Maybe Next Time

Some of the reviews say that this book is hard to read, but my opinion is that it's got nothing to do with the writer, or the writing! The book has been nominated for a Lammy in the romance category and it deserves to win.Maybe some people find it hard because it's real. No sugar coating. Sabrina Starling is deeply wounded. Her life has been seemingly magical but fate has been abruptly cruel. Sabrina, petrified she has lost her ability to play the violin, does something cruel herself, but it's not fate that gets hurt, but real women.Sabrina's despair about not just her violin but her own actions is intensely moving. Can she somehow find a way to make amends? When you actually believe that you deserve the bad things that have happened to you, how can you possibly find happiness and love?Karin Kallmaker made me believe it. I couldn't stop reading. Tears running down my cheeks at times, I ached for Sabrina to heal, to find her way back to her music, love and passion. Nobody who reads with an open mind and open heart can't be moved by Sabrina's final confrontation with her losses and how she lets go of the most precious thing in her life in order to move on. I could feel the sea spray on my face.What a great book. Karin Kallmaker surprises me every time.

Scientists who map the human brain have discovered that when most people hear music, their pleasure centers are stimulated in the brain. When musicians hear music, their language centers are stimulated. For violin virtuoso Sabrina Starling, the protagonist of Karin Kallmaker's novel, Maybe Next Time, music is not only a language, it is the language she depends upon to express her emotions. Bree, as she is known from childhood, first began to play the violin when she was four years old. And it is music that allows her to survive the death of her mother and her father before she is six. Music is the only way she can breech the wall that grief and loss have built around her childhood. With her music she can adapt to living in rural Hawaii with her mother's best friend, Lani, and Lani's daughter, Jorie. Through her music, Bree will be blessed time and again as her life crosses other great musicians who guide or encourage her. However, there are things that Bree doesn't seem able to understand. She struggles to understand her feelings for her Jorie. Her love for Jorie is exciting and frightening. Jorie, Bree believes could be "music for a lifetime." (p108) Despite the teens' explorations, Jorie doesn't seem to reciprocate Bree's love. This rejection is just one more section in the wall that stands between Bree and the rest of the world. Identifying as lesbian when she goes off to study music at the Conservatory, Bree discovers other women who are very attracted to her. For several years she takes a "living in the moment" approach to romance, indulging in the groupies of the classical music world. While her professional life was successful beyond imagining, her personal life was lonely. Bree's love for Jorie is an ache that she hasn't been able to fill. Recuperating from an injury and floundering without her music, Bree finds herself drawn to Diana. Diana and Pam have been together for years. They have a kind of happiness that Bree has been missing. Without her music, a confused Bree decides that having Diana will fill her life with the love she has missed. And she will risk everything to have that happiness.Told in a series of flashbacks; Maybe Next Time is not a light read. The journey of Bree's redemption is a painful one. She must face her own arrogance and mistakes. However, it is a rich story with complex characters struggling with their faults and weaknesses as well as several charming moments. Kallmaker reminds readers what it was like to be a sixteen-year old girl in 1976 and realize that you're in love with another girl. It was a time and place far away from the Pride Parades of San Francisco, let alone the relative freedom of the 21st century. Kallmaker depicts respectful insights into Polynesian culture. Perhaps one of the most touching moments in Bree's childhood is when Lani takes her to a native Hawaiian celebration. Young Bree is blessed by a gentle singer and finds the voice of music again. From this moment it b

If you want an easy read, a quick romance and lots of bedroom time don't read this book. But if you do read this book then read what Karin Kallmaker actually wrote -- not what you wish she'd written because you felt like having the same-old-same-old today. It's like wanting your fix of vanilla ice cream, ordering spumoni and then complaining. If Maybe Next Time was a PBS documentary or an indie movie (and it ought to be!) I don't think anyone would whine that Bree's story wasn't "good." The jacket copy is a BIG clue this is not your typical romance! Among other things, this is a story of "personal tragedy."I found it absolutely uplifting, touching, wrenching, heartbreaking. I cried and at the end was *very* relieved and happy for Bree. Her music was a curse and when it was lifted she had to start over and she made some really bad mistakes (oh and thank you whoever you are who gave away a KEY element of the plot -- that's nice for those who haven't read it yet!) and she finds the power to atone, to change. As for Bree being unlikeable and immature -- whatever. I think anyone who is thrust into the performing world at a young age won't be mature in some ways, and yet unbelievably controlled and mature in others. Reeling from the betrayal of a lover, Bree pulls herself together to give a critical performance at an audition. How many of us more "likeable" people could conquer our anger and hurt that well?I have followed Karin Kallmaker's writing since In Every Port and I see her FINALLY breaking out of the old Naiad cookie cutter. I am stunned with every new book. Maybe Next Time was powerful, well-written, complicated and deeply absorbing. Is it her best romance? Maybe not. Is it the best thing she's ever written -- yep. I would definitely say it is. If you don't read this book because it's not the typical 200-page girl-meets-girl, misunderstandings and hot sex, and live happily ever after story then you're missing out. There's nothing wrong with that kind of book, but there's more to life than vanilla ice cream. And this book is simply no comparison to a lot of 400-page potboilers where the lesbians aren't even sexual. Please. I thought we were past the era of fading to black when it comes to the part where the characters do the things that make them lesbian. Bree is sexual; she likes women. It's a big part of her story, the how, who and why she has sex. Those scenes are just plain hot.Personally, I think Karin Kallmaker writes the feel-good kind of romance better than anyone, and I'm sure she will again and I'll enjoy it. But I hope because those less interested in good literature are whining about her having the audacity to write something that makes them stretch doesn't make her stop. I want our community to have this incredible writer who conveys a *realistic* range of lesbian experience. I'll take *anything* she writes over some of the unrealistic drivel getting vanity published these days, and most of the highly-lauded "novels" out there. I j

Just when I think Karin K's books can't get any better, she does it again! Writing outside the usual box of lesbian romance novels, she weaves the story of a violin virtuoso, Sabrina Starling, whose entire life revolves solely around her instrument. A beautiful woman convinced that without her violin she is nothing and undeserving of the love of the woman that is the love of her life. The novel takes us from present day back to key events in Sabrina's life, as present day situations trigger her memories. The transitions are very clear and Ms K's writing is descriptive and fluid. As with any good character driven novel, we WANT Sabrina to figure things out and find true happiness. The secondary characters are real, and Ms K does her usual incredible job with convincing and believable dialogue. Two thumbs up for another winner!

This is not an easy book. Maybe Next Time is well layered and brilliantly structured in both plot and character development. Kallmaker introduces characters early in the book whose significance won't be realized until well towards the end of the story. However, it's their early introduction that lends to the startling impact they have as events unfold. Similar to the way a mystery writer leaves you clues, Kallmaker sets the reader up with innocuous references that appear to have little to do with the current action.Beginning at age 7, this story spans 35 years of Sabrina (Bree) Starling's life. The story is written in a series of flash backs as the 40-year-old Bree returns home to Hawaii to attend her adopted aunt's funeral. It was her Aunt Lani who enabled Bree to find her voice through the violin. It is her musical genius that gives Bree strength, but it is also her violin that isolates her from everyone around her.Perhaps, it's due to the death of her Aunt Lani that sends Bree reeling in reflection about her own life. Everything seemed to have started off so innocently: the love of music and her violin, the love of her girlhood sweetheart, Jorie, the friendship with a long-term couple, Pam and Diana. However, through a series of mistakes, misinformation, and omissions, Bree's life comes crashing down around her.There is a beautifully written part of this book that truly captures the panic, confusion, and guilt that Bree comes to feel. Kallmaker achieves this through the pacing of memory and real action in her writing. When I read this particular part, I found myself gasping because I'd stopped breathing.This is a romance that reads like saga, is structured like a mystery, and is written with an ear for music. By the way, the [physcial] scenes are sizzling. Although I've re-read KK's books from time to time, this was the first one that I turned immediately back to page 1 as soon as I'd read the last. ...