Review- The Artist's Muse by Alyssa Linn Palmer

The Artist’s Muse
By Alyssa Linn Palmer
Oct 13, 2013
Lesbian/ Romance
57 pgs
Pub: Bold Stroke Books
Kindle version

Broke and desperate after her girlfriend leaves her for a man, Colette finds a job as an artist’s model. When she arrives for an interview, she’s surprised to meet a striking young woman, Lise Beauclerc. Her relief at not having to pose for a man turns to infatuation as she observes Lise during their sessions, creating fantasies in her mind during the hours she poses.

Colette has no idea if Lise would return her affections, and when she finally gets up the courage to ask her out, their connection is more than she’d ever hoped for. However, a few days later, Lise introduces her to Marcel, her former fiancé. They seem intimately involved, and Colette is devastated. Will her dreams of Lise be unrequited?

I’ll be honest, it took me a while to decide to buy this book. The blurb attracted me but the only other book I read from this author also had a triangle that was hard for me to understand and frankly didn’t work out that great. Then there’s the price, it’s almost $5 for 57 pages. That in itself was a huge deterrent. I think that price point for that amount of words is insanely ridiculous.  But I justified it in my mind with it being published by Bold Strokes Books, which has a good reputation and who charge more because they’re a niche publisher. I accept that. That’s still a lot of money for such a short book, but… I bought it.

I say all that because in the end I’m glad I didn’t go with my hesitations. This turned out to be a really good story even with some issues. I was left feeling good and that I had read yummy, erotic beginning to a love story.

The blurb pretty much expresses what the story is actually about so I’ll go from there.

Who made this story for me was Lise. Since we don’t get her POV, we have to see her through Colette’s lens and any response through action and dialogue from her. Lise seems to be in her own little world while drawing as Colette poses. She doesn’t act like Colette is any more interesting to her than as a prop and inspiration for her art work. I liked that because it was a nice contrast to Colette’s constant inner sexual fantasy musings about Lise, which seemed to go on and on and got a little boring. The mystery of Lise and her indifferent demeanor was what grabbed my attention.

At first I thought the first person present POV from Collette was not going to be interesting because I didn’t find her to be a character that appealing. As the story progresses though, we do get to see more about what Lise is like from her interactions. Unlike Colette, she has a quiet outer reservedness that belies her passionate and maybe slightly kinky personality. She seems much more mature than Collette in how she acts, but is maybe younger? 

This is one thing I kept trying to figure out. Both have graduated college already but Lise mentions that she chose Colette to model because she’s older. However, the vibe around Lise is that she’s the older one. She’s very grounded and self-assured about her work. She also has the money to pay for a model, something I wouldn’t expect of a young, struggling artist. I pictured her at first to be in her 40’s, which as I read on, was not the case.

She also quietly takes the lead in an interesting and fairly erotic way after she accepts an invitation from Colette. It’s something that says a lot about who Lise is, maybe the most telling thing about her and it was nothing she said.

Then there’s Colette. Compared to Lise, she seems to be somewhat immature even though maybe older. She’s instantly smitten by Lise and falls in love with her in like a day. This is something that bothered me about this story. Colette has only posed for Lise maybe 3 times. They spend one night together and Colette talks and acts like they’ve known each other for months and has an expectation of Lise and of a romantic relationship that seemed out of step with the actual amount of time they’ve known each other. It fits her personality as this is how she’s described, that she falls quickly and easily, but for me her attraction was mostly from her own inner fantasies vs any real connection at that point in time.

However, what I did like about her is that she does act on her attraction and gets the guts up to ask Lise out even though Lise has not shown any particular interest and Colette has no idea if she’s into girls. I also liked that she was willing to risk stepping out again after a major heartbreak.

It’s a short novella so there’s not too much depth to this story, however, it was left on a positive note for me. And it was a fairly sensuous story.

The other thing that I enjoyed and which also added to my final positive feeling for the book was the setting. I felt the author really captured the feel of the women living in Paris. At times I wasn’t even sure what time period this is set in. It could be any time since there was no mention of modern technology like cell phones or such. But the women wearing chignons and going to old movies did give it somewhat retro, European feel. Also the world in which they live of artists and theater people also added to the non- contemporary ambiance of this book.

I do kind of wish the That Artist’s Muse was more drawn out and or we could have gotten Lise’s POV as I think it would have added a lot more depth to this story. However, in and of itself it is a good read. I’d recommend it.

Heat level: 2-3- not too racy but not too bland either

Grade: Really liked

Review- Prohibited Passion (Bandit Creek #10) by Alyssa Linn Palmer

Prohibited Passion (Bandit Creek #10)

By Alyssa Linn Palmer

January 12, 2012

F/F/Bisexual/ Period Historical 1920’s

72 pgs

This erotic romance brings you right into the middle of Prohibition...

Ruth wants to escape the boredom of Bandit Creek and the strict expectations of her father, the local pastor. Her life changes the day she meets CeeCee, a world-wise flapper, and an irresistible attraction develops between them. She’ll be disowned and shunned if anyone discovers their prohibited passion, but can they keep their growing affection a secret?

CeeCee is drawn to Ruth, but things become complicated when her gangster companion disapproves of their liaison. He’s in town to broker a deal with the owner of the local speakeasy, and he’s not above using them to further his own plans. Can CeeCee protect Ruth and their budding relationship?

As Ruth gets drawn further into their world, she must decide between her familiar life and a new, dangerous path with the woman she loves

I really don’t know how to categorize this book. I enjoyed it, but it’s not really a romance per se. It’s more like a coming out/of age lesbian fiction story.

Ruth feels stifled and trapped in her life. Her mother has passed away and she is all her preacher father has. She takes care of him and the house as was what women were expected to do in those days and is expected to act as a proper preacher’s daughter should.  She’s of an age that young men are coming around to court her, ones that will take over the position of church preacher when her father retires, but she has no interest in that. Instead she dreams of a life outside, free of all these constraints and full of new experiences.

While shopping in town, she casually glances through the cafe window and sees a beautiful woman sitting alone, clearly a stranger in town. She’s mesmerized by this woman, the way she’s dressed, her beauty. This woman, CeeCee, happens to notice her looking and see’s something about Ruth that attracts her. She’s so much like someone she once knew, someone she loved.

CeeCee ends up inviting Ruth to a speakeasy, something Ruth feels rather uncomfortable about due to how things would look for her father if she were caught, but is so enthralled by CeeCee she goes. This catapults Ruth into a whole new world and helps her discover things about herself she didn’t know about.

Ruth responds easily to CeeCee’s advances even if she’s shy. CeeCee represents just the new and exciting that Ruth craves. However, there’s a kink in the budding love between CeeCee and Ruth, Sheirdan, CeeCee’s busisness partner/boyfriend/controller.

Sheridan is not happy that Ruth, the preacher’s daughter, has been brought there and makes it known is clear and on aggressive terms. This creates tension in all of them.

What was kind of weird for me in this story was how easily CeeCee moves between Sheridan and Ruth. I didn’t quite get her relationship with Sheridan. They have a sort of business relationship in which CeeCee is used to seduce costumers into buying the bootleg booze from Sheridan. He seems to have a lot of control over her both physically and emotionally, which he exercises somewhat violently at times. But at the same time, they also have a comfortable sexual relationship, which she openly enjoys. CeeCee, however, begs Sheridan on a regular basis to allow her to get with Ruth, which he tries to dissuade at every turn.

Clearly CeeCee is bisexual and in a somewhat co-dependent relationship with Sheridan. I got CeeCee’s attraction to Ruth and that she wanted to have something with her, however, it was all set up to be doomed as long as Sheridan was involved and she kept working as a bootlegger, something she seemed to have a hard time walking away from for a reason we don’t know.

Although not a romance that follows the rules of romance, the author did manage to infuse a lot of loving energy between the women. The sex scenes were nicely written even if not too graphic and the setting felt authentic to the time period as well.

Mainly this is a story about Ruth’s journey from being small town sheltered girl to having the courage to go for what she wants and to be who she is. This is what her relationship with CeeCee gives her.

Heat level: 2-3- sensual sex scenes, not graphically written.

Grade: Liked it

Warning: this is not a romance that follows romance rules.