In these tales of hope and loss, lovers and found family, Lori L. Lake gives us amazing slices of life that Ann Bannon calls "pure gold." The women in these stories, unsettled, adrift, and often disillusioned, can't quite understand how they arrived at their present situations. But whether rejected, afraid to commit, or just misunderstood, even the most hard-bitten are not without some hope in the power of love. Sharply rendered,...