Boundaries: A Lesbian Romance

By: Jane Retzig

Narrated by: Jan Cramer

Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Northern England 1979 - Social worker Elizabeth has finally plucked up the courage to end 14 years of unhappy marriage. Lost and lonely, she buries herself in work to keep her emptiness at bay. Then an unexpected phone call brings troubled teenager Jan to her door and Elizabeth shocks her friends and family by taking the traumatized young woman into her home as a lodger.

For Jan, Elizabeth is always bound to be more than just a landlady. Gentle, reserved, and quietly attractive, she has all the qualities guaranteed to make Jan love her. But Jan is still struggling to make sense of her devastating affair with a very different older woman. And in a world where love between women is still taboo, the frightened young lesbian does all she can to keep her feelings hidden. As the friendship between the two women deepens, long buried secrets are exposed and family tensions begin to escalate. As both women are forced to confront their demons, they make choices that will change their lives and the lives of the people around them forever.

Dealing with issues of love, betrayal, and abuse, and packed with memorable characters and wry humour, Boundaries immediately shot into the best-selling ranks for lesbian romance and lesbian fiction at the UK's independent book stores when it was first released in 1994. The book's popularity has continued on Amazon, where it was re-released in 2013.

©2014 Jane Retzig (P)2016 Jane Retzig

Too short!

Good book, but way too short😥

The narrator was very good and the storyline was interesting. However, I felt like I waited the length of the entire book for the 2 main characters to come together and then the book ended abruptly. It left me wanting more.....

Not your bad

This book was not to bad. the story was frustrating. and some what hard to keep up with. the ending.. well I felt it should have been longer to finally express the characters true involvement. The time laps was a bit sudden and confusing. However try it out for your self. you I got think differently.

Enjoyable romance from Across the Pond.

Would you consider the audio edition of Boundaries: A Lesbian Romance to be better than the print version?

Did not read the print version.

What does Jan Cramer bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

It took awhile for these American ears to get used to the British accent, but after just a few minutes of listening, everything was fine. There were a couple short sections where the sound levels changed, but not a big problem.

Any additional comments?

I just wish the story had continued a bit longer, to share the experience of Elizabeth and Jan finally getting together, since we had shared all their other, more challenging experiences that had kept them apart.

Love is Always Love; Sometimes Sex Isn't Sex

Tough listen. All of the main care/love-interests have been through something or many somethings that cause them to reduce themselves to less than they deserve, because guilt, self-doubt,and other more reduced frames of mind, result in "settling". Half of the picture painted is of women who have a very bad experience with sex - sex that isn't just sex, and sex that has nothing to do with love.

I'm not sure how I feel about young versus older in a relationship. For myself, I *think* balancing history and/or experiencing it with age *night* be important. To skew that a bit, I love classic rock, particularly when it's orchestral rock (ELO, Moody Blues...) My age belies my love for this style, though, because I was barely born when most of it was produced. At the same time, i, literally love dance, house, and hip hop (trance puts me to sleep). I see beauty in some young woman, but they don't understand my musical or political references. I guess some people are older than their years, so to be negative to someone for their youth seems like reversed agism, which is small-minded regardless of the direction.

Sometimes sex isn't sex. It's debasing another, because of something broken and wrong in the perpetrator. Children and young people are taught by experience the relationship -- no pun intended --- or rather the proportional / parallel comparison between sex and self-loathing or sex and self-worth.

Thankfully, despite the abuse of sex, love is always love.

Beautiful

Yes, there are some tough themes here. Incest, child rape and abuse...even though these themes are explicit they are handled realistically if not entirely appropriately. it's obviously not for everyone. But...if you can handle these things are always there in the background and sometimes in the foreground, this is a beautiful story with a rich (flawed) characters. The plot is "the formula" romance with the depth that all romance novels should have, even if they don't have the difficult themes. What I mean by the formula having depth is that all the reasons for the angst in this novel are understandable. The groundwork is laid for the reader. We can believe that these characters would feel and act the way that they do under the circumstances. Too many formulaic romances do not have the depth or foundation for a story that makes the reader feel for the characters. They only make the reader angry at the author. The author should not be on the mind of the reader as they're reading. Anyway...I'm glad this was self-published. While there was "fat" that could have been trimmed by a publisher's editor, what was left in because the author had the freedom to leave it was well worth it.

Well written but trigger heavy

this is a powerful story but it has a LOT of sexual abuse and rape issues. several incest and date rape scenes. I'm not too sure i stuck it out for a happy ending, but the narration was good.

beautiful

I go through audio books like a bag of jellybeans. One right after the other. 90% of them in the lesbian fiction genres. This book was so moving I forgot it was fiction for a second. I am not a literary critic by any means and I very rarely write reviews but this story was too good for me not to say so. If you are a fan of lesbian fiction and like a good romance I can not recommend this book more. The performance was wonderful. Thank you for giving the lesbian fiction genres this gem!

Jan Cramer is amazing

The story itself was very well written and very bold for the year it represented. The characters were well thought out and I lost myself in them within the first 2 chapters which is very rare for me. The narration was simply incredible, I thought she handled each part exactly how the writer had intended. I want Jan Cramer to narrate more lesbian books. You were marvelous!

A wonderful sweet story

Oh my, I usually write reviews only on Goodreads but this one was so special I want to say something here too. If you're born in the eighty's, read it. If you're queer or have felt anything similar in your whole life, read it. If not, read it all the same, it's sweet, moving, deep and well written even if it's so short.. Spectacular really, I just fon't want to give anything more away.

Frustrating

I am all for the slow burn but this story is just an exercise in frustration.
**SPOILERS**




Because of the age gap (36 vs 18) the older MC won't except a relationship with the younger MC EVEN THOUGH they have both confessed their love for each other, because of how it will look and what people and her family will say. I could even see the old MC basically says, lets stay friends until you are 21 something and see if we both still feel the same way but they DO NOT TALK about it AT ALL!!! It's just a straight up nope. UGH. The older MC has a couple affairs with men (fun!) the younger one dates other girls. Then literally YEARS go by before they have a chance meet up again and set up to go on a real date THE END. Seriously. The book ends. We don't get to see them actually date or an epilogue of their happy life together now, nothing.