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Revolving Doors
Rhiannon Sharp is a businesswoman at the top of her game, who has spent the better part of her adult life crossing the globe, applying her multi-faceted and highly sought-after skills wherever needed. Having secured a contract closer to home, she finally returns to Australia to work in Sydney. Despite the success which has come naturally to Rhiannon in the professional world, a key part of her life is missing, having let it slip through her fingers some twenty years ago.
Angela Drayton is a concert pianist, feted throughout the world for her depth of passion when performing. She’s on an extended sabbatical with her son, wondering at how her life is so full and yet strangely empty.
A twenty-year school reunion creates the perfect opportunity for Rhiannon to finally gain answers to questions she has waited far too long to ask Angela. But will she get them? Will they at last be able to pick up from where they never really managed to start?
Angela Drayton is a concert pianist, feted throughout the world for her depth of passion when performing. She’s on an extended sabbatical with her son, wondering at how her life is so full and yet strangely empty.
A twenty-year school reunion creates the perfect opportunity for Rhiannon to finally gain answers to questions she has waited far too long to ask Angela. But will she get them? Will they at last be able to pick up from where they never really managed to start?
- GenresLesbian
270 pages, Paperback
First published March 26, 2020
10 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Helen Macpherson
4 books11 followersBorn and living in Australia, Helen resides in the North-West of Tasmania. After over 33 years in the Australian Army, she is now retired, and happily spends her days as house spouse to her wife, Kate. When she isn't engaged in her favourite hobby of cooking, she spends her time traveling, reading, writing and finally paying sufficient focus on completing her family history. Helen has always had a love of writing and poetry, completing her first body of work--a piece of poetry, at fifteen.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 8, 2020
Revolving Doors is Helen Macpherson’s new romance novel for Regal Crest since Love's Redemption in 2008.
Rhiannon Sharp is a businesswoman at the top of her game, who has spent the better part of her adult life crossing the globe. Her current job places her back in Sydney and we meet her as she's about to attend a school reunion. We get some flashbacks first to introduce the players and prepare us for what’s to come.
After losing both parents in a tragic accident at the tender age of 15, Rhiannon is taken out of her familiar surroundings to live with her aunt in Sydney. Being very much the tom boy, Rhiannon feels out of place at her new all-girls school, but manages to form a bond with another loner named Ginny. Before their bff status can develop into anything else, Ginny tragically loses her life during Christmas break. Feeling utterly lost Rhiannon finds solace in the piano music of another student, Angela Drayton. They bond, have a fleeting moment, but before Rhiannon has a chance to figure out what’s what, Angela flees the scene like a veritable Cinderella, never to be seen again. Back in the present, the two women meet again after more than 20 years.
I will be honest and say I had a lot of problems reading this book. To quote Marie Condo, it did not spark any joy. Biggest problem was the tone and language. It was over-wrought and wooden, the dialogue oddly formal and stilted. It didn't feel natural at any point.
Does a teen-age girl talk like this to her bff? “It’s not as if I have anyone to share anything with should you happen to tell me anyway. My studies keep me fairly absorbed, leaving little time for the trivialities of adolescent friendships.”
The amount of coming out angst dominated the whole book. Angela was a real pillock about it as well, reducing poor Rhiannon to ‘oh, she’s just an old school friend’ status at the drop of a hat one time too many. Rhiannon remains the perfect noble butch with oodles of self control and the patience of a saint. Angela keeps seeing apes and bears at every corner. What will the neighbors think, what will my son think, my mother, my friends, my colleagues? So she ends up seeking validation with all these people throughout the book and it’s frankly exhausting. Rhiannon does the same on her end. And then, to add to all that angst we get a weirdly constructed sub plot involving Rhiannon’s job and Angela's beloved Conservatorium. It all makes for a very tedious muddle. This amount of gay angst between two women in their late 30s is not what I want to read anno 2020. We’ve been there and it’s done to death and I don’t really want to read this anymore.
The other odd thing was Rhiannon carrying a torch for Ginny and Angela for half her life while nothing really profound happened between them to explain this. She never entered the girlfriend stage with either of them. There was no kissing, just a fleeting touch of a hand. I did not find this very believable.
So yeah, this author has some growing to do. I enjoyed the Australian setting, but sadly that was about all I liked about Revolving Doors.
f/f quite chaste first half, some fairly standard scenes later on
Themes: Sydney Australia, flashbacks, ‘Dìreach dhi’, the obligatory Are you Sure? the amounts of gay coming out angst is just ridiculous, the son and his soccer obsession, poetry, where is the fun?
2.5 Stars
* ARC provided by the author to www.lezreviewbooks.com in exchange for an honest review
Rhiannon Sharp is a businesswoman at the top of her game, who has spent the better part of her adult life crossing the globe. Her current job places her back in Sydney and we meet her as she's about to attend a school reunion. We get some flashbacks first to introduce the players and prepare us for what’s to come.
After losing both parents in a tragic accident at the tender age of 15, Rhiannon is taken out of her familiar surroundings to live with her aunt in Sydney. Being very much the tom boy, Rhiannon feels out of place at her new all-girls school, but manages to form a bond with another loner named Ginny. Before their bff status can develop into anything else, Ginny tragically loses her life during Christmas break. Feeling utterly lost Rhiannon finds solace in the piano music of another student, Angela Drayton. They bond, have a fleeting moment, but before Rhiannon has a chance to figure out what’s what, Angela flees the scene like a veritable Cinderella, never to be seen again. Back in the present, the two women meet again after more than 20 years.
I will be honest and say I had a lot of problems reading this book. To quote Marie Condo, it did not spark any joy. Biggest problem was the tone and language. It was over-wrought and wooden, the dialogue oddly formal and stilted. It didn't feel natural at any point.
Does a teen-age girl talk like this to her bff? “It’s not as if I have anyone to share anything with should you happen to tell me anyway. My studies keep me fairly absorbed, leaving little time for the trivialities of adolescent friendships.”
The amount of coming out angst dominated the whole book. Angela was a real pillock about it as well, reducing poor Rhiannon to ‘oh, she’s just an old school friend’ status at the drop of a hat one time too many. Rhiannon remains the perfect noble butch with oodles of self control and the patience of a saint. Angela keeps seeing apes and bears at every corner. What will the neighbors think, what will my son think, my mother, my friends, my colleagues? So she ends up seeking validation with all these people throughout the book and it’s frankly exhausting. Rhiannon does the same on her end. And then, to add to all that angst we get a weirdly constructed sub plot involving Rhiannon’s job and Angela's beloved Conservatorium. It all makes for a very tedious muddle. This amount of gay angst between two women in their late 30s is not what I want to read anno 2020. We’ve been there and it’s done to death and I don’t really want to read this anymore.
The other odd thing was Rhiannon carrying a torch for Ginny and Angela for half her life while nothing really profound happened between them to explain this. She never entered the girlfriend stage with either of them. There was no kissing, just a fleeting touch of a hand. I did not find this very believable.
So yeah, this author has some growing to do. I enjoyed the Australian setting, but sadly that was about all I liked about Revolving Doors.
f/f quite chaste first half, some fairly standard scenes later on
Themes: Sydney Australia, flashbacks, ‘Dìreach dhi’, the obligatory Are you Sure? the amounts of gay coming out angst is just ridiculous, the son and his soccer obsession, poetry, where is the fun?
2.5 Stars
* ARC provided by the author to www.lezreviewbooks.com in exchange for an honest review
September 15, 2020
It took me a moment to really get into this story with the back and forth. Looking back at it now, I see how the "flashbacks" made sense in the beginning. Life certainly wasn't easy on Rhiannon at all. I love her friendship with Elly and how they just became good friends with time. Angela's mother being the supportive mum that she is was awesome. I'm glad she pointed Angela in the right direction when it was necessary. The drama with the Con and Rhiannon's work was just... ugh, I wanted them to be happy and there was so much going on all of a sudden. I love the way she bonded with Lachie and how he loved playing soccer with Rhiannon while pointing out how useless at the game his mother is. The fact that Rhiannon didn't let Lachie down and showed up at his game, then defends Angela against this idiot of a man and makes Angela understand how being called "friend" feels when you're on the receiving end. I loved how Lachie was just happy with it all and was even excited about having two mums. Them moving to Arcadia and clearly having gotten married in the time between the last chapter and the epilogue? Ugh, I loved it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 10, 2021
This is my first book by this author. It is a story of "the love of your life" proportions. Rhiannon and Angela meet in high school. Rhiannon is an orphan, a melancholic, tortured soul, well liked by her friends and loved by her aunt. Angela is a pianist, her obsession is to become the best concert pianist on an international level. They part on the last day of school and for the next 20 years, their lives never cross. But the longing was always there. I found that I enjoyed this story very much. The language is a bit up there, I found myself looking up words I had never seen but that was ok. The setting is Sydney Australia and the author describes the location very precisely. Knowing very little about Australia, I found I enjoyed this information. It is sad and happy, highs and lows, as a good book should be. I recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews