South of Sunshine by Dana Elmendorf (review)

Kaycee is trying her best to keep her attraction to girls under wraps, but when savvy, hot Bren moves to Sunshine, Tennessee, it’s all over. The two move from flirting to being close more quickly than Kaycee can really handle, as she’s nowhere near ready to come out. This, of course, leads to hurt feelings on Bren’s part, as Kaycee pretends multiple times that their connection doesn’t exist. There is believable tension created on both sides—of course Kaycee is scared given her strict mother and the southern town in which she was raised, and of course Bren would like their love to be acknowledged. Unfortunately, side characters are flat, and they are often used as foils rather than fully developed humans, particularly Kaycee’s two best friends, wisecracking gay boy Van and quick-to-judge Sarabeth. In addition, there’s an awful lot of idealized happy ending stuffed into a book where tolerance has always been the name of the game more than full, open acceptance. Even with these issues, romance fans will find plenty of gauzy lesbian love, and if things end a bit on the too-perfect side, well, who wouldn’t wish that for a town called Sunshine?