Cheyenne Blue

I was given this ARC by the publisher in exchange for an Honest Review.

Nina owns a farm where she teaches city kids (and kids in general) all about farm life (oh, and the farm is just outside Sydney, Australia I believe). They go and learn how to plant, how to ride ponies, etc. The pony riding is where the problems start. One of the kids, Billy, falls off the pony. And then Stella, his Mom, brings an accident claim against the farm. That's when Nina meets Leight, who Nina thinks is the best lawyer for her in Sydney.

There was a ton of back and forth between them from the very beginning, and I have to say that while I didn't love the Leigh character at the beginning, Cheyenne let her character grow in such a way, and gained more and more layers, and so I did start liking her more by the end of the book.

I also really liked the character of Phoebe, Nina's daughter, even in her brat scenes.

It was a mostly regular sort of lesbian fiction plot-wise, but, the depth and breadth of the characters as well as the compassion that I could feel through the story made it quite an enjoyable read.… (más)

I was given this ARC by the publisher in exchange for an Honest Review.

I've been playing tennis since I was about three, and so I was excited to read this. Unfortunately I didn't like some of it.

It's about Viva and Gabriella. Viva is a professional tennis player and champion with a bit of a bum wrist. Gabriela is a Silver Badge Umpire on the tour (I didn't know that they travelled with the tour too, or alongside the tour). They meet when Gabriela's car goes on the fritz and Viva rescues her even though Viva believes Gabriela ruined her chances at a second US Open title.

Since it's a romance they slowly fall for each other but there is the big problem of their two careers being in the way, and whose career is more important.

I'll start with my main problem with the narrative. There was too much tension to begin with, and so the novel had nowhere to go but to very uncomfortable levels of tension (and I didn't personally think it was delightfully uncomfortable places).

I will say that I liked the tennis parts. They made total sense and sucked me into the book in those scenes in a way that the romance mostly did not.… (más)

I was given this ARC by the publisher in exchange for an Honest Review.

I think that I read this book wrong (I know, I know, I'm a Librarian, and so often tell people that there is no 'wrong' way to reading something', but that's mostly a load of crap in reality. There's always a point of view that the author would probably prefer you see the book through). So, as I said, I think that I may have read it from an entirely different point of view than I was supposed to.

Basically, for a good portion of the book, I thought that Lily was a total ass. Not in an evil/bad person sort of way, more in the way that she was being what the world expects to happen when confronted with a humongous change, etc., and just didn't seem to be able to leave Freya alone (I know, I know, it would have been a boring book if that had happened). I guess that those parts of the book just hit me personally wrong, but, thankfully the character of Lily didn't stay static, and had growth in the book. And I wound up liking her character a little more by the end.

Oh, right, the story. Lily moves into the store and loft next door to Freya with a women's' pleasure shop, and Freya and Lily clash constantly because they seem different (even though they have things in common). And, of course, they do slowly get to know each other and get closer, although it's in even more fits and starts than the usual romance book.

There was also an interesting subplot with Freya's friend Carly that kept me interesting.

As I said, by the end of the book I wound up really enjoying it, I guess that my entry into the book was just a little bit rocky.… (más)