Finders Keepers

by Karin Kallmaker

Setting out on the vacation of a lifetime, Marissa Chabot is well-provisioned with sun block, rum and a stack of good books. As one of the founders of the succesfanul, high-tech “soul-mate matching service” Finders Keepers, Marissa knows from experience that vacation romances are nothing short of hopeless.
When the tall, dark and beautiful Linda Bartok sweeps her off her feet, Marissa yields to the magic of moonlit walks on the beach and longed-for whispers of passion. Though it hardly seems possible that the Amazonian, adventurous Linda could be truly interested in a desk-bound computer geek, their erotic encounters soon bring about Marissa’s complete and total surrender.
Vacations end. Real life resumes. Waiting for the phone to ring, Marissa wonders if what she had seen in Linda’s eyes could have possibly been true. Was it just a vacation romance? Or was she going to end up losers weepers?

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

254 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2007

About the author

Karin Kallmaker has been exclusively devoted to lesbian fiction since the publication of her first novel in 1989. As an author published by the storied Naiad Press, she worked with Barbara Grier and Donna McBride, and has been fortunate to be mentored by a number of editors, including Katherine V. Forrest.

In addition to multiple Lambda Literary Awards, she has been featured as a Stonewall Library and Archives Distinguished Author. Other accolades include the Ann Bannon Popular Choice and other awards for her writing, as well as the selection as a Trailblazer by the Golden Crown Literary Society. She is best known for novels such as Painted Moon, Simply the Best, Touchwood, The Kiss that Counted and Captain of Industry.

The California native is the mother of two and lives with her wife in the Bay Area. You can catch her blogs at Romance and Chocolate: https://kallmaker.com/blog/. Find her on social media by searching for "Kallmaker" - there's only one.

Reviews

[lov2laf · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an okay read. It had some things I really liked and other things that I didn't.

The two leads are unusual, for sure. Marissa is an overweight computer scientist with generally low self-esteem and a self-deprecating sense-of-humor while Linda is a super model-esque outdoor adventurer with an unusual past...so unusual I was wondering if it was even possible though Kallmaker quelled that thought later on. The main thing they have in common is both seeing beyond each other's physical appearance to get to the person underneath...that and they both have crap mothers.

The book is a romance but one where the leads spend a considerable amount of time apart and the first part of the book, where they ARE together, is in flashback...neither style is a favorite of mine. The reason for their separation is also somewhat forced and I couldn't help thinking that it didn't need to go that way.

While apart, the author went the route of having the leads working on themselves to become healthier individuals, Linda's work being internal while Marissa's was primarily external. The read is practically part self-help book and it felt like the author was imparting healthy diet/exercise advice and mindfulness therapy along with her weaving of the f/f story.

At times the tone of the book goes serious and dark while other times it's humorous and light. Because the leads spent a lot of their time away from each other the romance felt to me to be on the lighter side. Personally, I like seeing leads put together in a pressure cooker and keeping them there....and the story switches back and forth between Marissa and Linda's perspectives so we get into the headspace of what each is dealing with throughout the book.

I liked the humor, the unique and unusual circumstances between how the two leads meet and Linda's past, and having an overweight romantic character...but, overall, the balance of good and bad worked out to be just an okay read.

3.3 stars

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a confession to make. I actually read this for the first time several years ago and while I liked it, I didn’t love it. It didn’t conform to my expectations of a romance and it left me wondering what I’d just read. Returning to it recently was a revelation. Finders Keepers doesn’t play by the usual rules of romance and now I see that’s a huge advantage. Just like Roller Coaster, it defies expectation, yet delivers a beautiful story that left me satisfied and happy in the end. It tackles some heavy subject matter and I guarantee you’ve never read a character like Linda before. I also love that it has a plus sized heroine, even if she doesn’t stay that way, because let’s be honest, some of us are a little fluffy and it’s nice to see that in a genre where most of the women have perfect bodies.

Full review: http://www.thelesbianreview.com/finde...

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oreo Sleeves

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t totally sure what to expect with this book. I hadn’t actually read the entire description when I started. I thought it was going to be a fluff piece. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I did enjoy reading it. There were a couple tiny parts that I skimmed over quickly because they really didn’t add much to the story, but over all these two main characters had great chemistry in a short amount of time but it was actually believable. I really did appreciate that both women were flawed and you witnessed their growth. I have no issue in recommending this one.

[Elaine Ker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Je ne comprends même pas pourquoi j'ai terminé cette lecture : je ne vois pas l'intérêt de lire des livres qui ne me plaisent pas...
Je pense que c'était par pur entêtement, parce que j'avais déjà abandonné pas mal de livres ce mois-ci.
Bref.
Déjà, pour être totalement honnête, les romans sentimentaux ne sont pas mon genre de prédilection. Je ne les apprécie que lorsqu'ils sont loufoques/drôles, et ce n'était pas le cas ici. Le seul aspect qui titillait ma curiosité est le passé de Linda. Il aurait pu être plus intéressant, mais malheureusement, ce qu'elle a subi est mis sur le dos de sa mère "folle" et non sur l'injonction à la beauté de notre société.
C'est pareil du côté de Marissa : elle est grosse au début et apprend à s'accepter, mais c'est gâché par un épilogue où elle a enfin réussi à devenir mince...

[Kaye · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a quick read from the library. Two women meet on a cruise ship that sinks on its first night. In lifeboats they make their way to land and end up staying a few days at a resort in Tahiti. For both it is life changing. One is plus sized and she returns home and takes control of her eating and her relationship with her mother. The other takes on her mother and continues her recovery from a childhood full of abuse. It is hard to categorize as a romance because other than the beginning and end they are not together. But they do get their HEA. It was well written but not what I was expecting.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book buried under others hidden away. It was published in 2006. I have read a lot of Karin Kallmaker books but somehow missed this one. It starts out on a ship that has to be abandoned the first night. Two strangers make it to the lifeboat and begin an adventure. Things are not as they seem and in order to true to themselves, and be the person they want to be for Marissa, Linda waits a year to deal with some (horrific) stuff before trying to make things work.

I really enjoyed this book.

[Mira Dongowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein Buch mit sehr differenzierten Charakteren. Allerdings wäre eine Triggerwarnung zu Beginn ratsam, da eine Figur aufgrund von Misshandlung aus der Kindheit mit einer Dissoziativen Störung zu tun hat, von der auch teilweise erzählt wird. Der erste Teil des Buches beginnt als leichte Kost, wird dann aber komplexer und beleuchtet die Hintergründe der besagten Figur. Alles in allem aber eine spannende Geschichte, da sie mehr Realität schafft.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this novel. However, it lacked consistency in that it began as something of a romp and then turned into two people trying to connect despite their flaws and traumas. I preferred the second theme as opposed to the first.

[Ami Raegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book a lot. I love the information you see in the book and I like how it showcases a lady who is overweight and is trying to better herself.

[Jay Odon · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Nineteen, on the edge."

This is my favorite KK book! I liked it so much that I had my gf read it too. This is more than your typical romance, it is two separate journeys made by two very different women to be who they see reflected in the other's eyes.

Marissa and Linda meet on a lifeboat after they abandon their sinking cruise ship, after being separated from the other boats during the last of the storm, the survivors end up on a very small strip of beach with the only real chance of surviving is climbing up the side of a mountain. While Linda easily climbs and then helps others follow, Marissa is far from being fit enough to even try to climb but knows there is not other choice. Marissa starts the climb while Linda is encouraging from the top and just when she thinks it is a lost cause Marissa is helped from above and below, a pull and a shove is all it took and then they were on their way to salvation. As luck would have it the island they landed on is a resort and all the other shipwreck victims are already there enjoying the luxuries. While the cruise line arranges for everyone to get home, Linda wants to stay and asks Marissa to stay with her. After a week on the island, enjoying things she never thought she would be able to do, Marissa finds herself wanting more out of herself and as the two women spend their last night in each others arms they make a connection that neither of them truly understands. At the airport neither woman wants to admit her feelings so they part in silence with a promise that Linda would be in touch. After a year of not hearing a single word from Linda, Marissa has tried to move on with her life while still working toward her goal of being the woman Linda truly saw. No word from Linda means that whatever they had between them was obviously a lie and Marissa feels stupider by the moment, as she moves on she starts dating and then Linda shows up one day trying to explain but failing miserably. Linda has been on a journey herself, in that one night they spent together Linda let Marissa see what no one has ever seen, her true self. Linda made a decision that would change both women's lives, she needed to reconcile with her family and fix herself so she would be good enough for Marissa's love.

So both women on the same but separate journey decide they have to love themselves enough to be that person the other sees and let their guards down enough to let the love blossom...

[Brigitte Alouqua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Voici une auteur que l'on me recommandait depuis un moment, alors quand je l'ai reçu, j'étais enchantée d'enfin la découvrir.

Dans "La belle éprise", vous voyagez, et la romance ne prend pas toute la place, elle est secondaire.

Un récit où vous vous laissez embarquer avec plaisir dans les tourments, dans le voyage, dans la découverte, dans la discussion, dans la connaissance de l'autre.

La rencontre de Marissa et Linda va leur donner du courage lors de leur retour à la vie réelle. L'une va lutter contre son sur-poids et surtout elle va apprendre à s'aimer elle-même, ce qui n'est pas le cas. L'autre va prendre sur elle et retourner en thérapie pour ce très gros conflit qui lui fait détester sa mère.

Au-delà de leur aventure au début très mouvementé, en effet le bateau fait naufrage et du coup elles vont se retrouver sur sur l'île de Huahine. Si il n'y avait pas eu ce naufrage, nous pouvons nous poser la question de savoir si elles se seraient rencontrées. Au-delà de ce début mouvementé donc, j'y ai vu le courage qu'une personne peut donner à une autre sans forcément le savoir.

Je peux sans conteste dire que je suis ravie d'avoir enfin fait connaissance avec la plume de Karin, et que j'ai hâte de la découvrir dans une autre histoire.

[Meghna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing because it was so real!! I loved the fact that this wasnt like those stories where the girl has problems to face and the warrior princess-like other girl rides in slays all the dragons and solves all the problems and they ride into to the susset where they live happily ever after....

This was real because in this story two women meet each other and realise through each other that they have inner strength, courage and that they deserve better so they fix their problems by themselves,away from each other not for someone else but for themselves but in the end they know that they want to share the happiness they find with each other.

These two women were different from each other. One was made "beautiful" by a mother because the mother thought the beauty she was born with wasnt enough. The other was scared that people could harm her because of who she is and what her assets are, so she hides herself,and self sabotages herself. But in the end they realise that they are who they are and that all the people who think they are not good enough are the ones with problems.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating surprise plucked from the library shelves - not my usual read but the author drew me in, teased me along with adventure, sensory and sensual detail and a realistic plot. Marissa is co-owner of Finders Keepers, an online date-matching site, who is herself without a partner. She meets Linda while both are surviving the wreck of their cruise ship and subsequent landing on a idyllic island retreat. It isn't all idyllic getting there, and Linda and Marissa appear, on the surface, to be totally mismatched for becoming close partners, but that's what happens here and Karin had me in immediate connection with Marissa's physical challenges and later with the ones Linda's life embedded in her. This is a story of unconditional love, deep friendship and two women re-discovering their inner magic, inner personal strengths and value.

[Sadie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finders Keepers by Karin Kallmaker was a pleasant surprise. I don't normally read any romance novels (in fact in my entire life I've only read 3 and that's because I know the author). That said this book was not what I was expecting from a traditional romance novel, in that it focused primarily on the journeys of two women who both had to deal with aspects of their childhoods and bodies that continued to bother or haunt them into adulthood. The story line and the stories of the women and their insecurities with their bodies (in many of the female characters) mirror the societal pressures placed on the physical and how harmful those pressures can be for many girls and women in our society.

[Erin (NY) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't read romance novels well... ever. And I guess if this one is any representation of the genre, I guess for a good reason. It started off exciting enough, but was just so badly written (seriously how many times a page can the main character remind the reader that she is fat??). I did like the main character: she was a computer scientist who likes to read??? That's who I am!! But the rest of it made me want to hurl the book at the wall. Even though it was relatively short (250ish pages), it took me more then a week to get through! I don't think I will be reading another romance in a looong time!

[Loek Krancher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific novel!

Yes, another big hit of Karin. It's not about beautiful, gorgeous, the exterior but about strength, intelligent, about the interior. A gorgeous body can be a burden in your life but that also applies to a body with overweight. Two women who struggle with their bodies but also dealing with extremely controlling mothers. Mothers who had a big impact on their lives. This story has a lot of twists and turns, it was fun, sad, passionate, emotional and heartbreaking. I enjoyed it immensely and I really really loved the mental letters of Marissa. They were witty and revealing. I highly recommend this book. It's an amazing story.

[Coop Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure why but I've found myself going back to this book over and over again for the last couple of weeks. It's obviously over the top and a little ridiculous to think things play out the way they did but it's also very sweet. I like that Marissa didn't get into shape to get a woman. That was a big worry and I'm glad Linda didn't try to get better just for Marissa. They worked on themselves for themselves.

[Lo'Ren A Mayler · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books. So inspirational. I've went through the trials of losing weight and know how hard it is to not count every calorie and not put yourself down. It is so easy to give up. Really hit home. Always enjoy all of Karin's books.

[Carolina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun book with great everyday characters. "like rain on my parched ego" was probably my favorite line.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually an interesting narrative structure to it, including characters who developed! Could have done without the "letters to self" format . . .

[C.J. Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny and heartfelt read.

[Rachelle Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story really hit home for me. Loved it!

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my very first Karin Kallmaker and it got me hooked on her books, so I have a very soft spot in my heart for it.

[MEC · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book I picked up because I keep seeing rave reviews for Kallmaker. Finders Keepers is a romance, but not in the standard sense. The main characters, Marissa and Linda, meet in a lifeboat when their cruise ship sinks (no, they don’t end up on a deserted island). They have a brief fling and separate to return to their lives. The book focuses on the struggles of both women with the lives that they return to and the changes that both are inspired to make in their own lives - Marissa battles weight issues while Linda battles her own self image issues. They come together again in the end, both stronger and more sure of themselves. The book really focuses on issues of self image, self confidence and the characters resolve to take control of their own lives. The initial romance seems to be the catalyst to move them both forward and ends up being their reward in the end. At times I found things a bit too preachy or discovery channel-ish (the messages are important, I just found that often the information was dumped in and put forward a bit too heavy handed). The characters are interesting and you can’t help but root for them – I would have liked to have seen more of Linda’s demons/backstory.