REVIEWED BY L.A. ASHTON
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Genre: Paranormal Romance

Pairings: F/F

Queer Rep: Lesbian

Warnings: Blood, violence, rampant misogyny

L.A.'s Rating: Two Stars

[Note: I received an ARC of this work in exchange for an honest review]

Synopsis
Rachel and Sara cross paths on the full moon. A deep and immediate attraction overcomes them, but they part ways before initiating a full bond to receive approval from their Alpha Wolf fathers. Rachel’s father is accepting, but Sara has no such luck. Pain of an uncompleted bond seizes them, but Sara’s father is determined to keep them apart until the feeling fades.



General

This novella is marked as “4.5” in the “Regent Park Pack” series, but the author assured me it could be read as a standalone. As most of the books focus on individual couples and conflicts, I happily agreed. The world needs more lesbian werewolves.
But maybe not these lesbian werewolves.

Plot

The author was right—mostly. This novella can be read as a standalone. The conflict is built and resolved wholly within its pages, and the world-building was done simply. However, I do not think this piece is best consumed that way.

There were times during the novella where a lot of werewolf men were talking and I felt like I’d dropped into episode 39 of a long running TV series. The men were presented without much information to anchor them in the reader’s mind, and there were so many. They were previous series protagonists, no doubt. But they were cardboard cutouts to me, and it was difficult to care about any of them.

I’ve said before I’m not a fan of “love at first sight” or soulmate tropes, unless the piece seeks to defy them. Rachel and Sara are immediately attracted to each other with no buildup (there is a sex scene literally a few pages into the book) and I could have really dug the animalistic yearning of being forced apart, but... it was mostly just sad and mopey, which is fine, but not something to endear me to the dynamic. I think people who prefer this type of narrative would appreciate the piece much more than I did. It wound up not being a great match.

In general the novella felt very cliché. Tropes have their place, but it was always very obvious what was coming. Without something to shake up the pace or add spice, the words grew dull.

This was not helped by the fact that the protagonists did not actually propel the novella forward. The girls were very reactionary; everyone around them aimed to help their situation and puzzle things into place while they did extremely little. In the end, all but one of the final scenes was orchestrated by side-characters while the girls were dragged along. They did so happily—and hornily—but were strangely inconsequential to their own plot. Sara finally showed some steel at the end and leveraged the best possible outcome, but had she not done so, the result would have been similar.

Characters
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Neither of the girls captured me as I thought they would. Their personalities didn’t come through as well as I believe the author intended, which made my interest in their bond slowly degrade. I did love Sara’s grandmother. She is the MVP of this novella.
As I mentioned above, the men did not stick in my brain properly. We needed more one-on-one with some of them I think; as it stood, I could not remember one from the other or what personality/position belonged to who.
 
I’m a big fan of paranormal romance, but I am not a big fan of soulmate tropes. I think for fans of the series and maybe some fans of destined lovers/soulmates/etc, this could be a match. For me it was not.
 
Annabelle Jacobs’ official site can be found here, and her twitter is here.
 
Note: I am an Amazon Associate and I am using affiliate links. These do not affect you or my reviews.
 
From Amazon.com:
Bitten by Her (paperback)    |    Bitten by Her (ebook)

Genre: science fiction (space opera/military)

Pairings: female/female

Queer Representation: bisexual, pansexual, lesbian

Warnings: none

Rating: 3.5 stars

REVIEWED BY J.S.FIELDS, AUTHOR OF THE ARDULUM SERIES.

Review

Emé wakes up on a space station with no memory of who she is, but a complete memory of her job as a security chief. With every part of what makes her her missing, Emé must learn to trust those around her while she pieces her life back together. It turns out, however, that the person she was before was a liar–a good one–and Emé must unravel not only her personal identity, but determine why she lead a second life on Dragonfire station…with a wife who was originally her ‘mark.’

General

Heeeey it’s space lesbians! My favorite trope! The book started off strong, with a great hook chapter with Em waking up without her self-memory but a great technical memory… and then having to go home with a wife she does not remember. Em also discovers she has some uncanny fighting skills that she’s been hiding from the entire station. There’s great tension, the pacing is reasonable, and the interaction between Em and her wife is fantastic. The only time the pacing drops is in the final third of the book, when Em leaves Dragonfire station to find her missing Black Ops friends. Even then it doesn’t drop so much as it changes. The book goes from a sweet space opera directly into military sci fi, which was a little jarring. It was almost like two books smashed into one without much transition, leaving me to wonder if the rest of the books in this (extensive) series skew to the space opera side, or the military sci fi side.
 
Writing

This is one of those times were the narrative carried the book despite its flaws. The writing could have been much cleaner and direct, and there were numerous instances of timeline conflicts (pg 89, for instance, when Wren tells Em that a friend will be visiting for dinner that night, only to have Wren and Em watch a movie and go to bed because the friend actually isn’t coming over until the next night). The editorial work on this book was not tight, but it was easy to forgive amongst the intrigue of Em’s identity and the richness of the station.
 
Characters

I was instantly involved with Em. Her lost memory and the issues surrounding her wife and living situation created strong conflict from the first page and drove the book the entire time Em was on the station. Wren, her wife, was three-dimensional despite having very little page time. There was a menagerie of secondary station characters, all of whom were fleshed out and had distinct personalities. A number of cultures were very well described as well, giving a 270 page book surprising depth.

The members of the Black Ops team were less compelling, likely because they were introduced late in the book and had little screen time. It was hard to make the transition between Em’s daily station life and her Black Ops life, especially after she left the station. I think I needed more investment in the three other ops characters before I could get on board with the story line moving in their direction. One of the main factors keeping me from picking up the next book, in fact, is the uncertainty of whether it would continue the military side with Em’s operative friends, or whether it would drive Em back to the station and her interpersonal relationships there.
In the end, TRANSLUCID is a strong addition to the lesbians in space genre. Those interested in space opera and its intersection with military science fiction will enjoy this book. Those looking for straight space opera may want to look elsewhere.
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You can buy TRANSLUCID in ebook here and paperback here.

Sliding out of the Austin, it’s dark red paint smeared with mud and snow, May tugged her coat tighter around her middle and frowned at the other vehicle, a beat-up old truck, then turned her frown to the house and the person there. She had been leaning against the door for all the world as though waiting for May to arrive, and was now straightening, stepping forward, large-boned but lanky, trousers tucked into sturdy, dirty boots.

‘Are you the new doctor?’ Astonishingly blue eyes stared out from under a hat at May and she realised with a start that it was a woman. A woman with a rather striking face, straight dark brows, high cheekbones.

May had to search for her voice. ‘Yes,’ she said, feeling interest and curiosity curling inside her belly. ‘I didn’t realise there was going to be anyone here to meet me.’

The woman – because she was definitely female, despite the men’s clothing, trousers and a thick sheepskin-lined jacket – shook her head at May.

“I’m not a welcoming party.’ The eyes blinked, squeezed together, then opened again, and May caught herself thinking they looked tired, and shadowed, burdened. She held her coat tighter and pressed a surreptitious hand against her heart. She cleared her throat instead and searched for her best professional voice.

‘So how can I help you then?’ she asked, allowing a smile. ‘Since you seem to have very lucky timing?’ The wind blew ice into her ears and she shrugged down deeper into her coat.

The woman caught her movement and winced. ‘You’ll want to get warm and you’re probably tired, Jack said you were coming up from Dunedin today…’

‘Jack?’ May didn’t know any Jack. The woman’s voice was nice though, sort of low-pitched and…almost musical.
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‘Works at the feedstore.’ She shifted on her feet as though impatient, then took a step forward. ‘Look, I know you’ve only just arrived, but I need your help.’ ​