Customer Reviews

Maybe Next Time

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you want an easy read, a quick romance and lots of bedroom time don't read this book. But if you do read this book then read what Karin Kallmaker actually wrote -- not what you wish she'd written because you felt like having the same-old-same-old today. It's like wanting your fix of vanilla ice cream, ordering spumoni and then complaining.

If Maybe Next Time was a PBS documentary or an indie movie (and it ought to be!) I don't think anyone would whine that Bree's story wasn't "good." The jacket copy is a BIG clue this is not your typical romance! Among other things, this is a story of "personal tragedy."

I found it absolutely uplifting, touching, wrenching, heartbreaking. I cried and at the end was *very* relieved and happy for Bree. Her music was a curse and when it was lifted she had to start over and she made some really bad mistakes (oh and thank you whoever you are who gave away a KEY element of the plot -- that's nice for those who haven't read it yet!) and she finds the power to atone, to change.

As for Bree being unlikeable and immature -- whatever. I think anyone who is thrust into the performing world at a young age won't be mature in some ways, and yet unbelievably controlled and mature in others. Reeling from the betrayal of a lover, Bree pulls herself together to give a critical performance at an audition. How many of us more "likeable" people could conquer our anger and hurt that well?

I have followed Karin Kallmaker's writing since In Every Port and I see her FINALLY breaking out of the old Naiad cookie cutter. I am stunned with every new book. Maybe Next Time was powerful, well-written, complicated and deeply absorbing. Is it her best romance? Maybe not. Is it the best thing she's ever written -- yep. I would definitely say it is. If you don't read this book because it's not the typical 200-page girl-meets-girl, misunderstandings and hot sex, and live happily ever after story then you're missing out. There's nothing wrong with that kind of book, but there's more to life than vanilla ice cream. And this book is simply no comparison to a lot of 400-page potboilers where the lesbians aren't even sexual. Please. I thought we were past the era of fading to black when it comes to the part where the characters do the things that make them lesbian. Bree is sexual; she likes women. It's a big part of her story, the how, who and why she has sex. Those scenes are just plain hot.

Personally, I think Karin Kallmaker writes the feel-good kind of romance better than anyone, and I'm sure she will again and I'll enjoy it. But I hope because those less interested in good literature are whining about her having the audacity to write something that makes them stretch doesn't make her stop. I want our community to have this incredible writer who conveys a *realistic* range of lesbian experience. I'll take *anything* she writes over some of the unrealistic drivel getting vanity published these days, and most of the highly-lauded "novels" out there. I just finished a "must read" *serious* work where I was supposed to identify with a cross-dressing drug-addicted bicycle messenger. The book was good but give me Kallmaker's universally appealing characters any day. I have been shoved off my preferred paths in life along the way by tragedy, misfortune and pain, and if that's true of you then I don't see how you wouldn't find Bree's struggles totally absorbing.

I think I'll add that if you want to show that you read something closely and have a considered opinion to offer you might want to spell the author's name correctly. That would be Kar*I*n, not Karen. Plus, it's Dian*A* not Diane. Also, if you want to read a sample, visit her web site and you'll see what you're getting.

Read it, let it be what it is, and you won't regret a moment. Books like Maybe Next Time don't come around that often. Please keep writing them, Ms. Kallmaker, because some of us *do* get it.

Some of the reviews say that this book is hard to read, but my opinion is that it's got nothing to do with the writer, or the writing! The book has been nominated for a Lammy in the romance category and it deserves to win.

Maybe some people find it hard because it's real. No sugar coating. Sabrina Starling is deeply wounded. Her life has been seemingly magical but fate has been abruptly cruel. Sabrina, petrified she has lost her ability to play the violin, does something cruel herself, but it's not fate that gets hurt, but real women.

Sabrina's despair about not just her violin but her own actions is intensely moving. Can she somehow find a way to make amends? When you actually believe that you deserve the bad things that have happened to you, how can you possibly find happiness and love?

Karin Kallmaker made me believe it. I couldn't stop reading. Tears running down my cheeks at times, I ached for Sabrina to heal, to find her way back to her music, love and passion.

Nobody who reads with an open mind and open heart can't be moved by Sabrina's final confrontation with her losses and how she lets go of the most precious thing in her life in order to move on. I could feel the sea spray on my face.

What a great book. Karin Kallmaker surprises me every time.

Scientists who map the human brain have discovered that when most people hear music, their pleasure centers are stimulated in the brain. When musicians hear music, their language centers are stimulated. For violin virtuoso Sabrina Starling, the protagonist of Karin Kallmaker's novel, Maybe Next Time, music is not only a language, it is the language she depends upon to express her emotions. Bree, as she is known from childhood, first began to play the violin when she was four years old. And it is music that allows her to survive the death of her mother and her father before she is six. Music is the only way she can breech the wall that grief and loss have built around her childhood. With her music she can adapt to living in rural Hawaii with her mother's best friend, Lani, and Lani's daughter, Jorie. Through her music, Bree will be blessed time and again as her life crosses other great musicians who guide or encourage her.

However, there are things that Bree doesn't seem able to understand. She struggles to understand her feelings for her Jorie. Her love for Jorie is exciting and frightening. Jorie, Bree believes could be "music for a lifetime." (p108) Despite the teens' explorations, Jorie doesn't seem to reciprocate Bree's love. This rejection is just one more section in the wall that stands between Bree and the rest of the world. Identifying as lesbian when she goes off to study music at the Conservatory, Bree discovers other women who are very attracted to her. For several years she takes a "living in the moment" approach to romance, indulging in the groupies of the classical music world. While her professional life was successful beyond imagining, her personal life was lonely. Bree's love for Jorie is an ache that she hasn't been able to fill.

Recuperating from an injury and floundering without her music, Bree finds herself drawn to Diana. Diana and Pam have been together for years. They have a kind of happiness that Bree has been missing. Without her music, a confused Bree decides that having Diana will fill her life with the love she has missed. And she will risk everything to have that happiness.

Told in a series of flashbacks; Maybe Next Time is not a light read. The journey of Bree's redemption is a painful one. She must face her own arrogance and mistakes. However, it is a rich story with complex characters struggling with their faults and weaknesses as well as several charming moments. Kallmaker reminds readers what it was like to be a sixteen-year old girl in 1976 and realize that you're in love with another girl. It was a time and place far away from the Pride Parades of San Francisco, let alone the relative freedom of the 21st century.

Kallmaker depicts respectful insights into Polynesian culture. Perhaps one of the most touching moments in Bree's childhood is when Lani takes her to a native Hawaiian celebration. Young Bree is blessed by a gentle singer and finds the voice of music again. From this moment it becomes clear to Lani that her newly adopted daughter must have music in her life. Lani will make certain that Bree gets musical training.

Even with the angst there are signature Kallmaker elements. The erotic energy between Bree and Jorie is electric and evolves throughout the novel. Kallmaker's wit enlivens the book. There are delightful moments such as Bree's first opportunity to play an 18th century Guarneri violin. Or the poker night when Diana and company create new group terms including, "A clench of clits" and "a lick of lesbians!" (p186)

No "formula" romance, Maybe Next Time is an engrossing, compelling story of redemption, healing and surviving. Kallmaker has explored complicated themes and done so with heart and a touch of humor. In this reader's opinion, it is one of her best novels.

This is not an easy book. Maybe Next Time is well layered and brilliantly structured in both plot and character development. Kallmaker introduces characters early in the book whose significance won't be realized until well towards the end of the story. However, it's their early introduction that lends to the startling impact they have as events unfold. Similar to the way a mystery writer leaves you clues, Kallmaker sets the reader up with innocuous references that appear to have little to do with the current action.

Beginning at age 7, this story spans 35 years of Sabrina (Bree) Starling's life. The story is written in a series of flash backs as the 40-year-old Bree returns home to Hawaii to attend her adopted aunt's funeral. It was her Aunt Lani who enabled Bree to find her voice through the violin. It is her musical genius that gives Bree strength, but it is also her violin that isolates her from everyone around her.

Perhaps, it's due to the death of her Aunt Lani that sends Bree reeling in reflection about her own life. Everything seemed to have started off so innocently: the love of music and her violin, the love of her girlhood sweetheart, Jorie, the friendship with a long-term couple, Pam and Diana. However, through a series of mistakes, misinformation, and omissions, Bree's life comes crashing down around her.

There is a beautifully written part of this book that truly captures the panic, confusion, and guilt that Bree comes to feel. Kallmaker achieves this through the pacing of memory and real action in her writing. When I read this particular part, I found myself gasping because I'd stopped breathing.

This is a romance that reads like saga, is structured like a mystery, and is written with an ear for music. By the way, the [physcial] scenes are sizzling. Although I've re-read KK's books from time to time, this was the first one that I turned immediately back to page 1 as soon as I'd read the last. ...

What do you do when you grow up, in your adopted family, with the love of your life and they could care less? One woman, a child prodigy and now world famous violinist has pondered that question throughout her life. Never lacking for company, she nevertheless is always left with a feeling of "wanting". Who is it that she really wants - the woman she could never have or the woman in a long-term relationship? Sidelined by an injury, the violinist tries to figure out the answer to the question. Which woman does she truly love? Which woman would love her back? Will her decision place a long-term relationship in jeopardy? If she doesn't recover from her injury, how will that affect her future and will anyone want HER?

Karin Kallmaker is a truly talented writer who continues to treat the reader to wonderful tales of women as they travel the journey of life, love and romance.

Just when I think Karin K's books can't get any better, she does it again! Writing outside the usual box of lesbian romance novels, she weaves the story of a violin virtuoso, Sabrina Starling, whose entire life revolves solely around her instrument. A beautiful woman convinced that without her violin she is nothing and undeserving of the love of the woman that is the love of her life. The novel takes us from present day back to key events in Sabrina's life, as present day situations trigger her memories. The transitions are very clear and Ms K's writing is descriptive and fluid. As with any good character driven novel, we WANT Sabrina to figure things out and find true happiness. The secondary characters are real, and Ms K does her usual incredible job with convincing and believable dialogue. Two thumbs up for another winner!

Grab the tissues and settle down for an intense journey with Sabrina Starling. Karin Kallmaker has truly outdone her own previous work with the portrait of a woman driven by talent and frustrated love to conquer her profession while making a hash of her personal life.

This is an erotic, moving tale that challenges every conception of what a "romance" is supposed to be. I am a big fan of many other writers, but I admire the sheer breadth of what Kallmaker achieves in a wide range of novels and characters. When I pick up one of her books I never wonder "which heroine will be the wounded, dark one and which the sweet, loving patient one" as I do with some of Radclyffe's work. Nor do I have to worry that I'll encounter weak or outright bad writing. And her characters are so real, and they live in the real world.

Maybe Next Time's characters are more flawed than most. Bree is kind in her very heart, not a diva, and she would not ordinarily use someone else's heart to forget her own pain. But when she does just that, it is so heartbreaking to all concerned that I was two tissues down halfway through that part of the book. Bree grieves over what she's done, and my goodness so did I. Parts of this book are so tragic it touches all the emotions, because there is nothing so moving as tragedy overcome with hope, and possibilities of happiness where only sorrow and despair had existed before.

You will be sorry if you don't read this book. Kick back, keep the tissues handy...and as someone else said, you'll be wishing to see this story on the big screen. The settings are lush, the structure of the tale intriguing and ultimately, quite quite satisfying.

Karin Kallmaker's latest novel spans 40 years of Sabrina Starling's life. Told in both present events and flashback, it chronicles Bree's rise to stardom as a concert violnist and her fall into an abyss of despair when her ability to play is lost.

There is a mystery at the heart of this story: why can't Bree play? If the answer is age or, as is common with many musicians, carpal tunnel syndrome, then Bree's inability to cope or get at least a measure of comfort from her gift is immature. But the reason for her loss is nowhere near that simple, and unraveling the cause of Bree's agony is what this book is about.

Along the way there is some exceptional prose about the power of music, the escape of sex and the frustration of love gone wrong. The encounter between teenaged Bree and the love-of-her-life Jorie, also a teenager, is one of the best I've ever read about first times between young adult women. It's poignant and erotic and completely realistic.

In our journey with Bree we discover which of her wounds are accidents and which are self-inflicted, and as the book closes we see a moving portrayal of a woman healing and trying to atone for the many mistakes she has made along the way. Loss, tragedy, ecstasy, atonement and a real chance for happiness: to me that is good reading.

So many books set in Hawaii (as this book primarily is) dwell on the beautiful beaches, the smiling people, and the easy pace of life. Kudos to Kallmaker for digging deeper into the island culture with the rich addition of Hawaiian spirituality as shown in Bree's struggles with her own ancestors. Ancestors often know what is best for us, especially when we do not. The trick is -- as Bree discovers -- listening to your ancestors in time. Sometimes Bree listens, other times she does not.

This isn't the kind of intense two-character romantic tale that Kallmaker pens so well (and I really do hope she pens again!) but it is one of the best books I've read this year. Erotic, believable, heartbreaking and breathtaking, I read it the first time at a breathless pace to discover Bree's story, then I read it again much more slowly to savor the quality of Kallmaker's prose and the skill with which she spun such a captivating tale of a lesbian life.

I am eagerly awaiting what promises to be a much lighter read in her "One Degree of Separation." I think it's marvelous that she can -- if I let her -- take me just about anywhere she wants with the exceptional gift of her storytelling.

Don't miss this book -- and I completely agree with another reviewer. This story ought to be a movie.

I'm a big fan of Karen Kallmaker's books. I usually give them 4-5 stars, but I had to force myself to finish this book. If anyone else had written it, I wouldn't have bothered. I kept expecting the book to improve, but it didn't until 3/4 of the way through, when Kallmaker starts to finally wrap things up. People seem to really love or really hate this book, so I recommend you check it out from your library before buying your own copy.

The theme of the book is grief. Sabrina "Bree" Starling, a world-renowned violinist, has been injured & can no longer hold the violin, let alone play it. Bree is self-absorbed & emotionally stunted, so this loss plunges her into a miasma of depression & guilt. As the book is written from Bree's point of view, we get dragged right down with her.

Frankly, I didn't like Bree enough to care if she came to terms with the loss of her playing ability or not. Not did I find the other characters in the book likeable or interesting. Jorie, Bree's childhood sweetheart & adult obsession, spends most of her time fighting the fact that she's gay and in love with Bree, and screwing up yet another chance at a permanent relationship with Bree. She won't tell Bree what she wants. Bree is no better at telling Jorie how she feels. They do stupid things because they think they can't have the person they love. Their inability to communicate and continued immaturity are puzzling, since both were raised by a very wise & loving woman. I wanted to reach into the pages and smack them. Failing that, I wanted them relegated to secondary character status. Unfortunately, they're the main characters, so that couldn't happen.

Kallmaker did not cushion the unlikability of the main characters with likable secondary characters. The secondary characters mostly seemed 2-dimensional and not quite real. Since the book is told from Bree's perspective, this is certainly consistent with Bree's tendency to view the world as Bree's Music, Jorie, & the unimportant stuff. The only characters I liked were Diane & Pam, a still-very-much-in-love 18-year couple that Bree breaks up by seducing one of them. (Hence Bree's guilt.) Yet another reason I did not like Bree. By the end of the book, Jorie has grown up and Bree has begun to mature, but it's too little, too late.

This is certainly one of Kallmaker's more technically complex books, with the back-story doled out in hints & dribs & drabs. Kallmaker handles the story & flashbacks well. I just didn't like the characters. In fact, I would have preferred to read a book where Diane & Pam were the main characters & Bree was merely a catalyst. A love-betrayal-pain-rebuilding-forgiveness plot would have been much more interesting to me than "all grief, all the time". In summary, I'm saving my money for Kallmaker's next book. It has to be better than this one.

This novel has much more drama and much less comedy than Making Up For Lost Time. A love story with a dark edge; make that several dark edges. All of the women in this book have lives filled with missed opportunities and tragedy. This is not a light read; prepare to pay attention. At times, you may want to yell, "Stop ... Stop! Don't do it!"
The book is structured as a series of flashbacks to Sabrina (Bree) Starling's life. When her parents are killed in an accident, Bree is sent to Hawaii to live with her mother's best friend, Lani, and her daughter, Jorie. Bree's sexual awakening leaves her stunned when she discovers she's in love with Jorie.
Kallmaker paints a compelling portrait of Bree as a child prodigy who becomes a world-renowned violinist with all of the fame and money she could ever want. At the pinnacle of her success, a devastating wrist injury brutally ends her career.

Bree has many issues to overcome. Wallowing in despair, guilt, and loneliness, she believes she deserves pain and suffering. The narrative of Bree's childhood and her coming into fame at a young age was interesting. The fact that Bree was a lesbian was secondary to her development as a person and even more so as a musician. I wouldn't want her for a friend, but I never stopped wanting to know more about her.

After giving up on a life with Jorie, Sabrina immerses herself in her music and blithely makes love to women around the globe until she meets Diana. Only problem is that Diana is deeply in love with Pam, her partner of eighteen years. You'll have to read the book to find out how this all too familiar lesbian triangle is resolved.