Not-So-Straight Sue by Cheyenne Blue

Not-So-Straight Sue
by Cheyenne Blue
Pages: 278
Date: October 19 2016
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Series: Girl Meets Girl (2nd in Series)

Review
Rating: 3.0
Read: October 5 to 6 2016

*I received this book from NetGalley and Ylva Publishing in return for a fair review.*

Sue Brent is a lawyer living in London. She's happy and excited, for she's just about to be promoted to Senior Associate (years before she thought she would be). She has some great friends, great job, and good solid life.

Two of her best friends are Nora and Ger, and since both are lesbians, Sue spends a good bit of time in lesbian bars. Where she gets hit upon, but her response is always 'Sorry-I'm-Straight'. A response she's been giving out for a long time now, since back in college days.

Sue isn't just someone who says that they are straight; she also goes on a lot of dates. And aggressively fucks men. So, obviously . . ..

Thoughts of dusty home in Australia keep popping up in Sue's mind, though, even while she's living the good life and enjoying her near promotion. Thoughts that cause her to, on something like a spur of the moment, quit her job and return home.

Sue's from a small conservative town in the Australian outback - quite a difference between it and London. But she feels this strong pull and so heads back (after setting things up in London to unwind her life there, and setting things up in Australia to start, or restart, a life there).

There's a twist, or secret, though, one that can be picked up by glancing at the title of the book. Though I assumed something that turned out to be wrong, but whatever (I was assuming 'bisexual', especially with all the sex with men. I was wrong.). A secret that turns out to be known, or guessed at by at least two of the people Sue meets in London, though not known by most. A secret that was almost a secret to herself. Though it was buried deep down in her. For you see - Sue isn't exactly as 'straight' as she always proclaims when hit on by lesbians.

One of Sue's former boyfriends, one who remained a friend after the break-up, mentions something to Sue before she heads back to Australia - something about freeing herself - and living her life (or maybe he just said something like 'I knew we weren't going to make a go of it, since I was the wrong gender for what you need for happiness'). Sue's thoughts swirl around this idea as she heads back to conservative small thinly populated outback steakhouse. I mean the Australian outback.

Into this mix are two people who have no points of view of their own (since Sue's the only one with a POV) - Felix the horse owner lesbian, and Moni the doctor from Dallas (and one of the only two who seemed to see the lesbian hidden in Sue while Sue was in London).

Felix is an older woman, lean and tough, and her story will be told in the third book in this series. Just like Nora and Ger’s story, the London friends, were told in the first book in this series.

Moni’s, of course, gets told in this book here, though, as noted, she doesn’t get to have a POV, so everything’s from Sue’s point of view.

I was gliding along, loosely connected to this story. There were some interesting aspects, wandering the Australian countryside in a camper, etc. Though I didn’t really have much of a ‘feel’ for London when the book was briefly there in the beginning.

This book is a combination of wordy and thin. Lots of time passing, but in a 'months passed' kind of way. The main character is kind of flighty - dropping everything on a whim to return to her homeland of Australia. Leaping upon the first lesbian she runs across when she decides she's willing to be a lesbian now; then barely communicating with that woman again afterwards despite their close-ish living situations.

Apparently forming a long term love-lust relationship with someone just because they are one of only two people who recognized, while she was still living in London, that she was actually a lesbian despite her claims to be 'sorry-I'm-straight'. Sadly that is how the relationship seemed to read to me - they recognized that Sue was a lesbian so Sue was interested in them; especially when she happened to end up in Australia 'near-ish'.

Then, because she’s something like a passive push-over moron, she takes in an ex-girlfriend - and does not tell her current girlfriend about the situation - about the fact that her ex is living with her. Because she'd sound defensive (WTF?), so instead she just looks like she's cheating on her current girlfriend - yes much better.

The entire situation with Denise, that ex-girlfriend, was in many ways very annoying, frustrating, and not the least needed in this book. At least the part wherein Denise turned up at Sue’s place. But that’s life. Books like this need conflict and a certain amount of padding, so let’s stuff in an ex-girlfriend.

Maybe it’s the nature of a first person point of view, but I never really got much of a feeling for this person named ‘Moni’. She’s blond, has big hair, and is a doctor. And that’s about it. There’s enough there to tell that she has a personality and isn’t just there, isn’t just a dead fish, but it’s hard to see more with the information given.

If I was to pick out a favorite scene in the book, I’d probably have to go with the one wherein Moni and Sue are stuck by the side of the road because Moni’s car has broken down. It’s been a while now with them waiting. Sue mentions that stripping down would likely bring someone along – she knows because her camper’s shower is an outdoor shower. So Moni begins stripping in the middle of the road while Sue sings. That was quite an interesting thing to visualize.

My least favorite scene might be obvious considering, though I’ve played with this review so much I’m not sure I’ve included it . . . no, I see it now when I blink and my eyes slide up the screen. Right, so my least favorite scene would be when Denise has dropped by because she wants some help leaving her husband. And Sue offers to let her stay the night – on the spare bed. And decides that it’d be ‘stupid’ for her to tell her girlfriend that her ex-girlfriend is staying over. Because, reasons. Yes, this is my least favorite scene in the book – not when the expected happened and the new girlfriend, Moni, caught Denise and Sue in a compromising position, though that wasn’t exactly a great thing to read; nor was it when Sue was thinking about what happened and has thoughts like ‘wasn’t blameless’ – worded in a way that sounds like she is grudgingly accepting some of the blame, when the blame is entirely hers – again, not my least favorite scene, though maybe my second least favorite scene.

Sex? Well yes, there is graphic sex in this book. Possible I overlooked something here or there, but there were several scenes involving three people (heh, no not threesomes, two people in each scene, just involved three people total – 2 by 2; okay, Sue fucked Felix and then later fucked Moni, see three people). Author did a bit of teasing though, at least with Moni and Sue, with them almost doing it a few times before they finally did for the first time. In terms of eroticism, the stripping scene would still be my favorite in the book.

I do not really know what to rate this book. I had to pause around the 70% mark, and then decided to not continue by the 72% mark, but then, because hey that’s what I do, I finished the book. It actually did get interesting and good there near the end, but then the book went and ended abruptly. So. Rating. I’m going to slap a 3 on it for now and might raise or lower it as my thoughts congeal (yes, my thoughts are liquid, and I wish for them to freeze together into a solid).

October 6 2016