Rumors by BadSquirrel

Rumors by BadSquirrel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I feel somewhat bad saying this since I think I might be the opposite of most people who have read the same books by this author that I have, but I think this was my least favorite of them. This is my fourth book by this author. Two of the books got 5 star ratings, 2 got 4 and a quarter (or something near there).

First up on my list of things to mention, something not too hard to state or take: this author likes public nudity. Heh. I only really noticed with the prior book I read, ‘One Good Memory’, but yeah. ‘One Good Memory’ has the two main characters wander around outside for four days naked; ‘Warriors of the Heart’ stars a stripper who gives a revealing lap dance (well, she’s an undercover cop working as a stripper); I’m not actually sure if there is any public nudity in ‘Shine’; but there is again in ‘Rumors’, albeit brief (a visit to a ‘nice spot’ includes a river and some skinny dipping (though one is reluctant, more because they can’t swim than because of the nudity aspect, though they are somewhat nervous about that as well)). So – author likes nudity and I have no problem with that.

So this specific book here stars Hannah, the femme (that part is important) and Kelly the butch (again, super important point). With some very important less major players, like Cricket the dog, Jill the ‘everything I wanted but . . . something is off’ woman; Brenda the ‘no I didn’t really kill her and bury her in the backyard’ ex-girlfriend; and Freddie and Jay – gay men couple who are friends of Hannahs. Kelly is an auto mechanic and Hannah is a dog groomer.

Butch femme? Really, it matters? Yes. There’s this quite odd vibe that runs throughout this book. One that I do not exactly understand nor expected to see. This is something like the . . . wait, no, seriously? 534? That can’t be right. One moment. Huh. Well, this apparently is my 534th lesbian fiction book I’ve read. And this is probably the only time I’ve seen this specific topic pop up. Something similar? Probably, just not blatant enough for me to notice, I assume. That topic? Butchness (or more clearly - the 'eww, butch' aspect/topic).

Hannah has certain ideas of what and who she is attracted to. This is how she ended up dating Jill, despite feeling no spark with her when first meet (because she mostly ‘checks off’ all the right boxes). Femme, successful, sophisticated looking . . . um . . . other stuff as well. Before she ever goes on a date with Jill, though, Kelly asked Hannah out. And Hannah flatly refused. Because she’s seeing someone (technically she has a date later in the week, but she isn’t actually seeing anyone yet). On one hand that’s good – not putting yourself into risk of potentially putting yourself in a bad situation (if, say, you end up finding a spark with both, go on a date with Jill, find no spark, then go on a date with Kelly if both still interested); except I have the strong impression that Hannah said what she said because of one very specific aspect (an aspect that pops up a lot in this book) – Kelly is butch.

I do not think the words ‘eww, butch’ actually occur in the book, but that’s the very strong vibe that comes up. Hannah doesn’t want anything to do with Kelly, and kind of looks down on her and/or is afraid of her a little because of it. And others bring it up as a sign that Kelly is unworthy (she’s, you know, butch; Jill, for one, brings that up - that Kelly is butch (I think it was Jill who 'went there')). 534 books. I’ve seen more books where a very butch woman says ‘no, I’m straight’, than I’ve seen this aspect here. The ‘eww, butch’ aspect.

Well, against her inner trauma at having to allow herself to date a butch woman (okay, now I’m going too far, Hannah’s reluctant re: butch, but she’s not evil about it . . . I think; though it did take seeing Kelly in a dress for Hannah’s reluctance to begin to fold (Hannah was at a birthday party with her date, Jill; a performance by drag queens occurs – one of the normal participants was not around, so Kelly had to step into the dress to perform in his place); then there’s the aspect of Hannah thinking to herself about how womanly Kelly looks out of clothing, how . . . ‘less-than-butch’).

There’s an interesting story here. And while I was initially annoyed that I’d stumbled upon yet another book, seemingly, wherein the main character would date someone else before ‘finally’ dating their ‘match’, it actually worked better here. The book has both a bad and good ex; and another thing I’ve only very rarely seen in lesbian fiction – a functioning gay couple operating in the same book as a functioning lesbian couple (other than Kris Ripper’s series, the only other time I specifically recall this happening . . . wait no, there is a functioning gay couple in the second book of Redmann’s Micky Knight series, but Micky isn’t . . . ah, no, there’s at least 3 lesbian couples in that book, at least one of them could probably be described as being ‘healthy and functioning lesbian relationship’ – maybe Elly and Danny (though Danny and Micky aren’t that friendly to each other in the book; and Elly stand by her woman; plus Torbin and his geeky boyfriend are very much barely there characters, while Freddie and Jay are a large part of this book here).

Lost that last paragraph, I did.

A lot of lesbian fiction works I’ve read include a ‘gay bff’, who, a lot of the time, is super annoying. Here we have two, but healthy helpful kind. A lot of lesbian fiction includes that ‘dated someone but she’s horrible and now a bitch because she’s actually evil’, while the real life concept of ‘ex’s tend to become friends’ rarely gets seen develop – though occasionally one friend or another will admit to having, at some point, dated the main character. I mention because this book here has both the ‘ex’s will turn out to be evil bitches’ and ‘ex’s can, over time, become friends’. I rarely see the second actually in operation in a book (the moving from dating to ex to friends; mostly I see 'yes, we dated . . .years ago'). It is barely seen here (to a certain extent), but it was nice to see that side of things for once.

I’ve rambled. And haven’t really said much about the book itself. Which is bad. Bad me! Especially since this is another book without much of a description on GoodReads. Heck, the characters names aren’t even in there. Soooo….

Main character Hannah is best friends with Freddie and Jay, a gay couple. Jay (I think) invites a woman to come by for dinner. That woman is named Jill. None of the three, Freddie/Jay/Hannah actually particularly like Jill, but Hannah ‘goes for her’ anyway. Since . . . um . . . both are lesbians? And Jill kind of matches some of what Hannah thought she might like? Something like that. Though no spark.

Meanwhile Hannah has some car trouble which has her interacting with Kelly, an auto mechanic. Kelly is one of those auto mechanics who will literally come out to help you if you are stuck on the side of the road (despite the part where Kelly isn’t a tow-truck driver; I believe it's directly because it was Hannah asking for help). Hannah has been aware of Kelly for a good long while, but they do not exactly operate in the same social circles. Plus, Kelly is butch (figured I’d state that again, for reasons). Kelly, on the other hand, has known of and l-worded Hannah for 14 years.

Both Hannah and Kelly had rotten child-hoods, though since everything is from Hannah’s point of view, most of Kelly’s issues, at least in childhood, are not explicit (though Kelly had . . . a very rough transition from childhood to adulthood; the traumatic event kind).

I actually liked the book. Just vaguely confused by some aspects that turned up.

Rating: 4.25

February 27 2017



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