Review- Portrait of a Crossroads by Kelly Rand

Portrait of a Crossroads

By Kelly Rand

May 20, 2013

Contemporary/Lesbian/ sort of but not really erotica

40 pgs

Riptide Publishing

Since finding her father’s body at the bottom of the basement stairs, Annette’s been drifting through her days, watching cars pass down the rural Ontario crossroads beside her house. Her brothers have no great ambitions, but Annette remembers a time when she did. She just can’t remember what they are.

Then she meets her neighbour, Sadie, a tattooed, world-weary, newly single portrait artist. Something about Sadie awakens something in Annette—the essence she captures in her subjects, perhaps, or the way the old familiar crossroads seem so fresh and promising from the view out Sadie’s window.

Annette begins to help Sadie, cleaning brushes and filing invoices between long lazy afternoons of conversations and shared silences. Soon, though, Annette wants more from her enigmatic neighbor, and their slowly heating friendship melts into passionate nights. Somewhere along the way, Annette discovers that her lover has illuminated for her, as with the people Sadie paints, not just her essence but her own endless worlds of possibilities

I was all over this book when it came out because I loved the writing in Pearl. Like Pearl, the same style and ambience is present in this book. The author manages to get in a lot of details that set the stage for what’s going on with the main characters, but in a Zen-like, sparse way. Even though a contemporary, this story had the feel of being in an earlier time period. Maybe this due to the fact that it takes place outside a small town with not much going on. Or maybe there are a lot of similarities to the setting in Pearl, which was set in the 40’s.

Annette is an 18 year old who has just graduated high school and doesn’t feel much about the fact that it’s over.  She’s was neither popular or exceptional in any way, nor was she an outcast in school. She’s just an average girl with not much going on trying to figure out what to do with her life.  

Next door lives a woman whom Annette has never had contact in all years she’s lived there. Out of curiosity, and or maybe the boredom of just hanging out in her house with not much to do, for no particular reason really, she decides to go over and introduce herself after this woman’s housemate moved out.

Sadie and Annette strike up a friendship and Sadie let’s Annette come over to her house daily to help her clean up her paint brushes and such. Sadie really doesn’t talk too much about herself or her life. She neither hides nor says outright that she’s a lesbian although it’s assumed by Annette that she is. In fact, while they spend whole days together, it seems they don’t really say much to each other, yet they manage to develop a friendship. And that friendship goes to the next step when Annette offers to stay one night.

This story is all about Annette really. She doesn’t seem to be impressed or judgmental of Sadie being a lesbian; it’s just a fact. But their relationship helps her realize that she has been more interested in women even though she’s never consciously defined it internally. She had a boyfriend with whom she had sex, but in her private musings that wasn’t as exciting as the girls she thought more about. So in some ways it’s easy for Annette to just put it out there for Sadie to respond to or not.

What I liked actually was that there wasn’t much fanfare around these two women getting sexual. Even though fairly erotically written, sexually they are almost perfunctory. Sort of like “you want to do it” “OK.” I liked the simplicity of their connection because it seems to be more a step in Annette’s life versus a main event.

For the most part I loved this story, however, I was disappointed with the ending; it was kind of a WTF for me. I’ve read the reviews for this book and no one has had issue with it so maybe it went over my head? Or I wasn’t really into the whole metaphor of the story of Annette living on a crossroads street and being at a crossroads in her life but more into the developing relationship between Annette and Sadie, which was far more interesting.

Still though, I highly recommend this book. I do love the author’s style and voice. She does have a knack for writing short snap shots of characters’ lives with enough detail to suck you in and be turned on by them.

Heat level- 3-4   2 graphically written sex scenes just right for the story length.

Grade: Really liked

Review: Trail of Hearts by Kate Richards

Trail of Hearts (1 Night Stand Series #40)

By Kate Richards

October 2, 2011

Lesbian/Contemporary/Erotic

36 pgs, 12K words

Decadent Publishing Company

The promise of an exciting date with the blonde, blue-eyed woman of her dreams has lured Charlotte to sign up with Madame Evangeline’s 1Night Stand at the urging of her friend Julia—a 1Night Stand success story. Expecting a night at a luxurious Castillo resort, Charlotte is aghast when her limo turns in at the Castillo Wagon Wheel…a dude ranch! This is one city woman who is not interested in dusty bunkhouses full of cowboys….

Birdie has landed a job at the Wagon Wheel because it’s the only place she, a cowhand who happens to be a girl, could find work in these hard times. In a moment of loneliness, she fills out the application online for 1Night Stand. The woman who arrives, gorgeous mocha-skinned beauty though she may be, looks too sophisticated to enjoy an evening like Birdie has planned. But it’s too late to change, there’s no going back and she only hopes the sweeping Sierra meadows will help her seduce the woman who catches her heart at first glance.

This story is about a short erotic interlude between two women who maybe want more. It’s part of a “One Night Stand” series from the publisher. I liked some of this book, but felt that the author tried to pack too much into its very short 36 pages. This didn’t quite work for me as: 1. much of it was unrealistic and 2. each part the story was short-changed and not fully developed due to this. Would have been better for me if the author just focused on one aspect and really developed that.

Both women sign up for a one night blind date through an agency. I thought this was an interesting setup with good possibilities. Both women come from very different backgrounds and have little time or chances to meet other women to date. Although both paid a lot of money for this one night only set up, both internally wonder if the person they’ve been set up with could be someone more.

In the beginning the women find each other very appealing. But right away one wonders if she sees a spark of jealousy in the other over an interaction with the bartender. This is where things started going off for me. Who would be jealous of someone they paid to have a blind date with and just met? That seemed weird to me.

I was then a bit surprised that Birdie, a cowboy, makes Charlotte, a city bank executive, get on a horse and ride for miles to catch up with a wagon trail full of tourists instead of them having a quiet, elegant date in the nice restaurant at the resort, just the two of them. Even though both women paid a lot for this date, it seemed to be Birdie deciding how the date will go and what they will do. This in and of itself was OK but Birdie got snippy about Charlotte not being as proficient on a horse as she was. Charlotte rises to the occasion like a sudden pro even though she’s never really ridden a horse before, but they both acted a bit put out with each other over perceived slights in the process. Something felt off about that as well because that kind of reaction seems more credible in people who have some kind of established relationship already.  

They spend the night having great sex. Fine and good because this is supposed to be, as far as I know, a short erotic story. But by morning…spoiler:  

Charlotte is talking about buying land for Birdie to have her cattle ranch and them setting up house together and living happily ever after.

If it had been written as just an arranged one night of hot, no holds barred sex/date with no expectations, I would have loved this story. Although I can see for many having them go from zero to --see spoiler-- would be liked by some, for me it tried too hard to be something more than it should have been. Would have gone better for me if the author either extended the story to build up romance or just focused on the erotic sex for the night with a “I enjoyed that, let’s get together again.”

Heat level: 3-4- I would have expected more sex in a short erotic story but it was sensually written. Nothing too graphic though.

Grade: It was OK- absolutely not worth $3.99 though. 

Review- The Last Best Tip (Grift-Girs) by Cassandra Duffy

The Last Best Tip (Grift-Girls)

By Cassandra Duffy

July 4, 2011

Lesbian/ Paranormal/Erotic

16.6K words

Publisher: Sapphic Pixie Tales

Buy it Amazon, Smashwords, B&N

“This is a novella, actually it’s a novella with two short stories attached to it, but even then it shouldn’t be mistaken for a novel. Like most summer trysts, when the heat is too oppressive for a long love-making session, it’s short, intense, hopefully satisfying, and over before you’re likely to succumb to heat stroke.” ~Cassandra Duffy

The lone anchor in Lucy’s life is a job she hates at a swingers club in the heart of middle America; without it, she would be just another twenty-something college dropout, who never quite reached her potential, and is as unlucky in love as most everything else. It’s a shame she hates her job. Sasha, her vampire crush, working in the bar across the way, is in a similar boat, but she has a way out…

Lucy breaks the law, breaks rules she didn’t even know she had, and risks what little she has left to be with Sasha. In this sexy, lighthearted comedy of errors luck and flexibility aren’t always what they seem.

I loved Cassandra Duffy's The Gunfighter and The Gear-Head so I was jonsen to try another of her books. This book actually contains three stories, all with a vampire theme. To be honest, I'm not that excited about reading vampire stories any more, however I do put that aside if there's a particular author's work I have admired.

While the vampire aspect of these stories was really nothing more than a character who happened to be a vampire, meaning for me, there's no mythology build-up to give that aspect a unique feel to it, what Cassandra Duffy did do is create two unique characters in the first story and focus on the dream like, nebulous quality of the typical vampire portrayal in the last two. These, I did get excited about.

The Last Best Tip-- is about a vampire and a human who are partners in crime. The blurb is an accurate description of this story so I'll go from there. I have a soft spot for strong, clever women who have chutzpah and like to break the rules. Before Lucy and Sasha meet, Lucy didn't really ever think about scamming people, but Sasha sparks that part of her that likes that excitement. Both are working in jobs they hate and Sasha, the vampire and more worldly person, convinces Lucy to work a con with her so they can open their own bar. Lucy readily jumps on this.

This story is fun and very erotic with strong exhibitionist/voyeuristic elements to it. I thought it kind of funny that these two rather wild and kinky ladies would want to open a normal lesbian sports bar in the Midwest after having worked in fetish bars, but how their con turns out works out for the best for them. As a couple, there's a lot of sexual heat, but the romantic angle is a bit glossed over. That was fine because these two ladies are juicy and that's what's interesting in this story.

An Eternal Night of Overtime--- Brooke is a young, former surfer girl from Australia who lands a job as an assistant with a famous and difficult designer Vendela. Vendela has a reputation of being weird and off-beat. She has a home up in Barrow, AK and she wants Brooke to come up there with her to work on her designs during the coldest and darkest time, Nov-Jan.

After Brooke arrives, she finds Vendela's massive stone and metal house to be cold and unwelcoming and a bit shocking since Vendela creates colorful, splashy clothes. After Vendela arrives though, things get weird and Brooke can't tell if what's going on is a dream or real.

I have to be honest, at first I was reading this and thinking WTF? It's a story set in Alaska above the Arctic Circle. Already, that's odd because we're talking about a fashion icon who you'd think would want to work in NY or CA. But it piqued my interest. Second, Brooke wakes from sleep after being called by Vendela and walks downstairs not realizing what she's wearing. I was thinking, how can you not notice something like that? But as I read the story it all became clear and quite the turn-on.

This was my favorite story of the three. It's got a biting starkness to it that's really unique in an erotic story. And I love, love stories, particularly sexual scenarios, in which what's going on is dreamy or hazy.

Haunted House on Top--- Cami, who's a vampire and her human, long distance girlfriend, Brianna, are meeting up for Halloween night. Cami's gay best friend Lewis has told her about a haunted house that would be fun to go to and they need a special password to get in. When the girls get there the house is in a constant flux with rooms and people appearing and disappearing.

The girls' story together is basically that they are already a couple but this house gives them a chance at a different erotic sexual scenario. Or that's what I read in this. What appealed to me about this story is again the vagueness and the shifting perceptions that the women experience. It brings in a mystery to what's basically short erotic story.

What I didn't really get off on in this story is the throwing in of an odd assortment of demons in the form of weird animals. This made the story a bit hokey for me. I appreciate these kinds of elements if there's complex world building around it, but throwing in paranormal elements without that doesn't add to a story for me. But that's a personal pet peeve so YMMV.

Still though it's a cute story.

All in all I enjoyed this book. If you're into vampire paranormals and like unique and odd settings for sexual scenarios, this book will totally do it for you.

Heat Level- 4, somewhat graphically written sex, strap-on, exhibitionism.

Grade- Really liked