J.S. Fields

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September 16, 2022

Review: Can’t Find My Way Home by Gwynn Garfinkle

Genre: science fiction: urban paranormal

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, cis bisexual/pansexual (not defined)

Warnings: none

 

Review

Junior soap opera actress Joanna Bergman is having a moderately decent life. She’s got a job, she’s got friends, she has reasonable coworkers. Sure, sometimes she is haunted by her past, in which she was a part of bombing of a New York draft board in 1971 and her best friend died, but that’s water under the bridge. Right?

Nope. Having finally achieved a measure of stability, Joanna becomes haunted by the ghost of her dead best friend, Cynthia Foster. Joanna was supposed to have accompanied Cynthia on that fateful day, and cancelled last minute. They both should have died. Now, Cynthia’s ghost forces Joanna to relive a million possible future in which Joanna chose a different path–until Joanna can finally come to terms with her past.

Although not my usual read, CAN’T FIND MY WAY HOME was an interesting alternate timeline paranormal adventure. It shone particularly well in the scenes where Joanna must come to terms with her attraction to Cynthia, and in the scenes that reinforce the choices Joanna has already made.

“Oh, come on. It’d be fun.” She stroked my upper arm. Her voice became a caress. “Your skin is awfully soft.”

What was this? More of Cyn’s non-monogamy line? Or perhaps just another way to know me, too well. Or maybe just so she could say she’d done it with a woman. Whatever it was, I didn’t want that kind of involvement with Cyn. We were close, and it was sometimes messy, but it would get messier and more tangled if we crossed that line.

Generally, the plot gives us an interesting period piece that ravels together the Vietnam war and budding sexuality. It’s the little moments in between the plot, however, where the book really shines. Every life sequence Joanna lives, every what if, balances heartbreak and joy. These scenes are the meat of the book, and what will keep the reader turning pages.

“Wait,” Can said. She reached up and cupped my cheek. Her hand was cool against my feverish face. Illuminated by the streetlight, her face was grave. Her gaze burned into mine. “We did it,” she whispered. She pressed her lops dryly to mine. In that moment everything seemed unreal, and everything seemed possible.

“You’ll catch the flu,” I said.

Oh, how she smiled. “No, I won’t. I’m fucking invincible.” She grabbed my hand, and we headed for her place. Halfway there we started to run. I was suddenly full of energy, the flu forgotten. We were running, her hand in mine. We were so alive.

You can join Joanna on a trip through parallel universes by buying the book here.

 

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: pansexual, paranormal, sci fi

June 21, 2021

Review: The Silences of Ararat by L. Timmel Duchamp

Genre: contemporary fantasy / contemporary dystopian

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis bisexual / cis pansexual (unclear narratively)

Warnings: none

Review

Paulina is a sculptor in a sort of THE HANDMAID’S TALE type dystopian future, where the ultra conservative faction of the USA has splintered off (Congress of Christian American States), elected a king, and follows ‘Christian’ teachings. Her husband, the king’s advisor, has gone missing and is presumed dead, leaving liberal Paulina only her sculpture by which to show her dissent.

Queen Hermione is everything a conservative king could want – beautiful, kind, doting, and able to hang on his every word without punching him in the face.

I have to admit, the branding of her image, combining “white” purity with womanly fecundity, revolted me. In person, though, I barely noticed it, distracted by the glimpses I began to see of an intensity I’d never before noticed. Those glimpses intrigued me. Maybe, I thought, there was something below the surface of wifely perfection composed of expensive grooming and constant deference to her husband and his most trusted advisors. Hermione was, after all, an actor. It was just possible she was consciously playing the role of the young third trophy wife and not merely following the script without noting she was doing so.

The king’s paranoia drives him to eventually accuse Hermione of adultery with his brother, and the ensuing trial and altercations result in the deaths of her two children and, as far as the public knows, of Hermione herself.

Paulina is the rescuing sort, turns out, and through using her innate magic to turn living things into sculpture, she fakes Hermione’s death, rescues the queen, and sequesters her in her own house. Romance blooms, the two women plot a delicious revenge on the king, and general emotional turmoil ensues.

The thought of her life as one of unending loneliness made me want to cry. “For godlike, love. That’s not what I meant when I talked about your needing to be strong.”

She took my hand and brought it to her cheek. “You are so good to me,” she said. “Better than I deserve.”

In that moment, Hermione’s entire attention was fixed on me in a way I hadn’t before experienced. The intimate intensity of her gaze kindled a dozen small flames licking at my skin that the sensation of my fingers on her face fanned into a blaze. To conceal what I was feeling, I pulled her close in a hug. “You don’t deserve to be lonely,” I said. “You don’t deserve to be abandoned.”

I began to pull away, only to be engulfed in confusion as her lips nudged mine and her fingers stroked my neck, feeding the conflagration of my most sensitive nerve endings. I had thought my sexuality desiccated and frozen, my heart petrified into stone. But my heart now beat so powerfully that I was suggested with heat, and the pulse in my vulva beat so strongly that I could no longer think.

Out of all the Conversation Pieces by Aqueduct Press that I have read, THE SILENCES OF ARARAT is definitely in the top five strongest installments (nothing will ever evict any of the Lucy Harper books from my heart, and the one about the girl journeying through the underworld still makes me smile). The narrative is strong and tight, with little fat and solid character development. The author spends enough time developing Hermione and the king that, when the inevitable betrayal occurs, it is both expected but still heart wrenching. The slow build up to the revenge, coupled with the romance arc, made the book a quick, delightful read.

The nonlinear narration did make the first half of the book confusing, though its a novella so the confusion was short lived. By the end of the book I didn’t mind it at all, although it makes me unlikely to reread.

For a fun dystopian with a satisfying revenge plot, you can join up with Paulina and Hermione to take down the king by buying the book here.

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: bisexual, contemporary, dystopian, fantasy, pansexual

January 17, 2021

Review: Heathen, vol 2, by Natasha Alterici and Rachel Deering

This review is for the second volume in a comic series. To read the review for volume 1, click here. To read the review for volume three, click here.

Genre: fantasy – alternate history

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, cis bisexual, cis pansexual, gender fluid

Warnings: none

Review

Aydis is back! Having freed Brynhild and spent some time in Freyja’s love nest, she now searches for Heimdall, the entrance to the land of the gods, in an effort to end Brynhild’s curse (and take out Odin if the opportunity permits). Adventures abound, including a brush with killer mermaids and a ship full of buxom lady pirates.

Now separated from Aydis, Brynhild and Freyja get their own adventures, too, with Freyja falling from Odin’s grace for aiding Brynhild and Aydis. There’s a great scene where Freyja, trying to re-entice Odin, turns into a male version of herself which was perfectly drawn and very Loki-esque.

Although this volume doesn’t push the story particularly far, the art remains enchanting and the promise of an eventual Aydis/Brynhild arc continues to tease. Like the previous volume there are plenty of bikini-tops, cleavage shots (hell, Freyja doesn’t even wear a top), and women who just don’t give a fuck. Odin is still a jerk, but he’s down an eye so hey! Things are looking up!

Volume 2 is on Amazon, and should be there for a while, though I know there is still a rights issue going on.

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: bisexual, fantasy, gender fluid, lesbian, pansexual

December 4, 2020

Review: The Adventure of the Naked Guide by Cynthia Ward

This review is for the third book in the series. Read the review for book one here, and book two here.

Genre: science fiction (alternate history / lesbians but also dinosaurs)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, cis pansexual

Warnings: none

 

Review

Half-vampire Lucy IS BACK on another adventure with her vampire lover/girlfriend/it’s complicated. In this installment her human mother (a vampire hunter, once raped by Dracula, who is Lucy’s father) has gone missing and British intelligence has tapped Lucy, with her otherworldly powers, to bring her home. (Lucy is also related to Attila the Hun, for reference).

The Great War has a new front, however…THE CENTER OF THE EARTH! Complete with dinosaurs, mole people, and basically every piece of camp you could ever imagine (except the Martian heat rays. Those were on the Titanic in book one. Also Tarzan.). Lucy must journey inside the earth to rescue her mother from the eeeeevil Dr. Krüger and some feisty tyrannosauruses.

But her journey is not without passion! Though girlfriend/vampire Carmilla cannot accompany Lucy because Victorian Sexual Mores and Lesbians Are Evil, Lucy gets help from a very hot proto-human/mole person (it’s not quite clear) who ends up sneaking a kiss while forcing Lucy to confront her own internal homophobia.

You can’t keep a good vampire down, however, and Carmilla pops up just after the kiss, having witnessed everything and, very amused, continues to prod Lucy on her emotional journey. Then the plot shows back up, everyone gets kidnapped by the eeeeevil Dr. Krüger, there are some machine men, Lucy’s mother finds out vampires aren’t evil (which basically destroys her since she had to kill her bestie after a vampire turned her) and Lucy completes her moral journey.

Like every installment of the Lucy Harper chronicles, this book was an absolute blast. The camp is just so well done. The subtle references to Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, etc., are perfect. This is pulp science fiction the way it was meant to be. I want a dozen more of these at least, and Lucy and Carmilla better have some awesome vampire babies STAT that get to ride dinosaurs around downtown London.

And as always, the book has excellent quotable lines. My favorite:

Standing close to attractive people in a state of undress has a predictable effect on my libido.

You can visit the center of the earth on the back of any number of dinosaurs by buying the book here.

 

 

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: lesbian, pansexual, science fiction

December 4, 2020

Review: The Dragon’s Lover by Samantha Sabian

Genre: romance (fantasy)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, cis pansexual

Warnings: implied child sex trafficking

 

Review

Dragons are a lusty lot known for grinding their lovers into dust.

 

I could pretend that this is my first foray into shifter romance but that would be a bald-faced lie. This is, however, my first f/f shifter romance.

It was exactly as trashy as I hoped it would be.

Cover

Are they two men? Are they a man and a dragon? Are they two women rendered by someone who doesn’t understand how hormones generally impact physical features? WHO KNOWS. The one facing us is definitely the shifter dragon lady, who is supposed to be A) fairly geriatric and B) buxom. The one whose back is turned is supposed to be wiry and fairly androgynous so I suppose that one isn’t too bad…except this cover steals from basically every m/m romance cover I’ve ever seen. Not a good call for marketing.

Plot

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Okay no seriously it tries. Raine is half Super Hot Not-Elf, Super Hot Not-Berserker (they have their own names in this), whose people were once in league with dragons and also once sex slaves. Don’t overthink it. She spends the first third of the book wandering around trying to find something the reader doesn’t know about. By page nineteen she finds a dragon lady, who promptly takes her 200-some year old virginity with a lot of phrases like ‘unrestrained passion,’ ‘overwhelming sensation,’ and ‘she moderated the size of the appendage she’d created.’

Why yes, there are magical dildos in this story. I’m so glad you asked.

The two boink a few more times (amusing, but not particularly hot with the strained prose) and then move to a remote mountain location to shack up permanently. Here, the plot finds them and drags Raine off on an Epic Quest which mostly confused me because really, no one reads these kind of books for the plot.

A plot summary from the back of the book (to prove to you I’m not making this up):

The Hyr’rok’kin, monstrous demonds of the underworld, are spewing forth from the Empty Land. Raine is called to join a band of humans, elves, and dwarves in a quest to stop the invasion. She fears no enemy, no injury, not even death itself. But something is waiting at the Gates of Hel, something that seeks to separate Raine from the dragon she is bound to for all of time.

Not mentioned is that one of the dragon’s human daughters goes with this merry band, and she ends up watching her mother, in human form, bang Raine. The mother knows she is there, too. It’s very weird (but not as weird as that cuttlefish m/m shifter book I DID NOT READ, NOPE, a few years ago).

If weird lesbian shifter camp is your thing, this is your book. I will point out that there is in fact NO lover-ground-into-dust scene (uh, reader promises!) nor are the sex scenes well written. They’re not erotic either, mostly consisting of a lot of thrusting and purple prose. The plot made me giggle, but honestly this book is just what 2020 called for.

There is a touch of surprising nonbinary rep:

“It is said,” the man said, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, “that Arlanians were not truly man or woman until their 18th year, existing in a neither/nor state that was irresistible.”

A) Yes, the number eighteen was in numeric digits, not spelled out

B) Yes, nonbinary people ARE irresistible, but only once they’re of an age of consent (for future reference)

You can try to seduce an old dragon lady by pretending to be a computer model from an m/m book cover by purchasing the book here.

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: fantasy, lesbian, pansexual, romance

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