Lady Eve's Last Con

I read this in one effervescent gulp on a plane. It was a daytime flight, so I had to stay awake for my own good, and Lady Eve's Last Con kept me from noticing that I had been awake for 24+ hours. A heist novel, a comedy of manners, and a romance all rolled up into one gilded outer-space confection like some kind of literary gougère. Ruthi, a minor con artist in the throes of separation anxiety from her little sister, sets out (unasked!) to revenge herself on the wealthy cad who abandoned and impregnated said little sister. The best way to do this, of course, is through the most convoluted identity-cum-marriage hornswoggle ever devised. Unfortunately, this brings Ruthi into unexpected contact with some other, concurrent, far more life-and-death hornswoggles afoot on the glamorous Space!Art Deco station… and said cad's alluring and suspicious sister, Hot Butch Tuxedo Mask! How will our plucky main character get out of her predicament, and possibly into HBTM? With heaps of style, a genuinely touching story of personal growth, and a venture into outer-space kashrut law which made me guffaw from my middle seat and tied the whole glorious romp together in its combined absurdity and sincerity. A book for yiddishekopfs.

Chicken Run: A Letty Campbell Mystery, by Alma Fritchley

Chicken Run: A Letty Campbell Mystery, by Alma Fritchley. A charming romantic comedy about a lesbian chicken farmer in Yorkshire with lots of realistic detail about the '90s Manchester lesbian scene, plus a sudden and WTF plot swerve in the last 9 pages when the author apparently remembered that she'd sold the book as a mystery.
sholio: Highlander-Amanda with Rebecca (Highlander-Amanda Rebecca squee!)
[personal profile] sholio2018-11-23 01:40 pm

Rec: Chicken Run, by Alma Fritchley

A rec for a delightful mystery/romance about a lesbian chicken farmer in rural Yorkshire (and her lovers, friends, family, etc) is posted over at my DW blog.

If I Loved You Less (Tamsen Parker)

If I say that this is a f/f retelling of Emma set in Hawaii, you really know everything you need to know. Emma becomes Theo(dosia), who works in her father's surf shop; Mr Knightley becomes Kini, who owns a bakery; and so on.

I've read Emma within the last couple of years, and found myself nodding along as the beats came right on cue. Some of the adjustments worked better than others - I thought that Theo's father's obsession with kale and wheatberries and the like made a hilarious equivalent to Mr Woodhouse's enthusiasm for gruel, but was sceptical when Jane Fairfax's pianoforte was replaced by a mass spectrometer. At the same time, the updated setting allows for a significantly greater amount of racial diversity.

Of course, the fact that this is a f/f version means that I can now add the picnic scene to my collection of Terrible Awkward Parties In Queer Lit. (They play the 'Post-It Note On The Head' game. Enough said.)

I found this about the right length for what it was, and it was a quick and enjoyable read for a week in which I had a nasty cold.
sholio: sun on winter trees (Default)
[personal profile] sholio2018-06-29 04:10 am

By Any Other Name, by Natasha West

A happy review of a thoroughly delightful contemporary lesbian romcom version of Romeo & Juliet at my DW and at my Mar Delaney blog.