Sistahs on the Shelf

Strebor, Aug. 2008
272 pages
Historical Fiction
www.ldbrownbooks.com

Rating:  3½ out of 5

The past comes back to haunt in Laurinda D. Brown’s fifth solo title, THE HIGHEST PRICE FOR PASSION. Beginning in the volatile pre-Civil War era, her latest novel follows illicit exploits of slaves and masters as their lives intersect in the most perilous ways. Several characters narrate the story filled with infatuations and horrors that arise during a time when blacks were no more than tortured servants for white masters.

The fiery tale begins from the eyes of Amelia, a slave who recounts her life and the terror she endured escaping her master. Amelia, born from a white mother and slave, grew up knowing she wasn’t like the other workers around her. Yet because of the time and place she inhabited, she had to keep the appearance of being like the other black folks around her. One night her lineage is discovered, and it eventually leads to her disappearance.

But Amelia’s roots trace back far before her birth, tied to a shaky family tree with unspeakable secrets. Passion explores her heritage from her descendents and to a host of other characters from three generations ago – ones whose desires lead them to destructive behavior. There’s Massa Gray, who after years of rumors, can’t deny his attraction to the male form, including his own slaves; McKinley Wellsworth, whose notoriety as a hard-nosed master, is essentially a product of his tortured upbringing; and then there’s her own father, Josiah, whose attraction for Amelia’s mother couldn’t be contained and produced a love child he had to abandon.

Amelia, as she tells her life story, is aware of the passions that consume those around her, including her master and mistress. Both have strong connections to the beautiful slave, and she’s treated somewhat better than other blacks on the plantation. But Amelia knows her destiny and that there’s something more out there for her than a life of servitude.

Brown has a tackled a novel with historical significance with Passion, a book worlds apart from the contemporary novels she’s written such as Fire & Brimstone, UnderCover,Walk Like a Man and Strapped. The drama is still there, only from an earlier time and place. Brown has done her research with this story, and offers something different for black lesbian readers with Passion, a tale we should read not only for its compelling subject matter, but so that we can gain perspective with how far our race has come.

Reviewed October 2008

1st Books Library, Mar. 2002
388 pages
Contemporary Fiction/Religious
www.reginaknox.com

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

God works in his own time, and lovers Angela Lord and Kennedy Brooks face this complexity as they wrestle with their loyalties to Him in HOW CAN AN ANGEL TAKE MY HEART: THE POSITIVE SIDE OF TEMPTATION. The debut novel from Regina Knox chronicles the struggle between religion and homosexuality as Angela and Kennedy fall deeper in love, but at a price that almost cost their souls.

Angela and Kennedy’s chance meeting is at a time when they both need something more. Angela, a single mother of two, found herself in a dead-end relationship with a stud she’s not in love with. Kennedy is a highly successful businesswoman with several companies under her belt who doesn’t want for anything – until she encounters Angela on a business trip. The feminine ladies have an immediate attraction, and pretty soon Kennedy’s boyfriend, Robert, and Angela’s live-in lover, Tonya, are forgotten.

Yet there’s more to their connection than simply falling in love, as Angela and Kennedy soon discover. While Angela had previously come to terms with her sexuality, being with a woman was all new for Kennedy. Not only is it a shock herself, but to her parents – her father’s a preacher – and Robert, who had planned to propose to Kennedy upon her return. Everyone weighs their opinions and reminds her of what the Bible speaks of: that homosexuality is an abomination. And armed with everyone’s beliefs, Kennedy is torn between what’s right and what’s in her heart.

Angela has her own crosses to bear, namely a sinister ex-husband attempting to take her kids because of her lesbian status. Though not very religious, Angela is fighting her own demons about whether their relationship would please the Lord. It leads her to church, finding solace in singing the Lord’s praises and doing what believes will make Him happy.

Eventually, it doesn’t sit well with Angela or Kennedy that they may be compromising their spirituality, and the lovers have to figure out whether being with the one you love and giving in to temptation is what God truly intended.

In Angel, Knox writes an extremely sensitive portrayal of what a lesbian endures when confronting both her sexuality and religion. Black lesbians especially receive more grief when it comes to being gay, and hear more religious rhetoric that only confounds the issue. It’s great that Knox has put that struggle in a book that is honest and heart-wrenching.

With the sequel to Angel to be published this fall, I would love to see where she takes Angela and Kennedy next.

Reviewed October 2008

AriSiri Publishing, May 2008
276 pages
Bisexual/Contemporary Fiction/Straight Books With Lesbian Characters
http://writerwithinonline.com/

Rating: 3 out of 5

The ladies of Synergy Wireless are off the chain. Never has a group of scandalous employees been introduced than in LOVE LUST AND A WHOLE LOTTA DISTRUST by author DeiIra Smith-Collard. They love, they fight, and basically wreak havoc on own their own lives – just another day at the office.

Co-workers Nicole, Kendra Carmell and Natina play a lot harder than they work, bed-hopping and game-playing with the best of them. Nicole is the woman who refuses to take no for answer when it comes to fellow employee, Jason. Disregarding the fact that Jason is a player, she is determined to make the playboy settle down, even if it means tricking him and making a fool of herself – or destroying her relationship with her best friend, Kendra. Seeing Kendra and Jason together, she vows to do anything to push her friend out of the way to have Jason.

Meanwhile, Kendra’s not even studying Jason. She has her hands full with her own affair with Gia, a woman she met online. She chats with the Atlanta native every single day, exchanging poetry and photos. Soon the mental affair becomes a physical when Kendra is sent to Atlanta for work. They hit it off in, and Kendra is torn between the most passionate affair of her life and her dutiful husband.

While that drama unfolds, Carmell and Natina are new employees who extend their work endeavors to after-hours fun, hitting the town hard. It’s all fun at first, but there’s a misunderstanding when Carmell crosses the line with Natina. Believing Natina is sending her mixed signals, Carmell vows to make the woman her own, while humiliating her in the process and possibly destroying Natina’s new relationship with Louis.

And it just gets more outrageous from there. Smith-Collard keeps your attention with the antics of these amorous employees, where work takes a backseat to drama. The characters are fleshed out, and Smith-Collard is definitely a story-teller; it’s a rush just to see what will happen next.

But with all the going-ons going on at Synergy Wireless, I don’t see how the ladies get any work done.

Reviewed October 2008

Urban Books, Sept. 2008
288 pages
Contemporary Romance/Bisexual
http://www.askannaj.com

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Anna J., known for her girl-on-girl, off-the-chain romps, is back yet again with another tale of lust, lies and lesbian action with MY LITTLE SECRET. The newest story from the author of My Woman His Wife and The Aftermath brings us Midori Hunter and Jayday B., two women whose secret affair goes from hot to dangerous very quickly.

The passion between the two is undeniable, despite the fact Midori is married to a top physician and has everything a wealthy wife could want. Jaydah, in her own right, is a highly successful author who has enough drama for several books. Their story begins when Jaydah encounters Midori at one her bookstore signings, and they realize their attraction is more than a storybook romance.

But after two years of being Midori’s little side dish, Jaydah is sick of the game. It doesn’t matter how many promises or “I love you’s” Midori comforts her with, Jaydah simply wants her all to herself. How can Midori deny how they feel, lie about her whereabouts, and share the things they share and not want to have something more?

Jaydah can’t get down with Midori’s fickle affection, and tries with great effort, to break it off – more than once. The back and forth of these two women is the meat of the story, who can’t seem to let go of one another, and at some points, even using desperate measures to get what they want. When Jaydah lets go, Midori worms her way back in. When Midori goes back to her neglectful, unfulfilling husband, Jaydah uses a calculated move to get her woman back. They can’t quite let go, but can never have each other as they wish.

What are two horny women to do?

In My Little Secret, Anna J . knows how to bring the lesbian action better than any “straight” woman can. The plot is a little sparse, other than the vacillating relationship between Midori and Jaydah, but the hot sex scenes somewhat make up for that. What’s really intriguing is the character Jaydah, who seems to be deliberately similar to Anna J.

Could there possibly be some truth to fiction?

Reviewed October 2008

Dafina, June 2008
262 pages
Contemporary Romance
www.lindavillarosa.com

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

We’ve all dealt, in some form or fashion, with the issue of being black, being a woman, and being gay - at times feeling as if you don’t really fit on any side, but having to stay true to both aspects of yourself. In PASSING FOR BLACK, the first foray into fiction by renowned journalist Linda Villarosa, this entanglement is experienced by Angela Wright, a buppie struggling with both her sexual and racial identities.

By outside appearances, Angela’s life is seamless in her middle-class world, where she’s an editor at Désire magazine, engaged to a history professor at a prominent university and mingles with a Black elite inner circle. Yet it’s simply a facade. Angela has never felt secure with herself, and “passing” is simply her coping mechanism to deal with never feeling “black enough.” With her mother, Janice, considered a local heroine in the black female community, she always felt tragically compelled to live up to her mother’s roots. And at 29, she should be ready to be married after a six-year relationship with Keith, but something always holds her back. Namely, her attraction to women, a temptation she forbade herself from having for so many years.

But it’s one she can’t resist with Cait Getty, one of Keith’s colleagues at Amsterdam University. After spying the woman hanging posters for a lesbian sex conference, all pretenses of a white picket fence life fade away. Instead, she finds herself drawn to the androgynous vibe of this white woman, an activist whose fervor for women’s issues is only matched by her passion for Angela. With sandy brown hair, boyish good looks and British accent, Cait is nothing Angela expected to be infatuated with. In fact, she’s everything opposite of what her family and friends would see her with.

It leaves Angela, who’s normally indecisive and non-confrontational, torn as to whom she should be with. Her head tells her to do the right thing and stay with her “good black man,” while her heart demands she face her fears and be with the one person who makes her feel true to herself. It’s a hard decision, with consequences that will manage to hurt anyone involved.

And while Angela’s living an illusion, others in her life are also passing. Cait focuses so much lesbian rights that she ignores the plight of anyone else that doesn’t fit in her box. Keith feigns a “good Negro” veneer to his white superiors while alienating his own people. Even her best friend, Mae, learns to leave her Southern roots behind to be accepted in the workplace.

Yet Angela is the center of this provocative tale. When Angela decides her future much later, she satisfies her craving to be true to herself, and passing just isn’t good enough anymore. Because of Cait, everything she never thought she wanted turns out to be everything she needs.

Passing for Black makes for a challenging read. Villarosa tackles the subject of racial and sexual identity with class and a sense of humor. It’s down-to-earth enough for the casual reader, and speak to any black lesbian feeling out of step with their two worlds. Passing conveys that every woman’s journey to herself is never easy, but one she shouldn’t spend passing by.

Reviewed August 2008

Xpress Yourself Publishing, LLC , Feb. 2008
112 pages
Erotica/Short Story/Bisexual
www.hazelmillsstories.com

Rating: 3 out of 5

When passions are laid bare, it can be sensual, exciting and worth every minute.

The same can be said about BARE NECESSITIES: SENSUOUS TALES OF PASSION, the collection of naughty gems and poems written by Hazel Mills. Containing 11 stories of sexual candor, Bare Necessities combines a little bit of romance and a little bit of sin to create a short-but-sweet romp worth reading.

Bare Necessities begins with “A Lover is Born,” where Laila is introduced to Gabe at her book club meeting and is instantly entranced. She wants to get to know Gabe better, and what better way than to host the next gathering at her place. The bash is a success in more ways than one, as the two ladies manage to get their own party started.

In “Surrender,” a workaholic husband and wife put the spice back into their marriage by attending a couple’s retreat. Yet, this isn’t just a boring therapy session; it’s an experience that allows them to seek unknown pleasures, and from it the married lovers learn that it’s okay to let go and explore their freaky sides.

Then in the most poignant tale of Bare Necessities, “Sweet Home Alabama,” a Philadelphia transplant returns for her family reunion in Sweet Home, a small town with even smaller dreams. Despite escaping, Tracy has only one regret after leaving her hometown: abandoning her childhood sweetheart, Monica. She vows to find her - and finally be with the woman she never stopped loving.

There more treasures in Bare Necessities, and Mills doesn’t hesitate to give them to you. Her stories are funny, warm, and hot in just the right places. Even though the book has a mere hundred or so pages, it doesn’t fail to get you fired up. I look forward to reading more from Mills - hopefully in a book with a much higher page count.

Reviewed August 2008

New World Publishing, May 2008
230 pages
Contemporary Romance
www.freewebs.com/zariajones

Rating: 4 out of 5

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. If that’s true, the characters in LOOKIN’ FOR A LOVER are sure to have a spot saved just for them.

Lookin’ For a Lover, the debut novel from author Zaria, follows the path leading to love, one that had such high hopes but doesn’t necessarily end on that street. The main character, Zaria Jones, thought her long-desired dreams of being with a woman were finally fulfilled, but, like life, doesn’t always work out as planned.

Zaria is a thoughtful, no-nonsense day care director by day, and a true freak at night. Her fantasies are of the woman variety, and are so vivid that she begins to question her sexuality. Despite what her dreams suggest, Zaria denies her passion, believing that it’s just because she hasn’t found “a good man” yet. She’s looking but hasn’t had any luck, except for her maintenance man, Blade.

Her luck changes when she discovers her perfect mate is a woman, whom she meets by chance at a local bookstore. Zaria is instantly entranced by Charmaine’s hazel eyes and bodacious frame. They hit it off and soon begin seeing a lot more of each other. It gets real serious real fast. Zaria couldn’t have imagined her all dreams could have come true with her first lesbian relationship.

From there, Zaria’s ready to tell the world how happy she is. Everyone’s not exactly thrilled with the couple’s new found love. It takes a strength Zaria’s never known to face the fact that she’s in love, and to get past the rejection from her family and friends. Zaria knows her relationship with Charmaine is worth the pain - or is it?

Lookin’ For a Lover is an intense but enjoyable novel. The book is filled with Zaria’s sugar-filled fantasies taken to the next level. Those moments alone will keep you enthralled, but the novel’s supporting characters and their storylines take the cake, as well. I definitely plan to read the sequel. With that being said, some of the book’s more outrageous situations will lead one to believe being gay is a catalyst to being crazy.

This makes for a more exciting read, but a sad one, nonetheless.

Reviewed August 2008

Angel Pearl Publishing, Dec. 2007
220 pages
Contemporary Romance/Intrigue
www.appublishing.net

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

If money can buy love, then it can never be true. This is the case in LOVE & MONEY DON’T MIX, the debut novel authored by KoKo B.

The story revolves around Amanda and Shaun, a seemingly perfect couple who first meet a party. Becoming inseparable almost immediately, the two grow together through the years, sharing their lives. There are things that bother Amanda, the narrator of this tale, such as Shaun’s uncomfortable distance from her family and her overly ambitious nature. However, Shaun is a go-getter in every sense of the word, and only wants to make a better life for herself and Amanda.

So when she takes a job with a dubious businessman, Russo Tolentino, the money is flowing and Shaun is thrilled to have such a high-powered post. In fact, the money’s so good, it blinds Shaun to the fact that there might be more than meets the eye with her boss. It’s only when employees come up dead that the couple realizes this job is placing their own lives in danger.

Someone is after them, and with crooked cops in the mix, Amanda and Shaun only have each other to lean on. Can their love be enough to get them through this unsavory situation?

Love & Money Don’t Mix is an intriguing book, one you could easily sit down and breeze through in an afternoon. While there are some interesting plot twists, the story doesn’t live up to its premise of a lesbian couple on the run. I felt Amanda and Shaun’s characters weren’t as fleshed out as they should have been, and therefore I wasn’t as invested in the couple’s struggles. The excessive grammatical errors don’t help either. With that being said, Love & Money is still a story that can hold your attention.

Reviewed August 2008

Black Tygre Publications, Apr. 2008
126 pages
Poetry/Short-Story
www.eternity-philops.com

Rating: 5 out of 5

A sweet feeling washes over you when reading VISIONS OF A CRYPTIC MYSTERY: VOLUME ONE, a vibe of spiritual and sexual serenity.

Author Eternity Philops’ Visions is a beautiful view from which readers won’t be able to tear their eyes away. Excellent in its form, approach and creativity, Visions captures your senses. Both poetry and prose encompass this brilliant array of work that speaks to black lesbians everywhere. Its unique charm lies in Philops’ poems that clinch the mind with a metaphysical theme and her short stories that engage the heart.

Visions is categorized by three fragments titled Love, Loss and Life. The first, Love, captures the emotion and physical aspects of affection, with stories concerning unrequited love in “Almost First Kiss” and love beyond time in “Black Lace.” The poems in this section compliment these stories with an air of “Cosmic Intimacy.”

“Come soar with me
Be my love
We will stroll across a plateau of clouds,
Bathed in iridescent rays of sunlight
We shall picnic on the billowed hills of heaven,
As the soft rustle of God’s whispers blows gently
in our ears.”

The next section deals with the facet of Loss, as evidenced by the stories “Other Side of the Moon,” a tale of two women in love who never quite become one, and in “A Luncheon Scorned,” where a woman finally gives a former lover her just desserts. In this section, the poems underscore the feeling losing the most important thing in your life, as evidenced in “A Slight Wind.”

“Her whispered nothings are sweet
their smog a pollution
of my atmosphere
I’ve inhaled to deeply
the toxins of her tongue
Lungs full of a lover’s lies
I asphyxiate
for lack of pure clean truth”

In the final part of Visions, Philops writes about Life in its candor. In “Bait and Switch,” a con-woman finally meets her match and a workaholic learns there’s more to life than business in “An Affirmative Action.” The remainder of her poems in this section vary in themes from creation to dreams.

“Can I be your poet?
Can I write your journey
upon the eclipse of your soul
along the shadow of your benighted thoughts”

Philops’ Visions is a delight to read. It swiftly grabs you from page one, enveloping the reader in colorful and sensuous expressions that you won’t find in most Black lesbian novels. The poems are concise, inspired works of art that Philops has clearly mastered. The prose is mired in its every-woman appeal, making the reader both laugh and long for love. Philops, who wrote the first volume of over an extensive period and has plans for more, compares writing to opening the soul’s window, inviting you to see the view.

From reading Visions, the sight is quite exquisite.

Reviewed June 2008

BookSurge Publishing, Dec. 2006
254 pages
Romance/Hispanic Fiction
www.hersband.com
 
Rating: 4 out of 5

What starts in the 1960s and ends in the 1990s is the basis for HERSBAND, the semi-autobiographical, debut novel from Christina Batista. Protagonist Dena Vargas is a Brooklyn-born lesbian searching for true love, but instead discovers all kinds of misadventures with women.

With her light skin, curly hair and green eyes, Dena endured being a tomboy and having crushes on girls. She had always been honest with herself and her family about her sexuality, but finding someone to love proved to be the harder task.

After coming out at 20, she begins her foray into the gay world, along with her lesbian cousin Hilda. The women share the experiences and drama of falling and out of in love. Dena’s first encounter occurs when she becomes enamored of Marcy, a woman she meets at a party. Like the story of Cinderella, the pair share one dance, but due to unforeseen circumstances, don’t cross paths again. Dena spends months trying to find Marcy, turning down other available women to find the one she’s meant to be with.

And they do finally come together. And fall in love. And break up. And get back together. And break up yet again. Two years of this leads to the demise of their relationship, and dumps Dena back into the dating pool. This time though, she finds only quick or dead-end flings – and Dena never settles for the status quo.

Yet Dena’s story is far more than just her journey to love. It’s also about parties, dildos, fights, family, and simply a typical coming of age for a lesbian. Dena’s saga culminates when she realizes it’s time to settle down and become an adult – a transition we all have to make one way or another.

Hersband is an amiable novel, written by Batista with a flair for chronicling the life of a Hispanic lesbian. Here’s a character you’ll follow in her passage from a child and to a grown woman. Though slow at first, Hersband builds to a satisfying, cliffhanging finale.

What happens next with Dena, you never know – but you’ll want to find out.

Reviewed June 2008