Dressing Lily

Siobhan Shannon

Nov 2016 · Decadent Publishing

About this eBook

 Set in the 1960s South, Dressing Lily follows Olivia from Cut and Shoot, Texas to the gay world of the Big Easy theater district and back. 

Olivia Lyons’ father raised her on his own in Cut and Shoot, Texas. Her mother could have taught her so much about navigating the world, but she isn’t around, and Liv’s father doesn’t talk about her. Sometimes life feels like a game where everyone knows the rules but Olivia. When she falls in love, it takes her by surprise. A further surprise awaits her when her romance is discovered, and her father spirits her away to New Orleans, where her mother has lived since the couple parted ways. 

Charlie Lyons and her partner, Miss Lora Blackmon, are the leading members of the gay social scene. They own Sans Soucis House, a place where people live their lives and no one judges. They take Olivia in and try to help her along, but she can’t seem to make the right choices. Olivia starts life over working for Claude DeCloux, who owns a jazz club. When she betrays Claude’s secret, she finds herself out of work and in danger of being out of San Soucis House. 

She heads out to find work in the theater district, wishing someone would give her a copy of the rules. There she meets Cajun Lily, the Queen of Burlesque, and becomes her dresser and protégé. But Olivia wants to go back home to Cut and Shoot, if she can only find a way.

Ratings and reviews

I received a review copy of this book in return for an honest review. Dressing Lily centers around a young lesbian woman's trials and tribulations in the 1960s United States. The protagonist, Olivia, is a well-intentioned, yet clumsy young woman who has never deviated from the path set out before her. Yet after a chance encounter with the woman of her dreams-and the subsequent discovery of her affair-she's shipped off to live with her birth mother in New Orleans. There, she learns to navigate the harsher realities of the world, desperate to find a way back home and to the woman she loves. For me, what set Dressing Lily apart from other lesbian romances is that the book focuses more on Olivia's journey than on her individual relationships. Through Olivia, readers take a trip through the lives of lesbians-and women in general-in the 1960s, small town and big city both. Siobhan doesn't sugar-coat anything; the women in Dressing Lily have it tough, facing violence from men, difficulty with the law, and exposure to drugs and various other things. Despite that, there's an over-arching theme of happy endings, which serves to curb some of the sharper edges slightly. There are some parts of the story that feel like they could do with more flushing out, particularly at the end. It's possible that this is due to the fact that Siobhan weaves together the stories of several women despite how short the book is. I also found myself somewhat disengaged with most of Olivia's romances, for various reasons. Ultimately, I'd say this book is for someone who's looking for a story about lesbian women, rather than a romance between two women.