Shimmer and Other Stories

"Lake’s Gun Shy is the story of two somewhat reluctant women who finally learn to believe in themselves and each other enough to commit to love. Covering just over a year in their lives, the novel reads like a season’s worth of episodes from a television show that you wish was on TV."~Midwest Book Review While on patrol, Minnesota police officer Dez Reilly saves two women from a brutal attack. One of them, Jaylynn Savage, is immediately attracted to the taciturn cop—so much so that she joins the St. Paul Police Academy. As fate would have it, Dez is eventually assigned as Jaylynn’s Field Training Officer. Having been burned in the past by getting romantically involved with another cop, Dez has a steadfast rule she has abided by for nine years: Cops are off limits. But as Jaylynn and Dez get to know one another, a strong friendship forms. Will Dez break her cardinal rule and take a chance on love with Jaylynn, or will she remain forever gun shy? "Lori Lake’s novels Gun Shy and Under the Gun are part mystery, part romance, and totally captivating… Jaylynn and Dez are both sympathetic, complex, and dynamic characters that are realistically flawed at the same time; consequently, they capture your interest quickly and maintain it throughout the story. The evolving relationship between the two cops and the challenges they face both separately and as a couple come across uncontrived and convincing."~After Ellen.com

Dani Corbett has only been with her new girlfriend, Meg, for a short while, but after a vicious hate crime, Dani is physically wounded and emotionally scarred. Since the injury prevents her from fleeing on her motorcycle-which is Dani's normal response to a crisis-she is at a loss to deal with her grief and rage.But as one door closes for Dani, another opens when she is befriended by Grace Beaumont, a physical therapist at the hospital where Dani is treated. With Grace's support and the help of her aunts, Estelline and Ruth, Dani must get through a terrible ordeal. But can she learn to love again? Ricochet In Time is the story of one lonely woman's fight for justice-and her struggle to resolve the troubles of her past and find a place in a world where she belongs.

In these fourteen short stories, Lori L. Lake captures how change and loss influence the course of lives: a mother and daughter having an age-old fight; a frightened woman attempting to deal with an abusive lover; a father trying to understand his lesbian daughter's retreat from him; an athlete who misses her chance-or does she?Lovingly crafted, the collection has been described as a series of mini-novels where themes of alienation and loss, particularly for characters who are gay or lesbian, are woven throughout. Lake is right on about the anguish and confusion of characters caught in the middle of circumstances, usually of someone else's making. Still, each character steps out with hope and determination."With best-selling novels like Gun Shy, Ricochet in Time, and Under the Gun, Lake is widely considered one of the best authors of modern lesbian fiction, but her work-part action, part drama, and part romance-gleefully defies categorization." ~Lavender Magazine