What do you think?
Rate this book
Maiden Leap
Kate, a devoted wife and mother, has lived her whole life under the mythic bluff called Maiden Leap in a scenic river town. Her contented life is turned inside out when her former high school girlfriend Lucy returns to town as a graduate of a gay conversion therapy program. Now Kate must cope with her guilt and anger over how she and Lucy parted.
As Kate struggles to balance her marriage to her reliable husband and her friendship with mercurial Lucy, their old flame is rekindled and a town secret is uncovered. Kate must learn how to navigate a new world of possibilities, confront her moral conundrums, and solve the age-old mystery surrounding Maiden Leap.
As Kate struggles to balance her marriage to her reliable husband and her friendship with mercurial Lucy, their old flame is rekindled and a town secret is uncovered. Kate must learn how to navigate a new world of possibilities, confront her moral conundrums, and solve the age-old mystery surrounding Maiden Leap.
252 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2020
3 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
CM Harris
8 books31 followersCM Harris is the author of novels SENSE AND INSTABILITY, THE THICKET/SHE NEVER LEFT, MAIDEN LEAP, ENTER OBLIVION, and THE CHILDREN OF MOTHER GLORY
Her short stories and essays appear in O Magazine, The Fabulist Magazine, Escape Artists’ Pseudopod podcast, SALiT Magazine, Harrington Literary Quarterly, Queer Voices: Poetry, Prose, and Pride, and the anthology Coppice & Brake.
Her screenplay The Cost of Glory received a Gold Award for Best Concept Script and a Silver Award for Best Feature Script from the Queen Palm Film Festival. Her screenplay 'A Woman Unbecoming' was a semi-finalist at Horrorfest.
CM Harris lives in Minneapolis with her wife and their twins. She is also the lead singer/guitarist of the indie rock band Hothouse Weeds.
Her short stories and essays appear in O Magazine, The Fabulist Magazine, Escape Artists’ Pseudopod podcast, SALiT Magazine, Harrington Literary Quarterly, Queer Voices: Poetry, Prose, and Pride, and the anthology Coppice & Brake.
Her screenplay The Cost of Glory received a Gold Award for Best Concept Script and a Silver Award for Best Feature Script from the Queen Palm Film Festival. Her screenplay 'A Woman Unbecoming' was a semi-finalist at Horrorfest.
CM Harris lives in Minneapolis with her wife and their twins. She is also the lead singer/guitarist of the indie rock band Hothouse Weeds.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 26, 2020
3.5 stars. Harris has written a really good book - but I’ll be honest, until just over the halfway point I was ready to give up and call this a DNF - then everything clicked and I wanted to know where it was going to lead.
The book alternates through three points of view - which is one of the things I found difficult about reading it at first. Kate is the main character, with the other points of view coming from her daughter Samantha and her ex (and now choir teacher to Samantha) Lucy. One of these POVs is written in the form of blog posts and comments.
The other reason I struggled is the difficult topics that get covered, homophobia and conversion therapy being the main two. There’s a major thread about marriage equality and politics too.
It’s an interesting exploration of relationships, feelings about the past, small town life and revenge. There’s also an interesting twist I didn’t see until just before it happened - which wasn’t necessarily unique or refreshing - but did keep the book readable until the end.
I would recommend this - I’d just advise taking into account it isn’t a quick read and you may find the first half a bit heavy.
I received an e-ARC via BookSirens in exchange for an honest review.
The book alternates through three points of view - which is one of the things I found difficult about reading it at first. Kate is the main character, with the other points of view coming from her daughter Samantha and her ex (and now choir teacher to Samantha) Lucy. One of these POVs is written in the form of blog posts and comments.
The other reason I struggled is the difficult topics that get covered, homophobia and conversion therapy being the main two. There’s a major thread about marriage equality and politics too.
It’s an interesting exploration of relationships, feelings about the past, small town life and revenge. There’s also an interesting twist I didn’t see until just before it happened - which wasn’t necessarily unique or refreshing - but did keep the book readable until the end.
I would recommend this - I’d just advise taking into account it isn’t a quick read and you may find the first half a bit heavy.
I received an e-ARC via BookSirens in exchange for an honest review.
February 21, 2024
I have to give CM Harris some credit because Maiden Leap is very different from the books I normally read. It was also not at all what I was expecting. And on that note, let me set your expectations immediately: This is not a romance, at least in the traditional sense. I knew it would be messy--the relationships in this novel, I mean--but I thought the story would go one way and, well, no spoilers. I'll only say it wasn't what I was expecting.
Okay, so I've just explained a bit what Maiden Leap isn't, but what is actually is is the story about the Larson family--both past and present. It's told from 3 perspectives: Kate Larson, the main character, her daughter Samantha, who is a sophomore in high school, and blog posts from Lucy Van Buren, who was Kate's high school girlfriend/first love. It's the story about queer first love (in the 1980s in a small town in Minnesota). There are many what ifs this novel explores. What if Lucy and Kate hadn't been forbidden to date? What if Kate hadn't married the son of a far-right state senator? What if Lucy hadn't left after high school. What if she would have stayed?
This is also a story about conversion therapy, gender identity, queer identity, and gay marriage. Very serious subjects, no doubt, but while CM Harris does a good job of keeping tension, I was never overwhelmed by it. It took me some time to get into the novel, for which I blame the rotating narrative structure, but I was never bored with it. It just took a little more time to read than I'm used to.
I need to make specific mention on a side narrative involving Sam's best friend, Jamie, who identifies as gender queer but is still figuring out their identity. Jamie's inclusion was great and does play an important role in Lucy's story, but there are a lot of uncomfortable and messy things about this representation. Be warned that CM Harris isn't the most graceful with this issue. There's a lot of uncomfortable misgendering of Jamie by characters--even ones who are supportive of them. This is set in the mid 2000s, so that may also have something to do with it. I'm hesitant to attribute this to Harris, but it is there and I want readers who may be triggered to be warned.
I don't want to talk about the ending because I don't want to spoil this for readers, but it was not at all what I was expecting and, though I do feel a little let down by it, it's actually a radical concept that I kind of have to applaud.
Overall, this was interesting. I had never heard of this novel or the author prior to finding this book (because it has "Leap" in the title--ah, Reading Challenges), but I enjoyed the read. It loses some points because of the Jamie stuff and for the ending, but I'm not mad about the time I spent with the novel. 3.5 stars
Okay, so I've just explained a bit what Maiden Leap isn't, but what is actually is is the story about the Larson family--both past and present. It's told from 3 perspectives: Kate Larson, the main character, her daughter Samantha, who is a sophomore in high school, and blog posts from Lucy Van Buren, who was Kate's high school girlfriend/first love. It's the story about queer first love (in the 1980s in a small town in Minnesota). There are many what ifs this novel explores. What if Lucy and Kate hadn't been forbidden to date? What if Kate hadn't married the son of a far-right state senator? What if Lucy hadn't left after high school. What if she would have stayed?
This is also a story about conversion therapy, gender identity, queer identity, and gay marriage. Very serious subjects, no doubt, but while CM Harris does a good job of keeping tension, I was never overwhelmed by it. It took me some time to get into the novel, for which I blame the rotating narrative structure, but I was never bored with it. It just took a little more time to read than I'm used to.
I need to make specific mention on a side narrative involving Sam's best friend, Jamie, who identifies as gender queer but is still figuring out their identity. Jamie's inclusion was great and does play an important role in Lucy's story, but there are a lot of uncomfortable and messy things about this representation. Be warned that CM Harris isn't the most graceful with this issue. There's a lot of uncomfortable misgendering of Jamie by characters--even ones who are supportive of them. This is set in the mid 2000s, so that may also have something to do with it. I'm hesitant to attribute this to Harris, but it is there and I want readers who may be triggered to be warned.
I don't want to talk about the ending because I don't want to spoil this for readers, but it was not at all what I was expecting and, though I do feel a little let down by it, it's actually a radical concept that I kind of have to applaud.
Overall, this was interesting. I had never heard of this novel or the author prior to finding this book (because it has "Leap" in the title--ah, Reading Challenges), but I enjoyed the read. It loses some points because of the Jamie stuff and for the ending, but I'm not mad about the time I spent with the novel. 3.5 stars
August 25, 2020
Must Read!
Wicasa Bluffs is a quaint, and perhaps, claustrophobic town on the banks of the St. Croix river in the upper Midwest, the kind of town where it can be both a comfort and a curse that everybody knows your business. Kate Larson, married with two kids, and Lucy Van Buren, an indie rocker who hightailed it out of town as fast she could, have some unfinished business. Back in high school they crashed into each other in teenage combustion, both permanently singed by it. Now, Lucy is back but with a very strange twist. The bad girl has reformed but not in any way anyone could have expected. Kate and Lucy are on a collision course toward one another, but what will the fallout be?
C.M. Harris has placed her two utterly unique protagonists in a setting peopled with well-drawn characters in a narrative that alternates between the present, just before the financial collapse, and the past, two decades earlier. The 80s details, particularly, are delicious. Kate Larson seems happy enough with her workaday husband but is it just inertia or something more complex? Harris excavates and illuminates the past with a razor sharp scalpel. For all of us who have wondered, What if?, here is a possible answer. Along the way are ruminations on sexuality, gender, and marriage. Can anything be locked down neatly, put into a box? At one point Harris uses a metaphor of cells regenerating which seems particularly apt. Life is flux. There is no black and white, no easy truths. Only grey. Only nuance. Relationships are complex and it is refreshing to see them treated so in such a compelling novel. I loved following these protagonists along their deeply human journey.
Wicasa Bluffs is a quaint, and perhaps, claustrophobic town on the banks of the St. Croix river in the upper Midwest, the kind of town where it can be both a comfort and a curse that everybody knows your business. Kate Larson, married with two kids, and Lucy Van Buren, an indie rocker who hightailed it out of town as fast she could, have some unfinished business. Back in high school they crashed into each other in teenage combustion, both permanently singed by it. Now, Lucy is back but with a very strange twist. The bad girl has reformed but not in any way anyone could have expected. Kate and Lucy are on a collision course toward one another, but what will the fallout be?
C.M. Harris has placed her two utterly unique protagonists in a setting peopled with well-drawn characters in a narrative that alternates between the present, just before the financial collapse, and the past, two decades earlier. The 80s details, particularly, are delicious. Kate Larson seems happy enough with her workaday husband but is it just inertia or something more complex? Harris excavates and illuminates the past with a razor sharp scalpel. For all of us who have wondered, What if?, here is a possible answer. Along the way are ruminations on sexuality, gender, and marriage. Can anything be locked down neatly, put into a box? At one point Harris uses a metaphor of cells regenerating which seems particularly apt. Life is flux. There is no black and white, no easy truths. Only grey. Only nuance. Relationships are complex and it is refreshing to see them treated so in such a compelling novel. I loved following these protagonists along their deeply human journey.
October 25, 2020
"Take The Leap" is my buzzword in my business, so the title is what drew me to this book right off.
Harris did not disappoint! Unusual main characters, but endearing and engaging none-the-less. The other characters in Maiden Leap are equally well crafted. I was interested and intrigued. Wanting to know more kept me turning pages.
I think you will too, I recommend Leap as something a little different, but completely engaging.
[I was fortunate to receive an ARC of this book through Booksirens and the author, with no obligation to review. The opinions herein are entirely my own.]
Harris did not disappoint! Unusual main characters, but endearing and engaging none-the-less. The other characters in Maiden Leap are equally well crafted. I was interested and intrigued. Wanting to know more kept me turning pages.
I think you will too, I recommend Leap as something a little different, but completely engaging.
[I was fortunate to receive an ARC of this book through Booksirens and the author, with no obligation to review. The opinions herein are entirely my own.]
October 2, 2020
I got this as a review copy in exchange for my unbiased opinion. This book has so much going on. Three points of view as well as flashbacks and storylines and storylines. I think it was to much and too slow, at least for my liking and I am not even sure if the Author really knew where she was going. The author can write, of that there is no doubt and writes some lovely descriptive script, Some may like this more than me. It had some interesting parts but again..just a little slow. I would give another book a look but this one I cant go much more than three... It just read too long for me.
June 15, 2023
Reviewed by Marissa Stanko on www.rowanglassworks.org.
Humanity has an obsession with sorting itself into categories. Academic, athletic, tall, short, old, young… the sorting never ends. With these categories, inevitably comes stereotypes, certain kinds of people that we expect to see attached to each category, and ridicule if they do not.
Maiden Leap by CM Harris is an exploration of identity and relationships, the pressure to conform for the people you love, and the terrifying freedom of embracing who you truly are after a lifetime of denial.
The novel follows the relationship of high school flames Kate and Lucy, now with lovers and lives far removed from each other, and the shattering consequences of their romantic reunion. Their journey to acknowledge their sexuality and their deep connection grapples with Kate’s relationship with her husband, Eric, and her conservative in-laws.
Characters are introduced by their stereotypes and then peeled away to reveal their true selves, calling attention to the fact that humans are impossible to label. They are fluid and changing, multifaceted, with as many faces as a prism.
Kate is a middle-aged mom of two who enjoys quilting and tries to stay fit with yoga. She struggles to balance her progressive views with those of her conservative in-laws, hiding her bisexuality from her husband, her children, and herself.
Kate’s high school sweetheart, Lucy, is a “reformed” lesbian who was outrageous in her woman-loving youth and has adopted more sensible clothing as a church choir director. Like Kate, she has secrets kept behind her church lady facade.
The final piece of this triangle is Kate’s husband, Eric, who struggles to see things the way Kate does and vacillates between his wife and his mother.
But first impressions don’t tell the whole story. Harris takes our decisions on each character’s personality and adjusts or twists them entirely throughout her novel, teaching us a valuable lesson on grouping people that we meet and judging what we don’t understand.
Harris uses foil characters and subplots to chip away at the true faces of her main characters. Kate’s daughter Sam reminds Kate of herself, and Sam’s passion for social justice, combined with a healthy dose of curiosity, causes Sam to push Kate and Lucy for the truth about their relationship. Lucy’s double life and Kate’s vicarious sexual adventures through her friend Anita drive both of them to put aside their denial and admit their sexuality and mutual attraction. Eric, surrounded by conflict on all sides, has to decide if he can accept his wife as she is and what he will model for his children, especially his “mini-me”, Brick. This masterful use of foils and plots gives Maiden Leap a unique edge.
Humanity suffers from an insatiable need to categorize and exclude, struggles with the inability to accept the fluid, the box breakers. Some people don’t fit in boxes, and some people break boxes entirely. As a group, humans take those individuals and chisel away at them until they fit in, much the same way that the characters in Maiden Leap were forced by those around them to become people that they really weren’t. As those layers are peeled off, we understand the consequences of social and familial pressure and the freedom that comes with embracing your own identity.
Humanity has an obsession with sorting itself into categories. Academic, athletic, tall, short, old, young… the sorting never ends. With these categories, inevitably comes stereotypes, certain kinds of people that we expect to see attached to each category, and ridicule if they do not.
Maiden Leap by CM Harris is an exploration of identity and relationships, the pressure to conform for the people you love, and the terrifying freedom of embracing who you truly are after a lifetime of denial.
The novel follows the relationship of high school flames Kate and Lucy, now with lovers and lives far removed from each other, and the shattering consequences of their romantic reunion. Their journey to acknowledge their sexuality and their deep connection grapples with Kate’s relationship with her husband, Eric, and her conservative in-laws.
Characters are introduced by their stereotypes and then peeled away to reveal their true selves, calling attention to the fact that humans are impossible to label. They are fluid and changing, multifaceted, with as many faces as a prism.
Kate is a middle-aged mom of two who enjoys quilting and tries to stay fit with yoga. She struggles to balance her progressive views with those of her conservative in-laws, hiding her bisexuality from her husband, her children, and herself.
Kate’s high school sweetheart, Lucy, is a “reformed” lesbian who was outrageous in her woman-loving youth and has adopted more sensible clothing as a church choir director. Like Kate, she has secrets kept behind her church lady facade.
The final piece of this triangle is Kate’s husband, Eric, who struggles to see things the way Kate does and vacillates between his wife and his mother.
But first impressions don’t tell the whole story. Harris takes our decisions on each character’s personality and adjusts or twists them entirely throughout her novel, teaching us a valuable lesson on grouping people that we meet and judging what we don’t understand.
Harris uses foil characters and subplots to chip away at the true faces of her main characters. Kate’s daughter Sam reminds Kate of herself, and Sam’s passion for social justice, combined with a healthy dose of curiosity, causes Sam to push Kate and Lucy for the truth about their relationship. Lucy’s double life and Kate’s vicarious sexual adventures through her friend Anita drive both of them to put aside their denial and admit their sexuality and mutual attraction. Eric, surrounded by conflict on all sides, has to decide if he can accept his wife as she is and what he will model for his children, especially his “mini-me”, Brick. This masterful use of foils and plots gives Maiden Leap a unique edge.
Humanity suffers from an insatiable need to categorize and exclude, struggles with the inability to accept the fluid, the box breakers. Some people don’t fit in boxes, and some people break boxes entirely. As a group, humans take those individuals and chisel away at them until they fit in, much the same way that the characters in Maiden Leap were forced by those around them to become people that they really weren’t. As those layers are peeled off, we understand the consequences of social and familial pressure and the freedom that comes with embracing your own identity.
September 24, 2020
The book "Minden Leap" by author CM Harris gives us an insight into the life of Kate and her family. Kate lives with her two children and her husband in a small town where she grew up. After 19 years, her childhood love of that time, Lucy, returns after a turbulent life and a visit to a conversion camp. The story shows us the impact that Lucy's return has had on everyone involved.
There are three perspectives in the book. One from Kate's perspective, one from the perspective of Kate's daughter Sam, and blog entries written by Lucy.
The story develops relatively slowly in my eyes, a bit too slowly for my taste. The main characters were well described, but I couldn't establish a real connection to any of them and therefore didn't really care much for them. All in all a solid book.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
There are three perspectives in the book. One from Kate's perspective, one from the perspective of Kate's daughter Sam, and blog entries written by Lucy.
The story develops relatively slowly in my eyes, a bit too slowly for my taste. The main characters were well described, but I couldn't establish a real connection to any of them and therefore didn't really care much for them. All in all a solid book.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
September 1, 2020
Maiden Leap is set ten years ago in a small river town. It's told through the eyes of three women: Kate Larson, an unassuming housewife. Kate’s teen daughter Samantha. And Samantha’s choir teacher, Lucy Van Buren, who also happens to be Kate’s ex-girlfriend from high school (and who has just come back to town the graduate of an ex-gay program). It is a messy story. Sad messy and funny messy. Just like life.
One of my favorite characters in the book is Kate’s senator mother-in-law who I’m pretty sure is modeled after evangelist Michele Bachmann and thus hilarious. Kate’s husband Erik proves to be the right amount of annoyed and patient.
This book made me nostalgic for just a decade ago, when political battles were waged over kitchen tables instead of social media. Five stars.
One of my favorite characters in the book is Kate’s senator mother-in-law who I’m pretty sure is modeled after evangelist Michele Bachmann and thus hilarious. Kate’s husband Erik proves to be the right amount of annoyed and patient.
This book made me nostalgic for just a decade ago, when political battles were waged over kitchen tables instead of social media. Five stars.
December 7, 2023
3.5 This book did not go how I thought it would. Its a little slow and then crams the meat of what happens into the last few chapters. The ending leaves me a little unsatisfied.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews