Reviewed by Dee
TITLE: Far from Home
SERIES: Belladonna Ink #1
AUTHOR: Lorelie Brown
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 208 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 01, 2016
BLURB:
My name is Rachel. I’m straight . . . I think. I also have a mountain of student loans and a smart mouth. I wasn’t serious when I told Pari Sadashiv I’d marry her. It was only party banter! Except Pari needs a green card, and she’s willing to give me a breather from drowning in debt. My off-the-cuff idea might not be so terrible. We get along as friends. She’s really romantically cautious, which I find heartbreaking. She deserves someone to laugh with. She’s kind. And calm. And gorgeous. A couple of years with her actually sounds pretty good. If some of Pari’s kindness and calmness rubs off on me, that’d be a bonus, because I’m a mess — anorexia is not a pretty word — and my little ways of keeping control of myself, of the world, aren’t working anymore. And, if I slip up, Pari will see my cracks. Then I’ll crack. Which means I gotta get out, quick, before I fall in love with my wife.
REVIEW:
This story is told in first person, present tense and completely from Rachel’s point-of-view. Given she is such a complex character that worked for the most part. However, even through her eyes, I never got to know Pari. The blurb states, Pari’s kindness and calmness rubbed off on Rachel. To me Pari came across as only being concerned about herself, and money solved everything.
Body image plays such a huge part in everyone’s daily lives, having an eating disorder compounds the daily battle for a number of people, some of those close to me. The few parts about such in the story almost brought me to tears. I couldn’t even begin to comprehend how someone so slightly built could endure a five-hour workout session. And worse, how Pari never asked about it. I’m pretty sure if I dated a person with such a complex illness as anorexia, I’d be doing everything I could to understand and help. But this story isn’t about me.
Above misgivings aside, the writing is impeccable and put me through the wringer. Pari’s mother was a treat, and this story gave me the feels, not all of them good. To become invested in a story I have to be able to ‘feel’ for the characters. On that front, the author succeeded. The sex scene was beautifully written, hell the entire book was!
The author did a fab job of not falling into the first in a series trap by overwhelming readers with too many characters. Sure, there’s a glimpse into lives of the ladies who will feature in book two, but just enough to make me want to get my hands on a copy.
I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy well written lesbian fiction, with interracial characters and an inside into an illness that most people would rather turn a blind eye too.
RATING: 
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