Book received from both Netgalley and Riptide Publishing for an honest review
One of the problems of casually entering a LGBT book, specifically a book that, on the face of it, features two women, is the assumption (maybe only by me) that you are entering a romance. The book seemed to suggest this with the book description, it seemed to suggest this with the way the book opened with two women, one a drummer of a successful band, the other a dancer, meeting on a plan and having a satisfying introduction to each other. From the general causal 'it's going to be a Romance', to the description, to the way the book opened, it seemed fairly reasonable to assume that the book would then, once the plan landed (unless the book was set entirely on the plane), turn into a romance involving Ava the drummer and Cara the dancer.
The reader would be wrong to assume this . . . or would have assumed wrong . . . or however to word this shift.
If Ava had been a younger character, someone younger than 'almost thirty', this would have been a coming of age story. If Ava had been older, this would have been a mid-life crisis type story. But it's neither - Ava is sufficiently aged to not fall into the 'coming of age' category (with exceptions given for those coming to that type of life experience later in life), nor old enough to face a mid-life crisis. but still, the story that unfolds pulls similar ideas form both 'coming of age' stories and 'mid-life crisis' stories.
Ava is 'learning about herself' and 'coming into herself' through the story, while, at the same time, 'dealing with current position in life/current success and/or failure in various aspects of life (success: career; failure: love life/parent) - and dealing with facing questions on where they should go from here. So this is something of a mix 'coming of age through a mid-life crisis', or, in other words, a slice of life book. It is not, though, a capital R romance. Despite indications that the book might become one or was intended as one.
Ava is very full of herself - the entirety of the novel finds the reader trapped, and I use this purposefully, inside Ava's head as she navigates life. Dealing with the dreaded trip home to face the parents and the grandmother. Experimenting with the idea of having 'something' with Cara, though she knows she cannot because she will be there for a very short period of time, and because she's still in love with Tuck (a band-mate, someone she's apparently known for a very long time). Ava seems like a fully formed character, while others in the story seem like they are filters - are these creatures that Ava reacts against. She believes her parents are a certain way, and she reacts to them that way - whether they are or not. She does this with most of the characters in the story. Occasionally one or another character does something to break Ava out of her own head, out of her own presumations, and she suddenly is confronted with the idea that this 'other' actually is a real person (like when she is confronted by the idea that her Grandmother really loves her books, in a similar manner to how Ava loves her drum). Mostly, though, people are 'fixtures' to rail against, rant against, and/or move around. The father, for instance, never seems to come into focus in this book.
From a Romance point of view, from viewing this book as a Romance, this book fails. But I do not think this ever was supposed to be a romance. Or, at least, I hope it wasn't. I need to double check how it is being marketed. But, and this is actually my point, do not enter this book looking for a Romance.
On the other hand, as a slice of life, as a peak into someone's life as they navigate through certain 'issues', the book is quite captivating. Trapped inside one characters mind is not normally somewhere I want to find myself. But there was something there that kept pulling me back into reading the book. Heck, I read the first 43% of the book in one sitting and that's, what, something like 100 pages. That's how captivated I was - I couldn't get myself to stop and when I finally did, I'd read 100 pages.
I rate this book for what I found, not what I expected. And I suspect others, regardless of how they enter this book, will likely come to a different conclusion than I reach(ed). I was entertained, and I found the book satisfying. While I'm interested in what an actual romance between Cara and Ava might have looked like, I'm satisfied by what I foud inside on the book's pages.
One caveat, if this turns out to have intended to be seen as a Romance, I'll have to reconsider my rating. Probably downward.
Rating: 4.12
October 30 2017
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