Review of ‘Straight Up’ by Rachel Spangler

Five encounters, five lesbian erotic short stories or five chapters leading to romance, depending on how you want to view things.

Geo, a yoga instructor, doesn’t want to want more than no-strings sex. She’s done with hoping for forever and being disappointed. She’s found the perfect solution, or so she figures: straight women. She’ll make the straight-women-only-bring-heartache maxim lie, whether her boss and best friend Dana believes it’s possible or not.

I don’t know what your Geo will look like but mine looks a lot like Adriene Mishler. I’m not in the habit of giving characters faces, much less the face (and body) of a real person but because there’s a significant amount of yoga poses involved in this story, I needed to picture them. And to picture them, I needed bodies. I don’t know Adriene beyond her yoga videos but I’m pretty sure yoga is where the similarities stop between her and Geo (that, and she seems really sweet too).

Written by another author (a non-queer one), this could have been a story about a predatory lesbian preying on insecure straight women. But it’s written by Rachel Spangler and Geo is genuinely sweet. With each encounter, she gets the opportunity to feel like a superhero, like she’s saving these women. Which she is, sort of, making them feel seen and reminding them they don’t have to accept the limitations society insists on. As Dana puts it, Geo is what these women need at that moment. Yet is it really what Geo needs? Are those ego-stroking nights worth the pain of the morning after?

The story is told in third person from Geo’s POV so, at first, I took everything at face value. If Geo thought it, then it was true. Until I admitted (way before Geo did) that she was lying to herself. Geo is earnest and sincerely convinced she’s doing what’s best for everyone. She’s also naive and ignorant – to the point of being offensive for half a second but Dana tells her off immediately – and so focused on what she believes she’s doing, she’s stuck in the moment. She’s so closed off to the big picture that she forgets there are more possibilities than being either straight or gay. And while there will be quite a few orgasms on her path to rediscovering that and, maybe, to finding love, it’s not an entirely enjoyable journey. For her, I mean. For the reader, it’s an entertaining series of one-night stands and fun – sometimes hilarious – chats over upside-down coffee between Geo and Dana when debrief time comes. If you’re into character growth, you’ll love Geo’s journey. And all the sexiness on the way won’t hurt.