Affinity by Sarah Waters

Genre: Crime / Historical Fiction / Lesbian / Romance / Spirituality

Miss Margaret Prior is a 29 year old woman seeking out something in her life to make it more worthwhile.  This all happens of course after her brother stole the love of her life.  She decides to visit ladies at the prison and meets a young woman named Selina Dawes who she assumes is a good soul. Quickly they become close and share spiritual means together, for Selina Dawes is a medium.

Goodreads Synopsis:  
An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst Millbank’s murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by on apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Selina was imprisoned after a séance she was conducting went horribly awry, leaving an elderly matron dead and a young woman deeply disturbed. Although initially skeptical of Selina’s gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions, until she is at last driven to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina’s freedom, and her own.

First, I'd like to say, this book was nothing of what I expected.  I was expecting a very spiritual and romantic novel.  Instead, I got a book about a woman who claims to see spirits in prison, and a woman whose so kind enough to visit her as well as the other ladies of the prison.  I sort of liked this book at times, but as a whole, it really left me disappointed.  I kept expecting something marvelous to happen, but nothing spectacular occurs.  This novel was nothing fantastic like Tipping the Velvet or Fingersmith.  If you liked those two novels you might find this one a disappointment.  I'd hate to give away the ending, but lets just say it's not spectacular in any sense, in fact, if you're anything like me it'll make you loathe the book.  I can't give this more than 2 stars. 2 stars is just a kindness to the fact that at times it had me intrigued, if only mildly.  Throughout the book it felt like it was missing something.  I think it just didn't have the tragedies or the difficulties that were contained in the other 2 books I read by this author to give it that certain something.  It felt quite stale.  That's not to say some parts of it weren't written well, they were of course.  It sounded very much like a Sarah Waters book, minus the dramatic occurrences that previous Sarah Water's books contained.  That's really all I can say about this book.  I don't recommend reading it if you enjoyed Tipping the Velvet or Fingersmith.

Shame on anyone who thinks evil of this.

Tipping The Velvet by Sarah Waters

Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance

This book is about a girl who falls in love more than once, and learns that life is quite harsh, especially on your own.

Goodreads Synopsis:
When Kitty is called up to London for an engagement on "Grease Paint Avenue", Nan follows as her dresser and secret lover, and, soon after, dons trousers herself and joins the act. In time, Kitty breaks her heart, and Nan assumes the guise of butch roue to commence her own thrilling and varied sexual education - a sort of Moll Flanders in drag - finally finding friendship and true love in the most unexpected places.


I don't even know where to begin. I felt many different emotions while reading this book. I felt my heart flutter at the concept of love, and felt my heart break when tragic events happened to Nancy. I felt that Nancy herself had grown from the innocent young girl into a woman who knew exactly what she wanted, but had to journey enough to get there. This was probably one of the best books I've ever read as far as Historical Fiction goes. I found it far better even, than Fingersmith, of which I enjoyed reading so much. I did however find that some parts of this book were really not my cup of tea, but as a whole it wasn't a terrible book. Even the parts I didn't like seemed to make the book seem full and complete. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading Historical Victorian Fiction, who doesn't mind romance between women, and can enjoy a good plot. If you've seen the mini series, this will prove to you far better than that.

Shame on anyone who thinks evil of this.

Annie on my Mind - Nancy Garden

Genre: Lesbian/Romantic/Young Adult

Basically this is a love story about a young girl who falls in love with another girl. I don't know how more to say it than that without giving a lot away.



Back Cover:

"If you don't put that ring on this minute, I'm going to take it back," Annie Whispered in my ear. She leaned back, looking at me, her hands still on my shoulders, her eyes shining softly at me and snow falling, melting, on her nose. "Buon Natale," she whispered, "amore mio."
Merry Christmas, my love," I answered.

From the moment Liza Winthrop meets Annie Kenyon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she knows there is something special between them. But Liza never knew falling in love could be so wonderful...or so confusing.
I thought this book was a really sweet love story between too girls who are discovering what it really means to love someone else. More than anything, it's a story about love, and it was touching, and had a good moral which is this: "Don't let ignorance win," said Ms Stevenson. "Let love."

My favorite part of this book was this "Have you ever felt really close to someone? So close that you can't understand why you and the other person have two separate bodies, two separate skins?" I think that really describes what it means to love someone.

So if that doesn't make you want to read this book, then you're missing out. If you like love stories you might find this to be quite good. I definitely recommend this to anyone who loves shy romance.

Shame on anyone who thinks evil of this.