Defensive Mindset by Wendy Temple

Defensive Mindset by Wendy Temple
Pages: 276
Publication Date: April 19 2017
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Series: None though 2 characters that are minor characters in this book previously appeared as main characters in 'Licit Cusp' by Weebod

Review
Rating: 4.0
Read: April 6 2017

*I received this book from the publisher, in return for a fair review.*

This is the second full length novel that I’ve read by this author. A strange sentence, I’m sure, to anyone who happened to glance at the author’s page on GoodReads before reading my review (or, you know, ever looked at it . . . or something). Listed is this book here and a short story collection with many different authors included in it. So, second full length novel that I’ve read? Well, the other one I read was a book about an undercover police officer in Scotland that got released sometime around 2009, or thereabouts, titled Innocent Catch, and released under the author byline of ‘Weebod’.

Mind you, I did not know of the connection between this author and that author until I reached the very last page of this book and saw that ‘contact the author at’ and then an email address. This is the same email address for Weebod. Interesting little jolt of recognition to hit me unexpectedly. Don’t usually read something by a brand new to me author only to suddenly realize I’d read them before.

Right, so, this specific novel itself.

This novel stars two football/soccer players in Edinburgh. One is the straitlaced, ‘doesn’t like to drink’ rule follower type, who just loves – passionately loves – football, that’d be Jessie Grainger. The other is the exact opposite – Fran Doherty (so glad that the author didn’t go with a first name of Shannon there) dislikes rules, loves drinking/drugs/breaking rules, or at least that was Fran. She’s been clean and sober for 2 years now, ever since getting out of jail, but there’s a very strong draw to fall back into her addictions – because that is what she suffers – massive addictions. Oh, and to further the ‘opposites’ part – unlike Jessie, Fran plays football for the paycheck, not out of love for the game.

I know I’ve read others who have had issues with this book. Not sure yet what they were since I’ve attempted to not read any reviews before I read the book and wrote my own review, but I did happen to notice a few negative ratings. Hmm . . . since I don’t know specifically what the negatives they saw were, I can’t say whether or not I saw them too or . . well, mmphs, this is a stupid paragraph here.

Right, so. Book opens with Jessie playing in the final games of a football season, meaningless games because her team is already out of the running for the league title, though they are currently in second place. On the opposite side of the pitch, playing for the other team is Fran – and they meet constantly during the game, literally, physically. With a bunch of sliding tackles, close touches, and outright groping (yes, literally, while lined up for a penalty kick, Fran had her hands on Jessie’s breasts and basically groped her – which is apparently okay in football). Well, naturally, Jessie being such a rule follower . . . had enough of it and slapped Fran in the face, hard. Got a red card for that – will start the next season missing three matches.

Story then skips forward to the next season (which, apparently, was something like a week or 8 after the end of the last season – that’s one of my problems with this book, I really had no idea of the time scale here, it really seemed like things occurred right after each other, and, in fairness, for all I know they do. I do not know enough about football to know if it is odd for one season to start something like 3 weeks after the last one ended; only thing I do know is that they don’t play in the summer . . . apparently. Maybe they only have three weeks of summer in Scotland). Jessie is excited to start a new year, annoyed that she’s benched for three matches, but excited. The coach, Tom, keeps bouncing in and out of the room. Teammates are getting ready for training. Tom bounces in and out again. Finally he announces the new additions to the team which includes a player to help with some defensive liabilities – one Fran Doherty. Naturally Jessie’s kind of annoyed by this issue.

And so, before I recap the entire book in my review, I move on. Two Point of Views – Fran Doherty – ‘burnt-out barmaid with a past as messed up as her attitude’ (as the book description puts it – she’s not a barmaid though, she’s the person running the property for her grandfather Harry who had a stroke – hotel and bar, though she’s only operating the bar until, well – not going to spoil everything); and Jessie Grainger . . . who doesn’t have a good little description I can lift from the book description. Well, as noted, Jessie is a star footballer (played for the UK in the Olympics, and for Scotland in . . . um, book didn’t say, assume it’s something like World Cup or something), and, because female football players aren’t exactly paid massive wads of cash, she is also a ‘businesswoman’ (something to do with real estate, I believe, handling the Edinburgh office for her father’s company (which had been founded by that father’s father)).

Fran and Jessie clash. Action on and off the pitch occurs. Questions are raised and never answered, well some (like, well maybe it got answered and I missed it, but I’ve no real idea how old the people in this book are. I know the coach is something like 30, he was injured at 28, began coaching, and it’s two years later; Nikki, Fran’s godmother, ‘looks like she’s in her mid-fifties’, as one character put it – and if I followed the clues: 1) Fran’s mother had Fran when she was 18, dead at 22; 2) Nikki was friends of the mother and conceivably roughly the same age as the mother; 3) Nikki, recall, looks mid-fifties; 4) 55-18=37, Fran can be no younger than 37. Jessie? No idea. Not even anything like ‘she’s the same age as Fran; younger; older; etc.’ except for the part where she had played at the highest level at the Olympics for UK, and for something for Scotland, and my limited understanding is that youngsters don’t normally compete at that level, and that was in the past so . . . um . . still no clue to Jessie’s age).

I rather liked the characterization level given here. And I lied, I do know one of the negatives at least one person saw – Fran plain doesn’t talk . . . much at all. And I can see that. Personally I was looking at it the other way around – Jessie doesn’t shut up. She’s always babbling, can’t stand silence. Babble. Babble. Babble. Personally I’m much more like Fran communication wise (too much information and all that – it sometimes literally physically pains me to get words out). And no, I do not actually see myself as Fran. For many reasons. But I’m probably a lot more like her than Jessie, though that’s mostly due to communication since, while I have an addictive kind of personality, I always knew that so I didn’t fall into the same traps Fran did.

While reading I was thinking of some things I could mention. I thought of ‘so much angst that the puppy has drowned and the kitten is in trouble’, but that’s kind of gross. Lots of angst though. From both sides, Jessie has issues of her own though has mostly had a ‘perfect’ kind of life. Oh, another thought I had while reading – I kind of dislike many of the players on Jessie’s team, which, in its way, indicates that they had enough ‘there’ for me to dislike them.

There are certain clichés, tropes, etc., that pop up in romances (and yes, this is a romance) – one of which involves attempts to come together, remain together, splitting apart, etc. Well, this one certainly had a unique twist on a part of that dynamic.

Ah, this book. Jessie was kind of like a hyperactive kitten that occasionally had people toss water onto, every once in a while got tied up and um . . no, let’s not go this direction as it’s misleading (no bondage occurs in this book. While Fran’s off to the side like a wounded three legged pit-bull who has been through the fights and barely grunts any longer. And for some reason both, the kitten and the pit-bull, are weirdly drawn to the other. The lust is huge. The power imbalance is also noticeably massive.

Overall a satisfying and occasionally riveting look into a Scottish . . . um . . . scene/romance/sport.

Rating: 4.00

April 6 2017

Falling Hard by Jae

Falling Hard by Jae
Pages: Unknown
Date: April 5 2017
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Series: 6th in the extended Hollywood/LA series or Stand-alone (it is being released as a stand-alone)

Review
Rating: 3.44
Read: April 5 2017

*I received this book from the publisher, in return for a fair review.*

As I tend to do with Jae books, I’ll spend a moment or two talking about links – how this book links up with others.

First up – the easiest link is with Heart Trouble since Jordan of this book is the same Jordan in that book – a best friend to one of the main characters in that book, Hope. Both Hope and Laleh, the stars of Heart Trouble, appear in this book here. In the normal course of events this book would likely be called ‘book 2’ in whatever you would call this series – except . . .. This is one of the few times I’d recommend reading books out of order – or, at the very least, just noting that you do not need to read any other book before you read this one. Because of two reasons. Heart Trouble is in a somewhat different genre than this book here, Falling Hard – because of a fantasy element that is a large theme in that book. And because it is linked to yet another series – the Hollywood series, of which there are three books and 1 short story – Laleh from both this book and Heart Trouble makes a very brief appearance in one of the books in the Hollywood series. By no means do you need to read that series, and then Heart Trouble, before reading this book.

Second up – well, I’ve already touched on it – this book is, in its way, linked to the Hollywood series by way of Laleh. A very minor side character in that series. To a large extent, if not for the Hollywood people popping up in Heart Trouble, I’d just put it down to an interesting item of little importance. But they do make a large impact on Heart Trouble. At least Jill does. Jill, who appears in all but the first book – and is the ex-girlfriend of Amanda – one of the main characters from that book, is best friends of Laleh – and several other Hollywood series people also wander through the pages. So, in a sense, Heart Trouble could theoretically be considered book 4 in the Hollywood series (but for the fantasy element and lack of a main character actress), and ‘Falling Hard’ could be seen as book 5 (except for that lack of main character actress, or – for that matter, any connection to the Hollywood series but for Laleh’s brief appearance in this book).

Third up – not touched on is the part where one of the main characters in this book, Emma (and Molly, of course, being Emma’s daughter) just moved to California from Portland. And one of Jae’s other series is a Portland series – one that has both 2 official books, one short story, and one unofficial book (main characters from the series make an appearance in Under a Falling Star). I kept examining each name as it appeared – each one that might be connected to that Portland series, but since I’ve only read the first book in the series (and Under a Falling Star) I can’t say that I recognized any name, nor can I say that that means that no connection exists since the connection might be to one of the works I’ve not read.

So – that was a lot of words to say – ‘this book is related to other books by this same author, but there is no inherent need to read any other book before reading this book here.’

So, what is this specific book about?

Dr. Jordan Williams, 34 (if I recall that correctly), is a surgeon and lives in a duplex. Recently her next door neighbor, the one who lived in the other half of the duplex, moved out. One day Jordan drove home only to find that her driveway was blocked by a moving van – someone had finally moved in. That someone would turn out to be Emma Larson, mother of Molly Larson (actually, since there is a comment that Molly ‘went back to her maiden name’, I’m not certain that Molly’s last name is in fact Larson) 5 year old. But Jordan didn’t know that immediately. All she knew was a super hot woman in shorts and with really long gorgeous legs was moving stuff from the moving van to the house. Jordan, and another neighbor named Barbara, introduce themselves to Emma – and Jordan’s personality shines through immediately (and the reason why I’m mentioning all of this). How? Jordan’s first words to Emma are flirtatious and indicating romantic interest. For, you see, in addition to being a young doctor, Jordan is also a massive player – the kind who, with few exceptions, does not get into relationships and rarely entangles herself with any other human – romantically. The exceptions would probably boil down to just one person, romantically, and that’d be Simone, a long distance friend with benefits. The non-romantic relationships would include family (sisters and the like, one appears in the book via phone call), work (Hope, from ‘Heart Trouble’), and neighbors (70+ year old Barbara).

Emma Larson, as the book description indicates, is ‘Jordan’s polar opposite’. That’s right, the 43 year old is an albino to the doctor’s ebony skin. Heh, no. Emma is 32, if I recall correctly, and while there is a brief mention about being pale, she is not an albino (when Jordan and Emma first meet, Jordan ‘assumes’ that Emma can’t be a native because of the fact that she isn’t tanned from the California sun). By the way, I forgot to mention that – Jordan does in fact have dark skin, though I do not recall if a specific word was used when describing her (like, say, her caramel skin, or coffee skin, or mocha or . . . ; Simone is also dark skinned; the assumption is that both are black/African American; though that really is an assumption – I do not know if Simone is American). Hmm. Jordan stuff in Emma paragraph. Mmphs. Physically, all that I recall about Emma is that she has blonde hair, gorgeous legs, and is, in some way, Caucasian. I might be making an assumption there about ‘pale’ and blonde hair equaling Caucasian. Emma works as a VA – a virtual assistant, has a 5 going on 6 year old daughter named Molly, and had been married to a surgeon named Chloe. Oh, and while Emma and Molly just moved down to California from Portland, Emma’s actually a native of South Pasadena (which, it would appear, is a neighbor to Pasadena, since a date occurs in a restaurant in the next town over – Pasadena). Ooh! South Pasadena ‘is a city in Los Angeles County’ – and I’d been calling the extended Hollywood series ‘Los Angeles series’, so this still works. Huh, a five star hotel costs only $272? Cheap place. Hmm, Pasadena is a city of 139,731 people, I shouldn’t call it a town. And South Pasadena, looking at a map, is directly south of Pasadena and has a pop of only 26,000 or something around there. Wow, my Emma paragraph really got away from me.

Emma’s best friends are still in Portland and are friends of both her and her ex-wife, so she’s mostly been ignoring them. She does, on occasion, speak with a ‘Lori’ though. She’s also become friendly with two neighbors – Barbara and Jordan.

Recall how I mentioned that part about Jordan immediately flirting with Emma when they meet for the first time? Well, her ‘gaydar’ was pinging Emma as being a lesbian. But then little while later, the next day or later, Jordan’s progress home is again interrupted by having her drive-way blocked. This time by a five year old girl drawing on it. They meet, and stuff. I’m mentioning it more because we have an aspect that I’ve seen pop up in lesbian fiction that I didn’t expect to see pop up here – Jordan immediately moves Emma into the straight column. Because . . . daughter. It was a very brief kind of thing, Emma immediately calls Jordan on it – noting that lesbians can in fact have children. But still . . . to immediately go from ‘*internal thoughts/ping ping ping* that woman is lesbian lesbian lesbian lesbian . . . wait wait . . . child child straight that woman is straight straight *ping ping ping*’ is very confusing to me. But, meh.

So - the book. Jordan and Emma become insta-friends. Hang out together all the time. Sorry, I should have worded that as ‘Jordan, Emma, and Molly’ become insta-friends. Somewhere along the way, Jordan is looking around for Molly in the backyard, and is confused. Doesn’t see her. Then realizes that Molly is way up in the backyard tree. An important point, of course, but I don’t want to reveal everything – just the part where, during the saving of girl and stuffed animal, Jordan fell and broke her arm. And then had to spend even more time hanging around the duplex – wearing a cast. Emma immediately begins helping Jordan do things that Jordan now has trouble doing (like removing clothing). But the two remain friends, and only friends.

There’s kind of an insta-lust going on in this situation, though, for the two keep finding themselves near each other, lingering, hugging, near-kissing. But – Emma doesn’t want anything to do, romantically, with a player (nor, for that matter, a surgeon), while Jordan . . . well, she doesn’t do relationships.

So . . . time passes. People visit (like friend with benefits Simone; and ex-Chloe). Birthday’s come and go. Babysitting by Jordan occurs. Story unfolds. I’m being purposely vague.

For the most part the characters, at least Emma, Jordan, and Molly, are well developed. For a while there I thought Barbara’s character would get some meat, but alas, no. And Hope and Laleh have character, in my mind, more because I already knew them from Hearts Trouble. Most of the side characters are just people passing through – names on the page.

Unfortunately, exaggerating this, this is something like the 3000th time I’ve read a ‘player meets up with a ‘relationships only’ type, walls are beaten upon, conquered, people change’ that I’ve read. Several of which involved single mothers. None, including this book, of these stories have the single mother be the player, maybe for obvious reasons, though occasionally the single mother character would be against . . well, everything – relationships, flings, etc. For her kid. Celibate. And that’s the wall that has to be broken down. There are elements that drift in and out of this book that indicate that Emma was supposed to be that type of single mother, though they are thin elements. Overwhelmed more by ‘eww, player, not for me’, and less by ‘eww, relationships/sex – not for me’.

This is one of those books that, if it had been a television episode, would be called a ‘bottle episode’. Mostly tied to the duplex, with occasional excursions elsewhere – including to the hospital that appeared in Hearts Trouble. I might be thinking of a different term. That or it’s a feeling I probably should not be having for the book – since there were those excursions elsewhere, and there were these other characters. It’s just that so much of the story seems to take place at the duplex or at the hospital that it just feels ‘constrained’ (which is vaguely weird, I know, since one of the things Jordan likes to do to blow off steam, to think, to relax, is to just drive around).

I’ve been attempting to not actually reach this point in my review. The part where I mention that, while I kind of liked the characters, in theory, I was also . . . kind of bored. It’s one of those unfortunate things – I expect a certain ‘spark’ in a Jae book and . . . there wasn’t anything super special about this one. This is unfortunate since there were avenues for some of that to occur. Like, one of the neat things about the previous book in this series (if you want to pretend there’s a series here), Heart Trouble, is the part wherein one of the main characters is/was Persian and part of her culture got intermixed in that book's plotline. The fact that Jordan is black does come up, though rarely. And in a way that would have occurred for anyone who isn’t lily white (like one scene has Jordan take Molly to get ice cream, one of the workers there assume Jordan is Molly’s nanny based entirely on Jordan’s skin color; Jordan could have been Latina and the same reaction could have occurred, or she could even have been white with that reaction – if she had been Eastern European, Russian, etc). There was a point made that, once they got to know each other, they – Jordan and Emma – realized that they had a lot of things in common (things liked, books, etc.). So there was no ‘cultural differences’ to inject into the book. Or something like that.

Right, so. Decent book. I would not necessarily recommend or not recommend.

Rating: 3.44*

* I deduct 0.06 stars for all that kissing. Kissing is icky. Hehe. Okay, I probably would have rated this book the same regardless.

re: 'setting-los-angeles' shelving - South Pasadena is in Los Angeles county.

April 5 2017

Jane's World: 5-7 by Paige Braddock

Jane's World: 5-7 by Paige Braddock
Pages: 149 + 160 + 152 = 461
Date: May 23 2006, October 17 2006, July 3 2007
Publisher: Girl Twirl Comics
Series: Jane's World (5th through 7th in series)

Review
Rating: 3.50 + 3.50 + 3.75= 10.75/3= 3.5833
Read: April 4 2017

Picking up where volume 4 ended (Jill, Chele's on-again off-again girlfriend, had reunited with Chele, but then 'everything' fell apart when it turned out that Jill has let Chele's mother know where she now lives). Volume 5 picks up with Jill finding Chele's mother, Virginia, in her room -which is also where volume 4 ended.

Before Virginia can get too far in her seduction of her daughter's girlfriend, the mother's wife, Ted, breaks into the room and starts beating up Jill. Despite being a trained operative (spy/police/other), Jill is quite unable to properly defend herself. Virginia and Ted then leave and Jill lies around all injured and stuff.

Meanwhile . . . stuff happens. heh. I read three volumes in a row while ill. I've a fairly good recollection of what happened in what I read, but not which specific tidbit went with each specific volume.

Let's see - also in this specific volume - former girlfriend Talia drags Jane to a furries convention; then her newspaper job sends Jane to a monster truck show (wherein she runs into another person from her past - Bobbie, who happens to mention that she is not actually single, she's married to a guy named Ted).

Chele may or may not confront her mother in this volume (or it's in the next volume).

Good solid story. Not as humorous as some in the past, nor as weird and wacky as Jane comics can get - like later volumes I read (one literally has Jane become a bunny, not like this volume where Jane wore a dog furry suit, but become an actual bunny, albeit one that wears clothing and is a biped).

Rating: 3.50

April 5 2017

--
As I noted in my review for volume 5, I was ill when I read this and I read three volumes back to back (not actually all in a row since there was a nap here or there), so some of the information that got lodged in my brain might correspond to a different volume than this one.

Let's see - in this one Jane's mother visits. Jane believes that the mother still doesn't know Jane is a lesbian and so tries to get Skye, her current girlfriend, to stop trying to 'ruin' things - while also 'using' her roommate Ethan as a stand-in boyfriend. Apparently Jane has been using Ethan for this purpose for eons now.

Meanwhile, Dorothy and Jane sleep together (yes, while Jane is still dating Skye), and Dorothy is attempting to figure out what this means. And if they can actually have a relationship. Skye, in the meantime, is attempting to 'reform' Jane so that she stops eating junk food (in this or the next volume, Dorothy and Skye show up and won't leave before the other, so Jane bails - while Jane is out of sight, Skye throws away all of Jane's junk food (which basically means all of Jane's food since she doesn't really eat much but for junk food)).

Let's see let's see. Jill 'has an assignment' that takes her into snowy territory and does or doesn't sleep with another woman while she may or may not still be 'dating' Chele (it's all a blur in my mind; like, who the fuck gave Jill this assignment? Last I heard, Jill and Chele had been thinking about starting their own agency but hadn't yet - though both quit wherever they did work - so, again, who the fuck gave Jill this assignment? I'm completely confused).

I think this is also the volume when the aliens return Dixie to earth and she promptly restarts a relationship with Ethan (this or the prior volume . . . I think). Why did the aliens return her? Because, apparently, Dixie is so girly that she was messing up the space-ship - just like she had done with Jane's place - which included the aliens suddenly finding themselves wearing floral print outfits. Because . . . um . . Dixie is very femme? Something.

Despite the cover illustration - Jane and Chele do not, in fact, hook up again in this volume, nor, unless I missed it, do they ride around on her motorcycle. Or maybe they did. This was a confusing volume.

Rating: 3.50

April 5 2017

--
At either the start of this volume or the end of the last volume, Jill is kidnapped and the kidnappers (who have been seen in the Jane's World comics before, they are the Nevada Mullet Liberation Army (or something like that)) have informed Chele that she can have Jill back for $2 million.

Oh - the description for this volume just reminded me - Jill looks remarkably like the woman Virginia, Chele's mother, loved way back when. Believing . . . um . . that Virginia would stop trying to hump Jill if Rachel was back in Virginia's life, Chele and Jill begin a hunt to track down this woman (I believe this hunt actually started in the last volume, but maybe it started in this one).

Meanwhile Ted is attempting to get someone to mess up Bobbie's truck so he . . I mean she can make money off Bobbie losing. Ted has no redeeming qualities.

Meanwhile, Jane helps Rick on his annual 'drive into the desert in drag' event by driving an RV.

Eventually, somewhere along the way (and yes I do recall how and why it happened (heh, no, 'Vortex' wtf? I don't know why)) Jane turns into a bunny and Jill turns into a fox.

Despite people becoming their totem animals, and a lot of other wild stuff occurring, this was a lot more coherent volume than the previous one.

Rating: 3.75

April 5 2017

Mind Over Magic by William Rabkin

Mind Over Magic by William Rabkin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the second time I've read this book. And the second Psych I've read this year (oh, heh. I read first book of this series in 2008 and did a reread of it in . . . . 2015, 2 years ago, not this year, shesh).

The last time I read this book I gave it a solid 4 star rating, and this time I actually increased it a little to 4.25. It was actually a tiny bit better than I had recalled, and better than expected.

Shaun does a favor for his father by dropping off a wedding gift at a place the father is banned from - the Fortress of Magic. While there Shaun accidentally reveals something about one of the groom's friends and the bride; and witnesses a magic act (well several but only one leaves a dead body behind). And so - once a dead body appeared the normal police turn up (Lassiter and Love-Interest - though they didn't flirt even once in this book, until I called her 'love-interest' I had actually overlooked that part. huh. weird, that).

A super rich billionaire type turns up, with a court order, barring the police from investigating (well, investigating the magic tank device thingie, but since the dead body is in it, from investigating the murder). Shaun and Gus get the super rich dude to agree to hire them (since there'd be a client/PI confidentiality thingie in place) and so Shaun's the one who gets the body out.

Shaun, Gus, and the police investigate. Lots of humor and fun unfolds. It's been 4 days since I actually read the book for the second time, so I can't really be more specific than that. That stuff occurred. Some of which was humorous. Some of which was mysterious. All of it felt like it was supposed to feel like - an episode of the Psych television series.

Rating: 4.25


April 7 2017



View all my reviews

Romancing the Inventor by Gail Carriger

A story about a really young woman of only 29 who is in the poor class in England way back in the 1800s. Really young? Well, the love interest, Genevieve Lefoux, of this woman, Imogene Hale, did keep repeating words that correspond to 'too young' or the like. To the point that I was beginning to feel icky and believe that I was somehow reading a pedophile book or something. TOO YOUNG TOO YOUNG!.

Remember how I noted that the woman was 29? And it's the 1800s? Now normally an unmarried woman of 29 would be considered 'too old' in this time period, but Genevieve is an ancient woman of something like 900 (I mean, this is a vampire book). Wait, no? That's not her age? She's actually 38? And there's only a 9 year age difference? And it isn't as if it was a woman of 18 'playing with' a girl of 9? But instead a woman of 38 using the 'too young' excuse to stay away from a woman of 29? Yes. By the way - precision, scientists are known for that. Quite important to them. Genevieve is a scientist. Vaguely disappointed that she would use 'too young' when the perfectly appropriate and acceptable 'too inexperienced' could have worked just as well without an icky feeling developing.

And I mention that 'poor class' part because 'class' is super important in the story, both in terms of how Imogene is of the servant/working class and because everyone around, for the most part, sees her and treats her as such (including herself). As in, at least in her own mind - 'not good enough' for someone like Genevieve.

Right, so. A woman grew up in a small country village knowing that there was something different about her. When her friends flirted with men, she didn't. When they married, she didn't. She didn't want anything to do with men. No, she saw herself as perverted because she wanted to 'do stuff' with other women. Which is how she ended up employed by the vampires - because they were basically the only source of employment for a woman like her; because they were considered 'perverted' themselves; and because Imogene didn't want to marry a man.

So Imogene went off and acquired a parlourmaid job with the local vampire hive. Whereupon she was alternatively ignored by the vampires, or abused by them. Also abusing her was the 'first footman' who liked pinching her, tripping her, and acting like a two year old near her. Not exactly what Imogene thought/expected she would find, but she is helping her family get food on the table.

There is one bit of brightness, though - one of the people living and working on the hive grounds is a scientist doing experiments. Wearing men's clothing and stuff. That'd be Genevieve. Imogene is quite aroused by this woman, but Genevieve seems reluctant to 'corrupt' her. Though she keeps doing something like a push-pull. Showing signs of want/need for Imogene, then pushing her away.

I was quite happy and eager to read this story when I saw it appear. I bought it immediately when it was first published. Then didn't read it. For there were other things to read. I'd read this author before - devoured her Parasol Protectorate series, but hadn't read her in seemingly forever.

I wanted to set myself up perfectly before I dove into this FF book. So I read that series Genevieve was in as a 9 year old (or however old she was), though she was a side character and not in all of the books (referring here to Finishing School). Then began a reread of that Parasol series. But only made it through 1 of the books in that series before I decided to just skip all that and dive into this book here.

I think I set myself up for failure. If I'd just wandered across this book, gazed it, briefly thought about whether to read or not read, and then read - my experience would likely have been different. But I kind of accidentally built up this massive wall of expectations. Which would have been hard to meet. And the book didn't meet my high expectations. Heck, even the cameos from the stars of the other books, well more from Parasol, were more annoying than a welcome blast from the past. More because they didn't really seem to be acting like themselves. Though that might be because I was actually seeing them from the outside in, for the first time, instead of from inside of them.

I'm not really sure what rating I should give this work. There were certain things I liked, and certain things I disliked - some of those 'disliked' things made me feel icky and vaguely ill. Tis life.

Rating: .... 3.15

April 2 2017