Beth Elliott

1799, When Rose Grahams and Tom Hawkesleigh fall in love that love is thwarted by their families, and misunderstandings, but they met again in 1804 in Constantinople. Here there is intrigue, spies and foreign agents but Rose is now Mrs Charteris and Tom is in the government employ. But soon they return to London.
Can their love return and what obstacles are put in their way.
The story didn't really catch my imagination nor the characters, particularly the female ones. Probably would have preferred the characters to be more fleshed out.
A NetGalley Book… (mehr)

It wasn't a bad book, instead it was what literature used to be in the time of Henry James etc. I twas a book that was written for the purpose of dissecting and commenting on the current culture and mores of the time and the society which it was written about (in this case the Mid 90s, which took a little getting used to, and the women empowerment/lesbian empowerment culture I think).

Unfortunately I"m not a great fan of the word, descriptively overblown, rambling dialogue books. I tried Henry James "Portrait of a Lady" and it nearly killed me.

The basic story is about a bunch of women who decide to use some sort of magic to travel to the future and bring back a cure for AIDS. Once they get to the future each character is looked at under a sort of literature microscope and who they really are is dissected through the kind of adventure that they have in the future.

I did like who the individual characters and their stories fit very well together even though they were quite disparate people. Unfortunately there were a couple of the characters that I kept getting mixed up with the other because they sounded and sometimes acted in the same way and they hadn't been differentiated enough at the beginning of the book. Something else that distracted me from the flow of the book were the constantly changing nicknames between Claudia and Charlotte (the two future 'guides' for our intrepid band of time travelers). Nicknames are fun to use in fiction, and fun to read, but usually there's one nickname that each character uses for the other, and here there were so many different ones that it was hard to keep track of who was who when they were only using the nicks.

All in all, if you like seriously and utterly character driven novels, this is for you. But a solid and always moving forward plot is more your style, I'd give this one a pass.

As a final aside though, I got this book through the 'First Reads' program at Goodreads, and I have to say, the PR materials for the book are outstanding, because it was the small summary that got me to try to win it, and it was a good blurb.… (mehr)

Beth Elliott’s “Don’t Call It ‘Virtual’” takes a San Franciscan women’s group of feminist activists from the ‘90’s, led by their Priestess of the Goddess, Valerie, and transports them to the future world of California in 2064. The women perform a ritual they hope will bring them to the future so they may bring back a cure for AIDS. What they find in the future, though, is hardly what they anticipated – if it is really the future at all.

In 2064, the women find themselves in the Alta California Republic, where women openly love women and also participate in Sapphic marriages. It is more or less the society they have been dreaming of – with the exception of the clothes – but they realize that their political work and efforts to revive the women’s community had nothing to do with it. They meet Claudia and Charlotte, businesswomen and lovers, who are in a Sapphic marriage with Sean. The family takes the women in and helps them acclimate to the future as best they can – even when they are too “twenty” (basically, backwards) in their thinking and beliefs for 2064.

Each woman discovers her own journey in 2064, but Valerie constantly tries to keep the group focused on the real reason they came to the future. However, even she finds that perhaps their original goal wasn’t really their purpose. They all struggle with what their own personal purpose is for going into a future of peace and equality. Through the journeys they all go through – from M’Chunga and African American sisterhood to Connie’s search for a cure for breast cancer- It becomes clear that the future they found was not what they thought it would be.

I was really intrigued when I first read the description of Elliott’s book, mostly because I consider myself a feminist and I love stories about groups of women. This, however, was way more than I bargained for. It’s hysterical when satirical – such as when she speaks about the political correctness of the twentieth century and the moral conundrums the women find themselves apart of in an attempt to never oppress anyone- but also really thoughtful and engaging. It’s always interesting to think about where the future is going, and Elliot not only brings the characters into it but also explains history, at least as it would be in the book. It’s a fascinating read and I definitely recommend it for anyone who wants a read that will make them laugh an think simultaneously!… (mehr)