This week, we look to an excellent lesbian historical fiction novella. This week, we’re looking at Shanghaied by K’Anne Meinel.
One of the things I like about Meinel is that she tells stories where the characters happen to be lesbians – and romance and sex aren’t driving features. In this opening to a new series, she stays true to that form.
In this book, we get a survival story in the present day – a woman has been mistaken to be a man and has been shanghaied in circa 1900 San Fransisco and is now trapped on a ship full of men who have no idea she is a woman. Here, Meinel does an excellent job of showing the stress and creativeness necessary for her heroine to survive such a situation, and she truly makes the reader feel the heroine’s terror.
In flashbacks, we get the heroine’s history – including the romance that eventually put her in San Fransisco to begin with. Here we do get a bit of the sappy, played well to the period of the book. And yes, there are indeed a couple of sex scenes. But even through these events, the focus is on showing the heroine’s history and motivation while giving a bit of a well needed reprieve from the stress of the present day storyline.
Excellent work, and very much recommended.
Also, the author would like me to note that the rest of this series will be available shortly after the release of this book and thus is very bingeable. 🙂
As always, we end with the Goodreads/ Amazon review:
This Book Kidnapped Me! Ok, not really. But it *is* an excellent lesbian historical drama. The storytelling is taught, the dangers seemingly around every corner… and yet we also get a few answers and a few lighter moments via flashback. Excellent tale, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing where Meinel takes this series. Very much recommended.