Katherine V. Forrest

This is the fourth book in the Forrest's Kate Delafield series, and I thought it was the best so far. All of Kate's personal stuff from the previous three books that has been bubbling under the surface during the murder investigations come to a roiling boil.

The book starts with a murder, as usual. It was the murder of a gay man, Teddie Crawford, in the restaurant he owns. Kate's job, of course, is to find out who did it. She does, but this isn't a police procedural like the previous three, show more but more like a legal mystery.

Most of the book takes place in the courtroom, prosecuting the alleged murderer that Kate catches. And it's amazing stuff. Forrest has managed to gloss over the most boring parts of the trail and plays up very, very well the more exciting parts.

I also really liked how Forrest approached Kate and Aimee's relationship that started in the previous book and the friendships with those from the Nightwood Bar (from the second book). This was the first book that really felt like it was more than just a stand alone story with the same characters from the rest of the series.

I'd give this an awesomely intense five stars. show less

I'm sad that this novel was the last Forrest wrote in the Delafield series because I think it's the best of all of them.

For most of the rest of the series Kate has taken small steps during each book, but in t his one she leaps forward. And because of the way the previous books were written it doesn't seem like the leap is out of character for Kate.

Also, for the first time (at least that's how it seems) there isn't some strikingly beautiful woman that Kate finds 'odd' and yet can't 'do' show more anything about it. Finally the character seems as though maybe she's not looking for the next thing, but has figured out her life a little.

The murder is that of an older woman, but for once the murder is not the entire point of the novel. Instead Forrest switches between the court case and some parts of the police investigation (nicely skipping over the boring parts of the investigation).

It's a great book with a great balance of case story line and Kate's personal story line. Five stars for sure. Still, I wish there were more books in this series. show less

“Nothing interesting can possibly happen in a cabin full of women.” So ends the first chapter of Curious Wine, Katherine Forrest’s classic novel of the early 80’s in which 6 women bring their personal issues to a beautiful Tahoe cabin for a weeks skiing in an era when encounter groups were in, padded shoulders were the norm and lesbian romance was definitely still in the closet.

Diane is depressed about breaking up with her boyfriend. As she meets the group she instantly bonds with show more the gorgeous but cool Lane, high powered lawyer with a trail of downtrodden men. The remaining four women are led by Liz, the angry and bullish “first wife”, Chris her uptight and narrow-minded spinster sister, Millie the aging hippy and Madge who’s too scared of the truth to find out if she is being betrayed. Add into the mix a large quantity of alcohol and some grass; a meltdown is bound to happen.

Needless to say the encounter games don’t go to well, feelings of pain and anger get out of hand and rather than bonding the group ends up hurting each other with truths they don’t want to know. Out of which the sensitive Diane reaches out to Lane for comfort. One thing leads to another and suddenly they are on the verge of a sexual encounter.

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Let me start by saying I LOVE THIS BOOK. Yes its short and obvious and so unrealistic.. but i love the characters, the story is so sweet, and i can fogive the dated games, clothes and behaviour because of what it represents.

Curious Wine was Katherine V. Forrest’s first novel, published in 1983 and is without a doubt a classic. It is one of the groundbreaking novels of its generation, it moved away from the pulp fiction into romance, was solidly about women and was written by a lesbian for lesbians.

Today many reviews criticize it for the soppy and cheesy sex, the paucity of terminology and the unlikelihood of two ‘straight’ women having sex, falling in love and deciding to live happily ever after in 3 days. People – normally women who probably were barely born in 1983 – complain about the ridiculous encounter games, the dated fashions and the shallow plot and characterisation.

But to do so is to take the book out of context. This is a first novel written in a virtual vacuum of lesbian romance. In 1983 women did try to bond in stupid games, they were this nasty to each other – they thought they were ‘helping’ when in retrospect they were destroying each other. At that time there was virtually no current lesbian fiction – the pulp fiction of the 50’s and 60’s was homophobic and frequently written for a sleezy male audience. And the sexual norm of the day was either Deep Throat style porn or uptight bosom heaving Mills and Boon.

If you want to read an novel full of deep characters agonizing over coming out, or compare this to modern sexplicit girl on girl action you will be disappointed. But it is a great novel. It is well worth the read – at 160 pages it wont even take too long. And it deserves the title classic for its groundbreaking exploration of a woman’s reaction to her first lesbian encounter. show less

Someday I need to start keeping track of where I find out about the books I put on my reading list, because this is definitely not the typical book for me to read. Which is a good thing, so thank you random person who recommended it to me.

Curious Wine is the story of a women's retreat at a cabin at a Lake Tahoe ski resort, and through encounter games and various intimate conversations share a lot about themselves. Two of the women, Diane and Lane, form a bond that leads to a sexual show more relationship. The problem is that up to that point they had considered themselves straight and have a lot of things to navigate in order to continue the relationship.

This was one of the first mainstream romance novels about a lesbian relationship by a lesbian author. The novel goes to great lengths to add "respectability" to the relationship by having two white, professional women who've previously had relationships with men as the protagonists who then put a lot of effort into making sure no one can consider their love "just a phase." This was certainly necessary in the early 1980s but feels awkward now. Nevertheless it is a sweet and honest story with well-developed characters. show less