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cyphomandraElyse Springer, Thaw and Heat Wave.
Books 2&3 of the Seasons of Love quartet (yes, that is a Rent reference) featuring queer romances between a loose group of friends in New York. In Thaw Abby is a biromantic asexual librarian whose library branch is threatened by government cuts; she makes an unexpected connection at a charity fundraiser with Gabrielle Levesque, a hot new supermodel nicknamed the Ice Queen who is known for her personal ruthlessness, and the two of them then have to navigate their own emotions as well as the threats of Gabrielle’s manager (and ex-lover) and Abby’s disclosure of her asexuality. It’s quite sweet and I do actually buy that Gabrielle’s previous transactional approach to sex makes her a good partner for Abby, but I would have liked a bit more about them working through their respective issues together and somewhat fewer miscommunications. Also, given that Gabrielle and Abby are bonding over sf/f books, I would have liked more titles and fewer vague references to second books in trilogies.
In Heat Wave Sara feels stuck in her work and her personal life when Laura, the woman her boyfriend left her for (who he’s also now dumped) phones her up and suggests a drink. Laura is cheerfully bisexual and that drink rapidly becomes a friends with benefit situation - but Sara, who’s previously thought of herself as straight, is also becoming aware that she wants more than that. Again, some of the inability to talk to each other got annoying, and there’s a scene where Laura walks in on Sara getting a sports massage and misconstrues the situation that was more than a little clichéd. The sex scenes are hot, though (as the title promises!) and it’s nice to see two bisexual women in a romance.
Both books are single point-of-view, which means that Gabrielle and Laura lose out on characterisation and understanding. Both also - as do books 1&4 - feature big dramatic (semi) public gestures in order to win back the loved one, which tend to give me second-hand embarrassment cringe, although at least with Abby (Gabrielle saves the library) it largely happens off the page. Sara designs a business plan for Laura to get her to stay in New York, which really felt like something she should have talked to Laura about along the way.
Neither have the genre whiplash I got from the first book, Whiteout, which given my lengthy pending booklog I am going to briefly mention here, even though it (and the fourth book, Changing Colors) are m/m. In Whiteout Noah wakes up in a snowbound cabin after a head injury with amnesia, Jason (his terribly solicitous if prone to sudden fits of anger boyfriend), and memories that don’t quite make sense, as well as a hidden cellphone with texts that call him Nathan, not Noah. While Noah/Nathan is grappling with his returning memory and trying to work out just how he got injured and who he can trust, Jason’s character switches between loving, brooding, and totally obsessed with Christmas sentimentality. The set up and the reveal are Hitchcockian, but the characters themselves seem tugged between that and a more conventional romance.In the second half of the book we get struggling actor (Nathan) tries to make it on Broadway (well, off-Broadway) while winning back Jason by making a scrapbook, which was not what I expected at all and frankly I was a) unsure anyone would forgive these actions and b) more than a little worried about everyone’s mental stability.
Books 2&3 of the Seasons of Love quartet (yes, that is a Rent reference) featuring queer romances between a loose group of friends in New York. In Thaw Abby is a biromantic asexual librarian whose library branch is threatened by government cuts; she makes an unexpected connection at a charity fundraiser with Gabrielle Levesque, a hot new supermodel nicknamed the Ice Queen who is known for her personal ruthlessness, and the two of them then have to navigate their own emotions as well as the threats of Gabrielle’s manager (and ex-lover) and Abby’s disclosure of her asexuality. It’s quite sweet and I do actually buy that Gabrielle’s previous transactional approach to sex makes her a good partner for Abby, but I would have liked a bit more about them working through their respective issues together and somewhat fewer miscommunications. Also, given that Gabrielle and Abby are bonding over sf/f books, I would have liked more titles and fewer vague references to second books in trilogies.
In Heat Wave Sara feels stuck in her work and her personal life when Laura, the woman her boyfriend left her for (who he’s also now dumped) phones her up and suggests a drink. Laura is cheerfully bisexual and that drink rapidly becomes a friends with benefit situation - but Sara, who’s previously thought of herself as straight, is also becoming aware that she wants more than that. Again, some of the inability to talk to each other got annoying, and there’s a scene where Laura walks in on Sara getting a sports massage and misconstrues the situation that was more than a little clichéd. The sex scenes are hot, though (as the title promises!) and it’s nice to see two bisexual women in a romance.
Both books are single point-of-view, which means that Gabrielle and Laura lose out on characterisation and understanding. Both also - as do books 1&4 - feature big dramatic (semi) public gestures in order to win back the loved one, which tend to give me second-hand embarrassment cringe, although at least with Abby (Gabrielle saves the library) it largely happens off the page. Sara designs a business plan for Laura to get her to stay in New York, which really felt like something she should have talked to Laura about along the way.
Neither have the genre whiplash I got from the first book, Whiteout, which given my lengthy pending booklog I am going to briefly mention here, even though it (and the fourth book, Changing Colors) are m/m. In Whiteout Noah wakes up in a snowbound cabin after a head injury with amnesia, Jason (his terribly solicitous if prone to sudden fits of anger boyfriend), and memories that don’t quite make sense, as well as a hidden cellphone with texts that call him Nathan, not Noah. While Noah/Nathan is grappling with his returning memory and trying to work out just how he got injured and who he can trust, Jason’s character switches between loving, brooding, and totally obsessed with Christmas sentimentality. The set up and the reveal are Hitchcockian, but the characters themselves seem tugged between that and a more conventional romance.In the second half of the book we get struggling actor (Nathan) tries to make it on Broadway (well, off-Broadway) while winning back Jason by making a scrapbook, which was not what I expected at all and frankly I was a) unsure anyone would forgive these actions and b) more than a little worried about everyone’s mental stability.
