Lex

This lesbian drama book surprised me

Name: Canopy
Author: Liz Faraim

November 1, 2020
Debut author, Drama, Sapphic books
, 4 stars, Bartender - Waitress, BDSM, Military, Polyamory, PTSD - Anxiety

Review of ‘Canopy’ by Liz Faraim

This was quite an interesting read. I read a couple of early reviews so I knew a little of what to expect, but this lesbian drama book still surprised me. I think I liked this book. In fact, I think I liked it more than I thought I would, but it’s just not the easiest book to express my feelings on. I guess what it comes down to is that my interest is peaked and I will read more of this series. There were things that bothered me or that I didn’t like, but the overall feel and what the book is trying to do was appealing.

I think the best way to describe this would be with the drama tag. And while the book felt plot-driven at times, I think this really is a character study. This book is all about the main character and everything she is going through and has been through. This is a first-person story all about Vivian. Viv is ex-military, lesbian, and a bartender. Viv deals with PTSD, anxiety, and anger issues from being in the military, a mother who was unloving and anxiety-inducing, and a brother who was her abuser. She has a lot going on and really needs help, but she’s also a total badass and a little morally grey at times. There is something about Viv that reminded me a little bit of Aud Torvingen. If you don’t know that name I’ll just say that I mean it as a compliment since Nicola Griffith is pretty brilliant.

There is a potential love interest for Viv but I don’t know if I would call this a romance. Some of those elements are there, and yes, this does have a love story, but I didn’t find it romantic if that makes any sense. One part of it I found really odd was that there is a BDSM relationship, but the sex is fade to black. That was really surprising to me and might actually be a first. Usually, when authors want to delve into BDSM they actually want to show it. I’m okay with sometimes reading fade to black in books but in this case, I felt like the sex scenes missing were an odd choice and a missed opportunity.

I also have to mention that there is a poly relationship in this book. While I am no expert, I felt like calling the relationship poly was a little off. Only one character wanted an open relationship, and that person wasn’t very thoughtful or very communicative with the whole situation. In the end, it seemed more like an open relationship and not a poly relationship. Again, I’m no expert but the whole thing didn’t really sit right with me.

As you might have guessed from reading Viv’s background, this book does deal with some tough subjects. This book is dramatic. On the good side, while there are hard parts, I didn’t find the whole feel of the book to be too heavy. There is a lot going on and even some excitement to keep the book moving forward. In fact, the book had a really nice pace until it hit a bump. There are some great twists and turns in this book that I felt were well done. Anyway, I don’t know what happened but after the well-done part, the book really died and kind of limped along to the end. The reason I noticed so much was that the book was flying by until that part hit and just everything slowed way down. And then we get a cliffhanger to make us read book 2. I love series, I love connecting with characters over multiple books but cliffhangers are such a pain in the ass. I hope book two is coming out soon because if not my patience might be a little short causing my interest to wane.

Overall this was a book that is really different that had some parts I truly enjoyed. I’m a first-person fan and I love a badass character who has some demons and might be a little morally grey. While I had issues with this book, I’m hoping most of them were just debut bumps and that Faraim will really hit her stride in book two. 3.75 Stars.

A copy was given to me for an honest review.