Her Golden Coast: Will these emotional opposites find their forever?

What drives people to be in relationships that don’t work? And how do those choices keep us from getting into relationships that do? Those are the two most powerful questions posed in Deracine’s latest novel about two women and their experiences of love as they start their adult lives. So much of romantic queer literature assumes characters know their orientation slowly then suddenly and all at once, with the remainder of the novel a question about whether their world accepts them. The protagonists in this novel have lives with many more fears — abandonment, defensiveness, financial ruin — that collide with a bisexual self-understanding that evolves over many years. The context of our action — the tech wealth boom of the early 2010s — enables much of the action but simultaneously shows us how sudden success does not simply translate into relationship fulfillment. Deracine’s breezy, readable prose shows us that love is not linear and neither is orientation, confidence can be used to disguise vulnerability, and dysfunctional relationships are sometimes exactly what avoidant people want. As a gay man, I’m not the target for this book, but I did find her characterization of straight men funny and fresh. The men of HGC are callous, tone-deaf, still earnest but ultimately unable to access the inner lives of the women they are with, and worthy of the light humor pointed their way. I laughed out loud at the observation that there are some men whose SciFi obsessions mask their…

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🌶️ Low-ish Spice Slow to Medium Paced Character Driven F/F Romance is slowww to get to (and ultimately not the main focus of the book) Content warnings at the bottom 👇🏻 Admittedly, at the beginning of the book I found myself confused by all the tech jargon. I do not work in a tech field, so I was concerned this lack of knowledge on my part would affect my ability to appreciate this book. I stuck it out though, and I ended up enjoying Her Golden Coast quite a bit. I felt the main character, Laurie, was detached from the narration for the majority of the book. She was there, but she wasn’t there. With the rest of the content of this book, I found this worked well with the plot. That combined with my tech ineptitude meant I felt more in Laurie’s shoes than I would have thought. At the beginning, I really appreciated and admired Mal. I even wrote in my reading journal “I wish I was more like Mal” since I related more to Laurie. But seeing Laurie’s journey, I was ultimately more inspired by her and hopeful toward my own journey. Also, all the men in this book are absolutely insufferable, truly. Also also, I felt nostalgic for that time period (the 2000s) while reading, which is always a bonus for me! Overall, I recommend for those who enjoy character driven novels and don’t mine low-spice, low-romance. Bonus if you are interested in the San Fran tech scene during the 2000s.