Book reviews

 

Starting From Scratch

Georgia Beers   $27.95

Brisk Press

A most enjoyable story about a girl and a special dog.  Avery King is a single 34-year-old lesbian whose heart belongs to her rescued dog Steve.

She lives a quiet life, works as a designer, and spends precious time with her grandma, who is her best mate.  She loves friends, cooking, reading, enjoys a glass of wine, and hiking with Steve.  She doesn’t love in depth-discussions with her ex, babysitting, on-line dating, and her worst nightmare is falling in love with someone’s mother. But guess what is ahead?  Yep, you got it, her life is about to take a turn in the very direction she does not want to go.  Great writing from an award-winning author.

 

Heart Of An Amazon

Francesca King   $TBC

Erotic stories but just for a pleasant change these are from across the pond. A New Zealand writer presents a tribute to lesbian love, romance, and sex in some delicate stories and poems, each one beautifully illustrated with gorgeous black and white photographs.  Not available locally but easy to get by contacting www.heartofanamazon.net

 

I Left My Heart

Jaye Maiman   $25.95

Bella Books

Robin Miller is a travel writer and romance novelist who has never got over the death of her ex Mary. Was it suicide, an accident or murder? Although she is definitely not a detective Robin is determined to solve the mystery, and soon stumbles into a web of murky secrets.  As she follows the clues, and her own painful memories, to Mary’s house down the coast, Robin is distracted by the lovely Cathy.  But Cathy also has a secret. A well written mystery, and first in the Robin Miller Series, back in print after a long absence.

 

Gertrude & Alice

Diana Souhami   $42.00

IB Tauris Publisher

This is the fabulous biography of writer Gertrude Stein and her lover Alice B Toklas, and their amazing life together. They met in September 1907 in Paris and were together and devoted to each other until Gertrude’s death in 1946.  They became a legendary couple, known for their salons in Paris, feted by artists, writers and musicians of the day. Alice was convinced that Gertrude was a genius, and fought to obtain the fame she thought her lover deserved.  She cooked and typed for her, in short was the perfect wife. In return Gertrude said Alice was the happiest person she had ever known. Together they were charismatic and indomitable, and all this bursts out of the pages of this lovely book.  Entertaining and truly funny.

**Reviews supplied by Rebecca Kagan