This is a bittersweet second chances story between two women who had a single life-changing encounter as young teens and met again nearly thirty years later. Willow immediately recognizes Keegan, who has matured into a swoon-worthy out-and-proud butch lesbian, but Keegan at first doesn’t know where she’s seen the gorgeous, lushly curvaceous blonde before. They end up on the same train vacation and the truth (among other things) comes out.
This novel is full of emotions, good and bad, real communication, some miscommunication but ultimately the goodness of human nature shines through. I couldn’t put this book down once I started and read until dawn.
The train trip is only about half of the novel, the rest follows Keegan and Willow on their journey together and it’s refreshingly realistic. Even though the “I love you”s come soon after the reunion and the notion of soul-mates is bandied about, they don’t instantly become the perfect partners who understand each other’s every quirk and nuance, but they love each other enough to show their insecurities and while hurt feelings happen on both sides, they communicate like adults.
The ending was predictable in the way that I was desperately hoping for them to wake up and realize the best path, but I was still happily surprised by a number of details.
I admit I’ve started to read a few others by Moll and I never felt the lightning-like impact of the story like I did here. I think a lot of it had to do with Keegan, who is gruff, noble, flawed, and perfect all at once. She embodies all the things I adore about butch women while still retaining her own particular character.
Wonderful story, heartwarming and jarring all at the same time. Moll doesn’t shy away from dealing with tough subjects, namely childhood abuse,substance abuse, and eating disorders. Mental health and personal care are touched on. It broke my heart when it is brought up that seeking professional help is sometimes not an option for certain people without significant personal loss. Wealth-gap is also touched on in an insightful manner.
Okay, this makes it sound like this story is super heavy, but it’s actually got a lot of sweet and lighthearted moments.
The quirky widower they meet on the train who unknowingly clit-blocks Keegan on a number of occasions and Willow’s cat, Ripple, who is hilarious and I suspect an extremely realistic representative of his species are a few of the highlights.
I especially loved how the beginning and ending showed that life doesn’t flow in a circle, it is an eternally ascending spiral. To say more would be spoilery, but I loved the narrative symmetry.
Highly recommended, just don’t be like me and start reading this at ten at night unless you a) want to still be awake when the sun comes up or b) a super speedy reader, because I guarantee you won’t be able to let these women out of your sight until the end.
Rating: five stars