Publisher: Bella Books
Diana Tremain Braund has been writing novels for a number of years and is a well-known name in lesbian fiction. The nice thing about that is she has a proven track record with her earlier books. You know when you buy one that you are going to read a story that you like. She adds to that tradition with her latest work, The Tides of Passion.
The central question in this book is, how long do you hold onto a relationship that is no longer working? How long do you stay loyal to a commitment and resist the temptation provided by what could be a more fulfilling life? Amy Day and Kelly Burns live on Bath Island, Maine, where Amy runs an antique shop and Kelly is the director of nursing at the local hospital. Their relationship has been unsatisfactory for Kelly for a long time. Amy can be loving and kind, but most of the time she is emotionally abusive towards Kelly and hypercritical of whatever she does. Kelly is trying to hang on to make the situation work because she doesn't believe that you walk out on a commitment, but she is suffering greatly in silence.
All of that will begin to change when Susan Iogen arrives on the island. Susan is the publicity representative for a company that wants to use the island for a liquid natural gas depot. This would mean badly needed jobs for the community, but it would also change the nature of life there forever. The opposition to the project organizes quickly with Amy as its leader. Kelly stays out of most of the activities because she is busy at the hospital and this adds more tension to what is happening between her and Amy.
Eventually, Kelly meets Susan, who represents the antithesis of everything Amy believes in, but who holds a special attraction for Kelly. As Amy becomes more immersed in the fight against the company, Kelly and Susan are drawn together, leading to an eventual betrayal. Kelly breaks the rules and the reader is left to decide if her actions are a justified reaction to Amy's behavior or a selfish indulgence. How will Kelly resolve the situation she then finds herself in?
Braund uses a number of richly drawn supporting characters who help to flesh out the story. One particular favorite is Elizabeth Robinson, a crusty island dweller who acts as the crone of the lesbian community and shows a sense of adventure and fun that makes her a joy to read about. There are situations used that help to explore the characters more fully and lend depth to the story. This is a romance, but it's the story of the death and birth of romance at the same time. Braund's books are always worth reading and this is one of her better ones.
Publisher: Bella Books
In this time when one of the most discussed topics is global warming, Diana Tremain Braund has set her new book Aspen's Embers in the middle of one of the longest ongoing debates about conservation. How do you balance the needs of people with the need to preserve forest land?
Codyville Plantation is a small town in Maine that has depended on the work provided by the local lumbering company to sustain the town's life. Aspen Brown has lived there all her life and feels that she has a special relationship with the trees. Whenever she feels stressed, she retreats to the forest and climbs a tree until the world rights itself again. As a teacher at the high school, she tries to share that love with her students and she's very active in the local environmental group that is trying to prevent any more logging in the forest.
When Leigh Wright shows up as the new agent for the company, everyone is suspicious as to what her motives are and Leigh and Aspen are both thrown out of balance when they realize that they are tremendously attracted to each other. The relationship doesn't improve when Leigh discovers that the company plans to stop lumbering, cut down large quantities of the trees and build an expensive community on the land. Codyville is torn between the citizens who see this as a chance for the town to be rejuvenated with jobs and development and those who want to preserve the way of life they've always had. Leigh is torn herself between her belief in conservation and facing the fact that, by staying with the company, she might be able to influence how the company's plans are implemented.
And then there's the potential damage to her relationship with Aspen who has become a leader in the movement to stop the company. While the town and the women are struggling to find a solution to the situation, a radical professor at a nearby college takes matters into her own hands and violence strikes the town. Finally, Aspen and Leigh find themselves fighting not only for the woods, but for their future together.
Braund has managed to take a very topical concept and weave it with a romance to produce a realistic story with believable characters. The arguments between the company and the conservationists could come off of the front pages of most newspapers. The stress of preserving small town life against encroaching suburbia is one familiar in many communities. This isn't a political novel. Braund does a good job of presenting both sides of every issue without taking a side and maintains the integrity of the story while she is doing so.
The way the romance develops is also true to life. It's not a foregone conclusion that these two women will find a way to stay together through their differences and the relationship does not develop without problems. In the end, the good guys win, sort of, but not totally and that is true to life also.
