Wasted Heart by Lynn Galli

Publisher:                 Outskirts Press


Sometimes a girl just can't get a break. You leave your family and friends to start a new life and now someone is trying to kill you.

Austy Nunziata left a good job and a supportive group of friends in Virginia to settle in Seattle. The reason for such a drastic change is that Austy is in love with her best friend Willa and Willa is married to another friend Quinn, so the wisest thing to do to keep herself from making a mistake and getting hurt more was to leave. Unfortunately, Willa, who doesn't realize how Austy feels, is the head of a software company with offices in Seattle, so they still see each other frequently. Austy hopes that by throwing herself into her new job as a district attorney and avoiding Willa that she can get over her feelings.

Her new case would seem to be the distraction she needs. She has been appointed as the lead prosecutor in a major racketeering case and that has brought her in contact with FBI agent Elise Bridie. At first Elise provides expert testimony in the case, but when someone mugs Austy and threatens to kill her, Elise finds herself acting as a bodyguard. The attack also brings the Virginia "posse" running to Seattle to provide support, protection and a shove in the right direction for Austy to capitalize on her relationship with Elise. Austy isn't sure which is the greatest problem - the meddling by her friends, her uncertain relationship with Elise or the fact that someone is trying to kill her. What Austy does know is that she needs to get control of her life and make a decision. Does she stay in Seattle, build a new life and possibly a relationship with Elise and maybe end up dead, or does she return to the nurturing environment that her friends offer in Virginia and live with the pain of seeing Willa every day knowing that she can't have her?

Wasted Heart is an entertaining book, but not really because of the lead characters. Austy and Elise tell a pretty standard story for lesfic. It's the supporting cast that adds the charm. Austy's Virginia friends are quite a group - Willa, who everyone loves because of her generosity and genuine concern for her friends; Quinn, Willa's partner and an ex-professional athlete who would protect Austy from any harm; Lauren, Austy's longest and best friend who is insistent that Austy return to Virginia to become her law partner; and Jessie, a true woman-chaser, but the staunchest friend anyone could hope for who is the only one who truly sees what is in Austy's heart. There is a humorous scene when Austy comes into court to confront the criminal who is trying to have her killed and she can hardly walk for the protective ring her friends have formed around her. And what a bunch of matchmakers when they realize Austy is interested in Elise. These and similar characters in Wasted Heart make it an enjoyable read.

Uncommon Emotions by Lynn Galli

Publisher:                Outskirts Press


Suppose you were walking down the hall at work one day, minding your own business, when suddenly someone pulled you into a closet and gave you the greatest kiss you ever had in your life? And it was a woman? And you were straight? You thought. If you found yourself reacting in a way you had never felt before, you might have to follow those uncommon emotions to rethink your whole life.

Joslyn Simonini is a "turnaround specialist." She is hired by companies to tell them how to improve their operations and profits, which often causes employees to dislike her since they fear their jobs will be the first thing she will want to cut. Joslyn understands their feelings, but she's not there to get involved with their concerns. She's there to do an efficient job and move on, which doesn't require an emotional connection with the people she's dealing with. Until that kiss.

That incident begins the unraveling of Joslyn's world as she has known it. She finds herself working with Raven Malvolio the chief financial officer of the family owned business she's been hired to improve. A working relationship quickly grows into a friendship. Joslyn hadn't found previous relationships with men particularly dynamic, but her contact with Raven has her questioning not only her sexuality, but the ethics of her job. She finally feels she has met someone she can let tap into the emotions she has kept hidden for so long, but she has also discovered a secret about the company that could destroy everything. Joslyn and Raven will have to answer some difficult questions about the priorities of family obligations and professional ethics to determine if a relationship is possible between them.

Galli does a good job of building her story and creating her characters. Joslyn starts out as a very repressed character who gradually opens up as events occur. The opening scene of the kiss starts the book off with a nice comic touch without becoming slapstick and then plays nicely into Joslyn's overly developed sense of professionalism when she first meets Raven and suspects her of being the office letch. Incidents occur at a nice pace in the book and give the reader a chance to get to know the characters and who they are. 

This is Galli's third novel and she has developed the ability to write a good solid story with appealing characters that provides a few hours of pleasant reading. Romance lovers will enjoy this book.

Full Court Pressure by Lynn Galli

Publisher:              Penikila Press

Graysen Viola had a very successful college career playing basketball, including an Olympic gold medal, followed by successful careers playing in the WNBA and coaching women's college teams.  When her best friend, who is the athletic director at Lake Merritt University, asks her to join him as coach of the basketball team, Gray assumes he means the nationally ranked women's team.  Instead she finds she's coaching the men's team which is mired in scandal and missing most of its best players from the previous year.  She also didn't expect to meet up with Darby Evan, coach of the women's volleyball team and a friend from the Olympics, or Kesara Luz, Tavian's very beautiful assistant.  Gray struggles with a team that doesn't want her, trying to get a house restored and attractions to two women.  She's going to have quite a year.

Full Court Pressure isn't about basketball.  That's just a framework for the story.  It's really about relationships; those between a coach and a team; those between romantic interests; and those between people of different cultures.  The interactions between the characters come across as very real, even when they're not positive.  Gray's emotions radiate off of the page as she deals with arrogant players, an overly possessive woman and the realization that not everyone has the friendly feelings she's developed for members of the Hispanic community.  As the story develops, the basketball aspect fades into the background as the interactions between the people become more important.

This is an enjoyable book to read.  Some of it stretches credulity a little, but it's fiction.  It develops at just the right pace and the characters are fully developed.  An added bonus for those who are not familiar with Galli's other work is that there is a synopsis of each book included at the back of this one.

Blessed Twice by Lynn Galli

Publisher:             Outskirts Press


Blessed Twice is a novel about experiencing life-shattering tragedy and discovering that you can survive it. Life goes on, though it may take a supreme effort to deal with it. 

Briony Gatewood lost her partner Megan in a rock-climbing accident three years ago. She and her son Caleb have struggled through their grief and Briony is finally ready to move on with living. To try and make a new start, Briony has moved them from Vermont and all of their familiar surroundings and family to Charlottesville, Virginia, where she is a professor at the university. It's there that she meets M Desiderius who is as successful and interactive with her students as she is aloof and nonengaged with the staff. 

When both women are "volunteered" to work on a project in summer school, Briony discovers that M is withdrawn because she is shy. As they get to know each other better, it's revealed that M had a terrible early life that makes her unable to interact with people naturally. Briony realizes slowly that she is falling in love with the brilliant and tortured woman, but she also knows that any relationship they can hope to have is going to take a great deal of work and patience on her part. She sees a second chance at love if she can help M break out of the protective shell she's built around herself.

Galli has set another book in familiar surroundings with a supporting cast of characters she's introduced before. The group of lesbian friends she created living in Charlottesville has provided her with more than one story. That is the slight drawback to the book. References are made to previous events in these character's lives that may not be completely understood by people who haven't read the other books; however, the book focuses on Briony and M, so the other references don't distract from the central story.

The rest of the book is skillfully developed as Galli deals with Briony's emotions as she tries to get over losing Meg and raise their young son properly. There is a lot of humor injected when Briony's friends decide to set her up with various women they know and she has to endure a series of "dates from hell." It's appallingly obvious to Briony and the reader why these women are still single and inappropriate matches, so the wonder is that her friends don't see it. 

There's also an on-going joke as Briony tries to guess what M stands for and gets no help from M herself. M is the truly interesting character as a person who is so traumatized by her childhood that the simple touch of another person causes her excruciating pain. The "therapy" she dabbles with to overcome these feelings gives a view into the world of dominance and submission that is both informative and disturbing. The strength of the book is that Galli doesn't rush the development of the characters and the situations. These aren't two women who are destined to fall into bed the first time they're alone and they don't. They have to work to build the trust that will make any relationship possible and that takes time. 

Blessed Twice is an interesting story about a couple that doesn't fit the normal pattern. That makes it refreshing and worth reading.