Piece of My Heart

by Julia Watts

"To be honest, my friends were getting on my nerves. Here I was, trying to get my mind off a woman, and they bring me to a lesbian bar where they talk about nothing but lesbians and sex. It was like they were forcing me to think about the one thing I didn't want to think about. As though I'd said, 'Look, the only thing I don't want to think about is hippopotamuses, ' and so to distract me, they took me to the zoo". -- from the book

Okay, you're a lesbian. Now what? That's the question that newly-out Kentucky graduate student Jess Hamlin tries to answer in this charming and hilarious account of her southern days and nights. From making and losing acquaintances to finding and keeping real friends. Through bars and coffeehouses, school and work. Surviving family drama and ex-lover trauma. Dealing with well-intentioned matchmakers and dates from hell. Having crushes and getting crashed. Coping and, sometimes, not coping. Falling in lust and slowly, exquisitely surrendering to love. In other words, all the stuff that dreams and real lesbian lives are made of.

Genres: Lesbian, LGBT, Queer, Fiction

193 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Julia Watts is the author of over a dozen novels, including the Lambda Literary Award-winning Finding H.F.., the Lambda Literary and Golden Crown Literary Society Award finalist The Kind of Girl I Am, and the Lambda Literary Award finalist and Golden Crown Literary Award-winning Secret City. She holds a B.A. in English from The University of Tennessee, an M.A. in English from the University of Louisville, an MFA in Writing from Spalding University, and a PhD in Literacy Studies from The University of Tennessee. She lives in Knoxville and is a member of the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame. Her young adult novel, Quiver, was a SIBA Okra Pick and a finalist for the Foreword Indies Award, and her young adult novel Needlework won an Honorable Mention in the Foreword Indie Awards and was selected by the Library of Congress for its "Great Reads from Great Places" program. Her new novel for adults, Lovesick Blossoms, is available from Three Rooms Press.

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lighthearted and readable, Piece of My Heart is the story of a young graduate student's introduction to the lesbian dating scene in Louisville, as she tries to get over her soon-to-be engaged ex-roommate, Sarah. There's a mix of interesting characters, funny dialogue and some reflections on racism. The Grady Combs storyline, however, about Jess's irritating conservative student and her friends' plan to teach him a lesson, was a bit tiresome. Loved the way characters and events from Wildwood Flowers appeared, since the protagonist is from Morgan, Kentucky.

[Marlee Doniff · Rating 2 out of 5]

i’m all for a uhual, but this was rushed even under those conditions. mostly surface level characters that fit all the gay stereotypes. there was some attempt to get into deeper topics (race, sexuality, gender) but it wasn’t nearly thorough enough. the writing itself was nice, but the plot had some major pacing issues. all that to be said, i need more shitty lesbian romances plssssss

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty dated even for 1998. Cliche and made me cringe quite a few times.

[Mfred · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not bad, until the supposedly funny but actually transphobic "hijinks" at the end ruined it.

[Tammie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, fun, easy read.