When we pick up an E. J. Noyes book we expect intensity, characters with issues (circumstantial and/or internal) and a romance that builds believably. Considering this is Ask, Tell #3 we thought it would have all of the above layered with epic seriousness. We were pleasantly surprised and totally floored by the humour in addition to what was already expected!

Jana Fleischer is a successful divorce attorney. She is funny, friendly, gregarious, quirky, loyal, authentic and impossible to please when it comes to finding Mr. Right. She “goes on dates” but doesn’t “date” because the going-on-dates seldom, if ever, translates into wanting to really date a person. Her sister Sabine is bridezilla-ing about her upcoming wedding to the lovely Rebecca (yes, they are the military surgeon couple from the glorious Ask, Tell) and Jana is caught in the Sabine’s OCD turmoil over the wedding. Life for Jana is even and good. One fine morning, on her way to court, she bumps into a woman walking backwards and tragically breaks the heel of her shoe. The accident woman, Brooke Donnelly, works in the same building and since Jana and she are the same show size, lends her shoes to Jana. Now connected by shoes, they meet again to return/repair/exchange shoes and end up enjoying each other’s company and friendship burgeons between them. So-far-straight Jana is surprised by her own reaction to Brooke and starts wondering about her orientation.

Jana is absolutely adorable (taking a moment here to savour Jana’s adorability). We loved journeying with her as she first felt unexpected emotions about a woman, recognised them, questioned herself, admitted her feelings and accepted herself without unnecessary angst. We loved her for embracing herself and her attraction to Brooke and for being able to get into the relationship with Brooke fully and completely. Brooke started off as a likeable character but didn’t quite measure up to Jana as the book progressed. With terrible past experience with her family and a couple of not-so-great relationships, she is unwilling to commit to the new relationship with Jana. While we understand that people can be weak, we cannot forgive refusing to get out of your own head to give a new relationship an honest shot. We cannot forgive not pulling your weight or putting in the effort to make a relationship work – especially when the other person is obviously all-in and says so without any prevarications. In this one, Jana is carrying the entire emotional burden of taking the relationship forward and stabilizing it. She is the only one who seems to have the strength, the fortitude, the commitment and most importantly, the want to make it work. That is just unfair, no matter that Brooke shows flashes of nice.

Yes, we do have a problem with lop-sidedness in the relationship, but this book is lots of fun to read. The humour, the wit and of course, Jana make this a great read.