Ladies
Only Anthology
By
Cari Z, Helena Maeve, R.A. Padmos, HK Carlton, and Lucy Felthouse
Pride
Publishing, 2016
Ladies Only is a new lesbian erotic romance anthology from Pride
Publishing. I requested a review copy when I saw a post about it on
HK Carlton’s blog. The authors featured in the book include some of
my favorites (including HK), plus I was delighted to see Pride
putting out some F/F fiction.
The
book includes five tales in the 10-15K word range. (Overall the PDF
version is 205 pages.) Each one focuses on the relationship between
two women.
The
heroine in “Worth a Shot” by Cari Z has a lucrative business
detailing racing cars. Samara dreads the idea of getting a housemate
to occupy the other side of her duplex, but when Katie shows up, the
young woman seems a perfect fit. Katie and Sam have lots in
common—including a strong
mutual attraction. As they grow closer, Sam starts imagining they
might build a life together. However, Katie’s past is full of
secrets. An innocent error on Sam’s part exposes them both to
danger and tears them apart, apparently forever.
In
“The Woman Next Door” by Helena Maeve, an artist confronts the
neighbor whose noisy renovation is preventing her from working, only
to discover that the occupant of the condo next door is an old enemy.
Eight years before, Yvonne Barros destroyed Ziva’s business and
brought Ziva close to bankruptcy. There’s no way Ziva wants her as
a neighbor. However, Yvonne has suffered her own reversals. The
elegant executive seems to have changed, and to want Ziva as a
friend—and more. Ziva’s
equally drawn to her nemesis. But can the woman who ruined her once
be trusted not to do it again?
R.A.
Padmos’ “The Tiny Blue House” is a luscious lesbian fable about
love, loss, and wonderful food. Young chef Molly Knowles roams the
country in her mobile home, working in kitchens, picking up new
recipes, and enjoying the women she meets along the way. When she
experiences the cooking of Chiara Loss, it’s love at first taste.
HK
Carlton’s “In the Flesh” offers a gritty tale of exotic
dancers, mob bosses and undercover cops. ATF officer Kate infiltrates
a skin club run by the Traviano crime family, posing as a dancer. She
falls hard for Carly, a stunningly talented stripper who’s linked
to the mob boss’s son. In a world where the slightest mistake can
be deadly, Kate struggles to do her job without giving up her
incendiary relationship with Carly.
In
“Window Dressing”, Lucy Felthouse creates a feisty young woman
who is building a career as a shop-fitter. Jessie is sent from Leeds
to London to create an elaborate display for an Oxford Street shop.
It’s the most important job she’s ever undertaken—and
it’s being supervised by a woman with a legendary reputation for
being critical and nasty. At first, Edith lives up to the stories
about her dragon-like personality, but as the long night wears on,
Jessie gets to see another side of the dragon lady. She finds that
Edith is a woman with strong desires—and
those desires include Jessie herself.
Overall,
Ladies Only is a very enjoyable book. The quality of the
writing is uniformly high, while the styles of the authors are
sufficiently diverse that I didn’t get bored. I particularly liked
the slightly fairy-tale quality of R.A. Padmos’ tale. She creates a
happily-ever-after world where you find yourself exactly where you’re
supposed to be: in seaside town where a long-time lesbian couple has
the ideal spot for parking your trailer, and where your soul mate
works in the kitchen.
HK
Carlton’s story features wonderfully intense sex scenes. “In the
Flesh” captures the sensual quality of dancing and reflects my
personal experience that dancing is often the first step toward
making love. Actually, I found the plot in this story rather
implausible. However, the chemistry between Kate and Carly more or
less distracted me from that weakness.
The
characters in the other three stories pulled me in, especially Ziva.
I loved the portrayal of her artistic talent, the fact that she never
knows what she’ll paint until she’s standing in front of the
canvas. To be honest, however, I found the erotic aspects of these
three stories a bit perfunctory and unconvincing. Compared to other
lesbian erotic romance I’ve read, these stories seemed a bit thin.
One
reason for this, I think, is the rather awkward length of the stories
in the collection. They’re neither true short stories nor novellas,
but something in between. Too long to have the stunning immediacy of
a vignette, they’re still too brief to really explore the
development of an emotional and sexual relationship. I’ve
encountered the frustrations of this length myself. More than once
reviewers have commented on what seemed like abrupt endings in my 15K
stories. The fact is, I more or less ran out of word count.
In
any case, I’m delighted to see Pride Publishing releasing more
lesbian fiction. Ladies Only is a solid collection which I
think may be particularly appropriate for readers of other romance
subgenres who are curious about F/F relationships. There’s nothing
scary or foreign here—just
pairs of women who fall in love, like anyone else.
