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

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

Keeping Secrets: A Gianna Maglione Mystery by Penny Mickelbury

Publisher/Date:  Kings Crossing Publishing, 2003
Genre(s):  Mystery, Crime
Pages:  193
Website:  http://www.nghosibooks.com/Inkwell/pennymain.htm

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Girl, watch out!!!

There’s a killer hunting the gay community in KEEPING SECRETS, the first in the Gianna Maglione series from mystery writer Penny Mickelbury.

But no worries, Gianna is on the case. A top-notch lieutenant in the Hate Crimes Unit with the Washington, D. C. police department, she’s trying to find out who’s been targeting prominent, in-the-closet inhabitants of the nation’s capital.  Not only is it a matter of who’s been killed but how, as the victims are shot in the gruesome fashion. It’s racking Gianna’s brain and what’s worse is that could be only a matter of time before she or someone she knows could be on the hit list.

On the other side of the case is Mimi Patterson, a black investigative reporter. Gianna won’t let Mimi get anywhere near the case, for fear that the journalist will turn the investigation into a media frenzy. All Mimi wants is some answers, and with good sources on a high-profile case like this, she won’t rest until she gets discovers who’s behind the crime. Even if it means dealing with hard-nosed Gianna.

At odds, the two women are just trying to do their jobs—and trying to fight their growing attraction to one another. Their blossoming romance can’t be good for the case. Especially when they know that one false move could jeopardize any luck they have in trying to find the serial killer.

Mickelbury has created an excellent first novel in a series you will want to read more of. Keeping Secrets kept me on the edge of my seat, and the romance between the two enhanced the story of a cop and a reporter trying to do good. I must admit I had a clue about the killer half-way through, but it was still gripping to see how they would get the sick bastard. And I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes work of the detectives, as well. I definitely plan to read more of the Gianna/Mimi mysteries.

Cause it also doesn’t hurt that the women are hot, too.

Reviewed Aug-Sept 2006

Black Girl in Paris by Shay Youngblood

Publisher/Date:  Riverhead Books, Jan. 2001
Genre:  Coming of Age
Pages:  238
Website:  http://www.shayyoungblood.com

Rating: ★★★★½ 

When reading Shay Youngblood’s BLACK GIRL IN PARIS, you’ll feel as if you’ve stepped in to France’s capital city yourself. You’ll rendezvous with Eden, the protagonist in Youngblood’s adventurous tale, as she travels the city in search of literary greatness and her mentor, James Baldwin.

Eden grew up a poor Southern girl in Birmingham, when in the late 1960s, the racial climate was violent at its worst. The four girls killed in the infamous church bombing was a significant event in Eden’s young life, and she vows to one day live in a city where life is free. In Paris, Eden believes, black people are just people and not a color.

So at age 26, recently graduated and looking for something more, Eden takes off to Paris. She arrives with only $200 but hopes to gain immeasurable riches from life experiences.

During her stay in the City of Lights, Eden befriends many eccentric personalities, including her flamboyant tour guide, Indego, who shows her the real Paris that tourists never see. She also involves herself in romantic tête-à-tête with Ving, a white jazz musician. It is with him that despite how liberated Paris seems, she’s reminded with disdain that she’s still a black woman. Eden also engages in an erotic friendship with a woman, Luce, which teaches her the true meaning of love.

Every adventure, every moment is vividly captured in Eden’s expedition in Paris that you feel as if you’re there, traveling with her through the French boulevards and savoring the foods. Although her outing was the poor man’s experience of Paris–many days she didn’t know where she would lay her head that night– she emerged a much stronger person.

Youngblood’s lyrical prose was superb, and her characters rang true. I wouldn’t take nothing her
Eden’s journey now — except to one day go myself.

Reviewed January 2006

Undercover by Laurinda D. Brown

Publisher/Date:  Strebor Books, Nov. 2004
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Pages:  384
Website:  http://www.ldbrownbooks.com

Rating: ★★★★½ 

I wanted to give UNDERCOVER five stars. I really did.

After all, she is the author of Fire & Brimstone, a great lesbian novel for today’s generation. The drama that ensued in that book was simply off the chain! Chris and Gayle kept it real.

Undercover is another story. This sequel of sorts continues with Chris, with even more drama this time, and has enough characters and twists to keep your attention. Yet what kept it from being a 5-star review was simply the timeline of the plot. There were times the plot jumps from one year to another with any transition to know what was going on. Some parts were cohesive, others came out of place.

But despite that, I still resumed my infatuation with Chris, the intelligent, determined woman confident in her sexuality. She reintroduces old friends like Rudy and Gayle, with whom Chris finally makes peace with, while presenting new faces, like Amil and Nathaniel.

This time around, Chris has gotten herself involved in an online affair with Amil, a doctor engaged to a successful entrepreneur. The ladies began with a friendship that turned into something more even without having met. Chris has a feeling it’ll never work, as her instincts warn her that Amil will never leave Manney and the comfortable life they’ve made. Only in a chance business meeting do they finally see each other face to face–and the fireworks begin.

Iyesha, Chris’ sister, has problems of her own. Lil sis is married to Nathaniel, a former drag queen who gave up the life after his lover Patrick leaves him for the Lord. The two become friends after his glorious heyday (or gayday), slowly falling into a relationship. In the beginning of their marriage, Nathaniel has convinced himself to become a heterosexual, faithful husband. He tries to be what Iyesha wants for a while. Pretty soon, though, he’s back to his former life (on the down low), and their marriage is never the same.

Every character’s life intertwines in this enjoyable novel about love and self-acceptance. Chris definitely has come a long way from the chaos of Fire & Brimstone.

Well done, Ms. Brown!

Reviewed October 2005

Fire & Brimstone by Laurinda D. Brown

Publisher/Date:  Strebor Books, March 2004
Genre(s):  Contemporary Romance, Religious
Pages:  240
Website:  http://www.ldbrownbooks.com

Rating: ★★★★½ 

FIRE & BRIMSTONE is the tragic story of Chris and Gayle, two “bag ladies” carrying heavy sacks of unresolved issues.

In the beginning, there is Chris, an intelligent woman with two degrees – in English literature and French – from Howard University. Just as she was set to take the world by storm, she becomes pregnant. While waiting for boyfriend Trey to grow up and become a man, she moves home to Memphis to raise her daughter. Chris thinks it’s only a matter of time before he proposes and she has the perfect life: a doting husband and father (unlike her own deadbeat dad) and a beautiful baby. It doesn’t quite work out that way, and Chris begins to explore an attraction for women she’s harbored for years.

Chris first begins seeing Carol, a white-trash woman with a penchant for dark meat on the side. While that ends sourly, Chris meets Gayle.

Gayle is a story and a half. She’s got some deep-seated issues from her childhood. Totally opposite from Chris, Gayle is impressed because Chris is unlike anyone she’s ever dated. Never has she been with a college graduate or a woman so confident. It boosts Gayle’s morale, especially since she’s been in and out of trouble with the law and acts as if the world owes her something.

They begin dating seriously, and everything is cool at first. Gayle moves in quickly with Chris and her daughter, getting to know each other but not knowing the real story behind their facades.

Then things turn ugly. Really ugly. So much drama transpires in the novel from this point. Gayle began stealing from her job in order to get the things she thinks Chris deserves. When both ladies get caught up in unwise schemes, Chris finally realizes who Gayle really is, and the women twist in and out of each other’s lives like a tornado, leaving one another destroyed in the wreckage.

As the title Fire & Brimstone suggests, religion plays a part in the women’s relationship. Gayle, the minister of music at her church, spends a lot of time in the Lord’s house and moving the masses with her heavenly voice. What bothers Chris is that Gayle can run up and down the aisles on Sunday, then raise hell throughout the week. Not one for attending church, Chris doesn’t understand what religion is about. It’s only when the unexpected happens that she figures out what God’s been trying to tell her – Gayle’s not the one.

The message of the dramatic story is one of redemption. Both women had to be freed from the shackles of their pasts in order to claim their future. Whether homosexuality is acceptable is not the crux of the novel, but about accepting oneself.

Brown’s Fire and Brimstone reveals heart and soul, and the wayward routes we take to salvation.

Reviewed September 2005