Loving Lydia by Berengaria Brown

THE PAGAN & THE PEN BOOK REVIEWS

Title: Loving Lydia
Author: Berengaria Brown

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Publisher: Breathless Press

Genre: Erotic 

Other: F/F

Length: 18 pgs.
Reviewed by: Russ Allen

RATINGS FOR:

Cover: 2

Presentation: 3

Editing: 3

Story: 4

Writing Ability: 3

Overall Card Rating: 

                                     

About The Book:  Lydia, a 40-year-old executive, and Tammy, a younger nurse, meet at a gym and develop a lesbian sexual relationship.  Both have secondary issues: Lydia wants to help women break through the glass ceiling; Tammy wants Lydia to become more spontaneous and less organized. Neither in the end is addressed.

The Review: This is a well-written story that avoids some of the pitfalls of erotic literature. The presentation of Lydia and Tammy’s sexual encounter in the former’s apartment avoids the acrobatic nature in some stories, and thus does not evolve into boring pornography. The same-sex activity comes across as sensitive and caring, possibly supporting the suggestion that the two will now become lovers.

The secondary plot of the story, Lydia’s feeling that she has achieved what she can in advancing up the corporate ladder, and her desire now to mentor young women to move even higher, while well presented, is in the end undeveloped. There is a hint that Tammy might become one of those women but that never happens. Instead, straightforward Tammy’s goal is to move rigid Lydia away from the attitude and approach to life that has in fact brought her such success. Failing to recognize this potential conflict, neither will be ready when it emerges as a real issue.

One of the issues with this type of story is whether it comes across as being real – whether the reader has to suspend his or her skepticism in order to enter into it.  Granted, stories serve many purposes: to entertain or challenge, to inform or expand one’s experience, to arouse or excite.  But for the most part, stories need to convey a sense of the real. 

This story does so up to a point. The sexual activity is believable, the separate professional motivations and personal attitudes are understandable, and even the motivation of each in eventually seeking a relationship with the other rings true. What is lacking in this story is a sense of what happens next. 

Lydia has already had a bad lesbian experience; Tammy, despite her directness, comes across with a level of immaturity and responsibility. Their relationship might well devolve into an impediment to Lydia’s goals, and a challenge to Tammy’s relaxed approach to things.  Do these lie outside the story, or are they important to it?  The author chooses not to go there, and that leaves the telling incomplete.

Pagan Elements: N/A  

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