Radclyffe

When a trauma surgeon and a filmmaker become reluctant allies on the battleground between life and death, passion strikes without warning. Saxon Sinclair, the broodingly secretive Chief of Trauma at a busy Manhattan hospital, is less than pleased to learn that her new resident is going to be the subject of a documentary film. The arrival of Jude Castle, a fiery independent filmmaker, soon sets sparks flying as the two driven women clash both personally and professionally. Both have secrets they have spent a lifetime guarding, and both have chosen careers over love. Desire and destiny clash in this blazing romance.

Passion's Bright Fury

Lucia Correa

4.5 Stars rounded up to 5 Stars for the Audible book

I think I first read the online story over 10 yrs ago and later the print version. So I've re-read it multiple times. This is the first time reading the audible book.

It is narrated by Coleen Marlo. She does a very good job. What I liked is that she subtlety makes the two MC's voices different enough to tell them apart but not so different that they almost sound like caricatures. I think the impulse would be to make Saxo's voice very deep. My only complaint, was that sometimes when she said Sax, it sounded like Sex. Could be my audio.

This is a Xena Uberish book. You've got Saxon Sinclair, head trauma surgeon, brilliant and best at everything she does, tall, dark and beautiful and nobody messes with her. Then there is Jude Castle, a director of documentaries, redhead, beautiful, and brilliant in her own right and for a change of pace, she is of similar height to Saxon. Jude comes to film a year in the life of Saxon's new Trauma Fellow, Deborah Stein (also beautiful, brilliant and an Olympic basketball player). I did learn that a Fellow is already MD and in this case a qualified surgeon, but she wanted to learn from Saxon. In spite of my snarkiness, I still enjoy the story and the MC's and also the supporting characters. Jude's camerawoman, Melissa is a character and good foil to Jude.

Yeah, I know. You are probably thinking "Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. I've read this all before - yet another Radclyffe medical romance." and you are right and it has all the tropes. The difference is that Radclyffe was probably one of the first to do it well and continues to do so. It was also her first medical romance. It may had been the first Radclyffe that I read. In the past I would have given it 5+ stars. If I read it for the first time today, I'd probably give it a 4.0 stars. But for today's re-read, 4.5 - 5 stars for this audiobook.

Try it, if you haven't.

Tameka Young

** spoiler alert **
           My book club does quarterly challenges, and for the spring challenge one of the categories was to read a traditional romance novel with gay or lesbian main characters. 
The story is about a trauma surgeon named Saxon Sinclair who finds out her ER will be the subject of a documentary filmed by Jude Castle. The two are instantly attracted to each other but pretend like they aren't for the first half of the book, in fact Jude is in a quasi relationship with another woman. Saxon is a typical surgeon very cold, calculating, and concise, (alliteration ftw) but she is obviously suffering from past emotional trauma as well. Jude is very focused on her job too but slightly less intense than Sax and is suffering from her own demons as well. The two fight their obvious attraction for one another but ultimately end up becoming intimate after an emergency occurs in the hospital forcing them to realize their feelings for one another. They share their past histories with each other and after trying to fight their feelings and realizing that they are in love, they end up together. Cue happily ever after.

This book was very typical for a romance despite the two protagonists being women. There was fear, longing, insecurity, lust, and sensual awakening. The romance genre as a whole tends to provide epiphany through orgasm, and this was no exception. Sax comes across very rigid and demanding until she and Jude are intimate and then the reader gets to see inside to her marshmallow-like interior.

I liked the story, the two main characters were interesting and it was intriguing for me to see how their relationship developed. There were a lot of lesbian stereotypes that I felt were overkill but there are also lots of stereotypes in heterosexual romance I find overkill as well so it works well with the romance genre formula.

One thing did bother me. During the love scenes, Sax was described several times as being "hard." Not in a sinewy muscle bound sense but it was an actual adjective used to describe her arousal. (I apologize for going a little blue here but this was a huge distraction for me) Also, there were several mentions of Sax "entering" Jude and there was even dialogue discussing her being hard. Now I don't claim to be knowledgeable about sex of any kind but women by nature are not hard during sex so that tendency to put the characters in masculine and feminine roles did bother me quite a bit. I as a woman tend towards the soft and squishy side so in my imagination two women together would be soft and squishy, not hard. And not squishy in a perverted way either... I am totally over thinking this aren’t I? Crap. It’s like the vampire sex/popsicle comparison all over again. :-\

Anyway…I probably never would have read a lesbian romance if it had not been a part of the challenge. I can honestly say I would interested in reading another one for comparison sake just to see if the same stereotypes would be present. I would definitely recommend Radclyffe, she is a very good storyteller and there were no overly flowery exchanges, heaving bosoms, or bulging tumescence which is always a plus.

Passion's Bright Fury

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