Reviewed by Dee
TITLE: PeopleFish
AUTHOR: Medella Kingston
PUBLISHER: NineStar Press
LENGTH: 118,000 Words
RELEASE DATE: January 23, 2017
BLURB:
Her Cree grandmother called it the gift of seeing, but for Petra “Pete” Orvatch, knowing things in ways that defy explanation has made reality and fantasy blur in a world where the clocks literally go backward. Her fascinating and clairvoyant mind is a riddle that many doctors have tried to solve with medication. Love comes her way unexpectedly when she meets Fiona Angeli, a stunningly beautiful single mother. A risk-taker by nature, Fiona is not scared off by her new lover’s psychic abilities and eccentricities.
The two of them share passion and secrets on a magical and surprising journey, and their torrid love affair takes them to thrilling new places until betrayal divides them. Both these women fight battles within themselves; Fiona must gain control of her dangerous compulsions, and Pete’s onerous gift ultimately puts her at risk of losing herself in the gap between delusions and the real world.
REVIEW:
Have you ever picked up a book expecting one thing and getting something rather different? That’s what happened in this instance for me. As a person, and reader, who is fascinated by the gift of seeing, the first line of the blurb caught my attention. While Pete’s gift is the set up for how the heroines meet, the actual story has very little on the topic, so don’t pick this story up if that’s what you are expecting.
What can you expect? Addiction, cheating, kleptomania, painting, sculpturing, references to poetry. A family law attorney, a painter, a gay sex worker, a dog named Turtle, a gifted child, support groups, a mother with Alzheimer’s, a brother going through a divorce…and oh so much more. Oh and Liz, I almost forgot her. The fact that she seemed to drop off page around the midway point possibly had something to do with that.
The story is told in third person, from a number of point-of-views, and while most of the time it’s clear whose POV it was, there is some head-hopping. And there are many places where the reader is just told what is being said. For example: Calvin asked Anthony about his plans to move there. Anthony said he was ninety percent sure he would relocate. They talked for another hour or so, and then Fiona told them she was really tired and was going to bed.
It kills me to rate a book negatively, but I honestly struggled with the writing style, didn’t care for either heroine and the HFN (happy for now) ending was far from satisfying.
While there are a number of sex scenes they didn’t do much for me, possibly due to my disconnect. While most of the on-page scenes are between consenting women, both main characters identify as being bisexual. Early on one of them hooks up with a couple, and toward the end there is another event where a man’s hardness is mentioned, therefore I wouldn’t categorize this as strictly lesbian fiction.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MU8Z4ZD/ref