Something in the Wine plus bonus short story by Jae

Something in the Wine by Jae

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


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

Part One: The Novel:
This book is about a young woman who has just turned 30 (I recall clearly that a birthday occurred in this book, but am less certain if she became 30 on that day or is ’30-something’ – the problems of waiting to write a review) named Annie Priedeaux who works as an accountant. She hasn’t had much luck with life – what with parents who seem to ignore her even when she is standing in front of them, a brother who has bullied her throughout her life (though the brother calls the bullying ‘harmless pranks’), a boss who takes advantage of her (no, not sexually – but in knowing that Annie cannot say no, so dumps lots of work on her, calls her at all hours, and wants her to come in on the weekends), and quite unlucky at love (she has no self-esteem, always thinks negatively of herself, and assumes everyone finds or will find her boring).

Well, the book opens with the brother playing yet another prank on his sister. She is working late at the office when the brother rings her – needs her immediately, emergency situation. She rushes over and finds that he tricked her – he just wanted her to attend his party. Being the kind of woman she is – she doesn’t immediately leave, but instead starts . . . cleaning. Which lead to the other main character in the book – Drew.

Drew, you see, happened to spot Annie about to spill some drinks she had picked up and rushed over to help. Only to have one of the drinks spill on her. And so the two meet – though no names are exchanged.

There’s a reason I mention their first meeting, because it plays directly into the main story-line of the book. The brother, Jake, catches Annie attempting to escape, and being the massive massive jerk that he is, he won’t let her go unless she promises to go out on one date with one of his friends. Annie reluctantly agrees – so she can leave.

Meanwhile Drew, well before this not meanwhile, Drew had mentioned to Jake that there was someone at the party who was quite interesting. For a laugh, Jake sets the two up on a date. Though he doesn’t tell either some important information – Drew, which I haven’t myself mentioned yet, is female; the person he sets Drew up he calls ‘Caroline’ – and implies that she is ‘in the family’ – therefore avoiding noting that Caroline is Annie and straight. (Just like there’s a way that ‘in the family’ is more of a misdirect than a lie, the Caroline name is also a misdirect, not an outright lie).

And so Drew and Annie meet at a fancy restaurant. Annie is expecting some man named Drew who will find her boring and want to immediately leave (or Annie won’t like Drew, I mean, Drew is a friend of her asshole brother Jake and his friends are not, on average, the most mature people in life). Drew is expecting Caroline, and that Caroline is – at the very least – interested in Drew and therefore either bisexual, a lesbian or . . . well, something that would work out to ‘Caroline’ being romantically interested in Drew.

Which leads, finally, to the central concept of the book – the two decide to ‘turn the tables’ on Jake and play a joke on him. Neither has been able to ‘best’ him before, and this seems to be the perfect opportunity (Jake is an immature lout who pulls pranks on everyone – including Drew who entered Jakes life in College).

As mentioned or implied – the brother, Jake, is a negative character, and the parents are likewise full of themselves and unaware of those around them. Annie is quite down on herself, but ‘getting past that’ is an interesting enough human being. Drew is a solid character, though somewhat – seemingly – less so than Annie. And I had the thought along the way that two of Drew’s friends might be interesting to get to know – since both are not the standard cookie-cutter ‘types’ normally found in lesbian fiction – referring here to Drew’s married friends Sam and Becky, and not at all to her ex-girlfriend Lynn.

The story line was solid – though one I attempt to avoid. Or, to be more accurate, I’ll read it but it isn’t one I’ll seek out. That being - straight woman who hadn’t realized that there were more options than men, and the lesbian who lusts after them (the straight woman, not the men). There was an interesting enough twist on the idea here – as to why both would continue being near each other and develop something of a friendship – when both probably would have never gotten to that stage without that ‘reverse prank’ issue.

I’ve read enough Jae books now to know that that is something Jae likes to write about – two people circling each other with might otherwise not gone beyond an initial contact – like the ligress (a mix of a lion and tiger . . if I recall correctly, she might not be a ligress) and the human writer in that fantasy series (meet only because the shape-shifter was doing their job and investigating the writer who seemed to know too much), or the doctor and the waitress in Heart Trouble (one being a work-a-holic; other quite straight; neither likely to bump into each other except for the part where one works in a hospital and other needed a brief stay there (and even then, the relationship probably wouldn’t have advanced much beyond quickly entering and exiting each other lives but for another bit of fantasy); or Luke and Nora who only set out together because one wanted to protect the other (and needed a ‘beard’), and the other needed protection; or the women from the Shaken series who wouldn’t have meet (likely) but for being in the same place when an earthquake hit (and therefore an ‘outside force’ pushed them to spend time together); or etc. etc. And it is an interesting thing to read – and . . . I do not recall why I went down this path other than to note that I’d noticed this about Jae’s books.

I initially rated the novel portion of this book a rating of 4.66 when I had completed it on the third. After a few days, I believe I’d revise my rating to something closer to 4.55. Which will probably be revised again once I read the short story.

This book is listed as being a ‘revised second edition’. I do not know what that means, exactly, though I do know that certain people had mentioned certain issues they had with a prior version of the book. I do not know if the issues were ‘fixed’, since I hadn’t read that prior version, or if I just didn’t have the same reaction to certain plot points (like there was a mention of ‘something problematic’ about the book ending – and I didn’t notice anything like that, so that was either ‘fixed’ or . . . I just didn’t notice the issue).

Rating: 4.55

Part Two: The Bonus Short Story:

1 - As sometimes happens - the 'sex' part got pushed into a bonus short story; a somewhat common theme to Jae's work (though the 'pushing to short story' doesn't always occur, and not every short story by Jae includes graphic sex).
2 - Jae stayed true to her characters -both nervous (Drew about freaking out Annie by being too forward; Annie about getting things perfect and how to actually get her girlfriend to stop holding back and to fuck her already).

And yes, that's basically the story - hence the title. Which I've forgotten now. And have to go look up. 'Seduction for Beginners'. It's been 12 weeks - Drew knows that Annie is negative about herself, and quite nervous so she has been super slow. Annie, though while still nervous, really wants to 'be with' Drew. Through she wants it to be perfect. So she's attempted to set up the perfect Valentine's date.

Going back to that 'true to characters' note - while Jae did stay true to her characters, it was frustrating as hell. I felt Annie's frustration myself with how Drew kept 1) holding back; 2) which, inadvertently (or on purpose?) means that Annie is forced to actually make the first move, despite that not being in her base of abilities. Also frustrating was how often Drew kept stopping and saying something along the lines of 'you'll let me know if you are uncomfortable, right?' Maybe Annie loves that. Me? Would frustrate the hell out of me.

There are hints, of course, that Annie didn't actually like Drew keep saying things like that. What with how that started to backfire and Annie actually, instead of feeling comforted and cared for, instead began to feel unwanted and undesired by Drew. Fine line, that. How to keep from being a brute while keeping from making the other feel like you'd rather just be doing anything else - like watching golf on television.

It'd be difficult, I suppose, but since the short story was included anyway, and as the novel part itself was 'revised', it'd have been better if the short story part was incorporated more into the novel. Stitching the two together. Frankly, having them separate like they are (there's an obvious break of 'novel over', here's some non-book stuff to look at; here's a short story) means that I actually took a break myself. I probably would have enjoyed the short story more if it hadn't felt like an optional tacked on thing that I probably would have just skipped if I hadn't gotten this book through Ylva's reviewers program (I mean, I already did own the short story separately - since I had gotten it for free for some reason at some point (it might still be free for all I know)). Incorporated more with the novel portion, I'd have read it immediately and . . . I don't know what.

My own fault, of course, I mean I had access to the short story, I could have immediately gulped it instead of waiting 6 days to read it. By itself.

Short Story Rating: ... no idea how to rate this. *closes eyes and randomly points finger at number section on keyboard. I have randomly decided to rate this short story: Num Lock* . . . 3.55

Part Three: Overall
Novel Rating: 4.55
Short Story Rating: 3.55
Overall Rating: 4.05

December 7 & 8 2016



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