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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Book About Police Officers!, August 18, 2002
This is the best book about police officers I've ever read. What I like the most about the book are the characters. Jaylynn Savage and Dez Reilly are such clearly defined, likable, and multi-leveled personalities. The plot seems to revolve around the changes each of them goes through as their friendship deepens and matures. Initially, the changes are most evident in Jaylynn, as she leaves the somewhat passive, structured regimen of a college student and embarks upon an effort to become a police officer. Midway through the book, however, it becomes apparent that Dez is undergoing an even greater change. Daily exposure to Jay's warm, lively humanity begins to erode the self-protective wall of isolation Dez has spent years erecting around herself. And then, of course, it's a book about police work. While the sad and complicated interactions with dysfunctional families and petty crooks are accurately caught, and the mind-numbing, plodding daily grind of what the police really do day in and day is represented, there are also some brilliant action scenes. For example, I have imprinted in my mind the scene in Chapter 18, when Dez leads the way into the 7-11 because Jay wants an ice cream snack. The clarity and grit Lake captured on those pages are worth the price of the book. I also liked the scene by Gooseberry Falls in the early autumn, when Dez and Jay hike up to an outcropping of cliffs there. When they sit down, they end up snuggling together in a little pocket in the rocks, trying to avoid the cold bite of the wind. Dez produces a package of cupcakes from her pocket, surprising Jay (who is perpetually hungry) and demonstrating her transition from the gruff, no-nonsense woman she had once been. Now, Dez is secretly buying junk food treats from the gas station food mart, obviously thinking about Jay's needs before Jay does. It was a deft use of storytelling to illustrate to the reader how Dez had changed, and I loved it. There are many such skillful, well-plotted uses of "show-don't-tell" laced throughout this book. This is a writer who is learning her craft from the old school. By that I mean, literary-politics aside, I believe the mark of a good writer is found in smooth exposition and character evocative dialogue. Lori Lake has accomplished both with "Gun Shy." The story advances easily and logically, drawing the reader into the plot. You know who is speaking by the way the character is phrasing their line -- Jay, Dez, Luella, the various supporting cast members -- they all have different voices. It is a pleasure to read this kind of writing. And it is early, yet, in Lake's career. Just think what she'll be capable of if she keeps producing stories. Frankly, I can't wait for "Under the Gun." How will Jay and Dez manage a relationship while they are working together? Will Dez be able to get beyond her fear of personal relationships and be as brave in facing love as she is in facing everything else? Will Jay ever get enough to eat? I'm hooked!! More please!!
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More than "Uber", November 19, 2001
This review is from: Gun Shy (Paperback)
Lake's Gun Shy is the story of two somewhat reluctant women who finally learn to believe in themselves and each other enough to commit to love. Covering just over a year in the lives of these women, the novel reads like a season's worth of episodes from a television show that you wish was on TV. The story opens with Desiree Reilly, a formidable cop over six feet tall with raven dark hair and startling blue eyes, capturing a pair of serial rapists and in the process saving two young women, Sara and JayLynn. It is a meeting that electrifies both JayLynn and Desiree. JayLynn Savage, a lesbian in her mid-20s, decides to become a police officer in order to get to know Desiree, the hero of her dreams, literally. We follow Savage through the academy and most of her rookie year on the St. Paul Police Department. Gun Shy is also the story of Desiree who is struggling with the death of her partner and good friend, Ryan. Early in her career Dez was a conquest for a rather superficial older female cop who apparently made a hobby of bedding young dyke officers. Hurt and embarrassed, Dez has made a rule not to date cops. Presumed by many of the other cops to be lesbian, Dez has rarely dated at all, let alone been seriously involved with a woman for almost eight years. Already known as the "Ice Queen" the tall and intimidating Dez has withdrawn even more since Ryan's death. Reilly becomes Field Training Officer for Savage and the two women begin a long complicated dance toward friendship and love. Along the way, the bright and innovative, if diminutive Jay becomes a good police officer. She learns to develop her own attributes in her work, deals with the trauma of her first shooting and pries the elusive Dez out of her shell. Meanwhile Dez comes to grips with Ryan's death. Over the course of the year the partners learn a great deal about each other and themselves. And the reader learns about life as a patrol officer in St. Paul as well as being treated to an inside view of the world of amateur bodybuilding. Gun Shy originated as an "Uber Xena" fanfiction story. [Certainly a number of entertaining and talented writers have found their voice writing fanfiction or stories set in another writer's universe.] There are a number of "dream" scenes in Gun Shy that refer to the show. However, presented here as a stand alone novel, these scenes are distracting and may even become more distracting now that the show has ended. Furthermore it does a disservice to the characters that Lake has created to bind them to the "uber Xena genre." Dez and Jay are new characters and while one might wish to imagine them as being portrayed by Lawless and O'Connor, they are not Xena and Gab. Lake might have done better to remove these elements of the dreams. Such editing need not remove the concept of Dez and Jay as soulmates or Dez as Jay's dream hero. Gun Shy is an engaging, readable book. The characters are interesting and the action drew this reader into the story. Amusingly, Lake seems to have created two lesbians that are the antithesis of the standard "u-haul" joke. I confess by the end of the book, I was relieved when Jay and Dez finally got together! Overcoming the barriers to that consummation is the theme of Gun Shy. Apparently, Lake has plans for a sequel. It will be interesting to see how she depicts Jay and Dez as a couple. In the meanwhile, treat yourself to a copy of Gun Shy.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great!, January 11, 2011
It is SO hard to find well written, solid lesbian fiction. I think I spent the first half of this book with a grin on my face just because I was so excited about how good it was! The characters are well developed, likable people and the story is well crafted and flows smoothly. There were times that I was shouting "Kiss her already!" or "Take her to bed!". Clearly I do not have the patience that Jay does. After waiting so long for them to get together I honestly wouldn't have minded a little more detail in that area, and Dez's truck changes color somewhere in the middle of the book; these are the only two, very minor criticisms that I have concerning this novel. I will definately be reading more from this author.
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