STINKING CUTE. Okay, what’s cuter than kittens? A paranormal lesbian rom-com about two different kinds of supernatural women totally crushing on each other and flirting but afraid to tell each other they’re not human because they assume–naturally–that the other one’s human! I’m actually relieved Good Enough to Eat by Alison Grey and Jae was as cute as the cover, because that cover is a hard act to follow. That cover literally makes me want to submit to Ylva just so I can have a shot at a cover that cute. (Disclaimer: I love my Mangoverse covers.)
Grey and Jae have some neat metaphors going on here. There’s the obvious one about vampire Robin’s blood-thirst being compared with alcoholism, which is why she’s going to human AA meetings, but there’s a deeper one: the way feminine-presenting women who are attracted to women are often afraid to out themselves to each other for fear of the other one being straight (and repelled.) That’s what I saw in Robin’s fear of Alana finding out she’s a vampire, and in Alana’s hiding her own supernaturality from Robin as well. There’s also the “we didn’t raise you like this!” mom and dad that can be compared with homophobic parents in real life.
I appreciated the poignant “messy happy ending” (I’m a fan of messy happy endings), where the characters–and authors–acknowledge that recovery from alcoholism is a lifelong commitment rather than a magic wand. I had assumed a quick fix ending was coming and I give the authors massive props for not taking that route because given the topic of addiction it would have been a little cheap.
The talking-past-each-other & misunderstandings necessary for this type of plot made my anxiety shoot up a little, but the book was just so fluffy and fun that I knew it would be worth it, and it was.
Shira Glassman 