Two and a Possible by Dahni McPhail

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Publisher/Date:  Lulu, March 2008
Genre: Romance
Pages:  178
Website:  http://www.dahnimcphail.com

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Love military style is the order of TWO AND A POSSIBLE, the debut novel by Dahni McPhail, who writes a sensitive, insightful story of a black lesbian in the Army.

With the main character of the same name as the author, the life of a private is shown in great detail as she falls in love for the first time against the backdrop of basic training. Dahni leaves home for the first time at 18, headed for an army base with dreams of glory. Drawn to the structure and professionalism of the military, she immediately aspires to climb the ranks as an officer.

That is until Dahni meets her own drill sergeant of pain, Sergeant First Class Jones aka the Jackal. After that, her life is never the same. The Jackal puts Dahni through her paces, torturing her and her fellow privates – christened the Kru – who soon become her sisters-in-crime. Jones gives them hell every single day, and Dahni will never forget the merciless woman.

While being tormented, Dahni manages to have a love life – as much as you can have in the military with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” laws. After surmising her inexperience, Private Sealyn Scott teases Dahni unmercifully with questions. Their flirtation takes a new level when they celebrate graduating basic training; she savors the sweet taste of a woman, but it leaves her confused about what it means about herself and her sexuality. She can’t be attracted to women…can she?

Not helping matters is the fact that she may never see Sealyn again. After being transferred to Germany, Dahni is on her own, with no friends or love in her life. She meets her firecracker roommate, MiMi, a Black-Korean beauty who gets her out of her shell and out of the closet. MiMi shows her that she can love a woman without being scared. It goes effortlessly until Sealyn reappears. Whom will she choose: her first love or her new one?

McPhail has a masterpiece on her hands with Two and a Possible. It combines a love story with a subject she knows well, as she served in the armed forces herself. It’s so finely portrayed you feel like you’re there. The drama is engaging, without being too scandalous. McPhail is definitely a writer to watch, and one I’ll make room for on my shelf.

Reviewed February 2009

You Think You Know by Fina (Dec. 2008 Pick of the Month)

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Publisher/Date:  Seven Stages Publishing House, June 2008
Genre(s):  Erotica, Short Story
Pages:  132
Website:  http://www.finasflow.com

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What you don’t know about YOU THINK YOU KNOW, the debut novel from author Fina, is that you can’t possibly know just how good it is to read a work of black lesbian fiction as passionate, honest and explosive as these 15 tales of love between women.

Each story electrifies with carnal desires and insatiable lust, while caressing the heart in sincere reflections. Nothing has ever felt this easy when it comes to describing  our lives and loves.

Take for example, the confusion expressed in “The Lesbian Circle of Destruction,” which revolves around the scandalous relationships we have as women-loving  women. Monogamy is a dirty word with these women, whose almost incestuous ties can be found in any small lesbian community. For instance, your best friend is sleeping with your ex, while you’re still pining away over your first love, who’s now your best friend. Talk about complicated.

What you see is what you get in “She Finally Let Me Have a Femme All to Myself.” Who can ignore a story that begins with, “Have you ever just wanted to eat some pussy?” It gets more uninhibited from there, in a way that grabs your attention and won’t let go.

Balanced with the hardcore fantasies of You Think You Know are thoughtful works about love, expressed in “You,” pinpointing the exact moment a woman falls in love, and “Family Night,” a piece portraying the life of lesbian parents finding time for each other when the kids aren’t around.

Fina points out that you’ll wonder what happened to “good old fashioned wholesome ladies,” and it’s true when you read “An Eye for an Eye,” wherein a stud finds herself caught between a wife and a mistress. You may think you know how the story ends, but trust me, you can’t envision this ending.

The assorted tales of You Think You Know are riveting, able to draw you with their simple, sinful sentiments. Grammatical errors aside, simply put: Fina can tell a story. What she’s also able to do is depict our relationships for what they are – both beautiful and ugly at times.

And that’s what you should know about You Think You Know.

Reviewed December 2008

Iridescence: Sensuous Shades of Lesbian Erotica by Jolie du Pre (Editor)

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Publisher/Date:  Alyson Books, June 2007
Genre(s):  Erotica, Short Story
Pages:  240
Website:  http://www.joliedupre.com

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Iridescence can be defined as “a play of lustrous, changing colors.” In Jolie du Pre’s own IRIDESCENCE: SENSUOUS SHADES OF LESBIAN EROTICA, she definitely plays with the lines of color with a mélange of ethnic women seeking pleasure.

A writer featured in several erotica anthologies, du Pre has compiled a collection of stories featuring females of African American, Caucasian, Asian, Latina and Indian descent in varying sexual rendezvous and compromising situations. Every tale has its own flair, and the rainbow of races shown in the pages of Iridescence present a multicolored hue not often seen in lesbian literature. That’s what makes Iridescence all the more special.

The book begins with Fiona Zedde’s “Night Music,” a melodious romance budding between Rhiannon, a shy orchestra lover, and Zoya, a dreadlocked violin player. They meet after Zoya’s concert at the symphony hall, realizing their attraction could create a harmony all its own. “Lick ‘Er License” offers a glimpse into a Latina nightclub,  where a bartender serves drinks with a passion for her clients, and ends up finding her own love in the club.

While romance is on display in Iridescence, the same can be said for clothes-ripping, steamy encounters, such as the tantalizing “Shopping in New York,” where a boring wait for a friend in a dressing room turns into a naughty scene for a Latina butch; she’ll never look at miniskirts in the same way. In “The Portrait,” an artist asks a  beautiful Asian woman to be her model in an attempt to capture the rich colors of her luminous skin, and finds herself desiring more than what’s on her easel.

Iridescence, in its fervor to bring something different to the table, also attempts to break down stereotypes. For example, a patron desires both the curry chicken and the exotic waitress at her favorite Indian restaurant. While Sasha is turned on by the authentic dress of the hostess, she gets her own surprise when she sees the woman sans sari and bindi – and realizes her Indian fantasy is nothing compared to the real woman behind the costume. Sasha learns is perception isn’t everything.

The final act, written by du Pre, is simply titled “Monisha,” a tale involving two Black women who meet at a coffee shop. How typical, until Monisha invites the patron into her world, finding passion like she’s never known. Too bad she has other obligations.

Iridescence is vibrant, giving the reader so many shades of love that each one stands out. We get to know more about different cultures, from the way they interact to  how they live. What makes the book so cohesive is that desire knows no race, but looks into the heart of the woman. That’s what du Pre conveys in Iridescence, and it  shows in every connection and every infatuation.

It’s time we had a book like this.

Reviewed December 2008

Kiss! Kiss! Keep It Wet! by Ms. Erotica

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Publisher/Date:  Xlibris Corporation, Nov. 2006
Genre(s):  Erotica, Short Story
Pages:  68

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

These women are doing a lot more than kissing in author Ms. Erotica’s KISS! KISS! KEEP IT WET!

This collection of illicit encounters involves ladies and studs droppin’ like it’s hot and tastin’ it like it’s sweet. The nice-naughty storytelling from Ms. Erotica (aka Anita Brown) is sure to make you spend some time with your lover or with yourself, if you follow my drift. All – and I mean all – of the pieces from Kiss go straight for the gusto and don’t hold anything back.

Especially when you read these saucy tales of temptation. The club seems to be a popular spot to get your freak on, at least in Kiss. It has a woman in the backseat in “I’m Going Out,” and a newbie getting turned out in “Missing in My Life.” T-Pain has nothing on the women in “I’m Love With a Stripper,” the story that has two friends spending all their money on dancers more erotic than exotic.

The book also has others finding passion in the most ironic of places. Like “The Desk,” where the term “head nigga in charge” takes on a whole new meaning in the  office. Then on “The Train Ride,” a company trip allows two employees to work more a lot more closely than they would have ever imagined.

Even with all the licking and sucking going, Kiss does have its tender moments. “Our Anniversary” has a woman giving her lover of four years a present she’s always desired, and makes her fantasies come true. And after a long day of work, all Lexi wants to do is have “A Relaxing Night at Home” – until she realizes her brother has invited friends over to her apartment, but it may be an even better night after she meets one of his beautiful homegirls.

Ms. Erotica knows how to turn you on with the power of her pen. She’s been writing erotica for two years now, and already has the no-holds-barred style of Zane, one of  her favorite authors. What does turn you off are the excessive grammatical errors throughout the book. Once she has that under control, she could become the next  lesbian Zane. It’s only a matter of time.

Because her storytelling is on point – and off the chain.

Reviewed December 2008

Turned Out by Angel M. Hunter

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Publisher/Date:  Urban Books, June 2007
Genre(s):  Romance, Bisexual
Pages:  262
Website:  http://www.angelmhunter.com

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

The saying goes, “Once you go black, you never go back.”

But in TURNED OUT, the tantalizing novel from Angel M. Hunter, the saying should go, “Once you go clit, you can’t get enough of it.”

That’s the situation with Champagne Rose, a publicist in a long-term relationship with Zyair, a man who would do anything to marry her. They’ve been shacking up for five years, and while they love each other dearly, their love life has become more than mundane. Their routine is the same, the sex is the same – both are clamoring for something exciting to spice up their bedroom boom.

They figure a vacation at an exotic locale is just the ticket. Champagne and Zyair get more than they booked for when a late-night rendezvous for two on the beach ends in a threesome. The addition of an anonymous woman adds just the spark they need, and they return home with a refreshed attitude toward their relationship.

Except Champagne is still thinking about that night. A lot. She wants to know if the pseudo-lesbian fling was just that, or if she really has an attraction to women. It’s something she’s toyed with before, but only in her wildest desires.

Soon Champagne is consumed with thoughts of making love to a woman again — to taste her, please her, to experience the softness and amazing orgasm she had on the beach. When she gets Zyair, who’s more than willing of course, to let her try it again, she’s knows it will be better than before.

But whom will she select to make her fantasy come true?

Hunter’s Turned Out is a pleasurable novel, where the reader can follow a woman’s bi-curious journey. It’s an easy read. Though I was left hanging by the book’s end, I know it’s just a set-up for the sequel to Champagne’s continuing adventures.

And I’ll go along for the ride.

Reviewed December 2008

The Highest Price for Passion by Laurinda D. Brown (Oct. 2008 Pick of the Month)

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Publisher/Date:  Strebor, Aug. 2008
Genre(s):  Historical Fiction, Romance
Pages:  272
Website:  http://www.ldbrownbooks.com

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

The past comes back to haunt in Laurinda D. Brown’s fifth solo title, THE HIGHEST PRICE FOR PASSION. Beginning in the volatile pre-Civil War era, her latest novel follows illicit exploits of slaves and masters as their lives intersect in the most perilous ways. Several characters narrate the story filled with infatuations and horrors that arise during a time when blacks were no more than tortured servants for white masters.

The fiery tale begins from the eyes of Amelia, a slave who recounts her life and the terror she endured escaping her master. Amelia, born from a white mother and slave, grew up knowing she wasn’t like the other workers around her. Yet because of the time and place she inhabited, she had to keep the appearance of being like the other black folks around her. One night her lineage is discovered, and it eventually leads to her disappearance.

But Amelia’s roots trace back far before her birth, tied to a shaky family tree with unspeakable secrets. Passion explores her heritage from her descendents and to a host of other characters from three generations ago – ones whose desires lead them to destructive behavior. There’s Massa Gray, who after years of rumors, can’t deny his attraction to the male form, including his own slaves; McKinley Wellsworth, whose notoriety as a hard-nosed master, is essentially a product of his tortured upbringing; and then there’s her own father, Josiah, whose attraction for Amelia’s mother couldn’t be contained and produced a love child he had to abandon.

Amelia, as she tells her life story, is aware of the passions that consume those around her, including her master and mistress. Both have strong connections to the beautiful slave, and she’s treated somewhat better than other blacks on the plantation. But Amelia knows her destiny and that there’s something more out there for her than a life of servitude.

Brown has a tackled a novel with historical significance with Passion, a book worlds apart from the contemporary novels she’s written such as Fire & Brimstone, UnderCover,Walk Like a Man and Strapped. The drama is still there, only from an earlier time and place. Brown has done her research with this story, and offers something different for black lesbian readers with Passion, a tale we should read not only for its compelling subject matter, but so that we can gain perspective with how far our race has come.

Reviewed October 2008

How Can An Angel Take My Heart: The Positive Side of Temptation by Regina Knox

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Publisher/Date:  1st Books Library, Mar. 2002
Genre(s):  Religious, Romance
Pages:  388
Website:  http://www.reginaknox.com

Rating: ★★★★½ 

God works in his own time, and lovers Angela Lord and Kennedy Brooks face this complexity as they wrestle with their loyalties to Him in HOW CAN AN ANGEL TAKE MY HEART: THE POSITIVE SIDE OF TEMPTATION. The debut novel from Regina Knox chronicles the struggle between religion and homosexuality as Angela and Kennedy fall deeper in love, but at a price that almost cost their souls.

Angela and Kennedy’s chance meeting is at a time when they both need something more. Angela, a single mother of two, found herself in a dead-end relationship with a stud she’s not in love with. Kennedy is a highly successful businesswoman with several companies under her belt who doesn’t want for anything – until she encounters Angela on a business trip. The feminine ladies have an immediate attraction, and pretty soon Kennedy’s boyfriend, Robert, and Angela’s live-in lover, Tonya, are forgotten.

Yet there’s more to their connection than simply falling in love, as Angela and Kennedy soon discover. While Angela had previously come to terms with her sexuality, being with a woman was all new for Kennedy. Not only is it a shock herself, but to her parents – her father’s a preacher – and Robert, who had planned to propose to Kennedy upon her return. Everyone weighs their opinions and reminds her of what the Bible speaks of: that homosexuality is an abomination. And armed with everyone’s beliefs, Kennedy is torn between what’s right and what’s in her heart.

Angela has her own crosses to bear, namely a sinister ex-husband attempting to take her kids because of her lesbian status. Though not very religious, Angela is fighting her own demons about whether their relationship would please the Lord. It leads her to church, finding solace in singing the Lord’s praises and doing what believes will make Him happy.

Eventually, it doesn’t sit well with Angela or Kennedy that they may be compromising their spirituality, and the lovers have to figure out whether being with the one you love and giving in to temptation is what God truly intended.

In Angel, Knox writes an extremely sensitive portrayal of what a lesbian endures when confronting both her sexuality and religion. Black lesbians especially receive more grief when it comes to being gay, and hear more religious rhetoric that only confounds the issue. It’s great that Knox has put that struggle in a book that is honest and heart-wrenching.

With the sequel to Angel to be published this fall, I would love to see where she takes Angela and Kennedy next.

Reviewed October 2008

Love Lust and a Whole Lotta Distrust by DeiIra Smith-Collard

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Publisher/Date:  AriSiri Publishing, May 2008
Genre(s): Bisexual, Romance, Straight Books with Lesbian Characters
Pages:  276
Website:  http://writerwithinonline.com/

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

The ladies of Synergy Wireless are off the chain. Never has a group of scandalous employees been introduced than in LOVE LUST AND A WHOLE LOTTA DISTRUST by author DeiIra Smith-Collard. They love, they fight, and basically wreak havoc on own their own lives – just another day at the office.

Co-workers Nicole, Kendra Carmell and Natina play a lot harder than they work, bed-hopping and game-playing with the best of them. Nicole is the woman who refuses to take no for answer when it comes to fellow employee, Jason. Disregarding the fact that Jason is a player, she is determined to make the playboy settle down, even if it means tricking him and making a fool of herself – or destroying her relationship with her best friend, Kendra. Seeing Kendra and Jason together, she vows to do anything to push her friend out of the way to have Jason.

Meanwhile, Kendra’s not even studying Jason. She has her hands full with her own affair with Gia, a woman she met online. She chats with the Atlanta native every single day, exchanging poetry and photos. Soon the mental affair becomes a physical when Kendra is sent to Atlanta for work. They hit it off in, and Kendra is torn between the most passionate affair of her life and her dutiful husband.

While that drama unfolds, Carmell and Natina are new employees who extend their work endeavors to after-hours fun, hitting the town hard. It’s all fun at first, but there’s a misunderstanding when Carmell crosses the line with Natina. Believing Natina is sending her mixed signals, Carmell vows to make the woman her own, while humiliating her in the process and possibly destroying Natina’s new relationship with Louis.

And it just gets more outrageous from there. Smith-Collard keeps your attention with the antics of these amorous employees, where work takes a backseat to drama. The characters are fleshed out, and Smith-Collard is definitely a story-teller; it’s a rush just to see what will happen next.

But with all the going-ons going on at Synergy Wireless, I don’t see how the ladies get any work done.

Reviewed October 2008

My Little Secret by Anna J.

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Publisher/Date:  Urban Books, Sept. 2008
Genre(s):  Romance, Erotica
Pages:  288
Website:  http://www.askannaj.com

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Anna J., known for her girl-on-girl, off-the-chain romps, is back yet again with another tale of lust, lies and lesbian action with MY LITTLE SECRET. The newest story from the author of My Woman His Wife and The Aftermath brings us Midori Hunter and Jayday B., two women whose secret affair goes from hot to dangerous very quickly.

The passion between the two is undeniable, despite the fact Midori is married to a top physician and has everything a wealthy wife could want. Jaydah, in her own right, is a highly successful author who has enough drama for several books. Their story begins when Jaydah encounters Midori at one her bookstore signings, and they realize their attraction is more than a storybook romance.

But after two years of being Midori’s little side dish, Jaydah is sick of the game. It doesn’t matter how many promises or “I love you’s” Midori comforts her with, Jaydah simply wants her all to herself. How can Midori deny how they feel, lie about her whereabouts, and share the things they share and not want to have something more?

Jaydah can’t get down with Midori’s fickle affection, and tries with great effort, to break it off – more than once. The back and forth of these two women is the meat of the story, who can’t seem to let go of one another, and at some points, even using desperate measures to get what they want. When Jaydah lets go, Midori worms her way back in. When Midori goes back to her neglectful, unfulfilling husband, Jaydah uses a calculated move to get her woman back. They can’t quite let go, but can never have each other as they wish.

What are two horny women to do?

In My Little Secret, Anna J . knows how to bring the lesbian action better than any “straight” woman can. The plot is a little sparse, other than the vacillating relationship between Midori and Jaydah, but the hot sex scenes somewhat make up for that. What’s really intriguing is the character Jaydah, who seems to be deliberately similar to Anna J.

Could there possibly be some truth to fiction?

Reviewed October 2008

Passing for Black by Linda Villarosa (Aug. 2008 Pick of the Month)

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Publisher/Date:  Dafina, June 2008
Genre:  Romance
Pages:  262
Website:  http://www.lindavillarosa.com

Rating: ★★★★½ 

We’ve all dealt, in some form or fashion, with the issue of being black, being a woman, and being gay – at times feeling as if you don’t really fit on any side, but having to stay true to both aspects of yourself. In PASSING FOR BLACK, the first foray into fiction by renowned journalist Linda Villarosa, this entanglement is experienced by Angela Wright, a buppie struggling with both her sexual and racial identities.

By outside appearances, Angela’s life is seamless in her middle-class world, where she’s an editor at Désire magazine, engaged to a history professor at a prominent university and mingles with a Black elite inner circle. Yet it’s simply a facade. Angela has never felt secure with herself, and “passing” is simply her coping mechanism to deal with never feeling “black enough.” With her mother, Janice, considered a local heroine in the black female community, she always felt tragically compelled to live up to her mother’s roots. And at 29, she should be ready to be married after a six-year relationship with Keith, but something always holds her back. Namely, her attraction to women, a temptation she forbade herself from having for so many years.

But it’s one she can’t resist with Cait Getty, one of Keith’s colleagues at Amsterdam University. After spying the woman hanging posters for a lesbian sex conference, all pretenses of a white picket fence life fade away. Instead, she finds herself drawn to the androgynous vibe of this white woman, an activist whose fervor for women’s issues is only matched by her passion for Angela. With sandy brown hair, boyish good looks and British accent, Cait is nothing Angela expected to be infatuated with. In fact, she’s everything opposite of what her family and friends would see her with.

It leaves Angela, who’s normally indecisive and non-confrontational, torn as to whom she should be with. Her head tells her to do the right thing and stay with her “good black man,” while her heart demands she face her fears and be with the one person who makes her feel true to herself. It’s a hard decision, with consequences that will manage to hurt anyone involved.

And while Angela’s living an illusion, others in her life are also passing. Cait focuses so much lesbian rights that she ignores the plight of anyone else that doesn’t fit in her box. Keith feigns a “good Negro” veneer to his white superiors while alienating his own people. Even her best friend, Mae, learns to leave her Southern roots behind to be accepted in the workplace.

Yet Angela is the center of this provocative tale. When Angela decides her future much later, she satisfies her craving to be true to herself, and passing just isn’t good enough anymore. Because of Cait, everything she never thought she wanted turns out to be everything she needs.

Passing for Black makes for a challenging read. Villarosa tackles the subject of racial and sexual identity with class and a sense of humor. It’s down-to-earth enough for the casual reader, and speak to any black lesbian feeling out of step with their two worlds. Passing conveys that every woman’s journey to herself is never easy, but one she shouldn’t spend passing by.

Reviewed August 2008