It was neat to read a lesbian fiction both by an author from somewhere and set in a place I hadn't read before (at least not lesbian fiction). Though, granted, I did not immediately catch on to where exactly I was on earth. And it was only in the author afterword that I realized I was in New Zealand. Though I had fairly quickly realized I was in that area of the world. I just thought I was in Australia. Before I realized one of the main characters moved from Sydney back to her home town, I was wondering why the other main character was talking so funny.

Right, so. I hadn't read this author before, though I had two other of her works on my maybe pile. Neither of those two being straight forward contemporary lesbian fiction, like this book here.

This book here stars broken 25 year old painter and an abused 17 year old school student. The painter is quite depressing and drinks a lot. The 17 year old, despite her circumstances, is a lot more upbeat than you would expect. Being mostly friendless, constantly bullied by other members of her school, and constantly abused by her brother (mental and physical, but not sexually).

Oddly, considering our massive age differences and places in life, I rather liked the 17 year old Fliss. And, strangely, Teresa's personality . . . well, no not necessarily personality. Just something about her that reminded me greatly of someone I know. Which, in itself is strange and rarely if ever happens.

This had something in it that is the reason why I've yet to actually read one of the other books I've got on my maybe pile. That other book starts off with a woman and man in a sexual episode. This one doesn't have that, but it does have multiple sexual scenes that I frankly wanted no part of. As in, both in that other book, and in this one, those scenes were not between the main characters. They were sex making and not love making, and I just do not/did not want to read that. So, that's one negative with the book. To a certain extent, that's the main one.

ETA: I don't normally comment on covers, but I will this time. I like the cover on the edition I read. All other editions, though, have a different cover. Which looks, to me, like it might be a cover on a vampire book, maybe lesbian vampire, but still vampire. There are no vampires in this book. One woman is leaning over another like she is about to bite into her. And the cover appears to be written in blood. ( )