The Fiche Room

by Suzie Carr

"This is one I want to put on my living room bookshelf and share with friends." - Amazon review "This book will resonate with anyone who's been seeking his/her true path in life. It's brilliantly written." - Amazon review Emma is about to wed her college sweetheart, a bright, well respected guy who is slated to become president of her father's company. All the plans are in motion. Her life is set. Until Haley crashes into her life. Haley is refreshing, vivacious and turns Emma's world upside-down. With Haley, Emma finds her true self --a sexy, confident woman who doesn't want to give up the sweet taste of true attraction and love. But does she have the courage to hurt and disappoint all those around her?

Genres: Lesbian, LGBT, Romance, Lesbian Romance, Fiction

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 30, 2007

About the author

Suzie Carr is a contemporary novelist, podcaster on the Lesbian Talk Show, avid blogger, and Director of Membership for the Golden Crown Literary Society. When she's not writing, conducting hands-on research, exercising, or blending a green smoothie concoction, she's likely engaged in the sweet memory of her beloved boxers, Sunshine and Bumblebee, enjoying a few giggles over their funny antics and embracing their loving spirit as they undeniably watch over her from the Rainbow Bridge.

Whether it's writing fiction books about love and life, inspiring new authors, advocating for LGBT equality and animal welfare or blogging about community awareness, positive living, taking action and inspiration, Suzie remains passionate in her beliefs!

Suzie's love for the written word started back when she was a child. She enjoyed visiting the library every Saturday to spend hours reading. Books quickly became a constant companion to her and remained as such throughout her childhood.

Soon after graduating from Rhode Island College, Suzie wrote her first novel, The Fiche Room, a coming-of-age novel about two women falling in love. Over the years The Fiche Room grew from its humble e-book origins to an Amazon Kindle best seller receiving glowing reviews. Her upcoming novel, The Pet Boutique, revisits with Emma, Haley, and Goldie from The Fiche Room as they join a new cast of characters in their cameo roles.

With twelve bestsellers on Amazon Kindle, Suzie continues to enjoy writing about the beauty of love and life.

Suzie Carr believes strongly in giving back to the community. She donates a portion of book sale proceeds to the Hearts United for Animals.

Reviews

[Kristyleee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful, realistic and entertaining words that describe the Fiche room. The story has a theme that everyone can relate to regardless of orientation. We all have this one life to live and want to live it to the fullest confident that the decisions that we make are for the best. However, sometimes the path we are to take requires much soul searching because it may not be the path that we first thought was right. This book beautifully portrays this story.

[Lady Olenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Fiche Room had a typical late blooming lesbian who was too afraid to be her true self. The story mostly revolved around Emma and her struggle to come to terms with her true sexuality. Since the story took up most of Emma’s persona I feel like there wasn’t enough room or time for the other characters to really be explored.

[Amy Girard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading

To be the first book by this author it's extremely well written. If you enjoy a slow burn this book is definitely for you. A little too slow for my taste bust still a good read. All the characters are believable and the whole story is very relatable.

[Acquafortis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took my hand and walked me down a long memory lane. Reading The Fiche Room was like reading my diary that I never wrote in those turbulent days. Those words that wrenched my heart, thoughts that split my head in two and emotions that ignited me alive.
There were "weird" moments when I thought that Suzie Carr was in my head some odd 12 years ago.
It is a book I would like that my ex-husband-to be could read, for him to understand how it feels being on the other side and that "cheating" was never meant to be on my agenda. To my mother, so she can feel what she insists in denying at a heart level. To my friends that do not know me, for them to see that being gay and accepting it late in life is never a "decision" lightly taken and for sure a tsunami in all spheres of life where all certainties are left behind.
All this and much more Suzie Carr has succeeded in describing with respect, sincerity and love for life.
Thank you!

[Laima · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just received my first reads copy yesterday in the mail. Can't wait to start reading.

I finished reading The Fiche Room by Suzie Carr.
I rate this book as 3 stars because I found the story interesting and well written. The characters, however, I didn't really care for.
The character of Haley was a little too much.... too perky, too perfect, and constantly referred to Emma as Baby. The one character I did enjoy was Emma's best friend Goldie. She seemed the most realistic while the others too stereotyped and lacking depth.
Overall, it was a good novel and an easy read.

[Evelina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book..read it in maybe 3 days ...which when in grad school and buried under mountains of work is quite an accomplisment... I was hooked from page 1!

It is written beautifully and swept me into the story effortlessly. I honestly had a hard time putting it down. The characters become real and capture your heart. This is the first book I have read by Suzie Carr and I am excited to discover more of her work.

[David Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is superb. Highly readable from start to finish.
The main theme soon becomes clear. Who do we live to be - ourselves? or what others would have us be? Do we allow ourselves to be submerged under a sea of socially acceptable mores? Or do we allow ourselves the freedom to be our truest and best selves? This is a timely message for all of us who get caught up in "fitting into" what surrounds us.
The context of lesbian love is beautifully portrayed with sensitivity, but the context is secondary to the central message, the need to be our free and creative selves.
Oh how I loved this book, which kept me on the edge of my seat pretty well to the final page. The ending literally had me in tears.

[J.R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

What do you when you realize something is not right?

Emma works for her father. Emma is engaged to a man , Colin who may take over her father business after he retires. Emma thinks she loves Colin. She hopes she loves him, but Emma is not so sure now. After meeting a woman Hayley after being bumped into after stopping suddenly and now thoughts are battling within Emma. Can't be that she suddenly realizes that she may be a lesbian. Oh No! She is supposed to be getting married to Colin, a man. That is until Colin shows his true stripes with some friends of Emma. Oh Oh! Now the battle lines have been drawn outside of Emma mind. Does she or does she not? Follow this battle of this mind and Enjoy!

[Amanda Dilley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

Although this is not her first book that I've read, I found out this was indeed her first book. Wow is all I have. Sometimes author's first attempts can feel like it's the first, but Suzie has maintained her greatness from the very start! It was a great happy accident that I was able to find this, and now I will be making it a point to get all of her books. Just an amazing read!!

[Sandy Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll be me. You be you. And that’s better than ok.

This book was heartfelt lesson in being authentically yourself. It was about how trying to please everyone in your life except you will eat away at you until there is nothing left but the twisted, bitter resentment of a wasted life. I love Emma and Haley and Goldie and Charlie. They are unabashedly themselves, no matter what anyone else thinks. No regrets.

[Doug Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice HEA with a decent set of secondary characters. On the down side, Emma spends an incredible amount of time and energy cramming herself into a little box to meet everyone else's expectations.
Her own self image appears to be so poor that freeing herself from her rigid self imposed conformity will, realistically, require much more than a couple of cathartic scenes.

[Hadleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a slow burner, but a nice read overall. Haley is a little too unrealistically perfect, but I don't think the story would work that well without her perfect, happy-go-lucky, vivacious attitude. I like how Emma falls naturally into realising who she is, without much internal stigma.

[charles clayson · Rating 5 out of 5]

🌈RELATIVITY🌈
It definitely tied the relationship of Goldie ! Who is a very relevant person in both novels " Pet Boutique and The Fiche Room . "

[Brandy Wiederhold · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the book

I love the book and I would love to read a sequel to this story to see what happen between the two women

[Janet Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. This was a story of the struggle for Emma to come to terms with who she really was, and admit that the neat life everyone in her life had planned for her was not what she wanted.

[Jaime Horio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as a part of the Goodreads.com First Reads program.

The story of a young woman, Emma, ready to marry the perfect man who is set to take over her father's company. Her life is set ahead of her, but then another woman literally crashes into her life. This new woman, Haley, helps Emma realize who she really is, if she can bring herself to disappoint those around her.

One of my favorite aspects of this story was that Emma's struggles were something we can all relate to. No, maybe we haven't all had struggles with our sexuality, but her troubles really go beyond that. Emma lives her life for other people, she wants to make her father proud, she wants to have the "perfect" life. But she is not really happy with it. This is something that almost everyone faces at some point in their life. Do you stick with what is expected of you, or live your life for yourself?

Throughout the story, Emma deals with this issue, often going back and forth. One moment she's confident and ready to move on with her life, the next she feels like she needs to keeps her life exactly how it is. This dilemma was an area where I could sympathize with her, which is what kept me enthralled with the story.

The part of the story I did have a few problems with was Colin. Part of the story he was an arrogant jerk (when he and Emma go to dinner with Goldie and Charlie), and other times he is a super thoughtful guy (when he switches their honeymoon to go to Paris). While I felt like his character was meant to be a little bit of each of these types, it ended up feeling like he was a different character in different parts of the story.

After I finished the book, it dawned on me that perhaps this is because the story is told through Emma's eyes, so his personality changes as she struggles with everything going on in her life.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I was rooting for Emma to find her true happiness throughout, and I was happy how it ended up for her.

[Tressa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book for free from the Good Reads' giveaways program.

I would have liked to give this book 2.5 stars (better than "okay" but not quite "liked it") but I had to give it three stars because this book was accompanied by a personal note from the author and the book was signed, which was a nice touch.

I'm not familiar with lesbian fiction, nor do I read it, so this was a chance to read something I would normally not read. To me, this book doesn't break any new ground: it's about a woman who secretly harbors affections for women but she's engaged to the "perfect" man and she doesn't want to disappoint him or her father. When a woman literally crashes into her with her car, she's swept away and must come to terms with her identity and sexuality.

It was obvious that the main character was strong-willed, when she gave herself a chance, but that was only towards the end of the book when she began to gain confidence in herself. The fiance was easy to hate and I wished that there were more redeeming qualities about him so it was more of struggle of feelings for the main character, Emma. You could tell that Emma was going to pick the woman in the end and what kept me reading was how she was going to break the news to her fiance, Colin. Emma's friend Goldie and to some extent, the woman who worked in the fiche room, were a welcome break from Emma's thoughts. I think what bothered me the most is that this book is very one-note. The characters lack any really depth and this book is really just a lesbian version of story that's been done several times. If you enjoy lesbian fiction, you may enjoy this. If you don't, then you've already read this book before.

[Dorinda M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

Little words could be said to explain the emotions this book stirred within me. This entire story was an emotional rollercoaster that touched parts of me that I did not know existed, even less, needed to be touched. Each one of these characters pulled at my heart and just as easily snapped that amiable connection. This story dove into emotions so eloquently written that I could not put the book down. I mean seriously, I was late to work from break or lunch on several occasions. Five stars for this page-turner. And everyone needs a friend like Goldie!

[John Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very well written book from a very talented author. It described in very good detail how a very confused girl rejected God's plan for her life and gave into her temptations and how her father still loved and supported her in spite of her foolish decisions. The story is very educational, entertaining but sad.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book from a Good Reads First Reads contest. I thought the book was okay. You can appreciate the message the book conveys to live your life for yourself and to make decisions that will make you happy. I think everyone can relate with the main character that sometimes those decisions are not always easy ones to make.

[Krystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good read! I was surprised of the suspense I felt in trying to figure out how the story would end. The book depicted a very real sense of the struggles many feel, and I truly appreciated it. I have already referred the book to three friends. Good read!

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received the fiche room for free, from the goodreads program.
I don't read lesbian fiction, so this was a chance to read something I would normally not read. The book was ok it's not something i am use to reading it was different.

[Tiff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book came with a short note from the author, which I thought was really sweet. The book was okay. It's intriguing and has a nice rhythm to it... but I just thought it was too predictable. A nice read otherwise!

[Sabrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need a half a star. I would rate this book a 3.5.

Not as good as Inner Secrets but still a good read.

[Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would have been an ok beach read, but the writing felt a bit immature and under developed to me.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book from goodreads. It was an easy summer read.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ordered this from Barnes and noble, cant wait to read it.

[Heinerway · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written story about Emma's struggles with her sexuality while trying at the same time to be the perfect daughter.

[Cyndi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book! It was a nice, light romance but with some very heavy issues to be accepted & faced. I will be reading more by this author!

[Lynne Carlson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good insight into self reflection

Good writing, I will definitely read more of your work. I'm sure that you improve. Your eye for rich description is great. Keep writing.