Clichéd Love: A Satirical Romance by Lynn Galli

Clichéd Love: A Satirical Romance
by Lynn Galli
Pages: 314
Date: March 31 2016
Publisher: Penikila Press
Series: None

Review
Rating: 5.5 out of 5.0
Read: April 25 to 26 2016

I was excited and surprised to see a new book appear - as in; I was poking around and happened to notice a book had been published a couple days before I noticed it even existed. I really need to pay more attention to things like that - publication schedules and stuff.

I was not sure what to expect from this book - in July of last year I'd basically read everything by Galli, all in the same month (except for a book here or there). And I had rather enjoyed all of them, mostly. So I was vaguely nervous about trying a new book after a 9 month gap - especially with the way this book was structured - a series of interviews by a journalist who would learn the 'love story' of many couples. Luckily, for my peace of mind, what I vaguely suspected would happen, didn't. This isn't a series of connected short stories - 'connected' by having a 'narrator' move from couple to couple. No, there's a real story here, a real novel with some rather deep characters. Much deeper than some I've seen in a while.

Vega is a 46 year old journalist who has come up with a ‘brilliant’ proposal to write a series of articles based on interviews with long term LGBT relationships (there is a mixture of gay and lesbian couples interviewed, though I am not sure, based on how she seems to set up in lesbian bars, if the gay couples were originally part of the proposal). The point of the series would be to showcase LGBT couples in a ‘good’ light, to ‘humanize’ them, now that that Supreme Court ruling had come out regarding lesbian and gay marriage.

I put brilliant in quotes, because Vega has come to the conclusion that she has found herself a goodish long term project to work on, but she is kind of tired of how clichéd everyone’s stories seem to be.

(ETA: this isn't a spoiler so much as something I left out to cut down on the details, but then, after reading my review a few times, made it seem like I probably should mention this specific factoid: after beginning her series of interviews, Vega hits on a variation of her plan, and proposes it to her editors - they accept this change - now the articles will involve two couples in each article - one LGBT, one straight - with the names changed to make them as unisex as possible; then people would vote on which couple they thought was gay/lesbian; or straight - winner would get a $100,000 wedding, or a really nice vacation).

The book opens with Vega stopping on her tour of interviewing in a bar in Seattle. She plans to be there for a certain amount of time, gather interviews, and then move on. That’s the plan at least.

The point of view, by the way, is purely from Vega’s point of view.

Iris is a woman who Vega spots in the Seattle bar. Vega’s intrigued by the roughly 46 year old woman, though not specifically attracted to her – not really her type. But still intrigued. Many people, oddly, come up to Vega while she’s in the bar to do interviews, to note that Vega should ‘watch out’ for Iris. Iris, apparently, is a one-night stand type woman. Vega doesn’t particularly care, re: ‘not really her type’, but is still intrigued, in a maybe new friend type.

Vega sets up a temporary place of residence close-ish to the bar. Conducts interviews mostly in the bar. Hangs out with people, and over the summer months, develops a friendship with Iris. Playing tennis. Going on stake-outs, etc. Oh, did I not mention that? Iris is a private investigator. Vega initially laughed at Iris, assuming she was pulling her leg.

The book is a rather fun, humorous, neat book – deeper than I expected. Considering I was somewhat hesitant to start the book, I am somewhat surprised by my reaction. The reaction being that this is one of the best books I’ve read in a while.

Oh and there’s at least one rather good sex scene in this here book.

Two last notes: 1) I’m purposely being less detailed than I might normally be so that others would have even less chance to be spoiled by anything I note (like I’m completely leaving out the part about how important a role a third person plays in this book – Lane; and how others – in the bar, and meet elsewhere, have their own deeper roles to play); 2) those who have read prior books by Galli will likely notice a few familiar names here and there – mostly side characters in prior books, though a few ‘name’ (as in main in prior books) characters are mentioned but not seen.

April 26 2016

Urban Shaman by C.E. Murphy

Urban Shaman
by C.E. Murphy
Pages: 416
Date: June 1 2005
Publisher: Luna
Series: Walker Papers (1st in Series)

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: February 10 2016

This is the first book that I’ve read by this author. It’s a book that (1) hadn’t been on my radar; (2) even so, it was one of the books picked to be read by me in Feb/March (it was the part of the picking wherein the picker picked something not on my pick’em shelf).

Being, as it was, a book that hadn’t been on my radar, I did something I do not always do when picking books. I examined reviews. Some of those reviews kind of put me off, they did. And some of that description on GoodReads both intrigued me and vaguely put me off.

Two last thoughts; one directly related to the above – this is my second attempt to read this book. When I found out that this book had been ‘added to my list’ I examined it. Beat at it. Sampled it. Didn’t particularly wish to continue with it. And put it to the side. Then I came back to it and gobbled it down. Second thought – I had something of a reoccurring thought bouncing in my brain as I read this book – what the bloody hell is the sexual orientation of this character? I didn’t particularly care if she was straight, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, or what, but if I knew she was . . . something, then I’d look at other characters differently. Like, the first woman who means anything to this book that Joanne Walker (the main character) meets, Joanne kind of drools over how beautiful Marie actually turned out to be. Mouth parted, frozen in appreciation beautiful. Ah, I thought, did I stumble into a Lesbian Romance? Wait, now Joanne is dropping hints that if not for the fact that her first encounter with Morrison, she might have been all over him. Now she’s checking out every guy she meets and dropping a comment (mentally was it?) about how she doesn’t really like girls or women. Oookay.

Leap, as we will, to the Romance section of this review to find . . . . as far as I can tell, Joanne is asexual.

Characters
This book is one in which only one character is followed. Somewhat refreshing, in its way. Been a while since I only really had to care about one specific character.

Joanne Walker - is a youngish woman of Cherokee and Irish ancestors (father is Cherokee; mother is Irish). For whatever reason she spent most of her childhood bouncing around basically every three months while living with her father. Until she got to high school years. Because of this, and other reasons, Joanne Walker knows almost nothing about being a descendent of the Cherokee people.

Joanne is a college graduate, with an English degree, but knew, even before going to college, that she would work as a mechanic. Somehow or another falls into having a job with a police department as their mechanic. Joanne’s first boss (or at least the one before Morrison) had Joanne go to the Police Academy, so Joanne is technically a police officer.

Joanne is super rational and logical. Right up to the point she spots a woman being chased by dog like creatures, while Joanne herself is up in the sky in a plane.

One last thing of note – Joanne Walker name, officially, is not actually Joanne Walker. But Joanne Walkingstick. It would have been Siobhan (she-vaun) Walkingstick, but her father didn’t accept the name Siobhan. So, Joanne is both Joanne Walker and Siobhan Walkingstick (I’m not actually sure why her ‘other name’ is Siobhan Walkingstick if Siobhan, as a name, got rejected; I might have gotten confused there).

Mystery
Two, in a way, to follow. (1) Someone is killing people. Joanne investigates. (2) Joanne is a really rational logical person. She learns that there is this fantastical world out there and now must attempt to unravel the mystery of this fantastical world.

Both mysteries are interrelated, fun to follow, and well constructed. Mostly. There was a point wherein I got kind of overwhelmed with ‘otherness’. Briefly.

Romance
Joanne drools, as noted, when she spots Marie – the woman she had spotted from a plane and chased down to save. There’s some kind of sexual tension going on between Morrison (Joanne’s boss) and Joanne. On several occasions Joanne almost kisses certain people. While dead tired and in something of a dream land, Joanne kisses or is kissed by a Celtic god.

Her ‘soul mate’, ‘lover’, ‘best fuck buddy’, and/or the like is not found and drooled over in this book. This is by no means a romance novel that happens to have fantasy; nor is it a fantasy that has much in the way of romance.

Maybe needless to say, there is no sex – graphic or otherwise, in this book.

Mercedes ‘Mercy’ Thompson vs. Joanne ‘Siobhan Walkingstick’ Walker
Just something of a quick note here – two women who are main characters in Urban Fantasy series.

Auto Mechanic – Mercy & Joanne
Half-native American – Mercy & Joanne
Raised by someone other than mother – Mercy & Joanne
Shifter – Mercy (werecoyote). Joanne does, in fact, shift in the book – from human to coyote to raven – but only when entering and exiting her ‘dream guardian’
Coyote – Mercy’s father. Joanne’s spirit guide.
Celtic Folklore – Joanne. I don’t specifically recall anything involving Celtic folklore with Mercy.
Werewolves – Mercy. I do not specifically recall anyone being a werewolf in Joanne’s first book.
Vampires – Mercy. No one appears to be a vampire in Joanne’s first book (though mention of Vampires occurred).
Etc. etc.

The point of this section is relatively simple. While reading I noticed certain tidbits about Joanne. These tidbits reminded me of Mercy Thompson. Therefore I felt the need to examine some of the similarities and differences, though more as a list than as a detailed analysis.

One last point – despite the covers on the books (at least the cover of the first Joanne Walker book), the two women do not actually have a vaguely similar appearance. Mercy looks Hispanic or of native American origin. Joanne, for the most part, looks black Irish (pale with black hair) – the ‘for the most part’ involves how she does in fact look like she’s of native American origin in black & white pictures (this isn’t some magical thing – it’s just that her facial bone structure is similar to that of native American facial features, which is somewhat hidden when people look and see a pale white woman, and somewhat revealed when people see B&W photos).

Overall
Unexpectedly, I found this book to be rather humorous. I don’t specifically recall, now, what or why I found myself laughing, but do recall that I did keep finding myself laughing at the antics going on.

Humor - my status updates reminded me of one - during the book certain events occur that involve Native American folklore. At one point Joanne noted, in reaction to what she saw around her:
“This isn’t even the kind of Indian I am,” I protested. (19% mark?) - I found that vaguely humorous at the time I read it.

Right, so, loved the book. Refreshing to read a book wherein people aren’t pairing off to hump each other; and or find lifelong meaningful fuck buddies. And there’s a bunch of humorous stuff that occurs.

February 11 2016