September 2023 MBR The LGBTQ Fiction Shelf

The LGBTQ Fiction Shelf

Lovesick Blossoms
Julia Watts
Three Rooms Press
www.threeroomspress.com
9781953103420, $17.00, PB, 360pp

https://www.amazon.com/Lovesick-Blossoms-Julia-Watts/dp/1953103421

Synopsis: In a small Kentucky college town in 1953, two married women desperately fall in love with each other, until a moment of indiscretion threatens to destroy both their lives.

Colleagues and neighbors of Samuel and Boots are more than willing to accept their married status, even though Samuel "dresses like a boy" and the pair's relationship is one of convenience that will never be consummated. But when Samuel meets a new professor's wife, Frances, at a faculty party, she soon falls in love, and learns the difficulty of discretion in a small town -- with tragic consequences.

Critique: "Lovesick Blossoms" by adult novel, award-winning author Julia Watts is her latest LGBTQ themed novel and creates an original, deftly scripted, compelling, emotional, heartfelt, and ultimately hopeful story of power and passion. While highly recommended for community and academic library LGBTQ literary fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Lovesick Blossoms" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.49).

Editorial Note: Julia Watts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Watts) is the author of fourteen novels and several short story collections in the genres of young adult fiction and lesbian fiction/erotica. Her books, set in Appalachia, often depict the lives of LGBTQ people in the Bible Belt. Her novel Needlework was selected as Tennessee's youth selection for the "Great Reads from Great Places" by the Library of Congress, and won Honorable Mention for Best YA novel of the year in the Foreword INDIES awards. Her novel Finding H.F. (Alyson Press) won the Lambda Literary Award in the children/young adult category. Her novel, Quiver, set in rural Tennessee, received a rare "Perfect 10 Rating" from VOYA Magazine, and was selected for the American Library Association's Rainbow List. Her novel Secret City (Bella Books) was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and a winner of a Golden Crown Literary Award. In 2020 Watts was given the Tennessee Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Award.

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