Love on the Red Rocks by Lisa Moreau

Love on the Red Rocks by Lisa Moreau

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is both the first book I’ve read by this author, and the author’s first work published (which isn’t always something that happens with me and authors). The author has published two books and one short story (in a short story collection) since this book appeared.

I’d been intrigued by this book since it appeared, but I just never pulled the trigger on purchasing the book. And I still haven’t – at some point this year (last month? This month?) Bold Strokes Books started putting some of their books into the Kindle Unlimited program – which is how I read this book. The book wasn’t free to me, since KU isn’t a free program, but it’s near enough if you read enough books a month (heck, read two full length works that normally cost about $9.99, and it’s like you read one for free and one at full price, and I read a heck of a lot more books than 2 a month – though how many a month are KU depends on the month).

This book stares one Malley . . . oh, darn; the book description doesn’t have last names. Mmphs. Well, the book stares Malley as solo point of view character. She’s 30 (though I’m going more by remembering that she hiked a certain trail 15 years before the start of the story, and she was 15 at the time), and works a ‘steady, stable, and dependable job’ in some form of sales analyst position. She keeps dreaming about opening a bakery, but it’s risky. That’s what her love interest always says, at least. Opening a bakery being risky (‘businesses are closing all the time’).

That’s right, this book opens, well after the prologue, with the lead character having a love interest – and a plan to announce her love to this individual before a certain event occurs (the end of a lesbian retreat vacation).

Let’s back up as that’s vaguely confusing: There’s a prologue involving the lead character, Malley, hiking a particular trail with her dad. She has a moving experience visiting ‘the woman’ (I forget the exact title of the rock formation). 15 years later she returns to Sedona Arizona on a ‘lesbian retreat’, mentioned to her by her next door neighbor Jessie.

So Malley heads to Sedona with a plan – spend time with Lizzie, who she’s spent a year waiting to detach herself from her girlfriend (I want to say Heather?), and this is her chance. Except things start going wrong immediately – while heading towards the resort, Malley and Lizzie – driving together, crash. Not as important as it might seem, no the important part is a motorcyclist stops to offer assistance – the already mentioned Jessie. A problem for several reasons, well three specific reasons: 1) Lizzie makes comments about being interested in Jessie; 2) Malley thought Jessie, who she tries to avoid at all costs, despite being next door neighbors, wasn’t going to attend the retreat; 3) Malley always thought Jesse was gorgeous, and wouldn’t have been all over her if not for her profession (police officer), and she’s distracted on her mission to pursue Lizzie by her own random thoughts about Jessie.

Then, once the two crashed women traveling together finally reach the retreat, they learn that the retreat has a ‘random draw’ pairing random lesbians together to room together. For . . . reasons of experience and stuff.

Malley’s plans are unraveling. Then she learns, horrors, she’s going to be rooming with Jessie.
The book was a lot more interesting than I expected, and, while Malley is a hard character to like in the beginning, the reader both learns why Malley is the way she is – in certain aspects – and watches as Malley grows as a person (which includes her being bitchy (mostly mentally) about other lesbians at the retreat, only to later grow to realize what she was doing).

What else to say . . . good story, good romance. Sex occurred, I do not recall how graphically (don’t read too much into that lack of remembrance; I pay attention sometimes, I don’t sometimes, and when I pay attention does not always correspond to how well written things are or aren’t).

Rating: 4.60 (I originally marked this book 5 stars on GoodReads, putting it on my 4.75 star shelf, but have moved it down to 4.50 shelf and 4 stars on GoodReads. I might adjust again later, but this is probably where the book should rest).

June 11 2018




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