When It's Love
Anyone steeped in lesbian romances of the Naiad school will recognize at once what Beverly Shearer is up to in her debut novel, an escapist romance about a woman who loves to escape into the world of Western novels. Kindly computer programmer Melia Ellis keeps allowing her seductive but violent girlfriend Dana back into her life because she's the only person who can make Melia feel alive. We know Dana is evil when she ridicules Melia's choice in reading, and we tremble--book in hand--when Dana argues that Melia has been hiding behind books instead of releasing herself to passion. No wonder Melia is so curiously open-minded when Parker McCallem, a white-hatted, spurs-wearing butch dyke from the 1860s, drops into her office cubicle from the crawl space in the ceiling.When It's Lovehas all the hallmarks of both lesbian romances and pulp Westerns: predictable dialogue, thin characters, and a black-and-white moral code. But it also offers the characteristic pleasures of both genres. There is no confusing right and wrong here, the villains are strung up in the town square, and there's a happy ending for Melia.--Regina Marler