Tara Scott

Twenty-six years ago, a little girl disappeared from the summer camp at Forestlands Lake in Upstate New York. A year later, Willa Dunn and Lee Chandler were summering with their families at the lake. Just as they were in the middle of realizing there might be more to their friendship, a tragedy strikes Willa’s family, tearing them apart.

Today, Willa is a popular young adult novelist whose ghost stories have captivated the hearts and minds of kids and adults alike. She hasn’t been back to Forestlands Lake in 25 years, but her family’s old cabin feels like the perfect place for a writing retreat. Willa also brings her teenage sister, Nicole, with her. Nicole’s been acting out and their mom can’t get through to her, so Willa’s hoping they’ll be able to reconnect so Nicole can return to the happy, loving kid she used to be.

Willa’s surprised to learn that Lee still lives at Forestlands Lake and she runs a summer camp for LGBTQ youth. Lee’s also a single mom, raising an amazing teenager of her own. And that spark between them? It never went away.

Willa couldn’t have picked a better spot for ghost story inspiration, since people have been whispering for decades that Forestlands Lake has a ghost or two of its own. There’s certainly weird stuff going on, like a mysterious girl running around, and footsteps in the water when no one else is around. Can Lee and Willa grasp their second chance at love while getting to the bottom of the strange occurrences?

The Other Side of Forestlands Lake has a little bit of everything: romance, family drama, ghosts, and intrigue. These elements are balanced well and keep things interesting, whether the reader is following Willa and Lee’s relationship, Willa and Nicole’s reconciliation, or all the spooky things around the lake. That said, while the bulk of the story takes place in the present day, it’s important to know that almost a quarter of the story takes place when Willa and Lee are teenagers, first falling in love. 

Because there are so many plates balancing in the proverbial air of this story, there isn’t a lot of character development for Willa or Lee. This also makes sense because they’re both around 40, have established careers, and are emotionally stable. Instead, personal growth is demonstrated in a couple of other areas. Namely, Nicole grows from a young woman with a massive chip on her shoulder into someone who genuinely wants a relationship with her family. Also, Willa and Lee’s relationship has its own development hurdles as the women have to reconcile their feelings now with the scars of not being able to be together twenty-five years ago.

The ghost story and suspense elements are strong, making The Other Side of Forestlands Lake a fun, compelling reading. Its only weakness is the last fifteen percent of the story because it feels a little like the characters are dropped into a different story. While the ending successfully wraps up all the threads that had been laid out, the tone doesn’t match the rest of the book, which may be a little jarring for some readers.

Overall, The Other Side of Forestlands Lake is worth checking out, even taking into account the tone shift at the end. The characters are compelling, the relationship growth is heartwarming, and the supernatural elements are intriguing without ever veering into true horror territory. Given what we’ve been collectively living through in the last year, it’s a great choice for anyone who wants to read something immersive, so they can ignore the troubles of the world.

The Other Side of Forestlands Lake
by Carolyn Elizabeth
Bella Distribution
Paperback, 9781642471649, 306 pp. 
October 2020

Olivia Santini is the main reason why the Evergreen Resort and Spa didn’t fold under its previous manager. Understandably, that’s left her surprised and frustrated that she didn’t get the promotion from assistant manager that she’d applied for. But even a new boss isn’t going to keep her down on the first snowfall of the season, and Olivia is ready to revel in her excitement while she walks her dog, Walter, before heading in to work. Olivia gets to enjoy more than just the magic of fresh snow, though, when she bumps into the beautiful, charming Hayley Boyd, and they exchange numbers so they can meet again.

Olivia’s amazing morning comes crashing down when her new boss strolls into work late and just happens to be Hayley. Even worse? It rapidly becomes clear that Hayley doesn’t know how to run a resort, leaving Olivia even more frustrated. Olivia has tons of amazing ideas to help the Evergreen become a popular destination, but there’s no way she can trust that another incompetent manager will be able do anything with them.

As the daughter of a hotelier, Hayley Boyd Markham has grown up near the hotel industry, but that doesn’t mean she understands it. Unfortunately, after a particularly outrageous night of partying, she has to figure it out quick, because her father has decided it’s time for Hayley to grow up. That means Hayley has to turn the failing Evergreen around and she can’t tell anyone that she’s a Markham, because she has to prove she can succeed based on her own efforts and not the family name. Sure, at least she got to meet a great woman with a cute dog, so maybe being in Upstate New York isn’t all bad, but now that woman is closed off to her since Hayley was handed the job Olivia had been gunning for.

Even though Olivia is frustrated and has pulled back from Hayley, she’s too kind to let her fall flat on her face. And that kindness goes beyond the workplace, since she invites Hayley to have dinner with the rest of the Santini clan when she learns that Hayley isn’t going home for Thanksgiving. Little by little, the chemistry and camaraderie grows between Olivia and Hayley. But can anything actually come of it when Hayley has the job Olivia wants so much?

If this book had to be summed up in a single word, “warm” would be at or near the top of the list. One Walk in Winter is so sweet and lovely, and that’s largely down to Olivia and Hayley. They’re both fundamentally good people, the kind you’d want to see for dinner once a week, because time with them is fun and gives you a happy heart. Olivia has every reason to undermine Hayley and she never does, even if she doesn’t fully trust Hayley on the job. And Hayley could use Olivia to make herself look better, like many a bad boss does, and she never does that either. There’s true concern for each other, which is most adorably on display in a scene where Olivia takes Hayley for a walk in a fairy trail, when Hayley is having a spectacularly bad day.

“A fairy trail, huh?”

Olivia grinned. “It always makes me feel better to walk it, and you looked like you could use a nonstressful hour of life.”

“You’re not kidding about that.” Hayley’s entire face softened as she said, “Thank you.”

That’s not to say that all their interactions are perfect. Olivia often ices Hayley out when her frustrations about not getting the managerial position rear up again, but she rarely stays like that for long because her caring nature won’t let her.

In a move that’s a little unusual for a romance, we get three perspectives in One Walk in Winter: Olivia’s, Hayley’s, and Hayley’s father, Benton Markham’s. Benton is much less likeable than Hayley or Olivia, but he has his own journey in the story. By having access to his perspective, we learn exactly why he’s put Hayley on a timeout, which goes deeper than the explanation he’s given Hayley, and see his own path to a better self, including his own happily ever after.

Georgia Beers’ One Walk in Winter has very little angst, making it a perfect choice if you want to hide from the world and its stresses. The crisis may be a little predictable, but it’s resolved quickly and in a way that’s satisfying and leads to a perfect happy ending. Make sure to grab a cup of hot cocoa and snuggly blanket before you start reading (or whatever the opposite of that is for folks in warmer climates), because you’ll want to settle in and devour this whole book in a single sitting.

One Walk in Winter
By Georgia Beers
Bold Strokes Books
Paperback, 9781635555417, 240 pp.
March 2019

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, by Olivia Waite, is a gentle, lushly written story of sapphic love, which romance readers are sure to enjoy.

It’s 1816 and Lucy Muchelney’s life as she knew it is officially over. It’s been six months since her father died and not only has her best friend and long-time lover gone and married a man, but her brother, Stephen, is now thinking of marrying Lucy off too. Stephen doesn’t care that she wants to continue her father’s legacy of creating star catalogues because he knows that, as a woman, she won’t get taken seriously as an astronomer. Luckily, he takes off for a few weeks, giving Lucy time to figure out what to do and, even more luckily, inspiration comes to her in the form of a letter.

Catherine Kenwick St. Day, Countess of Moth and widow to the brilliant astronomer and world traveler George St. Day, has written with condolences about the loss of Lucy’s father and to ask whether Lucy might be able to recommend someone who could translate a French book of celestial mathematics by an astronomer named Oléron. With Stephen out of the way, Lucy immediately packs up and heads off to see the Countess in London to make the case for herself to translate Oléron.

Although Catherine is shocked when Lucy arrives, she lets Lucy stay at her home and puts her forward as translator to the Polite Science Society. After all, Lucy had done all the math in her father’s most recent charts and she obviously has a brilliant mind. Plus, Catherine’s words should have weight with the group, since she’s providing funding for half the printing costs of the translation. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, the society balks at the notion of a female translator, and even goes so far as to question whether women are capable of astronomy (among other similar, equally offensive assumptions), so Catherine withdraws her funding and sponsors Lucy independently.

If you’ve been looking for a historical lesbian romance with all of the “smash the patriarchy” feels, this is the book for you. Lucy is plucky and brilliant, refusing to be put in her place by her brother or the Polite Science Society. She also has a worthy champion in Catherine, who uses her money and influence to support Lucy in translating and expanding on one of the greatest scientific texts of their time, ensuring it’s accessible to any reader, including (gasp) women. And yet, while the patriarchy smashing is satisfying—especially considering that anyone who isn’t affluent, straight, and white still has to fight to get the recognition they’re due today—there’s so much more to this book.

Waite’s writing is often gorgeous and evocative, sometimes bringing in imagery from astronomy, making it easy to want to highlight passage after passage. For example, after Catherine takes Lucy to visit her Aunt Kelmarsh (her mother’s former companion, who Catherine finally realizes was her mother’s lover), they have this exchange:

“Do you think . . .” Lucy swallowed hard. This was a terribly impolite question to ask, but the truth often mattered more than manners, no matter what the etiquette books said. “Do you think your mother was happier with your father, or with Mrs. Kelmarsh?”

Lady Moth stayed quiet so long that Lucy began to despair she’d truly offended. She was trying to compose apologies in her head—difficult when you couldn’t openly acknowledge how you’d erred—when the countess spoke again. “I don’t think love works like that. You might as well ask the earth whether the sun or the moon is more important.” She blushed a little pinker and raised her eyes, star-bright. “You can’t always judge by what came before. Sometimes, there is a revolution.”

The words burst over Lucy like sunlight, or the flare from a newly discovered comet. She stared, dazzled.

There are also many beautiful descriptions of Catherine’s exquisite embroidery, which sounds like it could be boring, but truly isn’t, especially when she’s embroidering something for Lucy. Waite is occasionally quite funny, too, like when Lucy experiences translation woes.

She cast a bitter eye over the scribblings of her latest efforts. Oléron deserved so much better, and Lucy was beginning to despair of capturing even a third of the crystalline clarity of the original. Two months of consistent translating and expanding still hadn’t made the frustrating compromises easier to bear. She put down might for this verb’s translation, frowned at it, crossed it out, wrote might again, and then in parentheses added should with a pair of helpless question marks.

Let Future Lucy make the ultimate decision during revisions to the text. Future Lucy was always so much more decisive, somehow. Maybe because she was ever-so-slightly closer to death than Present Lucy?

The relationship develops fairly easily between Lucy and Catherine, flourishing in their private, quiet moments, and they become a couple fairly early in the story. Because it takes place during a time when romantic friendship between women was very much an accepted thing, it’s entirely believable that they’re able to forge such a strong, loving bond under Catherine’s roof, and thankfully their relationship isn’t threatened by outside forces for no reason other than to create drama. If there’s one issue to be noted, however, it’s that, while the main conflict remains external to their relationship, there’s a small crisis near the end that could have been resolved by Catherine and Lucy sitting down and just talking to each other.

One other element worth noting is that Catherine is dealing with PTSD from having been in an abusive marriage. There isn’t any abuse on the page, but if that is an issue for you, just know going into this book that she still has a lot to unpack and work through. In time, as she heals, Catherine comes into her own best self with her embroidery and a long-held interest in botany that had been denied during her marriage. Catherine’s journey is a nice parallel to Lucy’s, with each woman thriving under the other’s attention, respect, and encouragement.

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics is the f/f romance that queer readers needed in the 1980s, 90s and beyond, when we were swiping Julie Garwood and Judith McKnaught titles from our mothers, aunts, and grandmothers. Even that cover alone is heart-stopping, familiar in style and yet nearly unbelievable because it has two women on it.

At the age of 100, Nora Lindstrom is nearing the end of her life thanks to advanced small cell lung cancer. She has a lot to be proud of after a decades-long career as a physicist who worked tirelessly to end childhood leukemia. A few things are haunting Nora’s last days, however, including how she had to walk away from her grand-niece Diana without explanation when Diana was a young child.

Nora is still living in her own home, but her rapid decline in health signals that it’s time for her to get some help and put a power of attorney in place in case someone needs to make medical decisions for her. They might be estranged, but who better to make those crucial choices than Diana, who stayed in Nora’s heart all these long decades that they’ve spent apart?

Some of the best memories of Diana Lindstrom’s life were spent with her Great Aunt Nora, Diana’s greatest champion and overseer of many of her science experiments. She hasn’t seen Nora in decades and long thought she’d passed away, so Diana is in for the shock of her life when she receives word that Nora is alive and wants to see her. Meeting Nora again is bewildering and soothing at the same time, delivering all the proof Diana never knew she needed that Nora had loved her all along, and they’re both determined to make up for lost time for as long as they have left together.

Diana teaches at Columbia University, Nora’s living in Provincetown, and Nora won’t let Diana walk away from her job to take care of her. Luckily, Nora’s friend and family doctor has just the solution—Brooke Sheldon, a former pediatric nurse who had worked with Nora at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Brooke and Diana get along well and it isn’t long before an attraction grows between them that Nora picks up on (possibly even before they figure it out for themselves). As the weeks pass, and Nora’s time draws to a close, she comes to a decision and asks several things of both women that are all intended to bring the two together—hopefully forever. Helping Diana and Brooke find happiness means exposing some of those other regrets Nora’s been carrying for decades. Will it be enough to secure a future for them?

Chain Reactions is a romance novel, but it’s also a story about love in its many forms—familial (both of blood and choice), romantic, and even the love for humanity that might drive someone to seek a cure for a terrible disease. The love between Diana and Nora is exquisitely lovely, still there despite their time apart and with the same purity it held when Diana was a child. It’s that timeless love anyone might carry for a loved one who’s imprinted on their heart, long after any physical connection is severed by distance or death. Every moment between Nora and Diana holds a poignancy alongside the joy of reuniting because they’ve lost so much time and there’s so little of it left between them.

The love that builds between Diana and Brooke, on the other hand, is cautious. Diana is married to her career and Brooke is just finding her feet after having burned out from taking care of sick children for so long. The pull between them is palpable almost from their first meeting, but the odds are a bit stacked against them since they live in different cities and want different things, not to mention that they’re both laser focused on ensuring Nora has the best end-of-life experiences she possibly can. Many of Brooke and Diana’s conversations, thoughts and actions that are a result of these challenges can come across as overly dramatic, especially for readers who are frustrated by crises in romance that can be solved with a conversation. Luckily, Nora was prepared for something like that, because her foresight ensures the kind of ending that’s worth sticking it out for.

Nora’s past is also a major part of the story, but it’s impossible to talk much about without spoiling some major plot points. That said, it’s one of strongest parts of the book and is fascinating, compelling, and well-researched, giving a glimpse into what will be for many a little-known contribution women made to the war effort in WWII.

Readers who enjoy a blend of contemporary and historical fiction will especially want to pick up Chain Reactions. Actions taken by Nora, Diana, and others are connected across the decades (hence the title), and seeing the way they all culminate is well worth the time.

Chain Reactions
By Lynn Ames
Phoenix Rising Press
Paperback, 9781936429165, 284 pp.
February 2019

After helping the police catch a serial killer in On a LARP, Sidonie “Sid” Rubin and her best friends are on lockdown. Despite how impressive the group’s actions were, their parents were not pleased, and all but one of the five teens have been grounded for their senior year of high school. Yes, the whole year, and yes, that even includes stepping off school property to pick up lunch. That means the fearless friends have to suffer the ignominy of cafeteria lunches with the rest of the student body.

Sid’s friend Vikram finds a loophole for our loveable “geek lesbionic brainiac” and the rest of their crew when he suggests they sign up for a robotics tournament. Not only will they get to work on something cool together, but their parents won’t have any choice but to let them get together outside of school hours to work on the project.

It’s all going great until Vikram’s girlfriend, Ari, texts the rest of the group: “Vik. Melting down. Something about his stuff being gone. He’s pissed. Presentation in two hours, needs to get ready, not listening. Need help.” When they meet up with Ari, she explains that Vik’s Contagion account was hacked and all of his stuff is gone. As one of the MMORPG’s (massively multiplayer online roleplaying game) top players in the world, he had a wealth of weapons, potions, and antidotes, some of which were incredibly rare. The blow is so crushing that he can’t actually play that character anymore.

Sid knows what she needs to do to help Vik be himself again—find the hacker and get his stuff back. And if she has to sign up for a Contagion account and sleuth her way through it night after night? Well, that’s what she’s going to do, and she’s going to get their friends to help as much as they can.

Just like On a LARP, Zero Sum Game is told in the first person from Sid’s perspective, so we’re right there with her as she hurtles through the events of the story. Sid is way too smart and she definitely knows it; her arrogance sometimes taking precedence over her friends’ feelings. Lucky for Sid, they love her anyway and embrace her, because she has a sweet side too. She also has a singular voice and it’s impossible to read this book or its predecessor without knowing intimately who Sid is in all of her smart-assed, loquacious, well-read glory.

We didn’t find our thief that day, or for the next entire week. Which wasn’t for lack of trying, just for lack of time. Between classes, after school, and even before school can be summed up in one word: robotics.

Since the night the challenge dropped, things have been moving at lightning speed. We do not have a lot of time and there is a ton of stuff to be done.

I am rather chuffed (so love that word; it’s somehow “puffier” than just the old “I’m rather pleased,” and yet still falls, just barely, but nonetheless under the level of overly obnoxious braggadociousness) that our table’s design was deemed the better choice, and the assembling of the robot actually came together pretty seamlessly.

Deoul does a fabulous job of bringing a lot of elements together—robotics, online gaming, working as a team to find the thief, and even what it feels like to be a teenager (remember those fits of laughter that went on and on until you were lightheaded because you and your friend kept bringing each other back into the laughter loop? There’s some of that as well.). Even better, she’s made Sid a thoughtful storyteller, because we’re never left out of the loop. Sid always explains things we may not understand otherwise, like MMORPGs. This also happens in a somewhat different way when Sid meets Ze, a nonbinary friend of a friend whose name is the same as one of their pronouns (they/ze), as Sid works through what that means.

People who enjoyed On a LARP are also sure to like Zero Sum Game. And while it’s possible to read Zero Sum Game without having read the first book, you’d be missing out if you did because that one’s just as spectacular. Even if young adult fiction isn’t usually your thing, you may still find a soft spot in your heart for Sid and her pals. Stefani Deoul is writing some seriously fun books with this series and it will be fun to see what’s in store for our brainiac next.

Zero Sum Game
By Stefani Deoul
Bywater Books
Paperback, 9781612941417, 190 pp.
December 2018

Theodosia Sullivan has the perfect life. She has a great relationship with her dad, she runs their surf shop in Hanalei Bay, has plenty of close friends in town, and gets all the no-strings sex she wants from tourists who are thrilled to be in Hawaii and away from their homes on the mainland. Best of all is Kini, her closest friend and confidante who also happens to be the best damn baker going, and owner of Queen’s Sweet Shop.

Theo isn’t interested in “the one” or anything resembling a long-term relationship, but she loves it when other people fall in love, so she’s appointed herself the local matchmaker. Her latest match has gone so well, with her former nanny Charlotte recently marrying the art gallery owner Jim, that she’s convinced it’s her calling. So, when Laurel Kim shows up at her store looking for a job, Theo treats the sweet, naive young woman as her own personal mission. She knows she can help Laurel find the perfect man, so long as Theo can steer her clear of Kini’s shop helper, Bobby, who clearly has zero prospects and isn’t even that good looking.

Laurel becomes almost a full-time job for Theo, since she has to also teach her how to surf, show her the ropes of working in the shop, and find all the best food in Hanalei Bay (including Queen’s, naturally). And Theo’s own life gets a little more complicated than usual when Jim’s son shows up and she starts to question whether she’s actually the 6 on the Kinsey scale that she always believed herself to be.

As much as Theo thinks she has a handle on everything, she soon learns that interfering in other people’s lives can have consequences. The gravest might be for Theo’s heart, when she understands how deeply she loves Kini just after unknowingly pushing her friend towards someone else.

If I Loved You Less is a contemporary reinterpretation of the classic Emma by Jane Austen. The village of highbury has been replaced by the sights, sounds, and tastes of the out-of-the-way Hanalei Bay (and be warned about those tastes—hearing about Kini’s baking will make you crave pastries). Theo is an excellent take on Emma Woodhouse, equal parts well-meaning and meddlesome, with the former not always managing to outweigh the latter. Kini is also a perfect gender-flipped Mr. Knightley, since she’s stoic, wise, warmer than might be expected at first sight, and significantly older than Theo.

Because the reinterpretation is so faithful to the original, you’ll enjoy this best if you’re a fan of Emma, because much like Miss Woodhouse, Theo can be a lot to take. She’s impulsive, often judgy to the point of being shallow, occasionally manipulative, and prone to blurting her thoughts without consideration of the emotional wake she leaves behind her. Theo’s so much more than that, though, because she’s also warm, genuinely wants the best for others, and has a deep affinity for the people she’s closest to, like Kini, her father, and Charlotte. Because she’s so messy and real, Theo is a character that people will either love or hate, and if you love her, a lot of that affection and appreciation will come from watching her blossom into the kind of woman Kini’s known she could be all along.

Readers who have been on the lookout for f/f chicklit will also rejoice about If I Loved You Less. While it has a romance that’s lovely and satisfying, it’s secondary to the story, which is truly about Theo’s life and a period in which she goes through tremendous growth. Despite occasionally awkward or difficult scenes, the overall tone is light and Parker’s writing style is fun and engaging, making the book a great piece of escapism. Those who prefer or need audiobooks are also in for a treat, since Jill Smith does a spectacular job bringing Theo, Kini, and all the happenings of Hanalei Bay to life with her narration.

Anyone looking for a break for a few hours should consider If I Loved You Less, especially as we head into the long winter months. Just make sure you have snacks ready for your little virtual island getaway, because you’re definitely going to need them.