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Coltswood
When academician and artist Belinda Coltswood comes face-to-face with a colleague from her younger years, old feelings and painful memories resurface in uncomfortable and potentially transformative ways.
Professor Belinda Coltswood has made a name for herself. As the recent winner of a prestigious art prize, and the object of lingering rumors that nearly ended her career, Coltswood walks a fine line between celebrity and outcast. Though seemingly immune to both censure and accolades, Coltswood’s capacity for cool indifference dissolves in a rip tide of memory when she finds herself face-to-face with a woman from her past. A woman she knew only as Wolf. While the Wolf in her office is hardly the same fierce young AIDS activist Coltswood remembers, this meeting has the potential to alter their lives in radical ways.
Professor Belinda Coltswood has made a name for herself. As the recent winner of a prestigious art prize, and the object of lingering rumors that nearly ended her career, Coltswood walks a fine line between celebrity and outcast. Though seemingly immune to both censure and accolades, Coltswood’s capacity for cool indifference dissolves in a rip tide of memory when she finds herself face-to-face with a woman from her past. A woman she knew only as Wolf. While the Wolf in her office is hardly the same fierce young AIDS activist Coltswood remembers, this meeting has the potential to alter their lives in radical ways.
360 pages, Paperback
Published January 13, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 18, 2026
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 (4.5 stars)
I got this book as a birthday gift after having anticipated it for soo long!! And what can I say?
Just as I hoped, it completely filled me with awe.
The story itself follows two characters, Wolf and Belinda, over several years, staring in the late 80s and ending in the early 2000s. We see the two raise awareness about AIDS but due to different factors.
We see the two eventually bond and fall in love, then break apart and years later reconnect.
I love how the book was written and how the characters were fleshed out, they certainly had their flaws and I remember several times where I felt at least kind of infuriated with Belinda but it just made them feel way more human. And also the concept of interviews and the switching timeline, just added so much value and feels to the story.
Besides that, I adore how the story deals with AIDS and keeps it accurate. I really like how it presents the activists activities during this time and how it sheds light to their narrative which I haven’t read about before.
Overall, I think this book is really amazing!! It gave me the WOW effect I hoped for and certainty met all of my expectations without letting me down. And it also made me fall in love with Bel and Wolf over all the moments we got to witness and especially the end. Gosh I still think about it hehe.
4 very solid stars ⭐️
I got this book as a birthday gift after having anticipated it for soo long!! And what can I say?
Just as I hoped, it completely filled me with awe.
The story itself follows two characters, Wolf and Belinda, over several years, staring in the late 80s and ending in the early 2000s. We see the two raise awareness about AIDS but due to different factors.
We see the two eventually bond and fall in love, then break apart and years later reconnect.
I love how the book was written and how the characters were fleshed out, they certainly had their flaws and I remember several times where I felt at least kind of infuriated with Belinda but it just made them feel way more human. And also the concept of interviews and the switching timeline, just added so much value and feels to the story.
Besides that, I adore how the story deals with AIDS and keeps it accurate. I really like how it presents the activists activities during this time and how it sheds light to their narrative which I haven’t read about before.
Overall, I think this book is really amazing!! It gave me the WOW effect I hoped for and certainty met all of my expectations without letting me down. And it also made me fall in love with Bel and Wolf over all the moments we got to witness and especially the end. Gosh I still think about it hehe.
4 very solid stars ⭐️
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Intense, steamy, heart wrenching historical romance flanked by the AIDS crisis
If you're the type to binge read lesfic I strongly suggest you do the opposite for this book and take it in gradually; it's intense and bound to provoke emotional responses so letting those emotions rise crest and fall, and the content sink in, between reading sessions will be less overwhelming. If you've read about or witnessed/participated in the AIDS movement and protests from the 80's and 90's, Coltswood provides another perspective that's valuable and immersive. You may need tissues handy for the tears that will come up at points in the story. Main characters Wolf and Belinda have an electric push/pull rapport every time they cross paths, both of them good at 'stirring the pot' to put it politely; sh1t disturbers if you will. Having not read the synopsis ahead of diving into the book I found the first chapter intriguing and wanted to know about these characters and their history. Chapters move between 2002, the late 1980's into the 1990's with the month and year indicated under each chapter title; those good at keeping track of the story's timeline will find them helpful. There is an age gap between Wolf and Belinda although it's less than a decade; that aside the backgrounds and worlds they come from could not be more different and not just in terms of socio-economic class. Their diverse life experiences are fascinating reading although some readers may be impatient to learn more about them (their individual and shared history) sooner; their stories unfurl at their own pace with Belinda's ice queen energy clashing against Wolf's open yet cautious nature. The safe sex scenes are steamy and they get creative within those constraints; it makes for hot reading. While there is plenty of drama and angst, some humor creeps in as well to take some of the edge off. I wasn't thrilled with the ending although I understand its purpose and will read author Jules Revel's future publications if there are any.
If Coltswood is your first book on the topic take it as an invitation to read more from other perspectives of those who were there in whatever capacity and others who've researched and provide receipts for their work.
This is not light fluffy beach reading by any means, but history deserving to be told from the female perspective; it doesn't cover all aspects of the events or time period but no work ever could. While aspects of the story are fictional it feels real enough to the heart, mind and spirit while reading.
If you're the type to binge read lesfic I strongly suggest you do the opposite for this book and take it in gradually; it's intense and bound to provoke emotional responses so letting those emotions rise crest and fall, and the content sink in, between reading sessions will be less overwhelming. If you've read about or witnessed/participated in the AIDS movement and protests from the 80's and 90's, Coltswood provides another perspective that's valuable and immersive. You may need tissues handy for the tears that will come up at points in the story. Main characters Wolf and Belinda have an electric push/pull rapport every time they cross paths, both of them good at 'stirring the pot' to put it politely; sh1t disturbers if you will. Having not read the synopsis ahead of diving into the book I found the first chapter intriguing and wanted to know about these characters and their history. Chapters move between 2002, the late 1980's into the 1990's with the month and year indicated under each chapter title; those good at keeping track of the story's timeline will find them helpful. There is an age gap between Wolf and Belinda although it's less than a decade; that aside the backgrounds and worlds they come from could not be more different and not just in terms of socio-economic class. Their diverse life experiences are fascinating reading although some readers may be impatient to learn more about them (their individual and shared history) sooner; their stories unfurl at their own pace with Belinda's ice queen energy clashing against Wolf's open yet cautious nature. The safe sex scenes are steamy and they get creative within those constraints; it makes for hot reading. While there is plenty of drama and angst, some humor creeps in as well to take some of the edge off. I wasn't thrilled with the ending although I understand its purpose and will read author Jules Revel's future publications if there are any.
If Coltswood is your first book on the topic take it as an invitation to read more from other perspectives of those who were there in whatever capacity and others who've researched and provide receipts for their work.
This is not light fluffy beach reading by any means, but history deserving to be told from the female perspective; it doesn't cover all aspects of the events or time period but no work ever could. While aspects of the story are fictional it feels real enough to the heart, mind and spirit while reading.
January 3, 2026
It’s hard to believe this intelligently written, tense, passionate story is Jules Revel’s debut novel. It had me completely captured,sometimes forgetting to breathe. To say I’m impressed is an understatement.
There were many important characters, but the main focus was on Deb Wolf and Belinda Coltswood and their involvement in areas connected to the AIDS epidemic that began in the 1980’s. The AIDS topic was well-done. I do remember those days and feel that this book gave a great perspective of the insiders in the movement, different than I remembered from network news’ reporting.
Over 40 million died of AIDS, and in the true American spirit, there were social uprisings, riots and protests. At the beginning, we learned that our character, Wolf, had been abandoned by her father, worked in a bagel shop and lived in the shop’s loft for ten bucks a week. She was a butch lesbian, a blue collar, hands-on-involved as a protestor who deeply cared, and did things such as bringing meals to the dying victims, helping at the clinic and participating in protests and rallies, etc.
Deb became a photographer and a writer who wrote a book about her experiences that included the AIDS movement.
Belinda Coltswood was from a different world than Wolf. She was an academician and an artist from a very wealthy family. Some of Bel’s family were financially involved in funding for the research for a vaccine for AIDS, not so much that they cared, but for the financial rewards that could be garnered.
There was a passionate magnet between Bel and Deb, even with their clashes and the AIDS-inspired need for testing and safe sex. The sex was intense but there was no label for whatever the relationship was or wasn’t. An unlikely pairing, they encountered the other, or didn’t. Their storyline was one that I enjoyed following.
The chapters switched back and forth between the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s, covering both Wolf and Coltswood, keeping the reader informed and wanting to know more. There were several other important characters that popped in and out during the length of the timeline. The book was very detailed and I really enjoyed how everything played out. Because of the serious nature, I especially enjoyed that this was such a different type of lesbian romance than a lighthearted romcom.
There were many important characters, but the main focus was on Deb Wolf and Belinda Coltswood and their involvement in areas connected to the AIDS epidemic that began in the 1980’s. The AIDS topic was well-done. I do remember those days and feel that this book gave a great perspective of the insiders in the movement, different than I remembered from network news’ reporting.
Over 40 million died of AIDS, and in the true American spirit, there were social uprisings, riots and protests. At the beginning, we learned that our character, Wolf, had been abandoned by her father, worked in a bagel shop and lived in the shop’s loft for ten bucks a week. She was a butch lesbian, a blue collar, hands-on-involved as a protestor who deeply cared, and did things such as bringing meals to the dying victims, helping at the clinic and participating in protests and rallies, etc.
Deb became a photographer and a writer who wrote a book about her experiences that included the AIDS movement.
Belinda Coltswood was from a different world than Wolf. She was an academician and an artist from a very wealthy family. Some of Bel’s family were financially involved in funding for the research for a vaccine for AIDS, not so much that they cared, but for the financial rewards that could be garnered.
There was a passionate magnet between Bel and Deb, even with their clashes and the AIDS-inspired need for testing and safe sex. The sex was intense but there was no label for whatever the relationship was or wasn’t. An unlikely pairing, they encountered the other, or didn’t. Their storyline was one that I enjoyed following.
The chapters switched back and forth between the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s, covering both Wolf and Coltswood, keeping the reader informed and wanting to know more. There were several other important characters that popped in and out during the length of the timeline. The book was very detailed and I really enjoyed how everything played out. Because of the serious nature, I especially enjoyed that this was such a different type of lesbian romance than a lighthearted romcom.
January 16, 2026
This was a very special book that gave some insight into the depressing times in the 1980s and 1990s due to the AIDS pandemic, told via following Wolf and Bel and their experiences from 1987 until 2002. The story is moving back and forth in timelines and that makes it slowly possible to get an understanding how the pandemic affected their lives and we also get a chance to follow their unconventional love story. The story is complex and sometimes hard to read, so different from a standard mainstream book, but I highly recommend a read.
In 1987 Deb Wolf, not even an adult legally, is left with nothing when her dad bolts. She is temporarily saved by Danny and her job at a diner where she also can sleep but when he is admitted to the hospital, AIDS, that is all changed. She sleeps on trains and tries to find casual hook-ups just to get a night of sleep in a bed. She meets Cait and is rescued with a job offer at the Mission that help people during the AIDS pandemic. In parallel Belinda Coltswood lives in luxury married to Whit, not a real marriage since they are both gay, but they love each other. One day Whit is getting ill and she loses him to AIDS and her life is forever changed.
They meet via the Mission that Bel is funding, Bel asks Wolf to be her driver and date for her brother’s birthday party, they get wasted together, talk and start forming a bond despite coming from such different backgrounds. Bel is offering Wolf a job opportunity in Boston where they start their version of a relationship. So different from what they have experienced in the past and very special but in the end Belinda leaves.
Wolf contacts Bel in 2002 to reconnect after their fall-out almost a decade earlier. Bel is now Professor Belinda Coltswood, teaching art at a university and Wolf is a journalist that want to write a book about New York in the ’80s and ’90s, about the work they were doing back then. Once they start talking and discuss their past even more things are revealed, everything in their lives were affected by what they experienced back then.
I received a free ARC from Bywater Books and leave an honest review voluntarily.
In 1987 Deb Wolf, not even an adult legally, is left with nothing when her dad bolts. She is temporarily saved by Danny and her job at a diner where she also can sleep but when he is admitted to the hospital, AIDS, that is all changed. She sleeps on trains and tries to find casual hook-ups just to get a night of sleep in a bed. She meets Cait and is rescued with a job offer at the Mission that help people during the AIDS pandemic. In parallel Belinda Coltswood lives in luxury married to Whit, not a real marriage since they are both gay, but they love each other. One day Whit is getting ill and she loses him to AIDS and her life is forever changed.
They meet via the Mission that Bel is funding, Bel asks Wolf to be her driver and date for her brother’s birthday party, they get wasted together, talk and start forming a bond despite coming from such different backgrounds. Bel is offering Wolf a job opportunity in Boston where they start their version of a relationship. So different from what they have experienced in the past and very special but in the end Belinda leaves.
Wolf contacts Bel in 2002 to reconnect after their fall-out almost a decade earlier. Bel is now Professor Belinda Coltswood, teaching art at a university and Wolf is a journalist that want to write a book about New York in the ’80s and ’90s, about the work they were doing back then. Once they start talking and discuss their past even more things are revealed, everything in their lives were affected by what they experienced back then.
I received a free ARC from Bywater Books and leave an honest review voluntarily.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews