Review- Good for Something by Anika Hamilton

Good for Something
by Anika Hamilton
June 2008
Contemporary/ Lesbian
Short Story
Ebook

Buy it Total-E-Bound -$2.81

Casey never had a really serious relationship; while Nicolette just got out of a bad one.

Nicolette Marchand relocated to South Florida to get away from an abusive lover. In her new home, she loves the sun, the beaches and the bookshop owner with the hazel eyes and beautiful smile. Spending her evenings in her home away from home, life was really good. At least, until the phone started ringing.

Casey Addison, bookshop owner, was a native of South Florida. She never really cared about anything or anyone other than her store before now. A chance encounter with a fellow book lover changed all that. She thoroughly enjoys the company of her bookshop's new fixture. Unfortunately, someone is threatening her new found happiness and Casey gets caught in the middle.

Helping each other, will these two women discover a love they never knew they needed? And can Nicolette open herself up and trust that together, they are both...

Good for Something?

Good for Something was definitely good for something. It was a sweet, quick, satisfying read about two women who fall in love and give each other something neither has had before. Nicolette gets a sane, supportive partner who’s not out to kill her at every turn and Casey gets to experience real love for the first time in her adult life.

Nicolette is new in town, forced to leave the only place she’s known and lived to get away from Gabriella, her former lover who violently attacked her for trying to break up. Checking out her new town, she ends up in Feed Your Mind bookstore owned by Casey.

The two women hit it off immediately and sparks fly between them. They take their time though and spend a month getting to know each other before having sex.

After spending a hot weekend together of making love during a trip, their first time to be secluded together for a couple of days, they decide to move in together, taking their relationship to a deeper level.

In the meantime though, Gabriella has found Nicolette and has been calling her, threatening her. When Gabriella makes a real move and attacks Casey putting her in the hospital, Casey confronts Nicolette about not sharing and trusting her with the fact that Gabriella has been stalking them, and pushes Nicolette to face her trust issues within their relationship.

This is a short story so I didn’t expect too much in the way of a lot of detail leading into a relationship or other details that would explain some missing pieces. Like in this case, how Gabriella found Nicolette and why she’s in FL instead of where she lives in AZ. But I will say that this story was better than average at being a complete story without too many holes left to be filled in by me the reader.

The story starts out nicely, but I thought that in the initial meeting the emotional connection happened unrealistically fast, with both acting more familiar then would normally be the case upon a first ever meeting of someone. The real emotional build-up was just explained and not really shown. However, from that point, the relationship between Nicolette and Casey was written in a believable way and I could feel that these two are really into each other and that they will have an HEA.

One thing I did like is that this is the first story about two women lovers who practice some sort of safe sex in that they both get tested before having sex. In m/f, and m/m stories the condom issue seems to be a biggy for many readers in contemporaries with many being upset if there is lack of mention. But it was good to read some sort of mention of safe sex practice between two female lovers who’ve just met.

The whole ex-girlfriend turned stalker was a good counterpoint to force Nicolette to open up and also to give the women a reason to become even more intimate with each other. Plus it created some tension, causing Nicolette and Casey to really come together and fight for themselves as a couple. Gabriella’s stalking and violence towards the women was very realistically written and did have me thinking about what it would be like to have that happen.

The only thing that got on my nerves, and this is purely a matter of taste, is that both women address each other as “Casey girl”, Nicolette girl,” “my girl,” “my Casey/Nicolette girl,” and so on, all. the. time. Because it was every single time it got a bit nauseating in that way in which couples have cutesy names for each other that make others want to barf.

For a short story though, Good for Something was a good read, the sex was hotly written, and I’d definitely read some more of Ms. Hamilton’s work.

Sex rating: Wet Panties- usual f/f stuff with some minor anal. No toys.

Grade: C+