Heat Wave by Elyse Springer

Heat Wave by Elyse Springer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Riptide Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, let’s do the easy things first: This is the first book I’ve read by this author, and this specific book is the third in a series.

The important: Can a reader read this series book without having read others in the series? The quick answer is: of course, since that’s what I did. Are there things that a reader will miss from not reading this book after reading the others? Not sure, but based on what I did read I think that there are certain aspects that they would miss. I felt that way at times, at least.

The book kind of started off in a way that lead me to believe that I might be missing certain things. Like just why the lead (and only POV) character, Sara, had the other woman’s, Laura, phone number in her phone. There might have been something said at the time that she dialed that number, but if so, I missed it. It’s ‘important’ because the two main characters, Sara and Laura, seem as if they don’t really know each other, and yet both have each other’s phone number and are willing to randomly hang out together.

Mind, I know why the two know each other, just not why one had the other’s phone number in their phone. Why did they know each other? Eons ago, seemingly, maybe seen in one of the prior books, maybe not, a woman named Sara dated a man named Robbie. They fell into a relationship easily, and then out of it just as easily. At some point after that, a woman named Laura dated a man named Robbie. The same Laura and the same Sara who star in this book here. Laura’s parting from Robbie wasn’t as easy as Sara’s – Laura walked in Robbie doing the nasty with some other woman.

All of this might seem to be spoiler, and it is in a way, but the kind learned right up front in the book. For, you see, the book opens with Sara boredly wondering what to do that night. Too early to sleep. Her friends Abby, Kathy, and Nathan are all doing something (separately). Maybe she’d sleep anyway? Wait, she had Laura’s number. And so, she randomly dialed, randomly went out with her – and hopefully I’m remembering things correctly, that that is how everything unfolded. Oh, and it was there, when they meet up or over the phone, that Laura mentioned the situation with Robbie and that she needed to drink.

As might be expected from what I’ve written so far, two women who shared the same man at different points in time, both women are . . . . bisexual. What, that isn’t what’s expected? Ah. Hmm. Well, to be fair, Sara is quite taken with the notion that she’s straight. I mean, she’s one of those who pushes herself, challenges herself, knows herself, and she’d think, and thought, that if she was interested in women, that would be something that’d have popped up in her life before she turned 29, which she is now. Laura, on the other hand, might be somewhat off men at the moment, due to the cheating man she was just with, but is strong in her belief that she’s bisexual.

I’ve read a bunch of ‘lesbians who fall for straight women’ stories. This is the first time I’ve landed on a ‘bisexual who fell for a straight woman’ story. I think the closest I’d gotten to that in the past was a story involving a lesbian who fell for a bisexual woman. One who made some cruel and ill-advised remarks concerning bisexuals (that they are on the fence and should get off it already).

Nice to read a book that includes the idea that bisexuals are a real thing. And those who happen to be women and who find themselves drawn to other women, do not naturally and immediately leap from ‘I’m straight’ to ‘I’m a lesbian’. And that is one of the strong topics that crop up in this book – just what, exactly, Sara might be – she had been quite confident in her heterosexuality.

Enough of that.

Sara Walker is a 29 year old woman who works as one of the day-time managers at a diner in New York City. Lives in New York, specifically the Park Slope region of Brooklyn. The book opens with her being currently single, bored, and not really sure she’s happy with how her life is currently shaped. We, the reader, follow her, and only her, through her journey. Her journey that includes bumping into a woman named Laura who flirts with her. Who ‘forces her’ to dance at a bar. Who lures her into ‘kink’ (there is a section wherein the author says something, an afterward or something, about how those on Twitter encouraged her on her quest to write a book involving two kinky bisexuals).

Is it the same sex thing that’s the kink? That seems offensive, in a way. What, no? Oh. It’s the ‘surprise’ BDSM that broke out. Very early in the book. Along with the massive waves of kinky sex. I should probably make that a warning, or something. Some like knowing if a book contains that kind of thing.

Warning: This book contains several scenes of a kinky BDSM nature, and also includes, partially with, partially without that BDSM, public sex.

I distracted myself there, sorry. That’s what the book is about, though. No, not specifically BDSM. I mean, Sara coming to terms with the fact that she’s interested in another woman. And fucking her seemingly nonstop from . . . um, well, fairly early in the book. Thought I’d had a status update after the first encounter but don’t see one. That’s the relationship Sara and Laura fall into, Sara’s ‘experimenting’ and Laura’s ‘rebounding’.

Quite well written book. Had some flaws. Mostly ones that I might have created myself in that I had created a personality in my mind based on the information I’d been given about Sara, and that personality wasn’t matching up with Sara’s actions (like her inability to communicate). After being annoyed about that throughout the book I’ve come to a specific conclusion: I shouldn’t force personalities on characters based on assumptions and . . . well, words on the paper (like the part where she seriously challenges herself constantly, knows her own body, knows herself, etc. etc. The kind who confronts issues, not dives out of the way; except, you know, for communication issues with Laura). Plus the surprise BDSM kind of . . . surprised me – especially how it was handled, and for the part where I didn’t realize the book would include that type of thing. That and the part where I kept pushing past the sexual encounters to get to the rest of the story . . . in the later part of the book. Because I wanted to see what happened next, and the sex was getting in the way.

Sex: Graphic and frequent. With elements pulled from the realm of BDSM. Including such things as blindfolds, control, spankings, orgasm control, and the like. The earlier scenes were much more interesting and exciting than the later, though that comment is softened by the acknowledgement of a lessening lack of interest in reading deeply into the sex acts as the story unfolded.

Series: As noted, this is the third book in a series. I’ve not read the other books in the series, but can make certain observations: It is possible that the Jason from the first book in the series is the same Jason who makes an appearance in this book – lessoned by the fact that his boyfriend is Nathan in this book and Noah in that other book, so maybe different Jason. Abby and Gabrielle are both in the second book in the series and make appearances in this book as well, with Abby being one of Sara’s somewhat infrequently seen friends. Part of Tony and Gee’s story is touched upon in this book, but their story is told in the fourth book in the series – with Tony being a friend of Sara’s in this book here.

Would I recommend this book? Yes.

Rating: 3.98 – my rating was somewhat lower than I expected to find myself due to certain aspects that came up near the end of the book. And how I ‘took’ them.

July 13 2017




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