Discovering dimensions, particularly about sexuality, about
oneself is not limited to late teens and new adulthood. It can happen later in
life and the emotions and struggles would possibly be the same, if not slightly
more intensified because of the sheer improbability. Ellendale deals with this
subject in Entanglement in a
masterful way.
Billie Jean Olsen emancipated herself from her deeply
homophobic parents and made a life in Seattle as a detective. She supports her
much younger brother and little sister (17 year age gap between the sisters) to
do the same. Billie is a particularly observant detective and an asset to the
department. While investigating a murder which looks like the latest attack by
a serial murderer, the detectives find an unusual package on the victim. As a
part of investigating the murder, Billie connects with Professor Mira Lewis, a
passionate physicist, to help unravel the mystery. Billie is immediately attracted
to the hot straight professor, but keeps her attraction under wraps. Billie’s and
Mira’s paths cross again unexpectedly during a soccer match – one in which
Billie is a spectator and Mira is one of the players. They start hanging out
together and the acquaintanceship progresses into a kind of flirty friendship. When
Mira realises that she is in fact, attracted to Billie, her entire being is
shaken as she struggles to come to terms with this new aspect about herself and
deal with the fallout of the same with her family and friends.
The relationships (between the two MCs and between Billie
and her siblings) are superbly developed. Ellendale is especially gifted in
writing fantastic sex scenes and we were delighted to read about Mira’s
innocence and uncertainties about sex despite being in her mid-thirties. We loved
that Ellendale has recognised this is a thing. While we liked both the MCs, Mira
had a slight edge for us for most of the book and huge edge in the latter half
of the book.
The latter half – this is the problem area of the novel. It is
just too long. Plus, from the point
when she is offered a promotion, Billie seems to be only crying with Mira. Additionally, she does something
unforgivable – she talks about the offer to her friend before she talks about it to her partner. Like all of Ellendale’s
books, this one also has cross-over characters. (For the record, we still don’t like Dax Stocker).
We absolutely loved
the first half of the book and wish it was at least forty percent shorter. If it
were up to 60% of what it is, it would’ve been a 5-star read.
PS: We totally loved the quantum physics stuff. In fact, we
so loved it that we crushed a little on the author for it!
⭐⭐⭐★
