warmherzige und spannende und komplexe Liebesgeschichte, interessante Charaktere. Musste ich in einem Zug durchlesen!

I’ve spent the last sixteen hours binging On Burning Mirrors. It’s a good book that engrossed me. So, engrossing I even turned off the episode of Murder She Wrote where Jessica is a senator, my favorite. This is a story that follows Erin and Will after the unexpected and tragic death of Jules, who was Erin’s lover for the last year and Will’s wife for over a decade. It is told in the present but interspersed with flashbacks by Erin and Will which relate the details of the relationship that Jules had with both. Will is trying to come to terms with both grief and anger at Jules for her infidelity, and Erin is trying to understand if she and Jules really had a mutual loving relationship, or if the relationship was motivated by professional ulterior motives.

The writing is good and better yet, the story is compelling because it doesn’t require an extended use of willing suspension of disbelief. It’s a story that is messy and complicated and deals with a lot of issues that are not always clear cut, but this is what makes it realistic. It is about grief, infidelity, sexuality, family obligations, and flawed people. The long list of topics is a pro for me; after a summer of binging on lesbian fiction that is one-dimensional and about sexuality only, I embraced this mature piece. It is a full novel that creates characters and a story that goes beyond one dimension, looking at life and its not always clear-cut entanglements. It’s a nice deviation because it acknowledges that Jules had a family, a career she was focused on, and then also had to come to terms with her sexuality later in life, meaning it is not an easy choice to simply scream, “Follow your heart!”

I would argue the character flaws are the strength of the story, none of the main characters are worthy of spite, but all have made flawed choices at one point. I was most impressed by how Klinger-Krebs articulates the swirling emotions that accompany grief—love, anger, and confusion, which is made possible by identifying the flaws in the now deceased Jules without demonizing her. I do have to applaud Klinger-Krebs’ ability to create a pseudo first-person point of view for the deceased Jules through Jules’ newspaper articles and writings. This is clearly done with Klinger-Krebs’ own experience in journalistic writing, as the style of Jules’ voice stood out to me as being unique and in character.

Overall, I felt On Burning Mirrors was a great read, and for once created an entire story that was not isolated on one facet of a character. For once, this is a story that addresses lots of things with lesbian sexuality as one of those elements in a life filled with other things.

I really liked this story for its honesty and it’s story about excepting who you are and freeing yourself to love who you love, no matter the cost. Erin and Jules and Will were an interesting set of main characters. The story is well written and totally engaging. I must say I was crying a lot through the story because of the pain that Erin and Will went through after losing Jules. I recommend this story because it tells the story of finding true love even through their loss. Great Story but gave tissue available.

Even though this one is marketed as a LGBT novel, I personally feel like this one was more of a journey of discovery, coming out, etc. This one is really outside of my usual read, but the description grabbed me right away because it seemed to parallel my own personal coming out story in quite a few different ways. I'm very glad I picked this one up!

I won't recap since many others have done that much better than I could, but this one is deep, poignant, and a if you've ever questioned your identity at all in life - a must-read. Parts of it were a little hard to believe, but other parts were way too real and actually a bit uncomfortable because it was so real. To me - that's part of what makes a book outstanding!

A highly recommended and well deserved 4 stars.

*Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review*

3.5 - 4 stars

I'm really torn on how to rate this book. While it's certainly compelling, and kept me turning the pages, I'm still not really sure what it was all about. Well, I know what it was all about, but what the point of it all was.

I wouldn't strictly categorise it as lesbian, as the MC has sex with a man, (the identity of whom I had a hard time wrapping my head around) and the other heroine was married, so both bi?

This is a long journey; one of discovery? Coming out? Being found out? Rape? Cheating? Alcoholism? Yes to all of those things but also no. Its more coming to terms with what happened to the heroine when she was a teen. I think. Erin was a cow to Jules so it was far from a love story in my eyes. She treated Jules' husband with more respect and... passion.

I'm not going to do this book any justice because as I said, I'm not sure what it was all about. That's probably on me and not the narration as plenty of other reviewers have loved the story.

Copy received via NetGalley

3.5* Well written, but not sure I believed it, and it made me rather sad for more than one character.

This is my first FF tale, and I wasn't sure about it, but the blurb made up my mind for me.

The sex aspect of this tale is done tastefully and non-explicitly, and the tale focuses on feelings, on people's lives and tghe lives of those around them who're affected by their actions. I can't say that I liked any of the characters, as all of them had done something in their lives that made them devalue those lives, and made them hurt the people around them, either at the time, or later, as in Jules's case.

I also didn't like her husband's actions with Erin, and I didn't like the deceit. In fact, I'm not sure I believed that what happened could/would have actually happened between them, given their sexual preferences. Not one character was likeable other than Erin's mother, who had a brief on-page appearance.

Despite this, I did like the author's way with words, hence the overall rating.

ARC courtesy of the author and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.

I received a free copy from Net Galley in exchange for my review. I started this book late one afternoon and finished it early the next morning, so it's a quick read. I loved the character development and the strong emotional content of this book. It brought me to tears! While being straight myself, I now have a better understanding of the struggles gay people suffer because of our society and it's views of sexuality. It's a must read for anyone who loves a true love story.

I want to preface this review by saying that I seem to be in a minority opinion when it comes to this book; it currently has a very respectable 4.26 average on GoodReads, but I'd personally place it in the 2.5-3 range. So, if the premise sounds interesting to you, take my somewhat critical review with a grain of salt. This may also have to be a bit vague, as some of the issues that took away from my enjoyment of the book had to do with plot points rather than writing style. I will aim for only being specific in terms of plot when it comes to things that happen very early in the narrative; you won't be reading any plot twists here. 

I was cautiously optimistic going into this book. Representation was cause for optimism, but one half of the lesbian couple being dead from the word "go" tempered my excitement a bit. (Bury Your Gays, anyone?) Jules dies in a car accident on the way home from visiting her lover, Erin. The manner of her death may seem incidental, but to anyone familiar with the BYG trope, it may have thrown up some red flags. While it was a matter of a chance accident, the timing of the accident means that Jules' death was an indirect result of falling in love with Erin. Gay characters often die in fiction as a direct or indirect result of their relationships; it's depressing at worst, and simply overdone at best. 

Jules' death turns Erin's and Will's worlds upside-down. In order to better understand the woman they've both loved and lost, they attempt to work past their differences and begin to form a hesitant bond. It was interesting to watch this play out, particularly in terms of how Will's character evolved from (in my opinion) a rather intensely unlikable person to someone who was trying to practice empathy despite his own heartache.

Erin evolved throughout the story as well, and easily becomes the best developed character of the novel, with a detailed background and significant growth. There was one major narrative blip when it come to Erin towards the end of the novel, which I won't spoil here, but I will say that it felt jarring and unnatural and didn't add anything of value to the story. 

On Burning Mirrors is a story of secrets, grief, and healing. Erin and Will both struggle to find a way to move past the loss of a woman that neither of them feels like they ever truly had to begin with. It is a story of finding closure in the face of unexpected loss. 

I received a free review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and not influenced by the publisher.

Wow is all I can say about this book. It pulled me in from the opening chapter and I couldn't put it down! Without spoiling much, this is both a set of love stories but also about figuring out who you are with and without the one you love. It's bittersweet, tragic, and even difficult at times, but I can honestly say I haven't read a story quite like it before. That said, it did drag a bit towards the very end and I was put off by a particular event I could see coming a mile away yet hoped the author wouldn't go "there" because of how discordant it would be to the characters. However, I still have never read a book with this subject tackled so eloquently before, so it was a worthwhile read for me and highly recommended!

On Burning Mirrors is, in essence, a love story, but it is so much more. Jules is married with a young daughter when she is killed in a car accident. Her berieved husband, Will, is struggling to reconcile the history of his tumultuous relationship with his wife when he discovers that she was having an affair with a musician and bartender named Erin. The character development of Will and Erin is beyond reproach and left my heart aching for them both. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was provided an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.