Category Archives: LGBTQ

June 23, 2022 · 12:01 am

Review: And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling

Title: And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Genre: Contemporary, LGBTQ, Mystery
Length: 337 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

They thought he was a helpless old man. They were wrong.

When two teenagers break into a house on a remote lake in search of prescription drugs, what starts as a simple burglary turns into a nightmare for all involved. Emmett Burr has secrets he’s been keeping in his basement for more than two decades, and he’ll do anything to keep his past from being revealed. As he gets the upper hand on his tormentors, the lines blur between victim, abuser, and protector.

Personal tragedy has sent former police officer Ben Packard back to the small Minnesota town of Sandy Lake in search of a fresh start. Now a sheriff’s deputy, Packard is leading the investigation into the missing teens, motivated by a family connection. As clues dry up and time runs out to save them, Packard is forced to reveal his own secrets and dig deep to uncover the dark past of the place he now calls home.

Unrelentingly suspenseful and written with a piercing gaze into the dark depths of the human soul, And There He Kept Her is a thrilling page-turner that introduces readers to a complicated new hero and forces us to consider the true nature of evil.

Review:

And There He Kept Her is a compelling debut mystery by Joshua Moehling.

Jesse Crawford has gotten himself into a situation that threatens his loved ones unless he breaks into a house on the outskirts of Sandy Lake, Minnesota. His girlfriend, Jenny Wheeler, is with him and they accidentally awaken the home owner, Emmett Burr. Emmett has good reason to prevent the teenagers from leaving his property, but what is he willing to do to protect his secrets?

Acting Sheriff Ben Packard is initially not overly concerned when his cousin and Jenny’s mom, Susan, reports her daughter has not returned home after sneaking out. But circumstances soon come to light that add urgency to finding the missing teenager. Ben discovers not too shocking information about Jesse that soon takes to the case in an unexpected direction. With time quickly ticking past, can Ben and his fellow investigator Jill Thielen locate Susan and Jesse before it is too late?

Ben has secrets of his own that he would prefer remain hidden. He has ties to the community that most people have not unearthed. He is also questioning everything about a relationship that tragically ended and left Ben mourning behind closed doors. Will he finally stop hiding a very integral part of who he is and live his life to the fullest?

And There He Kept Her is an intriguing mystery that is quite engrossing. Ben is a multi-layered protagonist whose flaws do not diminish his appeal. He is intelligent and his tenacity drives the investigation. Emmett has few redeeming qualities but his reactions after the break in are somewhat surprising. With time running out, Joshua Moehling brings this well-written mystery to tension-filled conclusion.

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Filed under And There He Kept Her, Contemporary, Joshua Moehling, LGBTQ, Mystery, Poisoned Pen Press, Rated B+, Review

March 24, 2022 · 12:01 am

Review: Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

Title: Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
Written in the Stars Series Book Three
Publisher: Avon
Genre: Contemporary, LGBTQ+ (F/F), Romance
Length: 380 pages
Book Rating: C

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

Following Written in the Stars and Hang the Moon, Lambda Literary Award winner and national bestselling author Alexandria Bellefleur pens another steamy queer rom-com about former best friends who might be each other’s second chance at love…

Margot Cooper doesn’t do relationships. She tried and it blew up in her face, so she’ll stick with casual hookups, thank you very much. But now her entire crew has found “the one” and she’s beginning to feel like a fifth wheel. And then fate (the heartless bitch) intervenes. While touring a wedding venue with her engaged friends, Margot comes face-to-face with Olivia Grant—her childhood friend, her first love, her first… well, everything. It’s been ten years, but the moment they lock eyes, Margot’s cold, dead heart thumps in her chest.

Olivia must be hallucinating. In the decade since she last saw Margot, her life hasn’t gone exactly as planned. At almost thirty, she’s been married… and divorced. However, a wedding planner job in Seattle means a fresh start and a chance to follow her dreams. Never in a million years did she expect her important new client’s Best Woman would be the one that got away.

When a series of unfortunate events leaves Olivia without a place to stay, Margot offers up her spare room because she’s a Very Good Person. Obviously. It has nothing to do with the fact that Olivia is as beautiful as ever and the sparks between them still make Margot tingle. As they spend time in close quarters, Margot starts to question her no-strings stance. Olivia is everything she’s ever wanted, but Margot let her in once and it ended in disaster. Will history repeat itself or should she count her lucky stars that she gets a second chance with her first love?

Review:

Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur is an entertaining second chance romance. Although this newest release is the third romance in the Written in the Stars series, it can be read as a standalone.

Margot Cooper is the last of her friends to find love. Although she is mostly happy with her life, she is feeling like a fifth wheel and occasionally left out. Margot is the best woman for her friend Brendon’s upcoming wedding and she is shocked when the new events planner walks in. She knows Olivia Grant very well since they were best friends until their friendship ended after they spent one steamy week together a decade earlier. When Olivia needs a place to stay after a problem at her apartment, Margot invites her to stay with her. But her plan to keep things platonic between them is immediately tested once Margot realizes she is still intensely attracted to her former bestie. Will she be able to resist acting on her attraction?

Olivia is well aware Brendon’s wedding will either make or break her career. So, she is not going to allow her feelings for Margot get in the way of planning the perfect wedding. Since Olivia does not have anyone to stay with, she accepts Margot’s offer to become her roommate. Olivia has many wonderful traits but she is a bit of a pushover and a people pleaser. Will this come back to haunt her as she and Margot decide to give in to their very mutual desire?

Count Your Lucky Stars is a funny romance with a great cast of characters. Margot and Olivia are interesting characters but their unresolved issues continue to plague them. The storyline is engaging but the continued miscommunications become frustrating. The pacing is also rather slow. The love scenes between Margot and Olivia are blazing hot, very detailed and take place over several sizzling pages. Old and new fans of Alexandria Bellefleur’s Written in the Stars series will enjoy this laugh out loud romance.

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Filed under Alexandria Bellefleur, Avon, Contemporary, Count Your Lucky Stars, F/F, LGBTQ, Rated C, Review, Romance, Written in the Stars Series

March 2, 2020 · 11:57 pm

Review: Under the Rainbow by Celia Laskey

Title: Under the Rainbow by Celia Laskey
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Genre: Contemporary, LGBTQ, Literary Fiction
Length: 286 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

When a group of social activists arrive in a small town, the lives and beliefs of residents and outsiders alike are upended, in this wry, embracing novel.

Big Burr, Kansas, is the kind of place where everyone seems to know everyone, and everyone shares the same values-or keeps their opinions to themselves. But when a national nonprofit labels Big Burr “the most homophobic town in the US” and sends in a task force of queer volunteers as an experiment-they’ll live and work in the community for two years in an attempt to broaden hearts and minds-no one is truly prepared for what will ensue.

Furious at being uprooted from her life in Los Angeles and desperate to fit in at her new high school, Avery fears that it’s only a matter of time before her “gay crusader” mom outs her. Still grieving the death of her son, Linda welcomes the arrivals, who know mercifully little about her past. And for Christine, the newcomers are not only a threat to the comforting rhythms of Big Burr life, but a call to action. As tensions roil the town, cratering relationships and forcing closely guarded secrets into the light, everyone must consider what it really means to belong. Told with warmth and wit, Under the Rainbow is a poignant, hopeful articulation of our complicated humanity that reminds us we are more alike than we’d like to admit.

Review:

Celia Laskey’s debut Under the Rainbow  offers an intriguing peek into small town America and its relationship with the LGBTQ community.

Through a series of vignettes from different characters’ perspectives, each chapter offers a glimpse into the Acceptance Across America (AAA) workers and townspeople’s lives.  Avery is uprooted from Los Angeles to Big Burr, KS when her mom accepts a position with AAA. She is struggling to be true to herself while also trying to keep her family’s association with AAA under wraps. Linda is grieving a tragic loss and unexpectedly finds solace through volunteering with the AAA. Christine is a devout Christian who is adamantly opposed to the gay community and the AAA. David and his partner Miguel relocate to Big Burr and their life is quickly complicated by an older family member’s medical issues and lack of gay community. Zach is a teenager struggling to fly under the radar and attention of his classmates. Gabe is an avid hunter and family man who questions the life he has made for himself. Henry blames the AAA when he makes a shocking discovery about a loved one.  While each chapter is narrated by a specific character and their life in Big Burr, other characters sometimes overlap with the current narrator.  The final chapter in the novel offers a brief glimpse of how many of the characters have fared long after the AAA have moved on from Big Burr.

Under the Rainbow  is a fast-paced novel with an interesting cast of characters and distinctive plot. The characters are well-developed but some are more appealing and memorable than others. Some of the characters’ actions and opinions are a bit stereotyped while others are refreshingly unique. Celia Laskey’s debut is a thought-provoking novel that I thoroughly enjoyed.

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Filed under Celia Laskey, Contemporary, LGBTQ, Literary Fiction, Rated B, Review, Riverhead Books, Under the Rainbow

May 6, 2019 · 11:58 pm

Review: Everything Grows by Aimee Herman

Title: Everything Grows by Aimee Herman
Publisher: Three Rooms Press
Genre: Historical (’90s), Young Adult, LGBTQ
Length: 239 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

Fifteen-year-old Eleanor Fromme just chopped off all of her hair. How else should she cope after hearing that her bully, James, just took his own life? When Eleanor’s English teacher suggests students write a letter to a person who would never receive it to get their feelings out, Eleanor chooses James.

With each letter she writes, Eleanor discovers more about herself, even while trying to make sense of his death. And, with the help of a unique cast of characters, Eleanor not only learns what it means to be inside a body that does not quite match what she feels on the inside, but also comes to terms with her own mother’s mental illness.

Set against a 1993-era backdrop of grunge rock and riot grrl bands, EVERYTHING GROWS depicts Eleanor’s extraordinary journey to solve the mystery within her and feel complete. Along the way, she loses and gains friends, rebuilds relationships with her family, and develops a system of support to help figure out the language of her queer identity.

Through author Aimee Herman’s exceptional storytelling, EVERYTHING GROWS reveals the value of finding community or creating it when it falls apart, while exploring the importance of forgiveness, acceptance, and learning how to live on your own terms.

Review:

Everything Grows by Aimee Herman is an introspective young adult novel.

Eleanor Fromme’s reaction to the news that her classmate who bullied her, James, committed suicide leads to unforeseen consequences. Her best friend Dara’s shocking comments serve as a catalyst to a realization that Eleanor has struggled to articulate for quite some time.  In the midst of this uncertainty, she is also still grappling with her mother Shirley’s suicide attempt and Eleanor’s fears that she will try again.  Her journey to understand herself is viewed through a class assignment in which Eleanor writes diary format letters to James.  By the end of the assignment, Eleanor has a better understanding  of herself, yet there are still layers she has yet to explore.

Eleanor’s voice is quite engaging as she ponders the shifts within herself.  Her hurt at Dara’s rejection is tempered by her unexpected friendship with new student Aggie.  Her lingering concerns about  her mother’s mental health issues are realistically depicted and rather poignant.  With her oldest sister Greta off at college, Shirley’s best friend, Flor, provides Eleanor with a steadying influence and someone to confide in as she becomes more comfortable with who she is. Meeting James’s mother, Helaine, gives Eleanor access to James’s diary where she learns she and her bully have more in common than she thought possible.

Everything Grows is a thought-provoking young adult novel that is insightful and reflective. The characters are well-developed and likable.  Aimee Herman deftly handles sensitive subject matter in a forthright and realistic manner. The novel ends on  a positive note, but Eleanor’s journey is not yet complete since she is still wrestling with other parts of her sexual identity.

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Filed under Aimee Herman, Everything Grows, Historical (90s), LGBTQ, Rated B, Review, Three Rooms Press, Young Adult

October 14, 2018 · 11:58 pm

Review: Quiver by Julia Watts

Title: Quiver by Julia Watts
Publisher: Three Rooms Press
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult, LGBTQ , Gender Fluid
Length: 300 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

Set in rural Tennessee, QUIVER, a YA novel by Julia Watts, focuses on the unlikely friendship between two teens from opposite sides of the culture wars. 

Libby is the oldest child of six, going on seven, in a family that adheres to the “quiverfull” lifestyle: strict evangelical Christians who believe that they should have as many children as God allows because children are like arrows in the quiver of “God’s righteous warriors.” Meanwhile, her new neighbor, Zo is a gender fluid teen whose feminist, socialist, vegetarian family recently relocated from the city in search of a less stressful life. Zo and hir family are as far to the left ideologically as Libby’s family is to the right, and yet Libby and Zo, who are the same age, feel a connection that leads them to friendship―a friendship that seems doomed from the start because of their families’ differences.
Through deft storytelling, built upon extraordinary character development, author Watts offers a close examination of the contemporary compartmentalization of social interactions. The tensions that spring from their families’ cultural differences reflect the pointed conflicts found in today’s society, and illuminate a path for broader consideration.

Review:

Quiver by Julia Watts is a thought-provoking young adult novel that explores fundamental Christianity and gender-fluidity.

Sixteen year old Liberty “Libby” Hazlett is the oldest of six (soon to be seven) children. Her family is part of the “Quiverfull” sect of Christianity in which birth control is eschewed, the children are home-schooled by their mother and their father rules the home with an iron fist. Libby, her siblings and her mother live an isolated, insular life although her father works in the secular world. Libby does little thinking for herself since she  is fully indoctrinated by her father’s  teachings about the sinful world outside their community. She is close to her mother who is forbidden from working outside the home yet Libby is nervous about what the future holds for her: marriage and childbearing. When new neighbors move in next door, the Hazlett family surprisingly befriends them but what effect will this outside influence  have on Libby and the rest of the family?

Zo Forrester is Libby’s age and due to both her and her brother Owen’s recent troubles and her father’s  hectic work schedule, her parents have decided a slower way of life would benefit everyone. Zo and Owen are home-schooled but their schedule is more flexible than Libby’s.  Zo and her family are quite liberal and her parents are very accepting of their daughter’s gender fluidity.  And yet, Zo and Libby form a fast friendship that easily transcends their differences.

Needless to say, the two families ideologies are so far apart that it is rather shocking they get along. However the Forrester/Hazlett friendship  comes to an abrupt end with the two extremely opinionated and vocal patriarchs clash when the two families are spending an evening together. Although they are no longer allowed to see each other,  Zo’s influence has had a surprising effect on Libby who begins questioning her long held beliefs. As her mother begins preparing her and her younger sister for courting, marriage and motherhood, Libby’s doubts about her father’s teachings grow. Her friendship with Zo is important, yet going against her father’s wishes is unthinkable. Or is it?

Quiver is an absolutely outstanding young adult novel which features a topical and provocative storyline. All of the characters are extremely well-drawn with realistic shortcomings and enviable strengths.  Julia Watts does an exemplary job with her portrayal of the Quiverfull movement.  The novel comes to an unexpected conclusion that is quite uplifting. I highly recommend this insightful novel to older teens and adult readers.

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Filed under Contemporary, Gender Fluid, Julia Watts, LGBTQ, Quiver, Rated B+, Review, Three Rooms Press, Young Adult