Girl in the Mirror by Alix B. Golden (Aug. 2012 Pick of the Month)

Publisher/Date:  I Bleed Ink Publishing, Aug. 2012
Genre:  Romance
Pages:   204
Website:  http://www.alixbgolden.com

Rating: ★★★★½ 

You can’t run from your past, and you certainly can’t run from the GIRL IN THE MIRROR.

While the prequel to this novel, Girl, Shattered, is available now, Mirror is its full-length story from blogger turned book author Alix B. Golden with many layers – a surprise love, suspense, drama, parental woes – yet the center of them is Christen Calhoun. The by-day bank teller is uninspired by her job and only finds comfort in her camera; it doesn’t pay the bills, and it doesn’t suit her father’s dreams for her.

Neither does dating women. Especially the ones Christen involves herself with. Still reeling from her last burn with thieving ass Alicia, she decides a no-strings attached relationship is exactly what she needs in Kam, a writer she meets online with a girlfriend. Christen sees nothing wrong with the two having a fling. At least that’s how it begins. It ends just as badly.

*girl in the mirror shakes her head*

Christen could never tell her Pops about these dead-end hookups. Since a young girl, it’s always been just the two of them after her mother’s passing. He never understood her decisions – staying in Savannah after graduation instead of returning to Atlanta, why she couldn’t find a man and make him a “Grandpappy” – nevertheless he did want to see her happy.

The problem is Christen can’t please herself. She suits her personality to the women she dates, and every bad romance she gets her further away from whom she is. When she looks in the mirror, the truth stares back, but then loneliness sets in and fools her heart into thinking it’s love.

It’s only when the worst imaginable happens that Christen returns home to find the love she needs – and makes the girl in mirror finally smile back.

Golden’s Girl in the Mirror shines. What I liked most about Mirror is its dimensionality. The storyline took several twists and turns, tying nicely to make an enjoyable novel. In Christen, you see a woman with so much potential go from settling to avoid being alone to realizing her true reflection is what’s important.

Reviewed August 2012

Midtown by Alix B. Golden

Publisher/Date:  I Bleed Ink Publishing, June 2012
Genre:  Romance
Website:  http://www.alixbgolden.com

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

MIDTOWN, ATLANTA — Four friends sharing a house in the gay-friendly, upwardly mobile area of downtown Atlanta contend with love and life and drama in this entertaining book by popular blogger Alix B. Golden.

You should know Golden from A Brown Girl Gone Gay (and if you haven’t, you should). There, she writes about her Southern lesbian lifestyle with humor and flair, and her first novel is no different.

Midtown follows four lesbians under one roof, so you know that means — drama.

But not in a scandalous way (well, a little scandal). Ed, Ash, Ki and Brie became best friends while attending Florida A&M University, better known as FAMU, who got into plenty of mischief at the school.

Now as cohabitating adults, the four are living, working, and sleeping together (literally and figuratively). That’s where the drama comes in.

Ed can’t stop her woman, Taylor, from being unfaithful, despite giving her a manager’s position in her bookstore.  Ki and Brie can’t seem to settle down and find the right women, but decide to gain a cuddle buddy in each other. Rounding out the crew is Ash, the straight friend, back into town and ready to declare her newfound sexuality, and hopes they accept her.

Between these women is an unbreakable friendship, but their romantic connections are definitely complicated.

Golden’s Midtown is a crazy ride in a fast car — in a good way. The characters are appealing, and feel like women you might have known during your undergrad years — and you’d still hang out with them now.

Reviewed July 2012