96 Hours

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96 hours is set in the first days and weeks of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001.

Abby Hayes, a young woman in her late twenties, is on a return flight from London to New York to visit her mother for a few days. After having quit her job a few years before so she could experience life and travel around the world, she's what you would call a free spirit. On the same plane, Erica Ryan is returning from a business trip that didn't quite turn out as planned. Living for her work and ready to be home so she can continue to work on a solution for her product, she's more than a little frustrated when all of a sudden the plane is redirected to a small town in Newfoundland. With nearly 7,000 other passengers they learn of the 9/11 attacks and try to cope with the horrible reality of the aftermath. Trapped for nearly a week in this small town, Abby and Erica have to learn to work together to make the whole situation as bearable as possible.

I started this book a bit apprehensively since I was afraid it might be more about the attacks on the Twin Towers than about the characters and I wanted to read a novel not non-fiction. I needn't have worried. Georgia Beers uses the backdrop of 9/11 as a setting for two very different characters to look beyond their own perspective. It is never a tool to paint the world in black and white and good and evil - something I unfortunately have come across while reading stories set around the attacks. One of her main characters describes this best when she sits in a bus in New York a few weeks after 9/11 and is devastated by the hateful looks some passengers throw at everyone that looks like someone from the Middle East.

The secondary characters are equally well developed, with their own backgrounds and perspectives. Something I came to expect from Georgia Beers' books. Her characters are always well developed and seem very real - no superheroes, no perfectness. Everyone could be someone you might actually meet in the grocery store or on the street. The whole story has a very slow pace since most of it takes place within a week. As a reader that gave me the chance to experience this claustrophobic atmosphere along with the characters, the waiting around, not knowing what to expect.

I recommend this book to everyone who is interested in reading about three-dimensional characters in a very difficult situation and a slowly developing romance. If you are looking for an action-driven plot in the midst of 9/11 this is not the book for you.

Heart Block

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Emory Owen, owner of a multi-million dollar news agency, isn't all too thrilled that she has to take care of selling and cleaning out her late mother's mansion. Never having been close to any of her family and especially not her mother, she's not willing to invest too much of her time into her childhood home. When a friend recommends a cleaning service to take care of the house, she accepts right away.

Sarah Matamoros is a young woman, working for her mother's cleaning house business. She tries to balance her life around the job, taking care of her eight-year-old daughter Grace and finding enough time for her large Mexican family.

When she meets the owner of her newest project, Emory Owen, she's at first taken aback by the aloof, all-business like behaviour of a daughter that has just lost her mother. As time passes, the two so very different women get to know and love each other. But is that enough to overcome the obstacles of two very different worlds?

Having read Melissa Brayden's "Waiting in the Wings", which I really liked, I was curious whether she'd be a one-hit-wonder or if her second book would be equally as interesting. And it is. Her characters are well developed and especially the little girl was most definitely not a plot device - which in the books I've read is unfortunately quite often the case with children. I especially liked the way Emory developed new insights throughout the book. There were a few problems I didn't really get since simple communication could have solved them pretty easily but it didn't take away from my reading enjoyment. The book features interesting secondary characters in real worlds as well, with jobs, friendships, responsibilities and families.

All in all I'd like to recommend this book to anyone that's interested to read a story that's - much like the author's other book "Waiting in the Wings" - not your formulistic lesbian romance.

Second Nature (eBook, ePUB)

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Jorie Price is a writer of fantasy books, working on her newest project - a book about shape shifters.

Griffin Westmore is a real life shape shifter, assigned to stop Jorie from publishing her novel since it comes very close to the reality of their world and might endanger her species. When she realises that there is more to her assignment than trying to stop Jorie from finishing her book, she starts an investigation into her own ministry - a decision that puts her, as well as Jorie's life into mortal danger. But there is only one way to save them and that involves trusting a human with her greatest secret and at the same time trusting her own estranged family to support her decision.

Second Nature is not your typical lesbian romance novel. Having read several of Jae's previous books, I was curious if she'd be able to draw me into her fantasy world as well with her writing skills. She did. Developing not only interesting and three-dimensional protagonists and secondary characters, she also created a very complex and thought-out setting - a world where shape shifters exist in a parallel world to "regular" humans. She manages to make their worries to be found out believable and their struggles with their identity very convincing. After all, those are circumstances, a lot of minorities that have to hide in an unfriendly society have to face. So I wouldn't consider that a fantasy aspect.

But even though this part was not fantasy for me, the rest of the book most certainly is. The characters are not humans with an additional skill - like an additional sense or special powers like Spiderman or Harry Potter, who are first and foremost humans, no, they aren't human - at all! They are as much animal, if not more so, as they are human. So if you are not into the fantasy genre, this book is not for you. One of the protagonist's for example is a cat shifter. Which means, even in her human form she walks like a cat and only tries to disguise it and she sees colours like a cat does and not like a human.

If you are new to this genre - like I was - and you are willing to open your mind to this world then you'll find a novel full of suspense and action, of romance and fleshed-out cast of characters and a storyline that had me reading until late at night. And if you are already a fantasy fan then you'll love this book.

L.A. Metro (eBook, ePUB)

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Dr. Kimberly Donovan is a thirty-something psychatrist – and she's ready to start over as far away from her ex-lover as possible. After being involved in a debate about her ethics, her lover, the ER Chief of Memorial Hospital where Kim worked at, leaves her and even denies their relationship. She ends up in L.A. Metropolitan Hospital, more than ready to move on, professionally as well as personally.

On her first day at work she learns, that her new job entails being the ER psych consult – a job no one in her department seems to want. Chief of the ER is Dr. Jess McKenna. She is known throughout the hospital as
controlled, cold and unreachable. Not the best start for Kim on the new job it seems but when she meets Jess, she's attracted to her right from the start. Wary because of her instant attration and quite sure that she's not
interested in yet another affair with an ER Chief, she focuses on finding her place in her new department and getting on good working grounds with Dr. McKenna.

Jess feels equally attracted to the new doctor in the psych department, however, she's been burned with an inter-office relationship as well and has been the focus of gossip ever since.

Both women decide to keep their professional distance and focus on work instead. Along the way they become close friends who admire each other for being really good medical professionals – and both can't help slowly falling in love with the other.

L.A. Metro is a really entertaining read that I'd like to recommend to anyone who's interested in reading about grown-up women with pasts and a professional life that's important to them. I really cared about both characters
and liked their way of interaction. These women know what they want and have been burned for it in the past. Despite that, they are still willing to take risks – both professionally and in their private lives.

My only complaint is, that I'd have loved to learn more about the plots of the secondary characters and the hospital in general, e.g. in the beginning, when Kim starts out on the job there's a lot of conflict between the different departments and later on we get to know a young resident that struggles with managing her family and her career. She talks to both protagonists – Jess as her boss and Kim because she's a willing listener. Unfortunately, we don't get to know her better and just assume that she managed somehow. And then there's Jess' sister ... But that complaint is not something that couldn't be corrected in a sequel.

Other than this minor thing I really enjoyed the book and will certainly read it again.

And Playing the Role of Herself

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I loved this book. After reading it online I bought it so I could reread it whenever I wanted. One of the best lesbian novels out there in my opinion.

Turn Back Time

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I rather enjoyed this book. It is well written in typical Radclyffe style and holds enough suspense to have you not put the book down until you finished reading it. I found the characters realistic-in a romance novel kind of way of course-and their troubles and worries believable. If you are looking for the perfect read on a rainy Sunday afternoon, this is the book for you.

Bloomington

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Ich hatte mir eigentlich nach der Beschreibung sehr viel versprochen, doch leider wurde ich enttäuscht. Der Beginn wirkt überstürzt und unrealistisch. Bevor man auch nur die Möglichkeit hat, die Charaktere kennenzulernen, sind sie auch schon zusammen - plötzlich noch stehen sie herum und dann geht's auch schon ab nach Hause zur Professorin. Während des eigentlichen Hauptteils des Films wartete ich, was denn nun der Fokus der Handlung sein würde, wo der Konflikt läge, einfach, worum es eigentlich geht in diesem Film. Ich wartete vergebens. Möglichkeiten hätte es genug gegeben, denn jede der beiden Protagonistinnen hatte viele "offene Baustellen", die alle im Übrigen interessant gewesen wären, hätte man sie nicht einfach ignoriert, nachdem sie angesprochen worden waren. Stattdessen plätscherte der Film einfach vor sich hin und als sich die erste Möglichkeit für die College Studentin bietet, das College zu verlassen und damit auch die Professorin, ergreift sie diese dankbar und ist weg - im Widerspruch zu allem, was vorher den Charakter ausgemacht hat. Und das war's! Noch ein sensuchtsvoller Blick von beiden und der Film ist zu Ende. Ach nein, nicht ganz! Beide müssen vorher noch einmal schnell Affären mit männlichen Kommolitionen/Kollegen anfangen, warum auch immer, denn zumindest die Professorin wurde zu Beginn des Films als eine Frau vorgestellt, die nur an anderen Frauen interessiert ist. Die Studenen witzelten sogar darüber, dass sie ja an Männern nicht interessiert sei. Damit wäre dann dieses Klischee auch noch bedient. Also für mich war dieser Film ein voller Flop.

Starting from Scratch

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Georgia Beers writes wonderful, down to earth characters that could be everyone's neighbour. And so it came as no surprise for me that I cared for Avery and Elena right from the beginning.

Avery is a graphic-designer who loves to bake, has good friends she visits regularly and is very close to her grandmother who raised her. She has a crush on Elena who's a manager at a local bank. Elena has a little boy, Max, with her former girlfriend and moves into a house down the street.

I really liked that Georgia Beer's portrayed all characters realistically. None of them is a model or the president of a huge company or super rich. They are just like everyone else, they have strengths and weaknesses and not even the secondary characters are divided into good guys and bad guys.

I didn't care for the ending all too much since it seemed a bit detached. Things that seemed a constant factor in Avery's life are all of a sudden not important anymore and friends that had been there for years, have disappeared completely. Apart from this, I can recommend this book to everyone who is looking for a nice read with realistic protagonists and a believable story.