Customer Reviews

My Lover, My Friend: True-life Stories of Lesbian Romance Between Friends

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As a straight woman - who also happens to be bisexual - I was anxiously looking forward to sampling this book's contents. I was drawn by the title, "My Lover, My Friend" which rekindled for me memories of my own experiences.

As someone who has also struggled to resolve my own same-sex yearnings, I was looking forward to reading about other women's journeys - to see if any of them had taken paths similar to my own. I suppose I was also seeking some reassurances as to the choices I had made. And, in my wildest dreams, I was hoping that the book might offer some advice for me and other women - such as how to balance our enjoyment of women with other aspects of our normal heterosexual lives.

As background, this book is a series of first person accounts by women who eventually find companionship with a close female friend. As such, this message flies in the face of conventional wisdom which warns us that "love ruins friendships." And in the case of woman-to-woman intimacy, I would think that the potential for irreparably harming one's friendships is even greater.

In my own case, after fruitlessly exploring other avenues, I eventually found success when I violated this same tenet - and started to view my friends (some of whom were my closest) as possible lovers. To say that this took a while to pull off would be an understatement. But afterwards, not only did I not lose my dearest soul mates - our friendships are now much stronger than ever before!

I guess I didn't realize it when I selected it, but this book is mainly about women who are lesbians. Even so, I was surprised to discover how much different it means to be bisexual - and how so little of this book proved useful to me.

Although the erotic portions of the stories were tastefully written and mildly arousing, the life situations of the authors had a remarkable sameness - which made the outcomes almost painfully predictable. Most of the subjects lived in - or near the fringes - of the lesbian community. Some of the women weren't lesbians to begin with (and several had been previously married). But almost all of the friends (or best friends) who assisted each woman in her transition - were already lesbians! (Hey, where's the surprise or discovery in that?)

Besides the seemingly preordained nature of each story's outcome, there also seemed to be an underlying (monochromatic) message saying that once you sleep with a women - that you eventually need to marry her (or at least commit yourself exclusively to her).

I found myself admiring those individuals who managed to find true love with someone of the same sex - and who then had the conviction to pursue a relationship with them for numerous years. But sexuality for me (and my friends) isn't nearly so black and white.

For me, being bisexual means that I acknowledge the strong attraction I have for other women. But that doesn't mean that I want to give up my traditional heterosexual life -- in order to fulfill it!

In all fairness, this book is probably very reassuring to those women who want to become lesbians.

But for those like me who want to satisfy that same-sex hunger -- while not being totally consumed by it - this book, unfortunately, was not very helpful.

Absolutely love this book, I have read many by Lindsey Elder. Some of the stories make me cry, some make laugh, many give hope. I will always look for books from her.
All these authors, are awesome, and I have no particular favorite, because I loved them all.

My book oddly enough looks different. Its all pink and different picture. Better in my opinion. Anyhow, as far as the book... well it is lacking terribly. I am a stickler about love stories (especially lesbian and sometimes gay ones.) But mostly every story in this is just a 1,2,3 kick formula. Girl Meets Girl. Girls realise they are lesbians. Girls do it. Move on to next chapter. That's it basically. There are a few stories that are pretty good, but nothing on the tier of the ones i've read in love shook my heart. Even on the t&a department its pretty bland.

Basically it just wasn't what i was looking for. I wanted something that was sweet, loving, and maybe a little kinky at the right spots. not just something that says, "I'm a feminist now give me nipple!" There are a few nice stories in this. It's barely worth buying. But be prepared to do a lot of skimming. Also my biggest problem about series like this is that well... if you really like one... you only get a taste. but o well.