Photographs of Claudia by KG MacGregor

Publisher:          Bella Books

Photographs of Claudia is about the relationship between two women in two different decades.  Leonora Westcott is hoping to be accepted into a program for photographers and she needs to put together a portfolio.  She meets Claudia Galloway, a teacher intern, who agrees to become her model.  As their sessions progress, the pictures become more intimate and an attraction grows between the women.  Claudia is scheduled to marry a very wealthy man, so Leo is afraid to tell her how she feels, but Claudia takes the lead.  She decides that she wants to spend her life with Leo and returns home to tell her family.  She never comes back.  Years later Leo, who is now a successful photographer, agrees to do a friend a favor and take wedding pictures for a young woman who turns out to be Claudia's daughter.  The passion that was once there reignites, but Leo has risked herself one time.  Twice might be more than she's capable of.

This book starts off a little slow and turns into another "straight woman discovers she's gay" story.  However, it is well developed and tells a poignant story.  The women meet in their twenties and don't see each other again for a quarter of a century.  It's rather sad to think about what they missed in their lives, but there is no guarantee that their situation would have worked out anyway.  As mature women, they might have a greater chance of success.

MacGregor is an accomplished writer.  She knows how to give a story a sad twist without it becoming maudlin.  She also knows how to resurrect it into something happier.  The characters are appealing, the plot flows at a good pace for most of the book and it's an enjoyable book to read.  KG MacGregor is a dependable writer, so spending the time on one of her books really isn't a gamble.

 

After the Fall by Robin Summers

Publisher:            Bold Strokes Books

Taylor Stone is trying to survive in a world that has been devastated by a plague.  Though it's never clear exactly what the plague was, it's killed millions of people around the world, more women than men.  Keep moving, don't get involved has become Taylor's mantra as she struggles to get to her family in Indiana to see if any of them survived.  Then she comes to Burninghead Farm.  She finds a community of survivors who   through ingenuity and will-power have built a self-sustaining camp and they invite Taylor to join them.  Her intention is to only spend a few days while she strengthens herself for the rest of the trip.  She doesn't need friends and she doesn't want friends, but the people in the community have a way of working themselves into her emotions.  That's especially true of Kate.  Kate reignites Taylor's interest in life.  She shows the potential for new hope and love, but Taylor doesn't find that as appealing as might be thought.  Taylor has done things she's not proud of and she feels they make her unworthy of Kate's love.  Kate could heal Taylor's soul, but Taylor isn't sure she can have that.  She needs to find out what has happened to her family.  That need may destroy Taylor's chance to create a new life.

Summers knows what the focus of her story is.  She doesn't dwell on what caused the catastrophe because the message is clear that it doesn't matter how mankind failed.  What matters is that it did.  This book is about survival and what comes after the destruction.  It's not an odyssey either.  Unlike many similar stories, the reader will not follow Taylor through the situations she encounters before she arrives at Burninghead Farm.  Just enough of that is revealed to know that life hasn't been easy and that Taylor's soul has been scarred.  What matters is the time that Taylor spends on the farm and the way it transforms her.

Taylor and Burninghead Farm provide an interesting contrast.  Because of her experiences, Taylor is cynical and jaded.  She trusts no one because she knows even people who seem friendly are probably waiting for a chance to take advantage of you.  The farm is comparable to an experiment in utopianism.  Things are almost too perfect in that the people work together peacefully with no disharmony.  The only malcontents are expelled soon after Taylor arrives and though they reappear later, they're unimportant to most of the story.  The people live by a common set of rules that appeal to everyone.  It would be interesting to see how this community was established in the first place and able to achieve what they had, but again, what is important is that it exists.  Taylor and the farm represent the battle between despair and hope.  Taylor will come to realize that, contrary to what she says, she's just as invested in the farm's success as the people who have been there all along.  With all of the discussion about whether or not the world is about to come to an end, one can only hope that there is a Burninghead Farm out there for when it happens.

After the Fall is easy to read and tells a compelling story.  Summers alternates third person chapters with those written in first person so that the reader is always aware of what is going on in Taylor's head and can follow her transformation.  It makes a very interesting debut novel for Robin Summers; one worth reading.

Fearless by Erin O'Reilly

Publisher:        Affinity e-Book Press

A story that is getting more coverage in recent years is the one about the women pilots who helped with the effort to win World War II.  Although they were not supposed to go into battle, these women acted as the pilots who ferried planes to the war fronts and to repair facilities.  That occasionally brought them into as much danger as the war zones.

Fearless is about a group called the Air Transport Auxiliary.  Both men and women joined it to carry out work that would free battle-ready pilots for combat.  The story features a group of women who come from such diverse places as England, Ireland, Australia, Texas and Chile.  They also come from diverse backgrounds – rich, poor and in-between, gay and straight.  They train together, they fly together and they form a uniquely molded band dedicated to a common cause.  Two of them, Jo Laughlin and Sarah Faulkner, are particularly popular with the rest of the group, so when they disappear on a mission, everyone goes into a tailspin.  These women face danger and adventure every day.  Can they deal with the possible loss of two of their own?

The topic of the women pilots in World War II is one that has been covered in a number of books recently.  O'Reilly's book doesn't add any new knowledge to that history and unfortunately it doesn't tell a very compelling story.  Too much time is spent devoting chapters to telling the backgrounds events for each of the women.  It feels like the reader is spending chapters reading through biographies.  The details that are necessary for the later story could have been covered much quicker.  The part of the book that relates to the women's experiences flying the planes never explodes with the adventure that would seem to be inherent in this activity.  When Jo and Sarah are shot down in France, little about their adventure really seems to be dangerous until the last few minutes.  As some say in the advertising world, the book just doesn't pop.  It seems to hover right on the edge of catching fire, but misses its chance.  It's similar to eating really good food with a cold.  You know the taste is there, you just aren't receiving it.

It's difficult to know how to classify this book.  There is a small romance in it, but it's very subdued, so the book is not a romance.  There is some adventure, but not the kind that has the reader on the edge of her seat wondering what is going to happen.  It could be classified as historical fiction or possibly a character study of a group of people.  The story itself is fine, certainly for escapist reading.  There are more memorable books about the same topic however.

Beyond Instinct by Lynn Ames

Publisher:          Phoenix Rising Press

Sometimes you see reviews that say, don't start this book unless you have time because you won't be able to put it down.  When I say that about Beyond Instinct, believe it.

Sage McNally saw something she shouldn't have.  She didn't know it, but what she saw causes her to be kidnapped off of the streets of Mali and taken into the desert by Tuareg warriors.  Vaughn Elliot, former CIA agent and now a security expert for the State Department, hasn't known the diplomat long, but she knows she has to rescue Sage and determine why someone would do this to her.  The women have fallen into a treacherous plot that stretches from Washington, DC, to Africa and on to Afghanistan.  Vaughn, who has watched a former lover be murdered in the line of duty, is determined that it won't happen again.  A congressional visit appears to be at the center of the mystery and Vaughn has to determine how all of the pieces fit together.  Sage holds the key if she can only remember what it is.  The women are joined by a cast that includes highly skilled field agents, corrupt politicians, deadly assassins and heroes who are willing to die for what is right.  Though Sage and Vaughn are attracted to each other, nothing can come before the mission.  Too much depends on its outcome.

Lynn Ames has written a suspenseful adventure novel that can be compared with the best in the field.  Beyond Instinct can stand against any Robert Ludlum or James Patterson novel on the shelf.  The action is fast paced and the characters are defined just enough to see each one of them clearly and why that person had to be in the story.  The weaponry and technology that are employed in the book have obviously been well researched and their usage gives the book a very real and modernistic feeling.  The emotions that come from the characters tap into the reader and create a feeling that the reader is sharing the fear, horror and relief that everyone is experiencing.  As the reader nears the end of the book the need to read slower speaks to the reluctance to see the story end.

Ames does two things in this book that make it refreshing.  The people of Africa are treated with great respect.  Unfortunately, the stereotype in Western literature is to show them as poor, corrupt and backward.  Ames' Africa most certainly contains poverty and illegal activities, but there are also characters who act with great dignity and honor.  There is a very delicate balance struck in the Tuareg leader.  Though he is going to perform a despicable act, he does it out of a sense of honor and has the decency to understand that what he is doing is wrong.  The other interesting point is the relationship between Sage and Vaughn.  The fact that they are lesbians and feel drawn to each other is a strong thread in the story, but it doesn't dominate what is going on.  There is never any doubt that the point of this story is to figure out who is behind what is happening, what their ultimate objective is, and how to stop them.  This is never a story that is simply holding together scenes so that the women can hop into bed together.

One of the best things to observe in literature over time is the growth of an author.  Anyone who is a Lynn Ames fan from her first books is going to find a very different writer in Beyond Instinct.  From someone who wrote rather formulaic novels, she has progressed to something much more.  Her use of vocabulary, characters and scenery has grown tremendously from her first books and gives this one a more mature feeling and allows the reader to flow seamlessly from scene to scene.  Ames' development of her abilities is striking.

For anyone who enjoys a book that is based around adventure, intrigue and suspense, there can't be a better example than Beyond Instinct.  Just one warning.  Don't start it late at night because you won't be going to sleep for a while.

Open Water by Pol Robinson

Publisher:     Bella Books

Pol Robinson's debut novel is an exciting and enjoyable story about competition, hard work, dedication and building a friendship before romance.

Cass Flynn thought she had lost her chance to be on the US Rowing Team at the Beijing Olympics.  A terrible accident threatened to take her career completely, but after long months of rehabilitation, Cass finds herself added to the team to replace an injured rower.  As the oldest member and someone who bears scars on her legs, she has to prove to the other rowers that she not only deserves this chance, but that she can win. Team Captain Laura Kelley has serious doubts about Cass's suitability, but her own issues consume her attention more.  Laura blames herself for the suicide of her ex-lover's sister and the guilt is interfering with her own performance.  As the woman train and battle their private demons, they begin to establish a relationship that, in the end, could be more important than any gold medals they might win.

Sometimes it's difficult to put a finger on why a book is so enjoyable.  It's not that any one thing stands out about it, but that everything combines to create an experience that is worth having.  Open Water is that type of book.  Pol Robinson has experience as a rower, so she is able to create the authenticity that captures the experience of training for and competing in rowing so well.  The reader can feel with each character what she is going through as she prepares for her races.  The strain that Cass feels in trying to recover from her injury and prove her worth to the team is very strong.  The anxiety that Laura experiences over how her personal life is affecting the team makes her character extremely well rounded.  These are women that the reader will recognize and identify with.  The reader may know women like them.

Open Water flows off of the pages.  The story passes smoothly and quickly, almost emulating the strokes of the rowers' oars.  The personality of each character contributes to the atmosphere of the book as well as the setting in Beijing.  It's also a very clean book with no mistakes or misprints in it.  That makes the reading even easier.  If this is an example of what can be expected from Pol Robinson in the future, then readers have some good books to look forward to.

Between Two Women - - movie

This is a lesbian movie made for straight people. It doesn't cross any lines that will make them uncomfortable. It's slow paced, like many British movies. A mother comes to be friends with a teacher when the teacher shows an interest in the son's artistic ability. Things start slowly and remain slow. The women come to realize they have feelings for each other and decide what they want to do. As to interaction between the characters, they could have been deciding to be best friends. The movie was OK, but I kept getting distracted by emails and other things. It just didn't hold my attention.

If the Wind Were a Woman by Kelly Sinclair

Publisher:          Blue Feather Books, Ltd.

Kelly Sinclair sets her new novel in Tantona, Texas in the 1970s.  Tantona is a typical small southern town.  Men are in charge, women stay home to take care of the family, and most people go to church on Sunday.  It hardly seems to be a place that is on the cusp of the changes that are gripping the country, but appearances can be deceiving.  Latino/Hispanic/Mexican Americans (they can't decide what to call them) are moving in to change the culture, some of the women are going to work and a scandal breaks over them revealing that there is at least one lesbian in the town.  Oh, if they only knew.

Barbara Wolfe isn't interested in being an advocate for anyone.  The fact that she is a lesbian is the worst kept secret in Tantona, but as long as she's not overt about it, people are willing to pretend they don't know.  Barbara is discreet about her affairs until she meets Darlene Fisher.  One little slip nearly gets Barbara killed, she loses her job and most of the town sees her as a pariah, including her own daughter.  Barbara can handle her own problems, but she's afraid of what might happen to Darlene.  While they try not to antagonize the town, the women find themselves in the midst of a group of family and friends who are determined to help them make their relationship work.  Maybe, just maybe, it's time to test the people of Tantona and find out how many, if any, of them are willing to catch up to what is beginning to happen in the rest of the country.

If the Wind Were a Woman provides a picture that is beginning to disappear in lesbian literature as young women who are growing up in a different time don't know about or remember a time not too long ago when things were very different in the US.  Sinclair reminds the reader that not only was being gay a crime, but it could very easily get you killed and many law enforcement officials simply did not care.  Identifying other members of the gay community to form a support system could be difficult to impossible and being in the closet was a survival tactic, not simply a choice.  Sinclair captures that predicament very well with Barbara and another character named George.  One is forced into the open and the other is terrified that he will be put in the same position.  They also demonstrate how what happens to one person can have a ripple effect on other people and their decisions.

One of the strongest themes in this book is about the power of women even when people do not perceive that they have that power.  The blurb on the back of the book says that Darlene is "an uncontrollable force of nature" who is driving the action in the book.  That is questionable.  There are a number of women who drive different issues and Darlene seems to have the least strength of all of them.  She spends most of the book pretending to be interested in men while Barbara stands in front of the community and takes the blows.  There is also Barbara's best friend Mary who is defiant in the face of the townspeople and will not desert her friend just because she is a lesbian.  Gracie Munoz shows her strength in forcing the town to accept cultural diversity and Barbara's mother exhibits another type of courage when she refuses to let the town shame her daughter.  The book is an homage to the role that women play, when they are at their best, in holding families together, managing the civic conscience and fighting for the underdog.

If the Wind Were a Woman is not a long book, only 172 pages, but it packs a lot of story in it.  An author does not need to write a lot of words if she knows which words to choose.  The book shows how far society has come and, unfortunately, has not come.  It's worth reading.