<p><span style="color: rgba(51, 51, 51, 1)">In these fourteen short stories, Lori L. Lake captures how change and loss influence the course of lives: a mother and daughter having an age-old fight; a frightened woman attempting to deal with an abusive lover; a father trying to understand his lesbian daughter's retreat from him; an athlete who misses her chance-or does she?</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgba(51, 51, 51, 1)">Lovingly crafted, the collection has been described as a series of mini-novels where themes of alienation and loss, particularly for characters who are gay or lesbian, are woven throughout. Lake is right on about the anguish and confusion of characters caught in the middle of circumstances, usually of someone else's making. Still, each character steps out with hope and determination.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgba(51, 51, 51, 1)">"With best-selling novels like </span><em style="color: rgba(51, 51, 51, 1)">Gun Shy, Ricochet in Time</em><span style="color: rgba(51, 51, 51, 1)">, and </span><em style="color: rgba(51, 51, 51, 1)">Under the Gun</em><span style="color: rgba(51, 51, 51, 1)">, Lake is widely considered one of the best authors of modern lesbian fiction, but her work-part action, part drama, and part romance-gleefully defies categorization." </span><strong style="color: rgba(51, 51, 51, 1)"><em>~Lavender Magazine</em></strong></p>