Lost In Montreal and Duet both by Gay Walley

Lost in Montreal tells the story of Jacqueline, a lively, undaunted girl of fifteen and the competition between her and Lisbeth, her aloof, beautiful, and seductive Austrian Jewish mother who abandoned her when she was very young. Jacqueline gets involved with her mother's boyfriends as a way of winning her mother's respect. She is aware of her antics but treats them sardonically. Gerald, Jacqueline's fallen, aristocrat British father, who raised her in bars, is a source of both wisdom and problems. She goes to him when she is trying to understand why her mother shows no enthusiasm for her as well as for advice on her other adventures. In her loneliness, she frequently goes out in Montreal looking for attention, and to feel the power of her sexual attractiveness.

I felt so sorry for Jacqueline and purely loathed her mother. How can a mother treat her child like she is a stranger and not want to express any love for her. But what was even more depressing is that through it all Jacqueline tries to win over her mother's affections and love by basically following in her footsteps. Her father wasn't much better of a role model what with raising her in bars and all but at least he was there for her as best as he could be. Just an emotional story filled with a young girl's loneliness.

Duet is a wildly comic story of a beautiful and talented young woman in her 20’s living in New York City and her misadventures as she navigates men’s desires and fears. When most women look into a mirror, they see flaws in their body. Some of those “flaws” can end up being the very essence of what some see as a woman’s true beauty. Duet, a talented, sensitive, gorgeous young woman, has an unusual anatomy…one that might overexcite one man, but terrify another. She has to live with this sexual uniqueness and not see herself as a freak.

I had an idea about what was wrong with Duet but I turned out being wrong. I was totally in shock when I realized what her disfigurement was and have never heard of that before. I felt really bad for her because she seems like such a beautiful person in so many ways and all she really wants is the same as everybody else to love somebody and be loved back but everytime she thinks she has found Mr Right once they get into bed the guy freaks out over her situation and leaves her feeling sad and depressed to the point that she has almost given up on finding her soul mate.

This is a wonderful story of learning to love yourself no matter what other's think. Bottom line is you got to love yourself and be comfortable with yourself before anybody else can and Duet finds out love was just a heartbeat away.