Review- His and Hers and Hers by Nona Raines

His and Hers and Hers

By Nona Raines

Nov 20, 2102

Contemporary/ Erotica/f-f-m/ romance/ménage/polyamore

38K words

Pub: Loose Id

Kyla Denster and Jordan Brougham are passionately in love. Kyla knows she's lucky to have a guy who uses all his tricks to keep her happy in and out of bed. Jordan knows he's lucky to have such a hot, adventurous girlfriend.
But neither of them knows that their best friend, Cassie DeSantis, wants them both. Cassie's painful past has taught her not to wear her heart on her sleeve. She keeps quiet, afraid that revealing her feelings would mean losing the two people she cares for most. Things change one night when an impulsive kiss leads to the three of them spending an incredibly hot night together.
When the couple wants more of Cassie, she leaps at the chance to be with them. But problems arise at her insistence that no one mention the L word and when Jordan and Kyla clash over how to deal with disapproving family. Their triad relationship will only survive if they all stand together to prove that three is the perfect number—when all three are in love.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read an f/f/m romance/erotica. They aren’t that common, although there are lots more than when I first started reading them. So when some twitter friends linked it I thought it would be fun to read it.

Generally, I would say this is a decent read. However, it didn’t really spark anything in me that made it stand out; I’ve read better and worse. The issue for me in this story is what I’d say are poorly written sex scenes and a sense that while the characters get a happy ending, I wasn’t feeling it as deeply as I think I should have for an HEA/HFN.

Actually, if I start breaking it down, there are many things. One is that I felt there was a lot of tell instead of show in what’s going on with both Cassie and Kyla as far as being attracted to women goes. In the beginning, we get glimpses into Cassie noticing things about Kyla from a sexual standpoint, but not from Kyla’s. They have been friends for a long time already and this hasn’t come up before? Kyla seems to be open to the idea of being with Cassie only as an afterthought from her and Jordan talking about some sexual fantasies, not because she already had an inherent sexual attraction to Cassie on her own. Or that wasn’t really expressed. Maybe if there was more about Cassie being attracted to Kyla all that time and vice versa, it would have come off as more believable to me.

Also, even though they’ve been good friends for a long time, Kyla, unlike Jordan, seems so out of touch with who Cassie is, setting her up on a date with a total loser and not even once picking up the signals that Cassie is bored out of her skull with this guy. Whereas Jordan is just jealous and gets right away what a douche that guy is.

Then there was Kyla’s easily getting it on with Cassie as if they were doing that all along, which came across more as “whatever, I’m game” and  not, “I totally want you.” At some point though, it almost seems like she and Cassie become more connected than Kyla is to Jordan due to Jordan being a dick. But at the same time we are constantly reminded of the fact that Jordan is the love of Kyla’s life and she would do nothing to jeopardize her relationship with him. That puts Cassie on the outside because right there in the interim of them coming together, one person is more important if push comes to shove.

I didn’t like Jordan. He’s cowers to his family who get on his case for being the only blue collar, unmarried kid. He doesn’t really stand up for Kyla even though clearly his parents don’t like her and never have. Forget about that he hides their threesome as well. And I felt he was a bit sleazy by the way the sex scenes were written.  

For instance, in some scenes he almost seems to ignore Kyla as he gets it on with Cassie. It felt like Kyla was excluded although not specifically written as such. I didn’t get that she wasn’t bothered on some level. It would be a normal reaction even if she was into the three of them being together.  Here they have a really tight relationship and she agrees to bring Cassie into it but Jordan seems to be more about “oh yeah who wouldn’t want two women” even though the author tries hard to make them all inclusive. I don’t know, he rubbed me the wrong way.

The relationship issues. I would think that a solid couple bringing in third person would create some issues no matter how close they all are. However, the issues these three face are all about Jordan’s family and their influence on him and ultimately Kyla and Cassie as well. Only Cassie has some issues because she is coming into a solid relationship and there is some fear of being a third wheel. Therefore, even though they all end up together, I didn’t feel them to be a gelled unit since there wasn’t much about them together other than having sex and having been friends all along.

The best part of this book was the transient character Walter whom Cassie helps often. I got more of a feel for him than the others and wanted to know where that went. There was also a lot more warmth and emotion injected into those interactions between Cassie and Walter than what I felt for Cassie, Jordan and Kyla’s interactions.

Still though, I would recommend this book only because it is the rare HFN f/f/m ménage and it did have lighter, fun moments to it that kept me reading. And some of the sex, even if kind of funky, was pretty hot.

Heat Level: 4-5- fairly graphically written f/f/m sex scenes.

Grade: It was OK

Review- Follow the Sun by Sophia Rhodes

Follow the Sun\

By Sophia Rhodes

Dec 27, 2011

Lesbian/Era Historical 1950’s/Erotic romance

241 pgs

Pub: Incognito Press

Los Angeles, 1957.

Dragged by her mother to California, seventeen-year old Diana Morris is miserable and would give anything to be back on the East Coast. She hates Elvis, thinks poodle skirts are overrated, and couldn’t jitterbug her way out of a paper bag.

All this changes when she lays eyes on Rosario Vargas, a young Chicano farm laborer who dresses like a man and sings rock’n’roll in a lesbian nightclub. The proud owner of a cherry-red Studebaker truck, Rosario is tough, stubborn, and isn’t going to let anybody get in the way of her dreams.

Can Diana overcome her fears and let Rosario know her secret before it’s too late? Can she leave behind everything she’s ever known and fight for the love of a woman who shows no interest in reciprocating her feelings?

Find out the answer in this scorching tale of love, courage and transformation that sweeps from the foothills of Southern California’s San Fernando Valley to the sultry cabarets of New York City’s sizzling underground scene.

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language and female/female sexual practices.

This is going to be a hard review to write. I have so many mixed feelings about this book from many angles. Also, there’s going to probably be lots of spoilers, so fair warning. 

My overall impression after reading this book is that what failed for me was inconsistent characterization of Diana, the constant use of extreme bigotry as conflict and detraction from the love story, and that it lacked a specific direction for me. Ultimately it’s a romance, but most of the focus is on Diana, who she is and her growth; it’s told in first person from Diana’s POV. But it’s also about the social issues pertaining to homosexuals and Mexican Americans at the time and goes off on what seemed like unnecessary tangents at times. Unfortunately, due to this I wasn’t feeling any emotional heat between Diana and Rosario for most of the story.

The beginning of this story is good. It grabbed me and I got interested in both Diana and Rosario as characters and felt intrigued by where the story would go, but it slowly went downhill from there. 

Rosario is both a Chicano and a butch lesbian so she’s fairly guarded due to the fact that on both counts she can attract lots of unwanted negative energy just for existing. She’s strong, mature, realistic about life, and is proud of her heritage and the nomadic, hardworking way of life that her people live.

Diana is young, idealistic, naïve, and her immaturity is what causes her the most problems. I could forgive some really TSTL things she does because she’s only 17, however, after hanging out with Rosario for a while and hearing of Rosario’s struggles as both a Chicano and lesbian, and having an inner dialogue in which she gets her privilege compared to Rosario’s, what she does is too stupid for me to get past. 

*********************  SPOILER  *********************

Diana moves in with Rosario and her grandmother after running away due to a severe beating. After a while, Diana decides to call her “mommy dearest” (her mother makes Joan Crawford look like a saint) and basically tells her everything, including where she is and who she’s with, not thinking how dangerous that is. She knew how extremely bigoted and racist her mother and step-father are and how they had seen Rosario and dissed on her ethnicity and looks forbidding her to see her again in the past. Also, she had been treated so badly by her mother and step-father for disobeying them. What happens after she calls them is horrific on many levels. I just didn’t get why she’d do that after knowing and experiencing all she had until at point.

*******************  END SPOILER ********************

The romance: How it came across to me, and YMMV, is that there wasn’t enough build-up or time with the two women getting to know each other. They meet and move in together within days mainly due to the fact that Diana has run away and has nowhere to go. It felt more like friends with benefits. While the sex scenes between them are fairly intense, I didn’t feel the emotional passion or heat that was portrayed at the end of book between them before their big separation. And I can’t put my finger on why. Maybe because this was more about Diana, her life and relationship with her mother and father, and less about her life with Rosario in the first half of the book.

WTF issues. Several times during the reading of this book I had “what?!” moments. I have to do these under spoilers. Don’t read if you don’t want to know. 

******************  SPOILERS  *********************

1. Diana is so pouty and not forthcoming with Rosario about things, which I felt was done mainly to ratchet up some conflict. It was more frustrating due to causing unnecessary conflict. Especially the end when Diana, after going through a horrific event that kept her separated from Rosario for months, sees her for the first time and refuses to talk about it. Instead, she accuses Rosario of having fucked other women while separated. What?!

2. Extreme homophobia. OK, yes, this kind of thing actually happened back in the 1950’s when homosexuality was considered a mental disorder subject to horrific therapies at that time. But Diana’s mother and step father being cast as one dimensional villains who do incredibly nasty things to her over and over went way over the top I felt. And ultimately, Diana doesn’t learn much from it. She still stays idealistic and naïve about being an out lesbian and the real dangers of it, swearing to fight for future generations of lesbians’ rights even if it might bring on violence to her and Rosario. 

3. A magical Native American shows up to teach her something important about life out of nowhere. Diana is taking a bus cross country to see Rosario and is musing to herself how she hopes she’s not sitting next to a talker or weirdo, creepy dude. Who shows up is weirdo creepy dude who talks too much. But wait, on closer inspection, he’s really a wise, old Native American dressed in stereotypical Native American regalia who is passing on a message about life that she needs to hear. He’s there just for her.

I will interject here that part of my issue with Diana’s characterization is inconsistency. Sometimes she really acts TSTL not learning from experience, and other times she’s off on lofty philosophical and poetic inner musings about life that make her seem wiser than her years and how she acts. 

So here she meets, by cosmic design apparently, the man she is supposed to meet at that time in her life to teach her a lesson.Here’s what got me, this lesson is about her relationship with her father. There was not much about her father until that point other than he came across as weak-willed and absent really,  willing to let her go with her mother and trying to convince her it’s better she’s with her mom. She really didn’t have a bad relationship with her dad, just he didn’t push to keep her and she couldn’t understand why. So this life lesson about making amends with her father before it’s too late felt from left field all the sudden.

5.  Her father and what happens when she goes to meet him. Wow really? Maybe the author gave her a hellish life to balance the privilege, whereas non-privileged Rosario has family acceptance, love, and they totally support her.

*******************  END SPOILER ****************

This book wasn’t completely a negative experience or I wouldn’t have kept reading. The author gets the time period correct. Cultural references and attitudes from the 1950’s felt authentic. And I liked Rosario as a character and that she is accepted in her community for who she is. Like it’s a common thing to be a lesbian.

The ending is what eventually saved this book for me in my mind. After all the ups and downs and crazy stuff that happens to Diana, and her almost effing it up with Rosario, things are set right and it’s left on a positive note. I just wish that there was more about Rosario and Diana and their connection throughout the whole book.

Heat level: 4- a few, graphically written scenes, strap-on use.

Grade: It was OK

Review- Daisuki Hildred Billings

Daisuki 

by Hildred Billings

Sep. 24, 2012 
Lesbian/Asian/Contemporary/Polyamory
Words: 45.8 K

Two Japanese women attempt to balance their relationship with their society's rigid gender roles, polyamorous relations, and the inability to say "I love you."

I got this book for several reasons. I've lived in Japan, use to speak Japanese fluently and I still have a deep love for the country and culture. I've also really craved reading a Japanese lesbian love story, which is very rare. So it was a no-brainer to read this.

Generally I liked the book. However, I had some issues with it that to be honest are more about personal taste than actual technical issues with the book/story itself.

Aiko is a character that I liked a lot and sympathized with. She's simply in love with Reina and in some way subjugates her own desires regularly to be with Reina due to the fact that Reina is the only one she wants.

Reina came across as too callous for me. I didn't like her from the get-go because she acts so indifferent to Aiko and Aiko’s feelings in many ways. And although she goes through something towards the end of the book that causes her to reflect on who she is and what's she's doing, I never did warm up to her and I almost DNF’d the book due to her.

The interesting thing about this relationship is that the story starts after they've been together for 20 years already. Intriguing, but also something that made me logically think about the issues they are going through as a couple. Clearly they are not a new couple. Nor are they young. However, this story read as something a younger, in age and length of time together, couple would go through or how they would act. After 20 years I'd probably expect more maturity and self-knowledge about who they are as a couple and themselves as individuals. But further on that in a bit.

They have a long history of having multiple partners. Sometimes within the relationship and sometimes outside on their own without each other. Reina does this as she pleases, but it seems Aiko goes along with it more to please Reina or as a reaction to Reina doing it. It is clear that they do love each other though. Kind of like that couple that sticks together and people don't get why.

Although it's clear in the extended description of the story that both Aiko and Reina are having conflicts about lack of commitment and I was forewarned, I’m not too fond of the sleeping around within a committed couple story when both parties are not part of the equation. I don’t get being with someone for 20 years while sleeping with all kinds of people outside of the relationship. What’s the point of that relationship then? Who would want to spend 20 years with someone who could take you or leave you for the night?

I’m fine with polyamory relationships and I don’t have issue with them if all parties are committed all to each other. But these two came across more as roommates with benefits and less as a committed couple who actually care about how their individual actions affect the other. The only thing that mitigated that for me, barely, is that they are both in agreement of it.

One of the things that I found curious in a sort of "what the hell?" way, was that Reina starts wondering about her gender identity. It seemed to only come from the fact that people viewed her as masculine looking and that she and Aiko have traditional male/female roles within the relationship as lesbians in a herteronormative world and in a strong patriarchal Japanese culture  instead of it coming from something more internal an inherent to her being.

It bothered me because they’ve lived like that for so long and suddenly gender identity is an issue. And it really only comes to the forefront because of an incident with a man’s judgment of Reina as a woman who looks mannish.

That said, I think it’s an interesting subject to explore. Many of the lesbian “romance” I’ve read has portrayed a butch/femme relationship and none of them have broached the idea of questioning gender identity and exploring that within a relationship.

I see that the author has written several more books with the continuation or more parts to Aiko and Reina’s story. However, it felt like I entered the middle of something that didn’t have enough of a beginning to explain who they are and or an ending that completes it other than they might become a more committed couple. Maybe the next few will go into Reina having a sex change, which might be interesting. But the relationship dynamics represented in this story doesn’t make it appealing for me to read more.

Aside from musings above, I really, really loved the sprinkling of Japanese throughout the book. I suspect many readers who don’t know any Japanese might find it tedious or gloss over it. But it did add to any enjoyment I had reading the book.

I think this book could appeal to a lot of readers due to subject matter. Unfortunately it just didn’t spark enough in me to read more. I would, however try another of this author’s books if it’s not about Reina and Aiko or about lesbians who just fuck around with every other lesbian, which I’m so tired of reading and which seems to be common in lesbian books.

Heat Level: 3 it's touted as an erotic story but I didn't find it too graphic.

Rating: It was OK

Review- Happy Endings by Marlene Sexton

Happy Endings

By Marlene Sexton

Dec. 20, 2011

Lesbian/f-f/Paranormal/Erotica

9.8K words

Publisher- Red Heels Press (self-published)

Buy it Amazon, ARe, Smashwords, B&N

Emma needed to get away from Boston and her on again, off again girlfriend/editor Haya to work on her book. She found a quaint inn near the sea in Connecticut. The innkeeper Gladys is a sweet woman and Emma instantly likes her. Apparently, a young couple, the Finnegans, are staying at the inn also, but they are rarely around.

Emma begins having vivid, sexual dreams and then one night a woman comes to her darkened room. She thinks it might be Gladys but then a younger woman, Beth, joins her in bed. The women make love and it's some of the best sex of Emma's life. She assumes Beth is the elusive Mrs. Finnegan, but when she meets the real Mrs. Finnegan the next morning, she finds out it wasn't. Now Emma is wondering who the strange woman really is. The answer is almost to strange to believe.

If this story doesn't leave you horny and in tears, your better check your pulse!

This is a new to me author. I bought this book during ARe’s ½ ebook bucks back sale. There’s no way I’d buy a 10K book for $2.99 without a deal unless I loved the author’s work. I have mixed feelings about this story. There were some things about it that I found off or lacking, but other parts of it I really liked.

The main thing that didn’t work for me was that I found the writing to be amateurish and repetitive in parts. I got the feeling the author was adding words unnecessarily to make a higher word count and or that it wasn’t edited very well.

One example:

“You must be Emma!” the middle-aged woman exclaimed. “We were getting worried about you with all the ice on the roads. I’m Gladys McGillicuddy and this is my husband Oscar,” she said as she pointed to the thin but hardy looking man just emerging from the inn.

“Hi, I’m Emma. I’m not used to driving, especially on icy roads at night. I went really, really slow.”

They already know and assume she’s Emma and said so, so introducing herself on top of that is weird.

This is a short story, only 23 pgs., so there’s not too much to it. It’s not a romance, but more about a short erotic interlude in Emma’s life that helps her get out of a rut she’s in. Between the quiet folksiness of Gladys and her short stay at the country B&B, and the unexpected paranormal elements, Emma manages to get her writing mojo back. The title is Happy Endings and I guess for several characters that’s what happened in their own way.

The “Beth” part of the story, outside of the actual sex, felt a bit unfocused. It’s treated as if Beth was waiting for Emma in particular but there’s no background for that. Why Emma in particular? The author kind of goes there but then goes the direction of it’s only because Emma happens, coincidentally, to be a single lesbian who showed up as a guest after so much time for why Beth comes around.

The best parts are the dream like, ethereal erotic moments between Emma and Beth. The sex is nicely and sensually written even if not overly graphic.

To be honest, and I’m sure the author will not like this, but the best part of Happy Endings can be read in the excerpt on All Romance Ebooks. Or a good part of it. There’s more of course, but for the cost, and other issues I’m not sure it’s worth it. Or you can download the first 50% of the book on Smashwords to see if it’s a book you might like.

I wouldn’t say this book is totally not worth it, it was generally an OK read. I still have a pulse. But if you’re into paranormal sexual scenarios or want a short quickie that’s hot sexually, then you might like Happy Endings.

Heat level-  3-4- Vanilla sex with some minor anal play.

Grade- It was OK