A Woman Like Maria by Gabriel Costans; Sweet Romance About a Woman Discovering Her Sexuality and Finding Love

A Woman Like Maria by Gabriel Costans; Sweet Romance About a Woman Discovering Her Sexuality and Finding Love

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Gabriel Costans’ A Woman Like Maria is a sweet Romance about a woman discovering her own sexuality and finding love with another woman.

Sophia is a German woman who lives with a very dysfunctional family. Her parents have a fractured argumentative marriage. Sophia spends much of her time exploring her body and experimenting with relationships. She goes through a few bad relationships before she meets Ricardo, her future husband. Feeling alone and trying to deal with the pressure of life with an abusive husband, Sophia develops a bond with Ricardo's sister, Maria. The bond becomes a friendship and then develops into a romance. 

Sophia is a protagonist who hasn't exactly had the easiest start in life so she obtained an inner strength and determination to survive it. Her parents had a tempestuous relationship which began out of necessity rather than love because her mother was raped by another man. She needed a quick shotgun marriage to save face. 

The couple took their disappointments and failures out on their four children. 

Sophia often had to help her mother raise her younger siblings.In her small village of Blumenjagen, women are expected to marry and have lots of children. Sophia sees the drudgery, volatility, and resentment in the couples around her and certainly wants no part of it.

As Sophia grows, she has some difficult troubled relationships. Her first romance ended because her love interest enjoyed too much attention from other girls. Another ended because of differing ideas about their future. He wanted marriage and she wanted to begin a nursing career. Sophia’s early relationships show her as the type of woman who won't compromise who she is for anyone.

Sophia's romance with Ricardo begins innocuously enough with flirtation, compliments, and small gifts. It hits a snag when Sophia learns that Ricardo is already married and has a son. Sophia is drawn to him but also feels longings for women that she isn't certain about. 

Rather than address those longings, she marries Ricardo after he divorced his first wife. Sophia is strong and independent but when faced with her sexuality she is uncertain how to pursue it or whether she will be accepted. Instead of confronting her feelings for women, she transfers those feelings to Ricardo. She got married because she felt that it was safer to settle and marry a man than embark on a potential affair with a woman.

Sophia pays a heavy price for settling. Her marriage to Ricardo crumbles into abuse and infidelity. Ricardo has multiple affairs, frequent patches of unemployment, and an explosive temper. Their marriage only gets worse when she accompanies him to the United States to be closer to his family. The geographical distance only creates more tension as Sophia has to endure physical and psychological isolation from Ricardo's mistreatment of her. 

Sophia faces the abuse with a stoicism and almost coldness until she meets Maria. The only bright spot in Sophia's life is her relationship with Maria. The more free spirited woman is very open and honest about her relationships with women. She opens Sophia's heart and reminds her of the stirrings that she thought had disappeared. Their passion is undeniable.

More important than the passion is the emotion. Maria is not the same type of person as her brother. She treats Sophia like an equal as compared to Ricardo who treats her like a maid that he doesn't have to pay. Maria is selfless enough to back off out of Sophia's life when she senses things are getting too complicated for her but still retains their companionship through letters. 

After Sophia gives birth to two children, Maria gives her shelter and becomes a second mother to them. Maria encourages Sophia's passions for her career, family, and love. Their relationship allows Sophia the chance to be authentic and embrace the chance for love and fulfillment.

A Woman Like Maria is the type of Romance that explores the relationship between two people but it also explores the inner discovery of one's true self.

 

New Book Alert: Fool, Anticipation by Robert Polakoski; Brilliant Historical Fiction About a Woman's Exploration of Her Talent and Sexuality

 New Book Alert: Fool, Anticipation by Robert Polakoski; Brilliant Historical Fiction About a Woman's Exploration of Her Talent and Sexuality 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: It doesn't need to be said how appropriate it is to review a historical fiction about a lesbian poet struggling against restrictive gender roles and the lack of understanding towards her sexuality. It doesn't need to be said how SCOTUS' boneheaded, archaic, self-serving, underhanded, homophobic and misogynistic decisions to overturn Roe Vs. Wade, protections towards same sex marriages and gender affirming care, and recently permission for people to use religious freedom as an excuse to deny services, goods, and care to LGBTQ+ people make a book like Robert Polakoski's Fool, Anticipation even more relevant. (And that ending Affirmative Action and not legacy acceptances and hiring practices shows their true racist colors, mostly white, as well). It doesn't need to be said that such rulings and laws created and encouraged by Conservatives, especially Fundamentalists, are set to roll back women and LGBT+ people's statuses and protection back several centuries (or worse forward to Handmaid's Tale's Gilead). None of that needs to be said but it's being said anyway. Fool, Anticipation by Robert Polakoski is a book with a character who says all of that and more. It is a brilliant historical fiction about a woman who explores her talent and sexuality to find her own voice and independence.

Like with many Historical Fiction novels, we start with the protagonist, now older, looking back on their lives, perhaps writing or dictating their memoirs. In this case, poet Edna Rose Doyle is being interviewed by a reporter for a French publication. She gives some interesting hints that her life was a troubled one before we get to the narrative proper.

Rose Doyle was born in Jersey City to an Irish-American family given to abuse and alcoholism. To escape her unhappy home life, Rose turns to poetry, particularly that of Edna St. Vincent Millay. In fact, Millay becomes such an ideal that Rose calls herself Edna in the poet's honor. She wants to live her life the way Millay did, openly flaunting female lovers, writing frank and honest poems about sex, war, and social injustice, and living in Greenwich Village surrounded by other artists, writers, and intellectuals. 

Edna ends up working at Great Eastern Electric as a telephone tester during WWII. After the war ends, she and a few female friends go out for a few drinks when she encounters Tommy Prosky. Edna and Tommy have differing opinions about the war (Tommy was for, Edna against) but go on a second date. It is on this second date where Tommy rapes Edna, leaving her pregnant.

The pregnancy leaves Edna devastated and is left even more devastated when a doctor refuses to give her an abortion. She has a brief affair with another woman, Elle Rochfort before Edna returns to the reality of her situation and is forced to marry Tommy and endure an unhappy marriage rocked by abuse, addiction, and a mental breakdown.

Edna's intelligence and sardonic nature really shine through in her first person narration. I cannot stress this enough how well written this female perspective is, especially considering that Fool, Anticipation was written by a man. Polakoski captures the complexities of this character and makes her identifiable and understandable as she questions her life, sexuality, and place in the world as a woman of deep intellect and desires that society tells her that she should not have.

Edna has a definite idea of how she imagines her life. During adolescence, she stood outside the home of Millay, imagining herself as a poet surrounded by arty intellectuals, writing verses about how she really feels, and taking female lovers openly. However, the dreams are dashed by reality. She sends poems to publications that are rejected (though she admits that she is happy to even receive a rejection letter). At 19, she gets accepted to Vassar on a scholarship and saves money for the opportunity, but her rape, pregnancy, and quickie marriage end that plan.

On her jaunts to New York, Edna looked outside the Women's Literary Society,  longed to be a part of it, and also saw Elle looking at her through a window. She would have loved to enter the society and have a relationship with Elle but knew that society would never allow such a pairing. Ironically, during one of the lowest points of her life after her rape, Edna works up the courage to introduce herself to Elle. The two women have a very passionate and emotional night that could have meant that they were lovers and soulmates. Unfortunately, it only lasts for one night but sustains Edna through the loneliness of her marriage that she still thinks of and dreams about Elle.

Edna's sarcasm is never in doubt. When she compares herself to her female coworkers, she realizes how different her aspirations are from her friends. "It did bother me some that I wasn't like them," she said. "What they wanted was a man so simple and so obtainable. What I wanted-a woman-seemed so out of reach. I even confess to being a bit jealous on Monday morning, listening to (her other co-workers) discuss all the guys that they met while I spent my weekends staring furtively at women in storefront windows in Greenwich Village." Like Dorothy Parker, Edna uses her sarcasm, self -deprecating humor, and wisecracks to cover up her insecurities and vulnerabilities.

Sometimes Edna's narration shows an older woman discovering other things with the virtue of hindsight. For example, when she seeks the abortion she reflects that even though technically illegal, it was widely known and practiced in the 1930's. ("Everybody knew someone who could give one or knew someone who knew someone who could give one.") However, when Edna tries to get hers in 1945, she is a victim of the Baby Boom push.The goal of producing more babies to create good little Americans. Being someone who is fervently anti-war, Edna seethes at the hypocrisy of a government that didn't care if Japanese children were napalmed or atom bombed to death (and certainly didn't care enough about Jewish children to accept them into the country or African American children that they kept them separated from white children) and are now on their soapboxes about protecting the "Sanctity of Life." (It really makes you look at the Baby Boom differently). With a lifetime of reading and studying history, Edna understands the circumstances and far reaching regulations about why she was put in such situations that affected her individually.

That elderly voice also shows why the people around her acted the way that they did. She doesn't like them any better but she recognized people like her mother and Tommy had circumstances and standards that they had to live up to and led to the choices that they made for themselves and Edna. 

Her mother for example was in an abusive marriage and after her death was unable to survive on her own, so retreated into drink. She also had a sister Flossie who, like Edna, was raped and left pregnant so she was sent to the Magdalene Laundries (a deplorable institution in which so-called "fallen women" prostitutes, women who were raped or victims of incest, or the mentally ill worked in laundry facilities for mere pennies and were subjected to torture and abuse). Edna's mother is told what women are supposed to do to maintain respectability and she forces that thinking on her daughter. However, her mother does show some maternal kindness with her grandson, Tommy Jr.bonding with him in a way that Edna is unable to.

Tommy is also seen as victimized by societal expectations of men. A childhood bout with polio left him disabled and unable to serve in the military. Because of this, he is desperate to prove his masculinity and virility. He deals with desperation by doing violent and unconscionable things. Shortly before he rapes Edna, soldiers make fun of his disability. He also tries to prove his status as a wage earner by not only being a police officer, but a corrupt police officer who is on the take so he can earn more money. He has been told what a man should be and has completely given into the toxic masculinity image (even before it was an actual thing). He later confesses to Edna that he likes seeing shopkeepers and citizens fear him when he takes their money.

Edna's emotions are expressed most thoroughly through her poetry. Throughout the plot, Edna offers a poem that expresses her inner thoughts and conflicts reflecting her real feelings for a situation contradicting how she outwardly behaved during that time. For example, during her wedding to Tommy, she daydreams stopping the show with a zinger and walking off leaving everyone stunned. Instead, she meekly acquiesces to this no-win situation.

However, her poem "The Prisoner" shows what she really thinks about this not so joyous occasion:

"So Tommy married me and,

Obliterated from history

Washed from the shores of time 

Like a tide, passing

No mention is made again 

Of his rape

Except by me…"

Edna's poetry is confessional, similar to the works of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. Edna's mental and emotional states become worse after her son, Tommy Jr. Is born. She doesn't feel bonded to him because he is the child of her rapist and keeps her attached to him. She is clearly suffering from postpartum depression and has no one to confide in except her poetry.

Shortly after Tommy Jr. is born, she writes "What Truth Gives" reflecting about how the truth is skewered about why children are born and how his birth makes her even more disconnected from life:

"What is lost

What is gained

When truth obscured

From view

Becomes a tool to use,

Or a drug to take

That makes

What a wish to see

Or hear,

Or know,

Go away…"

As her marriage and motherhood drags on and weighs her down, Edna's mental and emotional state continues to deteriorate. When she first discovers Tommy's kickback money she compulsively shops for things like wrapping paper, rubber bands, and other useless items. She has vivid frightening dreams like the Hiroshima bombing, being surrounded by American soldiers that congratulate her on adding to America's plan, and her father hovering over her like a specter. She gets pregnant a second time after having a terrifying flashback when Tommy startles her, reminding her of her rape. She miscarries and feels like she is being punished. 

All of these feelings are cast aside for the "new normal" of post-war prosperity. Edna is so disconnected from her life that she can't feel anything when her friend gets married to a nice guy. Not surprisingly, Edna falls right into the Feminine Mystique "Problem That Has No Name" that Betty Friedan spoke of. She is prescribed and becomes dependent on Oxycodone and later speed.The addiction only fuels her depression, loneliness, and paranoia. She hallucinates arguing with the housewives on TV and has continuous mood swings that last for days. She overdoses, eventually collapses, and is institutionalized.

Edna's institutionalization is terrifying as she is forced to recount many troubling aspects of her past like her rape and childhood trauma that finally resurfaces. However, it ends up helping her and becomes the first step of living a fulfilled life. She realizes that she is as much to blame as her mother and Tommy are for her mental state because she let her fears and insecurities get in the way of living a life for herself.

She is encouraged to write. In that time she realizes that she found her poetic voice. She writes the poem that becomes her greatest success, "Fool, Anticipation."

"Fears 

On a glacier or a tide

Ride away your dreams

They say goodbye

To the life you thought you'd lead

Fool, anticipation

Now there's only dreams

Of what there could have been 

Of what there might have been

And the fear and anger

All directed at him

You didn't get a chance…"

Even though she reunites with Elle before her hospitalization, Edna reconnects with her afterwards and allows herself to have a real relationship with her, one without her fears, emotional baggage, and societal standards getting in the way. She eventually finds the courage to make a clean break from her old life and make way for a new one.

Edna finally has the keys to change her life and become the person that she was meant to be: a talented and published poet, an intellectual surrounded by artists and freethinkers, a lesbian in a loving relationship, and an independent strong free spirited woman unafraid of life.

New Book Alert: Cardinals by Ian Conner; Lesbian Vampires and God's Wife are Highlights of This Seductive Mesmerizing Dark Fantasy

 

New Book Alert: Cardinals by Ian Conner; Lesbian Vampires and God's Wife are Highlights of This Seductive Mesmerizing Dark Fantasy

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: "God's Wife is a Lesbian Vampire!" 

That sounds less like the plot of a good dark fantasy novel and more like one of those weird cheesy tabloid headlines that could be found in any supermarket in the 80's-90's. But actually that's what Cardinals by Ian Conner actually is. Uh not a cheesy tabloid headline but a compelling mesmerizing dark fantasy about a goddess cast out of Heaven and ready to seek vengeance on the deity who abandoned her and now insists that he is the only way to Salvation.

As he did with his previous novels, Dark Maiden and The Long Game (An Amy Radigan Mystery), Conner proves that no two Ian Conner novels are alike. He can jump from an eerie supernatural horror to a complex political thriller in no time at all. His latest, Cardinals, is a dark fantasy which takes some clever savage gut punches to religion. The only thing that these books have in common are that they all have LGBT characters, particularly lesbians, but even those characters vary in terms of personality and relationships. It's nicely refreshing when an author takes on various genres and writes them so well.

In Conner's book (and according to some theological scholars) God's wife's name is Asherah. She was an actual deity who was worshipped in Canaanite religion. She also appeared in Mesopotamian religion as Ishtar and Egyptian as Isis.

 In Cardinals, it is she and not Lucifer (as told in the Bible) who sparked the angelic rebellion and is cast out of Heaven. Yahweh is so threatened by her demands of equal status,  goal to be acknowledged as co-creator, and her dislike for the humanity that he created to worship him, that he orders her to not only be cast out but not to be referenced in the records that humans are transcribing. This explains therefore why she had scant reference in the Bible and why despite other myths and religions that feature a God and Goddess, the Abrahamaic religions are one of the few that have a solely male deity.

Asherah's story in Cardinals is similar to that of Lilith, Adam's reported first wife who was thrown out of Eden after she refused to take a subordinate position to Adam. Afterwards, Lilith was referred to as the mother of monsters and later metamorphosed in Hebrew myth and legend as a demon who takes the souls of men and children at night. Asherah's in this book story is also analogous to the many religions that began with a goddess as the creator of the universe in agrarian society only to have her fall in status in favor of the male gods. This archetypal story can be found in various myths such as the conflict between Gaia and Zeus in Greek mythology, the war between Tiamat and Marduk in Mesopotamian, and Isis' relinquishment of her duties to Horus, her son, in Egyptian. 

Similar to the female characters in many of these stories, particulary Lilith and Tiamat, Asherah is not only removed from Heaven and very existence is denied, but she becomes demonized. Once she arrives on Earth, she sports a pair of fangs and obtains an unquenchable thirst for blood. She uses her newfound abilities to attack Sharit, a woman who takes her in but becomes her first victim.

 Asherah is not alone however. Once they fell, her fellow angels transform into rubies. Later, Adam's son Seth and his son Enoch gather the rubies and create the Amulet of Cassiel which the prophet Elijah later uses to call the flaming chariot. The rubies are later separated so the Amulet could never be used again. Asherah resolves to get back the rubies, call the chariot, and return to Heaven to have more than a few words with God, even if it takes thousands of years. After all she has an abundance of time to get the job done.

Asherah is a fascinating character. She is seductive, alluring, manipulative, and hypnotic. She is a character that the Reader can't look away from. She is a cunning strategic planner, spending centuries creating a financial empire and entertaining herself with various lovers, mostly female.

She ends many of her encounters by biting other humans which probably is a lot of fun in later centuries. Some guy cuts her off in traffic? Just feed on him. She fights with someone over the latest dress at a sale? Just have Sangre ala Karen. Jehovah's Witnesses or MAGA fans won't leave her alone? Just eh-maybe not. Who wants to be stuck with them for Eternity?

 Asherah isn't likable, in that she often attacks and kills innocent people and cruelly uses others, particularly Amara, a girlfriend in the 21st century. However, her allure is unmistakable. She is one of those type of characters that is so memorable and so fascinating in her badness and single-minded pursuit that she steals every moment that she is in. You are drawn to her and almost, almost are rooting for her. So much so that the book is not quite the same when she isn't around and the plot shifts to the other characters.

However, the other characters are interesting as well, many of which are Asherah's former victims and are doing their best to thwart or aid in her attempts in putting back together the Amulet. There are: Lady Kellena Donnachaidh, a 14th noblewoman turned 21st century CEO who has a personal grudge against the former Mrs. Yahweh,  Suzette Allard, Kellena's loyal assistant and wife,  Yasmeen Obiad, Kellena's bodyguard and head of security who displays ruthless tactics to get the information that she needs,  Sharit Hagel, Asherah's first victim who is still around in the 21st cenury and seeking vengeance and Amara Korkolis, Asherah's current girlfriend who loves not wisely or well. 

Not to mention there various groups after Asherah such as:  The Cardinals , those who have been fed on by a vampire but not given vampire's blood in return (almost more like zombies), The Witches of Tenerife, a coven who are interested in not only Asherah but Amara as well, and the Roman Catholic Church particularly Cardinal DiScotti (the religious kind of Cardinal though she's a vampire too), the first female Cardinal and is on her way to becoming the first female Pope.

With all of these different characters and groups, sometimes it's hard to tell what are the character's real motives. Betrayal piles on top of betrayal and characters shift allegiances almost as fast as they change addresses. Sometimes it's a chore to go back and remember who is allied with whom and whether they are stopping or helping Asherah (or unintentionally helping her even when they think that they are stopping her). Sometimes the plot rubs away with itself.

There is also another flaw in the book. There is an earlier chapter that looks as though it will lead to something important but ends up having only a small impact in the final confrontation. If it had a larger importance and if the character featured in the chapter had actually become a part of the overall narrative, it may have made more sense to have it. Otherwise, it's just a baffling inclusion and seems to be only added to provoke and create controversy rather than exploring it to its fullest potential. 

Other than those flaws, Cardinals is a dark fantasy that like its lead character is impossible to ignore and hard to forget. In the vampire horror subgenre, it, and Asherah are goddesses among vampires.

New Book Alert The Long Game: An Amy Radigan Thriller by Ian Conner; Complex and Multi Plotted Political Thriller Closes Outstanding Reading Year

 

New Book Alert: The Long Game: An Amy Radigan Thriller by Ian Conner; Complex and Multi Plotted Political Thriller Closes Outstanding Reading Year

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: There are some authors that their very name tells you what book that they are going to write. Even in my experience with my blog, I have found that authors have preferences for certain genres and tropes. I see Kathy Ann Trueman or Catherine Dove's name and I know that I will read an Epic Fantasy or Regency Romance. Tom Vater will lead us straight to a Mystery by a European detective in an Asian location. Lee Matthew Goldberg will take you through a trippy Horror or Science Fiction with lots of drug use involved. Melissa Muldoon and Kit Sergeant will take a trip through Historical Fiction with strong confident female leads that are artists and spies respectively. Rob Santana will be counted on for a novel with a modern setting, plenty of biting satire,social commentary, and desperate not always likeable characters doing desperate things. Sawney Hatton is going to take his Readers through a bloody short trip into Supernatural Horror.

Yes, some authors leave their fingerprints all over certain books so Readers can recognize those fingerprints instantly. Then there are authors who are like chameleons. Each book is different from the others and they have next to nothing in common.

Take Ian Conner for example. His novel, Dark Maiden is a Supernatural Horror set in the limited setting of Pequabuck Lake in Nollesemic Village, Maine. It is set throughout four centuries and involves a sinister lake creature that haunts the village, especially two families that it considers its enemies.

Conner's next book, The Long Game: An Amy Radigan Thriller could not be more different from Skadegamutc Ghost Witch if it tried. Instead of supernatural horror, it is a political thriller set in the real world and involves real world issues like environmentalism, censorship, sexuality, hate crimes, xenophobia, and corruption. Instead of being contained in one rural setting,The Long Game goes all over the world from California, to Washington DC, to China, to Vietnam and so on. With such a wide setting, there are many plots that involve many characters unlike Skadegamutc Ghost Witch which features a much more limited cast that take on this demonic entity. Long Game is complex and multiplotted and handles itself well with interesting characters and strong political themes.

The plot or rather plots in The Long Game are rather intricate and varied but I will do my best to summarize (or as Indigo Montoya said, "I will explain. No it's too long, I'd better sum up").

 Along the California coast, Captain James Quinn's ship was sabotaged, nearly killing him. It's followed by another explosion along the San Onofre harbor. It may have had something to do with a sample of water outside the nearby San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station or SONGS that Quinn gathered and had analyzed. This water is revealed to be contaminated and toxic. The mysterious explosions, contamination, and sabotage are being investigated by intrepid journalist, Amy Radigan.

Meanwhile, journalist Amir Husseffgi is reported missing in Saudi Arabia. Even though the Saudi Prince denies any involvement and U.S. President Colin Rockwell swears that he won't investigate it, video footage of Husseffgi's murder and beheading in the name of the prince is leaked. It is revealed Rockwell has been currying favor with the Saudis and doesn't want to break those connections.

On the South China Sea, two U.S. Naval ships are attacked leaving several sailors dead. Vice President Susan Ralston wants to confront the Chinese government but Rockwell refuses. He has been having an affair with the Chinese ambassador, Xin Zhui, and is soon to be caught literally with his pants down. All of this leads to an impeachment investigation towards Rockwell and his affiliations with the Chinese and Saudi Arabian governments.

During their separate investigations into these events, both Ralston and Radigan and their friends and family are viciously attacked. Ralston in a deliberate plane crash and Radigan by an attempted hit. Don't worry, Reader, it all makes sense and everything is revealed to be connected to everything else, eventually.

Connervbrilliantly balances all of these plots rather well. He also has a handle on using them as mirrors for real life occurrences. The most obvious is the murder of Amir Husseffgi based on the real life assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Colin Rockwell's obstreperous misogynistic racist attitude is all too similar to a certain real life ex President. A smart calm independent female Vice President is certainly based on the real life Kamala Harris. They are groundbreaking female Vice President for different reasons. (First African American and Indian American for Harris and first LGBT for Ralston.) Also, the alternate universe scenario reveals that Harris herself, after getting the top job, was fatally wounded during an assassination attempt by a Trump supporter claiming to "stop the steal." (If that doesn't recall a certain insurrection by a multitude of Trumpers egged on by their cult leader, I don't know what does.)

As with many books that I have reviewed these past couple of years have proven, what we once thought existed only in fiction is no longer out of the realm of reality. It would have been ludicrous to assume that followers of a President would believe his claims that the election process was fraudulent and even after several investigations proved that there was no corruption, they still rioted at the Capitol verbally and prepared to attack the former Vice President and several Congress members. Not to mention that even though they had literally millions of eyewitnesses watching it in real time, said former President and his supporters still had people insisting that it was a spontaneous gathering of harmless tourists (or that it was an insidious plot by Antifa or BLM to make Trump look bad, even though they did a good enough job on their own).

After that, it is definitely not impossible to believe that a future President could openly conspire to assassinate his Vice President or pull a gun on those who are charging him with crimes. The only way the Long Game could be more synced to real time is if a 24 hours news station's correspondents could insist that Rockwell's impeachment investigation was a conspiracy and that Ralston secretly worked for the Deep State.

The Long Game is only a couple of steps off from what really happened and what still could happen.

With such a twisted plot, one would suspect that Conner would have trouble juggling such a large cast of characters but he excels at that as well. Many have outstanding moments. There is Randall, a bodyguard hired to protect Radigan and her girlfriend, Lily Pham. Randall is a real softie as he reveals in his dialogues with Twizzler, a troubled teen turned sidekick and informant.  

Lily also proves her mettle when she gets the better of a hitman. He thinks it will be an easy job and she immediately proves him wrong. Both Lily and Ralston's girlfriend, Carol Lee are the definite "Ride or Die" supportive spouses, ready to stand by the women in their lives, no matter what.

Amanda Rockwell, the First Lady, holds a press conference to put her husband in his place and uses the First Couple version of "Not tonight, Couch Boy." Meanwhile, Xin Zhui could be seen as a femme fatale but also has enough insight to take part in Rockwell's downfall. Then there's the President that Readers will love to hate, or just hate, Colin Rockwell himself. He takes Donald Trump's worst qualities up to eleven (if such a thing were possible) and thankfully gets his commeuppance. 

By far the standout characters are Amy Radigan and Susan Ralston. They are similar in many ways. Both are dedicated in their fields of journalism and politics respectively and both are lesbians in loving committed relationships. They also are born survivors who are able to get through touch situations such as surviving assassination attempts and conspiracies.

Their investigative techniques are very different and are respective of their positions in life. Radigan has to contend with slamming doors, voice mails, and receptionists giving her the run around. These are hurdles that Ralston's title and influence can open. Radigan however has the passion, idealism, and integrity that Ralston lost in her years of compromise and working in business and politics. It's not a surprise that when  the two women meet, they become friends. Radigan is the woman that Ralston once was and Ralston is the woman that Radigan could become. The two women bring out the best in each other and are able to see through the many tangled strands in this intricate spider web.

The Long Game is a brilliant complex novel that proves Conner has a great handle on plots and characters. He proved that she can write Horror and now has proven that he can write Political Thriller. His book is a great final well written word on 2021.