Review of Awakened by Fate

“Awakened by Fate” is a novel that means a lot to its author, that much is clear whenever she mentions it. I had attempted to read this once but my work was very stressful at the moment so I put it on hold and read it during the summer when I had a better time focusing and I’m happy I did.

“Awakened by Fate” is about Jackie, a woman who is living somebody else’s life. In an unhappy but open marriage with a man, she gets by through flings with women and drinking too much. Her life is forever changed when she is in a car crash after a party. After that she is introduced to a spiritual lifestyle, a shift that she desperately needs. I sometimes had problems liking Jackie, I didn’t agree with some of her choices, especially choices made before the accident but I also think that’s why I liked her by the end. I had seen her grow and accepted, just like she had too, that she wasn’t perfect.

I actually also liked the annoying husband – Kyle – who I understand I was probably not supposed to like at all; but he was so human with his shifting of blame and hypocrisy. I liked how he was portrayed.

I probably wouldn’t have read this book if I hadn’t interacted with the author. The contents are different than what I usually choses but honestly? It was nice. I’ve never read a lesfic like it. It feels like a story of personal growth mixed in with non-fiction and self-help and I don’t mean it in a bad way. I recommend it to anyone who wants to read a lesfic that is about a person rather than about a couple. The story is about Jackie, there might be other people there, but she owns it. It’s her story and that I liked.

“Awakened by Fate” is written by Lynn Lawler, a very nice woman who runs an amazing blog featuring lesfic reviews and interviews with authors. Even if you’re not interested in her book I implore you to check out her blog which you can find here. She puts a lot of energy and time into helping lesbian fiction grow and spread both on her blog and through different Facebook groups.

If you’re interested she has reviewed one of my novels plus interviewed me a few years ago.

Thanks for reading!

Review of Take Me Home by Ria M Apple

I don’t know about the rest of lesfic-reading people but I’m very bad at checking out new authors, which sucks because I’m a writer myself. I tend to find a few authors I like, a few books I like, and just read them over and over. I’m a chronic re-reader, self-diagnosed, landing somewhere between ashamed and proud. This summer I wanted to push myself to discover a couple of new authors and a couple of new books.

“Take Me Home” is one of the two novels/novellas that the author Ria M Apple has written. It’s the story of two young people who take a long car ride together and pretty much are enamored from the start. The narrative exists inside the head of 21-year-old Mia Alfred and the type of writing is very stream-of-consciousness. At times I loved it. How can you not love a book that has this as a quote:

I couldn’t help but fall in love with the main character, Mia. I liked the way her mind took little detours or added silly little details all of a sudden, sometimes things that had nothing to do with the story. I liked that she had left her hometown even if she failed at explaining why (at least to me). She was more than believable as a character who is 21-years-old and on the cusp of maturity.

I also liked her love-interest, Gen Bennet. I like how their conversation is more bantering than anything, biting and fun and getting deeper and deeper.

As you can see there is loads to like about this book and I still had trouble finishing it. I don’t mean to be mean, I have read other reviews of “Take Me Home” and they say the same thing. This book needs major editing. Spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, formatting mistakes etc… sometimes pretty bad ones.

I’m not trying to make the author feel bad, should she read this review – like I said before, I actually loved it. I self-published “State of Emergency” and I know that there are mistakes in there even after several beta readings and self-edits. I desperately hope to publish it through my publisher in the future (and am planning to ask soon) since it would be gold to have a professional editor to look at it. Editing is needed, that’s all I mean. It’s almost impossible to only self-edit your work. “Take Me Home” is a lovely story, I think it deserves better.

I do recommend it as a nice romantic story, I enjoyed it very much at times.

Thanks for reading!