her concern about his well-being and her fear of losing him, all of this was deeply moving for me to read.

I notice this as a trait of KJ Charles' books, her villains seem too villainous to be real. My knowledge of history is not that detailed for me to say if people like  really existed but within the story their villainy seemed over-the-top. I had similar feelings about the villains in Any Old Diamonds, so it could be a me thing though, so don't hold it much against the book.

Overall, Proper English is a short, delightful read, marked by great attention to historical detail, interesting plot and a tender f/f romance. I'm looking forward to more stories in this world, for one Think of England is waiting for me on my Kindle and I also very much want to read the story about Pat's brother which I hope we will get at some point.

My guest today is Brianna Kienitz, debut author with Nine Star Press. Her f/f soccer romance Off Pitch came out last week. Learn more about Brianna in the following short interview and read an excerpt from the book at the end of this post. Enjoy!

Meet Brianna

1. Tell us about yourself and why did you decide to become a romance writer?

Haha! Oh boy! I started writing fiction a little over a year ago. My first project (which I'm still working on) is a young adult apocalyptic sci-fi series. Though I loved reading fluffy woman-loving-woman romances, I never thought I'd have kind of story in me. 

After several months of feverish writing, I was getting worn down and running out of juice. I needed a change, something completely different to cleanse my palette. I was writing on Wattpad at the time, and had prodded fellow authors to write more lesbian soccer stories. When NaNoWriMo came along last November I decided to take matters into my own hands, and Off Pitch was born. 

Turns out I had a romance story in me after all. It has opened the floodgates for a whole slew of sports romances I have planned for the future.

2. Can you share some of your favourite books and authors?

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth is my favorite book of all time. It's young adult lesbian fiction coming of age story by a Montanan about a Montanan. Being a Montana native as well, the settings, characters, and story resonate down to my roots. 

Coming in a very close second place is the Starborn series by Maggie Derrick, currently in its beta stage on Wattpad and Maggie’s blog. Her magic realism stories are like living in a work of art, and are nearly impossible to put down. 

I also love the Waking Forever series by Heather McVea. It's hard to beat sexy vampires who happen to be women-loving-women with grew exceptions. It's thrilling, it's steamy, it's fluffy, and it hovers perpetually near the top of my recommendation list. 

3. Who/what do you consider your writing influence/inspiration?

Before I started writing, I was reading stories featuring women-loving-women voraciously. However, I'm pretty isolated in my little Hobbit hole, and I was starting to run out of things I wanted to read within my limited scope. (Twitter has opened up a whole new world for me, so now the problem is my lack of time, not my lack of reading material.)

I started writing the kinds of stories that I want to read. A lot of my inspiration comes from the characters and stories i love. If I didn't love to read what I was writing, I would never finish the story. 

A lot of my inspiration also comes from dreams, real life, the people around me, experiences I've had, and the things I'm passionate about. I love Ireland and classical music, and I can't seem you keep those two things from working their way into my stories. 

4. What kind of stories can the readers expect from you (contemporary/historical/sci-fi, adult/NA/YA, etc)?

Like I said, I started out in young adult sci-fi. Off Pitch is contemporary new adult. I have an unsettling amount of adorable romances planned. There are a couple of fantasy stories waiting in the wings. I can't imagine writing a story without some amount of ladies falling in love, but I like to keep an open mind. I'm a happy leaf floating wherever the wind takes me. 

5. Please, introduce your latest/upcoming release.

Off Pitch follows Adeline Fahey, an undergraduate student at Northwestern University. She’s a straight-A student, but that's nothing compared to what she can do on the soccer field. Her focus is razor sharp and she’s on course to become a highly sought after professional player. 

Razor sharp that is, until the teaching assistant walks into Addie’s Beginning Spanish class. A graduate student from Spain, she's already a world class cello player poised to become the darling of the symphony. 

Despite the university's fraternization rules and their drive towards their goals and passions, the two women can't help but gravitate towards one another. The road is rough, but sprinkle in a sarcastic best friend, homophobic parents, and a T-rex costume, and they just might have a shot at something more in life than they ever could have planned for. 

It's funny, it's steamy, it's adorable, and I hope you love it as much as I do.

Buy links: Publisher / Amazon / Add to Goodreads

Author Bio and Links

Brianna Kienitz (pronounced Kee-nits) started out as an avid reader of lesbian fiction. When reading no longer sated her appetite, she turned to writing the stories she craved. Brianna believes a good story should make you feel every moment deeply, whether it be laughing until it hurts, crying yourself dry, or screaming with unbridled rage. Her Wattpad works have been widely read and have received multiple awards from the Wattpad community. Her current project, Off Pitch, was named Wattpad LGBT Book of the Month in March 2017.

Brianna lives in Missoula, Montana, where she works as a slayer of transit demons, and a dance instructor. She spends most of her down time hiding in her Hobbit Hole with her wife and cat, curating T-rex costume GIF’s and pretending not to be socially awkward on the internet. 

Website / Twitter / Facebook

Excerpt

It hadn’t even been two weeks, and already I was falling behind in my Spanish class. Much to my chagrin, I needed help if I was going to pass the class. And so it was that I found myself making my way to the place where Marcy had said she would be holding office hours. A few people threw casual greetings my way as I maneuvered through the narrow hallways.

“Heyyyy, Fahey,” a generic-looking bro said as he passed me by. I was too caught up in trying to remember if I knew the guy to respond. I was fairly certain I had never met him before.

Sometimes, being me was weird. A lot of people on campus knew who I was, not because I was a particularly social person, but simply because I was one of the top athletes in the school. I had received a full scholarship to come play soccer for Northwestern, and started every game during my freshman year. From the start, I was a force to be reckoned with. I’d been the school’s leading soccer star ever since. As such, my name had made it into the school newspaper after almost every game, often accompanied by pictures of me tearing it up on the field.

Suffice to say that I had achieved a moderate amount of celebrity on campus in the two years I had been here. It made me more than a little uncomfortable at times, but not enough to deter me from my passions. I played soccer because I loved the game, and nothing could change that.

I reached the office I had been seeking and stopped short outside the open door.

“Oh, hello. Adeline, right?” Gabriella sat at a nondescript desk in the cramped space beaming up at me more brightly than I felt the situation warranted. I hadn’t realized I was still standing in the doorway staring until Gabriella’s smile faded slightly and she cleared her throat. “Would you like to come in?” she asked, sounding concerned and confused by my behavior.

“Oh, right. Sorry. Just Addie is fine.” I snapped out of my stupor and took the seat at the end of the desk reserved for wayward students such as myself.

“What can I do for you, ‘Just Addie’?” she teased with a good-natured chuckle.

“Well, I’m hoping that you might help me pass this class. I’m terrible at Spanish.”

“Everyone is terrible at Spanish at first. That’s why they call it learning,” she replied with thinly veiled sarcasm. Gabriella may have seemed shy in the classroom, but clearly there was more to her than met the eye.

I had yet to be in such close proximity with her. Now that I was, I could see a spark burning behind her jewel-like hazel eyes that spoke of something fiery hidden beneath her reticent exterior. It created a persona of mystique that I was finding terribly distracting. It didn’t help that she was utterly gorgeous. Her chocolate-colored hair perfectly complemented her bronze skin. She was relatively small in stature compared to my five-foot-nine frame. I guessed she was a few inches shorter than me, and her curves were to-die-for.

“So, did you have something specific in mind to work on, or did you want me to teach you the whole of the Spanish language right now?” Gabriella’s snark caught my attention, and I looked down sheepishly to avoid staring at her any longer.

“Umm...I guess I don’t really understand the whole masculine/feminine thing.” Of course you don’t. You’re a lesbian. I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing at my poor choice of words.

Gabriella was the picture of patience as she explained the difference between the masculine and feminine word endings, and the mechanics that went along with them. I marveled at the complete lack of condescension in her explanations. I had been to office hours with other TA’s and professors that had left me feeling like a fool by the end of the session.

“Where are you from?” I asked several minutes later, once I felt that I was beginning to get a handle on the concepts we were discussing.

“España,” she replied without looking up from the diagram she was drawing to display different vocabulary words with feminine and masculine endings.

“Oh. That explains the accent.” Wow. Smooth, Fahey.

“What about you? You don’t sound wholly American, either.” I was glad Gabriella had chosen to ignore that dumb comment.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I said with a cocky half-grin. “I’m from Naperville, but my parents are Irish immigrants. I guess their accents rubbed off on me a bit.”

“Huh. That’s cute.” I didn’t know if she realized what she said, but the comment made me blush furiously. I was glad her attention was still focused on creating the endings table. “So, Naperville. Isn’t that pretty ritzy?”

“I guess so.” I shrugged, not wanting to delve into the details of my family or my upbringing. I was spared that uncomfortable conversation by a knock at the door. A young man I didn’t recognize stood in the doorway.

Blurb 

Jaq Cummings is a high school teacher who really wants a committed relationship—as long as it doesn’t keep her out late on school nights or interrupt Sunday mass with her dad. She is absolutely not about to fall for the hot-mess divorcée she hooks up with even if said hot mess pushes all her buttons. Jaq’s white knight days are over.

But one hookup with Hannah becomes two, then coffee, then more incredibly hot sex. And unlike most of Jaq’s exes, Hannah’s not looking for someone to come on strong. In fact, Hannah comes on plenty strong enough for both of them. But she’s just out of a disastrous marriage, she’s in the process of moving across the state, and Jaq can’t take a chance on yet another relationship where she defaults to being a caregiver instead of a partner.

Just when Jaq decides her relationship with Hannah is far too precarious, a crisis with a student reminds her of her priorities and makes it clear that sometimes, you have to take big risks to get what you really want.

This is the second book in the Queers of La Vista series and it's a f/f romance. I haven't read many of f/f stories so far and was curious to see how this one will work for me. I quite enjoyed it and think it's a worthy second instalment in the series though i have to admit I liked book 1 more.

This is a rich, multi-layered story covering different aspect of the lives of queer people and this diversity and complexity is the thing about the book which I liked the most. it did build on the community we started to see in thew first book and both the leading couple and the supporting characters felt like real people - they have their work and social circle, their families and friends/enemies. 

besides the sort of whirlwind romance between Jaq and Hannah, this story gave the readers insight in school/community life of the the queers in La Vista - issues queer kids face in school, issues of the queer community itself (being outed, being limited to interacting openly with the same small circle of people (who accept you and where you feel safe being yourself).

The story is told from Jaq's point of view and we get to see different sides of her personality and I loved them all. She is a great teacher who cares about her students. She has a very healthy and heart-warming relationship with her father. She has trusted and loyal friends (Zane is just as great as she was in the first book). I found her being lesbian and religious at the same time an interesting element in the story and I think the author presented this compacted relationship really well.

We see much less of Hannah and her inner musing remind a mystery for the reader. this is probably why I felt less connected with her. She is flighty and flamboyant, spontaneous and so very feminine to Jaq's butch nature. 

Both she and Jaq were grown women dealing with a lot of personal stuff and trying to navigate a relationship. There was no artificial drama, just a series of small challenges they had to overcome.

Kris Ripper gives us the already familiar smooth, leisurely writing style which I find very fitting to the stories in the series. If you are looking for real life stories queer stories of love, told engagingly, I strongly recommend that you give this series a try.

Purchase links: Amazon / Riptide 

Blurb

Recently divorced Tina Durham is trying to be self-sufficient, but her personal-training career is floundering, her closest friends are swept up in new relationships, and her washing machine has just flooded her kitchen. It’s enough to make a girl cry.

Instead, she calls a plumbing service, and Joanne “Joe Mama” Delario comes to the rescue. Joe is sweet, funny, and good at fixing things. She also sees something special in Tina and invites her to try out for the roller derby team she coaches.

Derby offers Tina an outlet for her frustrations, a chance to excel, and the female friendships she’s never had before. And as Tina starts to thrive at derby, the tension between her and Joe cranks up. Despite their player/coach relationship, they give in to their mutual attraction. Sex in secret is hot, but Tina can’t help but want more.

With work still on the rocks and her relationship in the closet, Tina is forced to reevaluate her life. Can she be content with a secret lover? Or with being dependent on someone else again? It’s time for Tina to tackle her fears, both on and off the track.

This is my first f/f romance, rather trans f/f romance and I liked  a lot of things about this story but there were also some elements that did not work very well for me. 

I generally enjoy Ms North's writing, the way she builds this ordinary, often sweet, life for her characters is a bright light in the midst of many romances where the characters are often victims of abuse, violence and their happy ending is a hard won one and bittersweet. I found these elements made a very pleasant and entertaining mix in Blueberry Boys (review) which is my favourite book by Ms North. We have these elements here too but here they seemed overabundant and the sweetness was borderline cheesy at times.

I was excited to try f/f romance for the first time and I did enjoy the way the relationship between Tina and Joe developed. It read as real and believable and I was glad that things between them worked out without any major/over-the-top drama. At the same time I have to admit that Joe's resistance to having a relationship with Tina because they were both in the same roller derby team (Actually, Joe was the coach and she invited Tina to join which didn't happen until later in the story, mind you) was too much, it felt like a convenient excuse and not a real obstacle.

While I enjoyed reading about Tina forging a new life on her own after her divorce, I would have liked to see more of her past, her transition, everything that happened to her to bring her to place where she was at the moment. It felt like an important element of her character was missing from the story.

I didn't get really involved in the roller derby as a sport/hobby but this didn't bother me too much. It ave me enough sense of the community and camaraderie among the different women in story, and it was nice seeing women supporting each other for a change. At the same time, there were subplots and elements related to team's dynamics which I was interested in but there were just glossed over and not explored in the depth they deserved.

While I very much like and appreciate the inclusion of characters with different sexuality, at times it read as preachy and the message for celebration of diversity seemed superimposed on the story/characters and not an intrinsic element of it.

Having said that, I still think it's a nice, sweet f/f romance. It's well-written, engaging and positive, if a bit too sweet for my taste. I think it touches upon important issues of sexuality and identity and building relationships and I wish they were explored in more depth and detail.