Writer,
reviewer, editor Lori L. Lake has given us two timely reviews this
issue:Radclyffe's Above All Honor
Verda Foster's The Gift
| Lori L. Lake, is the author of Different Dress, Gun Shy, Under The Gun, Ricochet In Time, and Stepping Out is also a reviewer for Midwest Book Review, The Independent Gay Writer, The Gay Read, and Just About Write, and Golden Crown Literary Society’s The Crown. |
 The Gift By Verda Foster Intaglio Publications 2004/$17.50/212 pgs/ ISBN: 1933113030 Charming Cross-Genre Romance Lindsay Ryan, a redhead who looks like “an older, Irish version of Shirley Temple,” has no family to speak of and has been a loner for much of her life. It’s not due to her looks—she’s a nice-looking mid-thirties-aged gal. But she’s hiding a secret, which has kept her from getting close to anyone. She has recently moved to a new town and hasn’t been at her job for many months when she is confronted with a vision so compelling, so palpable, and so frightening that she is moved to warn the family of a child she keeps “seeing” victimized. Police detective Rachel Todd is sent out to investigate a stalker case and meets Lindsay, the alleged stalker. The two take an immediate dislike to one another, especially when Rachel decides Lindsay is some sort of lunatic and has her jailed. Rachel has been alone for the last few years after losing the people most important to her, and she’s not too good with the touchy-feely stuff. She’s focused on the day-to-day of her gritty, demanding job. Both women’s lives are turned upside down when Lindsay’s visions start coming true. Rachel has to decide whether to believe Lindsay—or not—and before a plot of murder, kidnapping, and abuse is exposed, Lindsay will have to draw on reserves of strength she didn’t realize she had. Rachel, too, must learn to trust in this cross-genre action/romance about two hearts who have loved and lost, but with any luck at all may be found once again. Entertaining and recommended. |
 Above All, Honor By Radclyffe Bookends Press 2002/$17.50/216 pgs/ ISBN: 0972492623 Blair Powell is an artist living in New York City. She has spent years in the limelight, first as the only child of a governor, then after her father becomes president, as First Daughter to the widowed Powell. She’s one of the most recognizable women in the world and must behave perfectly, assist her father, and periodically attend state dinners and international functions. Blair can hardly remember a time when she wasn’t trailed by a contingent of Secret Service agents. But she has grown tired of this gig—especially because she has spent years hiding something very important. The daughter of the president of the United States is gay. How can Blair have a life, a relationship, or any privacy at all with a protective detail shadowing her every move? She becomes adept at slipping away from her protectors, and this becomes a major problem. Every seedy bar she enters, every apartment she sneaks off to, every unscheduled visit to a store or gym could potentially spell disaster for her. But to have freedom is more important to Blair than her own safety. And then the attractive, honorable, and imminently capable Agent Cameron Roberts is brought in to whip the team into shape and crack down on Blair’s incorrigible actions. No longer can Blair be allowed to run free. This doesn’t square with Blair’s needs and desires. She believes that “the handsome agent saw her only as an assignment—an object to be moved, contained, and controlled on some giant chessboard. Blair might be the queen, but she had been stripped of her power. She was ruled by pawns, and she hated it. Especially when her keeper was a woman so attractive that she felt a twinge of desire every time she saw her” (p. 56). Chess is a good analogy for the game of feints and dodges that goes on between the two women, one determined to keep Blair safe at any costs, the other determined to maintain her autonomy and freedom. Cameron is honorable and plays by the book. She will not surrender to her own emotions, even as she begins to feel more for Blair than she thinks she should. Neither woman fully realizes the danger that surrounds them, for there are forces at work behind the scenes that could bring death and disaster to Blair and anyone around her. Will Cameron be able to protect Blair? And can she protect her own heart from the growing affection she feels? This is a classic romance with all the angst, all the action, and all the twists and turns that any reader could want. Not only did Radclyffe nail the Secret Service details and all the procedural issues facing a team responsible for such an important assignment, she is also right on with both of these engaging characters. Cameron and Blair are multifaceted, sexy, bull-headed, and downright fascinating. No wonder the author has been able to write a whole series. I look forward to reading the next book, HONOR BOUND. Highly recommended. |