I’ll start right away by saying that I am a fan of Jae. I’ve read all of her books and have enjoyed each one. I’ve read some comments about one of her previous books being a rip off of an SVU fan fiction she had posted but I don’t care about that one bit. Lots of lesbian writers have published work they had previously published as fan fiction. It doesn’t make it less of a good read. I just wanted to get that out of the way…Second Nature is about a novelist who gets a bit too close to the truth when writing about shape-shifters so the Wrasa (the shifters in question) send out a couple of their best Saru (military-type folks) to find out who’s leaking the info. Oh, and to also burn the manuscript and kill the author.
Like all of Jae’s work, she writes great stories with believable characters. She paints a vivid picture for the reader without all the extra details that sometimes make me want to skip ahead a paragraph or more just to get back to the part of the story that matters. There were a few phrases that were repeated more than necessary, but I’m a beta reader and tend to look for those types of things. Speaking of beta readers, one of the characters is the author’s beta. And there’s also a brief mention of fan fiction.
I also like that the main characters don’t have the standard physical attributes that you find in most lesbian romance novels. This is much more of a supernatural type of work; there’s not much in the way of romance. I mean, there’s some but it absolutely takes a back seat. And it worked for me. So many lesbian books force romance and sex where there really shouldn’t be any. Jae does a great job of telling a story – a story that held my attention and forced me to ignore my family for an entire weekend. I very much recommend Second Nature.
Second Nature, like Jae’s other books, is published by L-Book. If you’ve not read any of the books published by L-Book, you’ve missed an experience. I’ve read three of Fran Heckrotte’s books and all of Jae’s and they are the best edited lesbian books I’ve had the pleasure to purchase. Unlike many books I’ve purchased from other, larger, lesbian publishers, L-Book doesn’t appear to have any size limitations, which means no unnecessary sequels that should have been allowed to be one larger book. If you’re into ebooks, you get all formats with each purchase and, many times, free short stories to go with the book. If you’re looking for audio books, they sell those, too, and I believe you can get the audio and all formats of the ebook as a package deal. They recently started offering paper books, also. But my favorite part is the free puzzle of the cover. I like free. And I like puzzles.
I swear, I’m not on L-Book’s payroll. I gush for free.
To Be Read Book Reviews 
[…] finishing Second Nature, I immediately turned my attention to the second full length novel, True Nature. And when I say […]
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One doesn't have to be an L-Book fan to state the obvious about Jae's writing. It wouldn't make any difference who published her. She's a quality writer… And yes I'm an L-Book author and proud of it, the authors and the publisher.FranH
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Good to see a new review site for lesbian fiction. There is a need for more reviews of strictly lesbian fiction. I'd definitely like to see unbiased reviews with critiques that could help not only the potential reader but also the author. Merely publishing a negative review with no feedback or reasoning is sniping. Equally frustrating is gushing reviews without any real meat on the bones.Good luck and prosper.
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I concur. Jae's "Second Nature" which I picked up to interview her for my radio show "Readings in Lesbian & Bisexual Women's Fiction" http://blogtalkradio.com/Lara-Zielinsky/2009/12/05/Readings-with-Jae was absolutely gripping with the realism of the lycanthrope transformation scenes and the thoughtful depiction of a conflicted life.
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