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A review by katiedermody
On Her Terms by Amy Spalding
Based on my experiences with the first two books, I expected I'd enjoy this one well enough, and I'm happy to say that I loved it! The MC, Clementine, is in her mid thirties, bisexual and recently out of a very long term relationship with a man where she was very strait passing and not out to some people, and so now she wants to explore and expand the queer aspect of her life.
After meeting during Clem's first solo visit to a local queer bar, she ends up in a fake dating situation with Chloe (friend of the leads in the first book and regular patron of the bar in the second), who she's met before at work things but she doesn't really remember. Chloe needs a date for her friends' wedding, as she's the only single one in the group and feels looked down upon, and she proposes that she can be Clem's practice girlfriend, someone to refer to as her ex when she starts dating women for real. The problem is, Clem likes Chloe from the start. It's all from her POV, and as much as I often prefer dual-POV, I think this story was exactly as it should be and it benefited my reading experience not knowing Chloe's inner workings in real time.
As usual in this series, there's great found family in Chloe's friend group (one of whom is Clem's boss, which she didn't realize), and I had that that cozy, warm chest comfortable feeling I got from the others in the series. But what meant the most for me as a queer woman in her thirties who came out a few years ago and hasn't experienced much of anything, was seeing a "later in life" queer woman exploring her identity purposefully and outloud, actively going after the life she wants and going through all her firsts. I also so appreciated the aithor's note where she said she wanted to write this story for those of us who hear seventeen year olds saying they're late in life queers, and that no matter what age you are, it's never too late because we're all continually becoming the new version of ourselves (heavy paraphrase).
So, thank you to Amy Spalding for this story, for her words. And thank you to Kensington and NetGalley for the arc; I'm thrilled I got to read it early and now share how much I loved it.
After meeting during Clem's first solo visit to a local queer bar, she ends up in a fake dating situation with Chloe (friend of the leads in the first book and regular patron of the bar in the second), who she's met before at work things but she doesn't really remember. Chloe needs a date for her friends' wedding, as she's the only single one in the group and feels looked down upon, and she proposes that she can be Clem's practice girlfriend, someone to refer to as her ex when she starts dating women for real. The problem is, Clem likes Chloe from the start. It's all from her POV, and as much as I often prefer dual-POV, I think this story was exactly as it should be and it benefited my reading experience not knowing Chloe's inner workings in real time.
As usual in this series, there's great found family in Chloe's friend group (one of whom is Clem's boss, which she didn't realize), and I had that that cozy, warm chest comfortable feeling I got from the others in the series. But what meant the most for me as a queer woman in her thirties who came out a few years ago and hasn't experienced much of anything, was seeing a "later in life" queer woman exploring her identity purposefully and outloud, actively going after the life she wants and going through all her firsts. I also so appreciated the aithor's note where she said she wanted to write this story for those of us who hear seventeen year olds saying they're late in life queers, and that no matter what age you are, it's never too late because we're all continually becoming the new version of ourselves (heavy paraphrase).
So, thank you to Amy Spalding for this story, for her words. And thank you to Kensington and NetGalley for the arc; I'm thrilled I got to read it early and now share how much I loved it.