Aspens Embers

by Diana Tremain Braund

Aspen Brown lives in the Maine town of Codyville Plantation. Her life of teaching and trying to save the environment has been most fulfilling... until Leigh Wright comes along and turns her world upside down.

Leigh is a forester who arrives in Codyville Planation with a new venture that would mean the economic salvation for this tiny Maine town. But it could also threaten the very being of Aspen—who finds trees to be a lot better company than people. Sparks fly between the two women until both are forced to make a most difficult choice.

Will Aspen choose the woman she loves... or the forest she hopes to preserve...

Genres: Lesbian, Lesbian Romance, Fiction, Lesbian Fiction

323 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

About the author

Diana Tremain Braund continues to live on the coast of Maine in a house that overlooks the water. She and her dog Bob take long walks on the beach where she gets ideas for her books.

Reviews

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a slow starter. The sister and best friend of the main characters are sooooo annoying that I struggled to get through that part. As the book goes on, a sweet relationship develops and there is less and less of the irritating twosome. The storyline is a good one and I liked both Leigh and Aspen. And as always,there's my requisite happy ending.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I appreciated about this book was how it showed two people learning how to reconcile their ideological differences in order to get along. Compromise is such a dirty word to most people (based on my personal experience, anyway) and the author tries to show how two people go about their struggle. It is one of the more developed lesbian novels that I've read. Too often lesbian novels are very short--under 200 pages--and do a lot of telling rather than showing. Aspen's Embers is just over 300 and most of the characters are well developed. The compromise between the two women reflects the larger struggle in the book regarding the forest: should it be managed for logging, developed for housing, or left alone? How feasible are each of these options in light of current economic realities?

[Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

A lot of ideology going on in this book, but its almost comic because it's ad nauseam from two rather unlikable, uninteresting characters. It's saying something when the side characters are far more complex and interesting to read than the "heroes".