The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

The context: Multiverse, a way to hop between the different Earths and world walkers.

Cara is a world traverser. She is one of the few people on Earth Zero who goes from one Earth to another collecting information and data. There are 382 Earths and a person can be a traverser if they do not exist on most of the other Earths. Cara exists on only seven other Earths. 

Each Earth is populated by the same people as Cara's and have the same past but a different present. 

Cara is a little bit reckless. A little bit of a rebel. And a whole lot attracted to and interested in her watcher, Dell. Cold, distant, indifferent Dell. Cara's been flirting with Dell for five years but is constantly met by the same wall.

The other people in Cara's life are her sister, Esther; her mentor, Jean; the man who invented the technology to traverse, Adam; the emperor of the rough land beyond the rich Wiley City, Nik Nik and a clutch of other minor (but not unimportant) characters.

Each Earth is in the same band of miserable with slight differences in the degree of miserableness, yet the book is not depressing. It is an action and emotion packed story with unexpected twists and turns.

Though there is a brief mention of the Middle East, all action remains contained in the world created by the writer consisting of the rich Wiley City, the rough Ashtown and the Rurals beyond Ashtown.

The world building is good and the character-across-Earths creation with regard to Cara and Adam is incredible. The writing is beautiful.

Cara is a strong, well rounded character. She is a great protagonist. However, Esther, in a much smaller appearance captured our admiration. And Dell, in an even smaller page presence, stole our heart. She is incredible in her strength, intelligence and above all in her loving. Major character crush on Dell happening here.

The ending is a little open ended but we believe that it is a HEA for Cara and Dell.

Definitely recommended.

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

The Red Queen Series By Victoria Aveyard

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Okay, we know that this is more of a YA, borderline sci-fi, dystopian kind of series rather than F/F romance or focus but we just have to put this book in because we absolutely love Evangeline Samos, who initially is portrayed as the antagonist.

Before we write about Red Queen, we would like to say that we are thrilled with the fact that all new books written for audiences of all age groups now definitely have a rainbow (read: gay) character – either a minor one or a major character. This is one of the most heartening new trends in fiction writing which will surely help in breaking the stranglehold of heteronormative compulsions in the society. No, the change may not happen overnight but thanks to this trend in writing, it will chisel away those phobias. This is insidious – and very effective – advocacy.

Coming to the Red Queen Series, and Evangeline Samos in particular. Evangeline starts off as a typical Mean Girls bitch. She is beautiful, cold and a total badass. At the same time she is extremely loyal and conflicted by being pushed into various betrothals for political reasons. It is in the third book that her true feelings are revealed. She is a lesbian and in love with Elane Haven. It is also from this point that she turns from a one-dimensional caricature into a multi-layered person with feelings of her own.

The two girls, Evangeline and Elane, are willing to take on their powerful families and the rest of the world to be together. From the time the relationship of the two girls is revealed, Evangeline’s character undergoes a metamorphosis. She takes unprecedented risks and unexpected actions to be with her lover, the love of her life.

Thankfully, the two girls end up together in the end, which makes this one of our favourite YA series.

Definitely a solid four stars for this one (one star less than five because it would’ve been even better if she was the main protagonist).

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Across the Dark Horizon by Tagan Shepard

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Imagined in painstaking detail and richly described, this sci-fi is so entrenched in the ethos of the possible that it becomes believable.

Earth has run out of many minerals and the moon is a possible mine. The catch is that very few people are willing to spend time on the moon despite lucrative offers. The solution is to make it a penal colony with the prisoners doing the job. Fifty prisoners and a couple of dozen civilians make up the population of Moon Colony. The whole operation is being run by a corporate and Gail Moore is the administrator of the colony. Things blow up when the prisoners riot get themselves heavily armed and threaten the lives of all the civilians. Major Charlie Hawk is assigned to go restore peace and save lives.

Gail and Charlie are attractive, mature women and you feel an immediate liking for them while getting a fell of their hotness too. Both have been shunted around because of their gender and you feel their frustration while sympathising with how hard they must have worked to reach where they have. In the scene where they first come together and have sex, you can feel the depth of their emotions and their (particularly Gail’s) desperation in the face of imminent death.

This is not exactly light, but not particularly heavy either. It is just immersive and a really good read. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐