This
one is the ultimate fantasy and wish-fulfilment of all shy, socially awkward,
overweight lesbians (including us).
Shy, sweet and awkward Denny works in a
grocery store and has her sister, Salem, and tween niece, Bella, living with
her. Thirteen years her junior, their parents kicked Salem out when she got
pregnant at seventeen and Denny became Salem’s safe port and also something of
a defacto parent to Bella.
One evening, fashion-challenged Denny
receives a message from an unknown woman asking first-date outfit advise. Turns out that the unknown woman had a wrong number but the texts continue. Enough to
become a highlight for both, Denny and Eliza.
Their connection deepens and their relationship
slowly moves from texts to calls to actual in-person meetings.
We absolutely love toaster-oven romances.
We are suckers for the ‘gay for you’ trope. We adore assertive femmes. We like
slow burn. We are all for sizzling chemistry. And this one checks all these
boxes.
We love the way Eliza takes the time and
interest to understand Denny even when they’re just texting. That, right there
is one fantasy. We love that Eliza takes the time to understand herself and
then gathers her courage to make herself vulnerable to Denny. Fantasy two. We
love that Eliza is sure enough about her feeling to be open about her
relationship with Denny to her family. Fantasy three.
There is some mess with the timeline in the narrative in the sense the period of time Eliza and Dennt have been texting; how long since they've known each other; how long since they spoke or met -- it's all a little wonky but not detrimental.
Our only real issue with this book is the
butch-femme binary. We are so not fans off that. It’s not like we want two
femmes. But we do like chapstick lesbians, people on the spectrum, more
female-presenting women much more than
the suit-and-tie wearing, male-presenting butches. Somehow the butch rather
puts us off. But we seem to be in some sort of a minority about this.
Despite our reservations, this is a
wonderful romance with a fabulous leading lady in Eliza.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
