Rating: 
Summary: This is the book that got me started...
Review: ...I will say that this continues to be my favorite Kallmaker novel (not to be confused with her Laura Adams novels). Lou and Ray are some of the most powerful and memorable characters that Kallmaker has created. Kallmaker deals with important issues and balances them with humor and affection. (The scene wherein Ray delivers her first flyers for the bookstore is delightful! Haven't we all had times when we were -- are -- intensely aware of the wonderful attractiveness of women?) That Kallmaker found herself enamored enough with these characters to write a sequel, Watermark is telling. The story is cast with a number of interesting secondary characters like Danny, Zoraida, Judy and Dee (who make an appearance in “Come Here” a short story in Kallmaker’s Frosting on the Cake) as well as Greta and Hazel....
Rating: 
Summary: Another reading does not change my opinion
Review: ...I will say that this continues to be my favorite Kallmaker novel (not to be confused with her Laura Adams novels). Lou and Ray are some of the most powerful and memorable characters that Kallmaker has created. Kallmaker deals with important issues and balances them with humor and affection. (The scene wherein Ray delivers her first flyers for the bookstore is delightful! Haven't we all had times when we were -- are -- intensely aware of the wonderful attractiveness of women?) That Kallmaker found herself enamored enough with these characters to write a sequel, Watermark is telling. The story is cast with a number of interesting secondary characters like Danny, Zoraida, Judy and Dee (who make an appearance in “Come Here” a short story in Kallmaker’s Frosting on the Cake) as well as Greta and Hazel....
Rating:
Summary: This is the book that got me started...
Review: ...reading lesbian romances. It's still my favorite and I still wish that I could meet Louisa fo rreal.
Rating: 
Summary: Watermark is Touchwood's sequel
Review: Fans may be interested to know that Watermark (pub 1999) is a sequel to Touchwood and may wish to read them in order.
Rating:
Summary: Unexpected depth and passion
Review: I just finished reading this book and so much of it will be edged in my mind for a long time. It's a little longer than most Naiad Press books and every page made me fall in love with both these women. I wanted to be Rayann, young and ready to love with all my heart. I wanted to be Louisa, much older yet able to teach the younger woman about unexpected passion -- and receive some surprises herself. I wanted to find their bookstore and meet all the customers. I read this book because a friend absolutely refused to lend me her copy, saying she re-reads it too often to risk being without it. Now I understand why. It really touched me. I can tell that this is probably the author's earlier work because there were a few rough spots, but they were so easy to forgive with such exquisitely drawn characters and passionately detailed eroticism.
Rating:
Summary: Touchwood
Review: I just finished this book. I loved it. I couldn't put it down. Rayanne takes you through all of her emotions. You feel like you are right there with her. I would have to say this is one of the best stories I have ever read. It gave me goose bumps. I would definately recomend it to anyone who likes a good romance.
Rating:
Summary: Touchwood
Review: I just finished this book. I loved it. I couldn't put it down. Rayanne takes you through all of her emotions. You feel like you are right there with her. I would have to say this is one of the best stories I have ever read. It gave me goose bumps. I would definately recomend it to anyone who likes a good romance.
Rating:
Summary: A cut above
Review: I read Touchwood and Watermark in reverse order. Watermark, Kallmaker's ninth novel, is writing of a very high level and it is really interesting to see the seeds of Kallmaker's talent in Touchwood, which I believe is her second book. Touchwood is far more romance novel than Watermark, but it is far from simple. Sure we could have had the easy story of Rayann falling for a woman old enough to be her mother. May-December romance stories are almost cliche. But Kallmaker doesn't stop there. Even though Touchwood is solely from Rayann's 29-year old point-of-view, we see Louisa's 56-year old character clearly. Louisa has done much in her life, survived the death of a partner, remained closeted for the benefit of her son. She was butch when mothers were supposed to be femme. When Louisa realizes she is falling in love with Rayann she holds herself back, feeling that she has no right to take the best years of Rayann's life, not when she's already had her share of love. In short, she doesn't deserve the love of a younger woman. I was rooting as much for Louisa as I was for Rayann. Louisa had bought into the idea that an older woman just isn't worth as much as a younger one. Rayann changes that. Rayann does resist the love and has a passionate, but light-hearted, affair with Zoraida. Her own mother is not happy about Louisa and Rayann's affair when she discovers it, but soon realizes that she prefers Louisa to any of her daughter's previous lovers. Louisa respects her daughter, for starters. In the end, everyone just has to grow up. Best of all, and erotically portrayed, is Rayann's discovery that for all her sex-positive youth she can hardly keep up with Louisa in bed. When I finished Touchwood, having already read Watermark, I was uplifted. Touchwood gave me all the nuance of two women deeply in love and Watermark all the depth of character that made me want to give the books to straight people in my family to say "Our lives are just like yours, we love, we grieve, we survive." The two books together provide a range of expression and experience that I've yet to find in any other so-called "romance" novels.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites
Review: I, too, read "Watermark" before "Touchwood" and wish I hadn't. I wanted to believe Louisa and Rayann went on and had a wonderful life thereafter. "Watermark" spoiled that for me and I really wish Karin hadn't writen it.
Rating:
Summary: May/December
Review: I, too, read "Watermark" before "Touchwood" and wish I hadn't. I wanted to believe Louisa and Rayann went on and had a wonderful life thereafter. "Watermark" spoiled that for me and I really wish Karin hadn't writen it.
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