“I loved this collection of stories. The characters are vibrant, passionate, and make mistakes with the best of intentions. The stories are set throughout California, but most of them are in a recognizable Marin County, and Susan Isa Efros depicts the local customs and culture and people with satire but also with affection. The therapist in the story “Recovery,” for one, who is not so good at analyzing what’s going on in her own relationship, or the mystical healer in “The Order of Things,” for another who is in touch with the wisdom of the universe, but locks herself out of her office on her first day in business – these characters are flawed but seen with compassion.
There are also some darker stories in the collection – it’s not all comedy of manners – as in the title story, where a couple of girls in high school in the late nineties who have become lovers end up under the power of the school principal, an older woman who threatens to expose them.
Read this book – you’ll love the settings, the characters, and the voice and vision of the author."