Title: When the Lights Go Out
Author: Ginna Wilkerson
Publisher: JMS Books
Length: 49 Pages
Category: Lesbian Romance, Holiday Romance
At a Glance: It’s a quick read that leaves you with a desire to know the characters better, but too little with lots of loose ends.
Reviewed By: Courtney Ellen
Blurb: Nicole approaches the Christmas holiday with sad nostalgia after a recent breakup with her girlfriend Emma. But much to her surprise, she finds herself attracted to a woman in her forties who her grandfather has been dating.
During her holiday visit, a storm takes out the power, and in the resulting black-out, romance blossoms between Nicole and Poppi’s “friend.” Then Nicole’s former partner shows up to complicate things.
Will this holiday drama end in heartache, or will Emma and Nikki get a second chance?
Review: This is a quick holiday read that in pursuing poolside in July, I found no need to worry about the mix-matching of seasons. The story takes place both in warm Tucson and later cooler Flagstaff, offering all of those who have never had a white Christmas a more realistic December setting at the onset of the story. However, outside of a warm December, there are limits on the plausibility and pacing of the story, even if the reader is rooting for holiday magic.
I think that it is worthwhile to refer to the blurb for this book, as it does give pretty much the entire plot. It doesn’t let you know that Nicole is a twenty-eight-year-old indie screenplay writer, and now single due to the recent breakup with Emma, her lifelong love. Granted, there’s a lot of longing for what was with Emma, but nothing concrete or substantial on the demise of their relationship or the nature of the relationship while it was occurring. A month, possibly more, has passed since the breakup, and now Nicole is living with her younger sister in Tucson, where Nicole went to college. There’s generalized heartbreak, not the nitty-gritty of why or what happened between Emma and Nicole, and, for me, it created limited investment on if these two get back together.
The relationship between Nicole and her sister Ashley is one of the stronger aspects of the book, as the two engage in mutual concern for their grandfather and just general family gossiping. Yet, the internal dialogue from Nicole at the onset of the book is exhausting as she focuses on a lot of minutia. This is reflected in the pacing of the first few chapters as very detail oriented and specific on things that are trivial or not relevant to the story.
The story moves from Tucson to Flagstaff to their Poppi’s house. When the two siblings arrive, they meet Lenore, who then reheats casserole, drinks wine, and hangs around the house. Based on this behavior Nicole, realizes she’s attracted to Lenore. Lenore is sexually involved with Poppi, but the two “have no real commitment.” This relationship status is then coupled with Lenore admitting she’s been in relationships with women for a majority of her life. There’s a power outage and as per the book blurb the two end up having “a romance blossom.” Afterwards there’s a lot of awkwardness in the house, and Nicole’s ex, Emma, appears out of nowhere. To avoid spoilers, you’ll have to find out if Emma and Nikki get a second chance.
My summary may seem flippant, but I do it to highlight just how absurdly fast and without development the action happens between Nicole and Lenore. Emma, the ex, is used as bookends to the story; there’s no development at the onset or during with her, and the blurb question “do Emma and Nikki get a second chance” is essentially answered in yes/no format. As I was reading, I was hoping that at least the night in which “romance blossomed” would be overly descript and outline romance, or just detailed sex, but I was sad to find that the mature content disclaimer at the beginning of the book must be due to having sex with your grandfather’s girlfriend.
So, why would you read the story? It does have the benefit of a lesbian character who is lesbian. With the story just simply stating that, not dealing with internal conflict about being attracted to women, it leaves out family rejection due to sexuality, and it has no ambiguity about sexual attraction. The character of Lenore is an older individual who is about sexual fluidity rather than sexual confusion. It’s a quick read and, for all my complaints, I have to acknowledge I’m mostly disappointed that I was left unsatisfied with the resolutions surrounding the characters, which means that I had to have had some investment to at least get me to want more of an outcome for them.
You can buy When the Lights Go Out here:
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