Top Student by Miranda Baker

Top Student
by Miranda Baker
Pages: 40
Published Date: February 25 2014
Published by: Samhain Publishing
Series: Come Again (book 3.5)

Review:
Rating: 4.65 out of 5
Read: April 5 to April 6 2014

This story gave me brief pause, a brief moment of frustration.  A moment when I thought it was going to be like all the others vaguely similar set-ups.  A dominant strong woman who ends up being taught to be a submissive.  But that didn't happen.  And a little light somewhat went off in my head, as the saying goes.  A lot of BDSM stories frustrate and annoy me because of that dynamic.  Plus the simple fact that there are so few dominate women out here in the BDSM fiction world. Who actually work are Mistresses.  I've seen a few, but they are almost always side characters.

Hmm. Exit to Eden had one, a Mistress who was more of a switch than a dominant. The Office Trilogy by N.T. Morley had a side character who was allowed, at times, to be dominate (and another who the reader was teased with the idea she was, but most of her scenes were off-stage). Yvonne: A Courtesan's Compulsion had a rather interesting female dominate, and probably one of the main reasons I gave that one as much as 3 stars. But she very much was a side character.  Only a brief moment on stage. I initially overrated Being the Submissive - Lesbian BDSM Erotica for the mere fact that it was the first time one of the main characters was a female Mistress with a female submissive. Point of view of the submissive, though. Morley's Library series flirted with the idea of a dominant female character, but mostly just teased the reader with her.

So, long and short of all these words is the simple little matter that I might again have overrated because of a female dominate with a female submissive, though I don't think so. Finally, I found a story from the point of view of a female dominate.  And it made me happy, it did.  I suspected that this was the reason BDSM works kept frustrating me.  Nice to know my suspicions were correct. Too bad there really isn't a F/f genre in published form.

Though, now that I think about after using that 'F/f', there are stories in the past I've read in that genre. I didn't think of them while going through what I'd read since those had been free stories strewn among hidden pockets of the internet.

Meaty Balls by Vincent Daniels

Meaty Balls
by Vincent Daniels
Pages: 291
Published Date: November 8 2012
Publisher: Author

Review
Rating: 4.60 out of 5 stars
Read: April 4 2014

A funny collection of essays. Probably would have been 5 star worthy with fewer scenes of vomiting, and if the obsession with poo was dialed back. 

Was more than vaguely amusing. Had some moments of laughing and giggling.

Partners by Gerri Hill

Partners
by Gerri Hill
Pages: 201
Date: December 2 2008
Publisher: Bella Books
Series: Hunter (book 3)

Review:
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Read: March 18 2014

I was going to include a review when I finished the book but it seems I wasn't in a good position to do so.  And now it has been somewhat too long ago that I read the book.

Overall it was an interesting series. I rather loved the first book in the series. I was half ok with and half annoyed that the second book, In the Name of the Father, in that the series moved off the two main characters from Hunter's Way. The second book in the series fell from the 5 stars 'Hunter's Way' achieved to 4 stars less to the switch in character focus, and more on a somewhat lessor mystery, and not much in the way of a romance plot.  Casey O'Connor, the focus of 'Partners' was an interesting character in 'In the Name of The Father', but became somewhat less so in 'Partners'.

My main problem with this book can be boiled down to an accidental glance at one line of a review that I noticed before I read Partners.  Don't recall exact wording, but it was something like 'Hunter's Way, again'.  Straight woman with a boyfriend (fiance in this book), partnered up with a lesbian. Straight woman realizes, oh, shesh, it's actually women who turn me on (or, at least, one specific woman).  Lesbian woman has issues that have to be broken through for events to unfold in a certain direction. Again.

Ah, and another problem.  Every woman who is a police officer is depicted as a lesbian or a confused straight woman who is actually a lesbian.  There are apparently no straight heterosexual female police officers. That kind of bugs me.  Probably wouldn't if that story line didn't keep repeating.

So, didn't care for the romance part of the book. How about the mystery part?  I found it a little too contrived and uninteresting. A let down from the prior works in the series.

Thinking about it a day after I finished the book, my 2 might be a little too harsh.  A initial reaction to the repeat from the first book in the series, a reaction to the diminishment of my favorite character in the series, Samantha Kennedy, to almost no show in the second book, to more lines in the third book but still not really 'there'. And a reaction to that implication that all female police officers are actually lesbians, even if they do not immediately realize that they are. It might, just might, actually be a three star book. I'll have to think more about it.

Women's Barracks by Tereska Torrès

Women's Barracks
by Tereska Torrès
Pages: 256
Date: May 1 2005 (originally published 1950)
Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY (originally published by Fawcett Gold Medal)

Review:
3.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 3 to March 6 2014

This was a difficult book to read.  And not because of writing style or writing ability. Nor because it was among the first lesbian books put out.  A "based on true events" one at that.

No, the problem was both the distanced nature of the narration, and the subject matter.  As in, the book was narrated from the point of view of the writer.  Who was both a character in the book, and someone who knew what ultimately happened to everyone.  As a character, she was off to the edge, mostly, reporting on the actions of the others.  And the subject matter problem?  Well . . . one of the early attacks on homosexual activity involves trying to link it to pedophiles.  And that, pedophiles, plays a rather large role in the book. Much more so than lesbianism.

War erupts.  Many French women escape to England, but wish to help, so they join the army, or whatever the military organization was called.   A woman of 34, one of the French woman exiles, uses her advanced experience and alluring nature to attract a 16 old girl into her bed.  And molests her.  The girl doesn't particularly like it but kept repeating to herself "I adore her."  Two other bits of evidence later emerges.  Claude, the woman of 34, in the past, had also done the same thing with a young boy.  And Claude's attraction to Ursula (the 16 year old)  abruptly ends when she realizes that Ursula is no longer a little girl but is now a woman.

Hmm. I was writing this off of notes I had made. Later I call Claude the 40 year old pedophile.  Ok, so the older woman is somewhere between 34 and 40.

As I said at the beginning, a difficult book for me to read, mostly read because of its place in the history of lesbian books.  I should probably note, I suppose, that the author/narrator was not a lesbian herself.  Which may have clouded her judgement of the activities she was witnessing.   There were lesbians in the book, and the narrator had a more narrow-minded view of them, despite those lesbians actually involving adult women in adult relationships.

Parties in Congress by Colette Moody

Parties in Congress
by Colette Moody
Pages: 264
Published Date: February 15 2011
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books

Review:
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Read: February 26 2014

This is much closer to a 4.5 star book than a 5.  Mostly because, while I was pulled along in the beginning by a desire to continue reading,  I was also wincing at some of the words actions and characters.

Quite a funny little book, mixed in with the wincing.   The mere idea of a gay Republican in 2014 just seems incomprehensible.   Course, book is from 2011 or 2010, but still.  People have been joking about the Log Cabin Republicans since the '80s.

On the other hand,  I have personally voted for (and campaigned for) Republicans,  Independents and Democrats.   Though I haven't voted for a Republican this century. So I guess it isn't that incomprehensible.