Reviews

A Lesbian's Guide to Women by Erica Lee

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kaynova's review

funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I enjoyed Annalise's journey about her sexuality and discovering how to have fun in sex, not just with women but with herself. Brinley and Annalise's friendship was very natural and flowed well that by Chapter 7, I was like these girls will get together. What keeps my ranking so high is that there's no third act breakup or miscommunication; they are direct about their feelings when the occasion arises. To me, what falls short or what bothered me a little bit, was the author's tendencies for breaking the fourth wall a lot of the times about tropes or books (I am all for self inserting yourself, do you, babe!) and that the smut scenes fell short at times though there's A LOT of them. Sometimes I couldn't feel the tension between them during sexy times, but when they're were just flirting or working themselves up to the main event, I can see and feel the chemistry between the two. Also, Annalise's grandma and Nathalie were overstepping at times and I get some people like that with friends, but it threw me off at times. There was a moment where I was like how y'all not going to accept no when Annalise wanted to just have sexy fun times with Brinley and continue with Wine Wednesday. Again, that's a personal thing to me, but I can see others enjoying that dynamic.

Content Warnings

justmevictoria's review

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4.5

Falling for the teacher never felt so good…

Annalise is as straight as they come, so she’s a little shocked when her meddling grandmother signs her up for a women-only hook-up app. Her grandma has the best intentions, telling Annalise she needs to get her spark back after mutually breaking up with her longterm boyfriend. In order to get her grandmother off her back, she agrees to meeting up with some of the women on the app, if only to satisfy her curiosity. But her first attempt goes horribly wrong and she’s left sitting at the bar by herself. Enter bartender Brinley who has had eyes on Annalise since she walked into the bar. She can see that Annalise is a little out her depth and the pair come to an arrangement - Brinley will show Annalise the art of hooking up with women. It’s a simple enough no-strings-attached plan until both women realise just how much time they like spending with one another, and Annalise realises she might not be as straight as she once thought…

Erica did not hold back when serving up this spicy yet sweet romance. Who doesn’t love a hook-up to lovers romance with ALL the spiciness! Annalise and Brinley had instant chemistry and it was fun following their friendship and romance progress as they embarked on their student-teacher arrangement. Even though they’re hooking up from the get-go, it’s a little bit of a slow burn in terms of them realising their feelings for one another.

Obviously, a bit part of the story is Annalise coming to terms with her sexuality after having never really questioned it. She’s literally the last person to realise that she’s queer, but her journey to figuring out her bisexuality was filled with lots of heart and soul. And while her family and best friend are all “omg we knew you weren’t straight” and continually wanting to label Annalise’s relationship with Brinley before Annalise figures things out for herself, Brinley is super patient with Annalise and her path to coming-out, even though she internally has her suspicions.

I also loved seeing a bunch of queer pop culture references - it may end up dating the book just a little, but it was nice to see some love shown for those books, artists, films and TV shows. Plus Erica gets a little meta when talking about romance book tropes, which was fun.

I’ll admit that while I do generally like a kooky and slightly meddling grandma in my rom-coms, I just couldn’t totally vibe with Annalise’s grandma, and ever her best friend. They were both a little over-the-top characters, and had they been paired back a little, they would have been perfect. Fortunately, we don’t really see too much of them throughout the book, so their characterisations weren’t a massive deal.

I adored this book, so if you’re looking for your next sapphic read, this is definitely one that needs to be near the top of your TBR!