Something True

Out in Portland #1

by Karelia Stetz-Waters

Tate Grafton has a tough exterior, but underneath she's kind, caring, and fiercely loyal. That's why she first started working at Out in Portland Coffee-it was her way of repaying the shop's owner for taking her in as a homeless teenager. Nine years later, the coffee shop is floundering and Tate feels like she's letting life pass her by . . . until she shares an unforgettable night with a beautiful stranger. When the mysterious woman disappears the next morning, Tate doesn't even know her name.

Laura Enfield was supposed to be in Portland for only a few days-just long enough to oversee a simple business deal before joining her conservative father on his political campaign. But when the closeted Laura romances an employee of the coffee shop her company is shutting down, things get suddenly complicated. Now, the lies she's told for years are beginning to unravel, and her biggest secret is about to be exposed. Laura can't stop thinking about the barista with the soulful eyes, but after a lifetime of deception, can she finally embrace something true?

Genres: Romance, LGBT, Lesbian, Fiction, Queer, Contemporary, Lesbian Romance

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 13, 2015

About the author

Karelia Stetz-Waters remembers a time when happy endings romantic love was a holy grail she thought she would never find. Stories about lesbians all ended tragically. At seventeen, she was certain the best she could hope for was to die nobly for the woman she loved (who would never love her back, of course). Four years later, she saw her true love across a crowded room, and they have been together for twenty-plus years.

Knowing that happily-ever-after is possible for everyone, Stetz-Waters has made it her life’s mission to craft happy endings about women finding true love with other women. She is also on a quest to spread “cliteracy” across the country, using her work as a romance writer to teach readers about female sexual anatomy, desire, and pleasure.

When she’s not shopping for model clitorises or writing love stories, she’s teaching writing at a community college in rural Oregon where her students inspire her every day with their bravery, creativity, and perseverance. She also teaches for the Golden Crown Literary Society Writing Academy, a creative writing program for queer women. It’s been her honor to mentor writers who are now her peers and colleagues. Karelia also loves to garden, draw, and play with her pug-mix, Willa Cather.

Karelia has a BA in Comparative Literature from Smith College and an MA in English from the University of Oregon. She is represented by Jane Dystel of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like Karelia Stetz-Waters' writing style. The romance wasn't as good as 'Worth the Wait' but it was still good. Initially I didn't feel the chemistry between Tate and Laura but the more they interacted the more I liked them together.

[~ * K E L L I E * ~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I also struggled with rating this novel. 4 stars or 5 stars? There were a couple of minor things that detracted from a perfect 5 stars. Yet again I wish Goodreads had 1/2 star ratings.

As someone else mentioned, the 'Hollywood' action scene towards the end didn't quite flow with the rest of the storyline.

Therefore, I'm going with 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5 stars)

[Bobbi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable read with interesting major and minor characters. The book had a little of everything: angst, humor, and drama. While Laura and Tate were both interesting characters in their own right, I never really felt much in the way of chemistry between the two. It was a 'wham bam thank you ma'am' love at first sight, one night stand start to the relationship. I did really enjoy the descriptions and locations of Portland though, definitely a place I would like to visit.

[Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tatum Grafton and Laura Enfield are two well written characters. Tatum is genuine with a care for others that is surreal and so very much appreciated. She wants and deserves to be in a committed relationship with someone that knows how wonderful and precious she is. Laura is hurting emotionally and does not realize how much pain she is in until she meets Tatum. What a pleasure it would be to sit down with these two women and some of Tatum's friends and chat about life and issues related to women. The ending was...lets just say something out of a movie.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now before I start I feel like I should get this out of the way- I am not gay. I don't pretend to begin to understand the emotional complexities and serious dangers of being gay and coming out, let alone in the very public way it is in this novel. I support gay rights and I believe in marriage equality. I am not "squicked out" by the idea of reading a gay romance. I don't expect that anyone who reads my blog would be, but if you do keep your comments polite or I'll just delete them.

On with the book! I'll start with Tate. Tate is out. She works at a coffee shop that proudly declares it and her friends are unashamedly out. She's given her entire life to the owner of the shop for rescuing her as a teenager, and she feels insanely guilty for not enjoying her tiny studio apartment and her lack of a life more. She's always the one who gets dumped, even tho she seems to have no real flaws. Despite all this, she's really the heart of the story. She's so loyal and determined to put everyone else first. She's got a bit of a white knight complex, and is determined to save everyone else even if it brings heartbreak to herself.

Laura has spent her entire life hiding what she is. Her father is a successful politician at a very high level from the Deep South, and coming out has never been an option. Laura has decided that it's time to take a risk and since she lives on the road nearly full time she decides that while she's in a new city that this is the time. She walks into Out in Portland and all but invites Tate to join her at the gay bar, which Tate does, and then she "lets" Tate take her home. Laura sneaks out early the next morning, intending never to see Tate again. She's not so much scared for herself, but she knows that it'll sink her father's future if she comes out.

Did the romance work? Well, the attraction was certainly there. Even I have a crush on Tate now. These two really struck a cord with each other and you could feel both their attraction and their vulnerabilities. I loved that. What didn't work for me, and what rarely works for me in a traditional romance either, is that the entire book takes place in a week or two. It felt so rushed. I'm not completely convinced in Laura and Tate's Happily Ever After, which is the one thing I'm always expecting in a romance. There are some really great scenes where the emotion just shines through- in the Palm Springs house, Tate and her bike on the bridge, Laura in the bar with her coworkers (if you've read it) and some parts that are just too much ( I could have done without the entire side story of Krystal and her father, and Laura's SUV adventure.)

Overall, still very satisfying and it was terrific to have a new source of conflict in a romance (ie, if your partner isn't out.) I wouldn't recommend this to just anyone, even tho it isn't particularly racy and there's really no shock value to it, but I would recommend it to anyone who isn't threatened by two women falling in love.

Something True came out on January 13, 2015.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Received via NetGalley. Expected publication date is 01/13/2015* Tate Grafton has been working at the coffee shop Out in Portland for the past nine years. It has been her home and refuge ever since the owner took her in off the street as a teenager. She steps outside her normal behavior and spends one amazing night with a woman who won't even give her name. She's only in Portland for a short time and doesn't want any complications. It turns out Laura Enfield was doing something out of character herself that night; she was involving herself with a woman whose livelihood she planned on shutting down in the next couple of days. Laura is in Portland to close a deal that will put the little coffee shop out of business. The story moves on from there through the complications of Tate and Laura's interactions and to the ultimate decision of whether or not each has the courage to embrace and fight for what is developing between them.

On the surface, I expected this book to be like so many other lesbian romance novels where the lifetime lesbian falls for the seemingly unobtainable straight woman. It turns out Laura isn't straight but the closet she's in has so many locks on it, she might as well be. (I promise I'm not spoiling anything here. This is revealed right at the beginning.) But the reason this felt more than just your typical romance is because the author does such a good job of making the characters believable. Their flaws are realistic. Even though Tate portrays the heroine, the good soul fighting to get away from her unpleasant past, she isn't perfect. Their conversations are ones you could honestly see two people having. There aren't things being left unsaid just so the plot can have more drama. I never found myself wondering, "Why isn't she saying that out loud? In real life, a person would actually say that, not just think it." In addition, the love scenes are well written and emotionally effective.

The reader should also be ready for a heavy dose of Portland. It is very obvious how much the author loves the city. I could see where some may find this off putting and wish the story would just move along, but personally I felt the city opening up to me. I even got online to look at pictures of the city just to make the images in my head fit the place. The author does a great job of portraying the city's character and I particularly like when she describes the sunlight during the summer. It makes the whole city seem to have this ethereal quality.

I would have rated this book a solid 5 stars if it were not for the action sequence toward the end of the book. It seemed to get a little carried away and interrupted the rhythm of the writing. Ultimately, though, this is one of the better romance novels I've read and I highly recommend it.

[Heinerway · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy and fun read that I enjoyed (I struggle with whether to give 3 or 4 stars).

The story is simple, but the characters... they rock. I've never met such a bunch of wonderful and unforgettable people. When I grow up, I want to be like Tate.

[Elisabeth Lane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this book hoping and expecting to love it based on the synopsis and a really interesting post the author did for Heroes & Heartbreakers about canon lesbian romances. Unfortunately, I didn't. There wasn't anything difficult or offensive about it. I just felt like it was excessively meandering, had an inconsistent tone and just generally needed some reworking to be great.

Tate is the manager of a Portland coffeehouse and even though she won't admit it to herself, she's stuck. She dropped out of college to help out the woman who took her in when her mother threw her out of the house and she's been at Out In Portland ever since. Laura is the real estate developer daughter of a conservative politician and firmly closeted, both for her own reasons and her family's. When they meet, they have a sexy one-night stand, but unfortunately Laura is in town to evict Out In Portland and upgrade the property for a trendy sandwich chain, which puts a strain on the relationship she never intended to have in the first place.

Had this been the extent of the conflict (perhaps with the side plot of Tate's career dilemma and Laura's family problems), that would have likely been great. But instead we get a side plot about another teenager Tate's boss has taken in, Tate's ex-girlfriend and her new girlfriend, Tate's best friend and her love interest. And that doesn't even cover Laura's side of the equation. While a high level of community context is something I anticipate and enjoy in lesbian romance (much more so than in het, which often focuses on the main romance to the exclusion of everything else), most times the side plots and other character interactions still support the main narrative or elucidate the characters' background, interests and work. In this case, there were some almost farcical scenes involving the various secondary characters that didn't match the fairly serious tone of the main romance.

I guess it could be interpreted as comic relief or lessening the tension of these difficult interactions between two women who want each other, but for various reasons just can't see a way through to happiness. But it made the whole thing feel disjointed to me. I also couldn't figure out where the narrator's sympathies were--with the quirky indie business or the big developer; with the conservative family trying to make a difference in politics or the self-made family trying to protect their own. If indeed those value judgments were even part of the point. I kept wondering what I was missing.

Tate and Lauren were both wonderful characters and their differences were real enough to sustain a book without what came to feel like gimmicks--manipulation on the part of their friends and families, an accident and job loss. It was just too much for one book. All in all, I thought it could have done with a simpler story and less chaos in both narrative and tone.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmmmmm. There's no doubt this was well-written (although the prose was a bit too flowery at first, and took a little getting used to; it did out and flow really well by the middle) and most of the characters were likeable enough. The storyline was alright (coming out struggles are not typically my cup of tea, but I do appreciate a well-written development) and I was invested in wanting the two of them to end up together. Nothing about this story particularly grabbed me, though, and while it was overall light-hearted in tone my sense of humour didn't particularly jive with some of the jokes that were made.

So let's say that's all meriting a 4/5 rating so far. Why'd it get knocked down two more stars?

1) HELLA TRANSPHOBIA! Everywhere! Throughout the whole book! Littered all over the damn place and took me right out of the story each and every time.

2) To that end, I took off another star because of politics.

Look. If you're gonna write a story comparing and contrasting the lifestyles, values, and motivations of "radical progressive feminists" (and writing them so excessively over-the-top as brash, naive, senseless, militant, and transphobic) with ultra conservative business-savvy tycoons, I'm gonna be looking for actual substance in the issues dealt with in the book. Or at least a MENTION of it.

The wrap-up was too convenient, the characters themselves so squarely pigeon-holed into their roles without any further depth (although I will allow that the complicated interactions and relationships between these characters was well done), every character portrayal and issue dealt with was surface-level and superficial (and not to mention so heavily reliant on tired stereotypes), that ultimately the entire thing read like more effort could have been put into it and should have been put into it.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

**I received this book for free from Grand Central Publishing, Forever Yours Imprint via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!! This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**

*Genre* Lesbian, Contemporary, Romance
*Rating* 3.0

*My Thoughts*

Something True is a romantic story that features two women, Tatum "Tate" Grafton, and Laura Enfield, who have nothing in common, but are eventually drawn together by desire and love. Tate has been a barista at Out in Portland Coffee for the past 9 years. She's had numerous girlfriends, but hasn't found the one who she can settle down with. Tate is described as being the archetypal female who is loyal to a fault, and who put her own future on hold to help her friend Maggie after she took Tate off the streets. Tate is the kind of person that I strive to be in my lifetime.

*Full Review @ Gizmos Reviews*

http://gizmosreviews.blogspot.com/201...

*Recvd 12/17/2014 via NetGalley* Expected publication: January 13th 2015 by Grand Central Publishing, Forever Yours Imprint

[Danielle Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to give this 4.5 stars, but decided it was worth a round-up as I only had a few reservations with the ending.

This book was very well written and had me wrapped up in the story from beginning to end. The romance is great; despite it rolling out only a little over a week which made me question the believability, the emotion between the leads was so sincere I decided to suspend my disbelief and just enjoy the ride. Because despite the brief time period, the characters go through quite a bit of tug and pull and reckon with many internal obstacles to come together. My main problem was that the ending felt rushed and a bit too neatly tied up with a nice red bow. I was left feeling like we jumped over a couple of hurdles to get to the quintessential "Happily Ever After".

Nevertheless, there are two more books in this series, so maybe I'll just soak in the happy lesbian goodness before more struggles come, haha.

[JAYNE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tate is a great character with a moral compass and a good set of friends around her, the chosen family. At times you really feel for Tate and what she goes through. There was a lot of angst around Laura in the beginning but as the story went on, I found myself liking her more and by the end of the book as totally invested in the future.
Looking forward to the second in the series

[Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh boy. It's really hard to like a book when so many of its characters are so painfully and intensely annoying. The entire book I thought Krystal was 10... only to find out she's apparently 20. And Maggie just made me want to... ugh. So tedious. Save yourself the time, read something else.

[Lisa R Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A feel good story.

A perfect love story, expertly written, and totally engaging. A chance meeting of two women from two very different worlds leads to good sex, some drama, and falling in love. A cast of developed characters revolve around an independent coffee shop in Portland. More interesting than many books with this same setting, this story deals with the family your given and the family you choose. Take a tour around the sites in Portland and enjoy this book.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've read Karelia Stetz-Waters' earliest novels, you know that she can write. She can write horror, melodrama, lesbian romance, mystery and crime, and somehow amalgamate them into something strange and new, though attending to genre boundaries. The Out in Portland series is a different kind of writing for her, using the hipster urban setting as a wrapper for contemporary lesbian fairy tale romances. I find these tales irresistible for the sheer quality of the prose, and the flesh-and-blood quirks of characters who actually feel alive, no matter where the story takes them. By fairy tales, I do not mean stories with princesses and ogres, but tales in which you suspend disbelief so that improbable encounters can resolve into a HEA. The uneven ratings for Something True tell me more about what we readers desire than about the book itself. As a lesfic addict, I find myself reading quite a bit of cliched romance--but I would never call Something True cliched, because the writer's voice is so fresh and distinctive.

[Joood Hooligan · Rating 3 out of 5]

***3.5***

I was given a copy a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I've been looking for more f/f stories to read, so I jumped on the opportunity to read and review this when it was offered to me.

All and all, it was a good story. Except it was much like many other contemporary romances I've read, but with lesbians. It isn't the type of book that will stand out, but it is nice for a quick feel good story.

My biggest problem with this story was how sexist it was against straight men. It got to be a little too much for me. At one point I wanted to shake one of the characters and tell her the reason things were going to crap was because she was a bad business owner, not because of the patriarchy.

I will say this though, I am actually interested in going to Portland after reading this book. It sounds like a place I'd enjoy.

I give this 3.5 out of 5 platypires.

http://www.platypire.com/j-hooligan/s...

[Corpruga · Rating 3 out of 5]

I initially had a hard time getting into this, not least due to the lack of contractions in places where I would expect there to be contractions, but I ended up liking it. At its core, I think in addition to being a love story, it’s also about two people who are very sick of their lives but don’t know how to break out of them, and so there’s something really heartening, albeit sometimes frustrating, about watching them work out what they want and how to balance loyalty with desire. I'd maybe put it at a 3.5? It took me a while to get through it, but I'm glad I finished it.

Our two heroines are Tate Grafton, a barista working at a lesbian-feminist bookstore in Portland, Oregon, and Laura Enfield, a real estate developer from Alabama who is also the closeted daughter of a prominent conservative politician. Laura’s company has bought the property Tate’s coffee shop is in, which means the coffee shop is out.

The set-up is a bit You’ve Got Mail-esque, though I think Tate’s relationship to the coffee shop is different than Kathleen’s relationship to the bookstore in You’ve Got Mail. Tate doesn’t actually really like working at the coffee shop. She works there because its owner, Maggie, took her in when she was a teenager and her mother and stepfather kicked her out. Later, when Maggie’s business and life partner leaves her to marry a man, Tate drops out of college and comes in to pick up the pieces. It’s made abundantly clear throughout the book that while Maggie has the community bona fides, she’s really not good at running a coffee shop, and the store’s other employee, Krystal, is an immature young woman also in need of guidance (her father is a convicted murderer) who’s there as one of Maggie’s mentees rather than because she’s good at making coffee. Tate loves Maggie and Krystal, and even Maggie’s hippie ex-partner Lill, but she’s tired of being the one who gets things done, living in a small studio and working for a business that’s not even remotely financially viable. She likes her gardening, and her motorcycle, and her best friend Vita, but she’s kind of trapped.

Meanwhile, Laura is, like, intensely into Tate from the word go, but is so trapped by her own life that she can’t really fathom a way for them to be together. It would be pretty easy to condemn Laura, because she certainly puts Tate through the wringer—the sequence where she flies Tate out to Palm Springs then literally makes her hide in the closet when her family shows up is the low point—but it’s easy to see how she got there. Her family, frankly, sucks—her dad literally fakes a heart attack as a manipulation tactic to get Laura to stay in the closet long enough for him to run for president—but she loves them and has devoted her whole life to her father’s political career. She’s a surprise in some ways: she feels unqualified for her job, knowing that she got it because of nepotism, but she’s pretty strategic and creative when it comes to business. She comes up with a scheme by which Maggie could save the coffee shop (which of course Maggie doesn’t do, because it involves cutting corners when it comes to their organic suppliers and fudging their projected profits), and then later uses the same thing she’s been afraid of the whole book—her coming out and how it would affect her father and his allies—to maneuver her way out of the company she works for and into financial security for herself and Tate.

Their relationship is a lot of Tate putting herself out there and Laura running hot and cold. But at the same time, it had a quality to it that I find important in romance-novel relationships that isn’t always there, and that is that I could see what attracted them to each other. Laura’s attraction to Tate is obviously enough to disrupt the course of her life, and all the things that make people in Laura’s life dismiss Tate make Laura see her as noble and loyal. What might be a little more surprising is why Tate is attracted to Laura after all she puts her through, but at points it becomes clear that Laura sees Tate in ways the people she’s known and loved for years don’t, her vulnerability and regrets, as someone who could use some taking care of rather than always having to take care of others.

There were some sour notes here and there. Vita drops a rather transphobic line when she says, “But what if she [Laura]’s a man? You just can’t tell these days.” And then later, there’s more weirdness regarding trans people from Vita when they meet the very butch Janice and Vita just won’t shut up about how she thought Janice was a dude and wondering if she’s trans. Like, that definitely was unnecessary, and really soured me on Vita as a character. The idea that Krystal was going to go live with conservative Mennonites at the end was weird, and then in the epilogue when Krystal has a girlfriend but the Mennonite relatives are at Laura and Tate’s party made me wonder, “Huh, I wonder what happened there?” Krystal’s story is wild—her father did some heinous crimes, and she runs off to be with him and there’s a whole almost action sequence where Tate’s going to check on her with her Mennonite relatives, who are packing heat because her father owes money to the wrong people or something. It was very odd. I honestly had a hard time getting a handle on Krystal as a character.

But I enjoyed the descriptions of Portland, and there are some really quite pretty passages—I don’t often highlight bits on my Kindle that stand out to me, but I did with this one, just because the descriptions of summer nights resonated with me. I think there are some tonal contrasts between the serious things happening between Laura and Tate and the cartoonish shenanigans that Maggie, Lill, Vita, and Krystal are getting up to, but I ultimately found that central romance compelling enough to like it.

[Loek Krancher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful love story in an amazing setting.

Tate's acquaintance with Laura put her entire life upside down. And this in a beautiful setting, Portland. I always love a relationship between a femme and a butch. Also the difference in background makes this relationship very special. I have laughed at Vita and Krystal. To their immediacy and their behavior. Along with Maggie, they form a family. A family that you are going to love. They were so supportive. This story was romantic, humorous and a dream came true. I definitely recommend this book to everyone.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally!! A lesbian romance book written for someone who actually is or wants to read about lesbians, is contemporary and flows like popular fiction (think a m/f romance), has a plot, a list of great characters, and not a ton of formally worded scissoring. I was beginning to think books like this one didn't exist.

[Katie(babs)]

DNF by chapter 3. I couldn't connect with the main couple at all. Their attraction was to wah bam, let's have sex with no real explanation, and that was it. Also too many secondary characters were introduced and I couldn't keep track of them.

[Fatima · Rating 4 out of 5]

It gets a 4 instead of 3 because it's next to impossible to not fall in love with Tate. It gets a 4 instead of 5 because the premise is far from original. Still, this was an enjoyable read and had me grinning at how witty it is despite the numerous dramas.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great major and minor characters, with a simple plot. I gave three stars, didn't feel like four stars to me. I will read the authors other works, maybe this just didn't connect for me

[Glenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the story sometimes stretches credibility, the MC's steadiness and resolve to be with her love kept me hooked until the end.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely closer to a 2.5 stars.



I liked Stetz-Waters more recent works, so I decided to read her backlist. Unfortunately, this book is outdated both in Stetz-Waters writing ability (which is fine, she clearly has grown as a writer) and in its subject matter.

This book could have only been written prior to the Trump administration. While the characters admonish Laura’s family’s homophobia, there is still an underlying message of conservatives not necessarily being bad people. Their conservatism is only relevant as it pertains to their views on homosexuality and gay marriage, and it’s unclear if Laura is still a gay conservative at the end of the book even though she has cut off her family.

The author has clearly grown in her views on trans people and their role within the lesbian community since 2014 when the book was published. I’m glad I read her later works first otherwise, I would have given up on her entirely because of the transphobia in this book. Tate’s best friend makes multiple comments pertaining to whether or not someone is a “real woman,” and a drag king (who is very butch) is the most violent character in the story.

Besides the problematic views that the author displayed in this novel, the writing is clearly from someone earlier in their writing career. Some of the issues I blame the publishing company for - the work needed strong line and developmental editing. The work was clearly copy edited - there were little to no typos or grammatical errors. However, some of the other elements made it clear this needed some edits earlier on. For example, at one point Laura says she needs to get to the airport soon because TSA is very slow at the Portland airport. However, she has never been to Portland before this, so how would she know that? Another example is when Tate is riding her motorcycle in a sort of manic state saying that she would get Laura to take her back. She says something about being able to get to Washington state fairly quickly, but Laura is in Palm Springs, which is in the opposite direction. While it doesn’t ruin the book by any means, these logical inconsistencies take the reader out of the story.

A developmental editor would have probably had more to say about this frankly bonkers plot. It starts as a normal rom-com with some questionable political messages and ends with a scene in which Laura mysteriously appears out of nowhere to rescue Tate from a crazed Mennonite woman who is watching her sex offender brother die slowly in her house. But don’t worry, the Mennonite woman and the rest of her family show up to Tate’s graduation party at the end of the book. The main characters have little chemistry, and the fact that Tate is accepting of Laura and her wishy-washiness is frustrating because of it. We don’t care about or empathize with Laura, so why should the reader want them to be together?



Overall, this book was a product of its time (even then probably a bit outdated). I’ll read the author’s future works, but I won’t be going to their backlist anymore.

[Glyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this is awkward, because I picked this book up because I loved the second book in the series. I didn't like this one nearly as much.

The main couple is sweet, and it's another charming portrait of Portland, but... I dunno.

I guess the biggest problem is the latter half of the book, especially the ending. It just felt too easy, where everything was magically solved without looking too closely at how it was solved. So I guess they opened a new coffee shop? What does Krystal's conservative family think of her having a girlfriend? And it took me a second to remember who Janice was, though I'm glad Maggie found love.

Regardless, I am going to keep an eye out for future books in this series!

[Alison]

I DNF’d this very suddenly and was not expecting to at all. I was getting what I came for - easy reading, lesbian romance, something of a palette cleanser after reading a thought provoking nonfiction. Then this super TERF-y comment was made, and as I saw another reader say, it took me out of the story. I had to really sit there and think about whether or not it was transphobic in nature, or a dig at straight men in Portland. I honestly was not sure, but my initial reaction that it was transphobic had disrupted the fluffy bliss I wanted. Some investigation of other reviews revealed that maybe there was a transphobic thread throughout the book. I decided there are too many books in my TBR to work this hard decoding problematic language.

[Marikka · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not finish this book. I got to 20% and the number of microaggressions got to me. Interestingly, I don't remember any of the typical biphobic or bierasure comments that seem to be rather common in f/f romance, but there was a transphobic comment, a comment that was sort of racist and othering, a comment on how feminists are meant to look (which might have been corrected by the end of the book, but I don't have the patience), and something that I still can't give a name to.

However, before those aspects started weighing me down, I was enjoying the book. I thought it might turn out well. The first line was a bit much, but that style seemed to calm down. So yeah.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is cringey, but it still accomplishes giving you the warm and fuzzy feelings with a HEA. Be prepared, though, because we're going deep into the closet first, following a repressed republican daughter who's obviously gay, falling in love with the first woman she sleeps with, who happens to be a hot, broke barista in Portland.
I always like finding characters who are in their 30s as it's more relatable to me and also gives the characters more autonomy and confidence to choose an authentic life versus staying closeted.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok ok, so reading romance novels isn't my thing. Read Harder has gotten me to read two cover-to-cover now though, and while I doubt I'll ever pick one up on my own, I think I am starting to develop preferences. Like, I want a lot of tension between healthy people, a lot of humor without being ridiculous, and to somehow build up a realistic plot without instalove (I get that that might be unrealistic for the genre). I didn't find it here.

********

Read Harder: LGBTQ romance novel

[Adam Windsor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid lesbian romance story with a fun (if occasionally frustrating) cast of supporting characters. The central pair are perhaps a bit too lesbian-romance-troperific, being the handsome butch barista and the closeted Republican heiress, but Stetz-Waters writes well. This is unfussy, 'comfort food' stuff, but if that's what you're looking for, I think you will be well pleased.