Lesbian Age-gap Romance Book Review of ‘The woman at the edge of town’ by Georgette Kaplan
3.5 Stars. This was a bit of an oddball book. Well, to be honest, all of Kaplan’s books are a little odd, but I like that about them. However, this book’s oddness didn’t work as well for me. It almost felt like this book had a bit of an identity crisis, it didn’t know exactly what it wanted to be. I think this may be my least favorite of all Kaplan’s book’s but even with its issues, I did still enjoy it.
Kaplan has a really stylistic way of writing. Sometimes it almost makes some of her lines hard to follow enough that you’re not completely sure what she means, other times her lines feel almost brilliant. It’s a really odd mix and an odd way of writing which I know doesn’t work for everyone but does for me for the most part.
I’ll take the few head-scratchers in exchange for the few lines that are quote-worthy. Besides, Kaplan’s stylistic writing tends to put a lot of humor in her books. I’m not a comedy book fan but for some reason, I get Kaplan’s humor. I would not put this book in the humor category like her others. There is some very light humor, and I laughed out loud once, but this book is more serious than her others.
I felt like this book had an identity crisis, I’ll try to explain it better. The book started off and almost felt like a YA of maybe New Adult story. The main is 19 and 20 in this book, having left college and trying to find her way. Her interactions with her friends and even her mother, all felt very young and put me in a YA mindset. Then all of a sudden the book turns into an erotic-romance.
After reading the early reviews I knew to expect it, but it was still jarring the way the book flipped. And then after that steamy middle, this book seemed to turn more into a regular romance. It was just an odd sort of mash-up and I felt like the book would have been better served to stay more into one category.
I have to give the romance only an average rating. It is an age-gap romance but while the age difference is under a decade it felt at times a little bigger because of the characters different maturity levels. The problem was I think the courting phase went by way too fast. The connection was not strong enough to really make the reader understand why these two work as a couple. The first few sex scenes were well done and really steamy. Although once the book went on, the erotic elements went away and the later sex scenes fizzled out.
If you are new to Kaplan, this is not the book that I would recommend you start with. If you like Kaplan’s quirky writing style, you will probably enjoy this. This book had some issues and was not her best by far, but I’m still glad I read it.
An ARC was given to me for an honest review.
One Response
If you’d read this book without looking at it from a ‘category’ or ‘genre’ perspective, would that’ve changed your review, at least the first few paragraphs. I do agree with your last bit/conclusion. 🙂