As we lay spent in each other's arms, my mind wandered to cosmic places, and a thought occurred to me, which I felt oddly compelled to communicate.  "Joie?" I whispered. "Yes, baby?" "You know how sometimes you meet someone, and it just feels like you've known them forever?" I asked sweetly.  Joie hesitated before answering with a tentative "yes?"  "Well," I said, "that ain't us" (p 74).

The city.  A neon framed world where anything can happen and often does.  Where in the night sky shines a beacon of possibilities and in the shadows lurks excitement and danger.  Who is that stranger and what could they be hiding beneath that coat?  Could it be cupid is disguise or a wolf in tailored clothing? 

Blue Sleighty’s “Right To Remain Silent” takes the reader by the hand and into the world of bar room seduction, the hope for more than a one night stand, and the dangerous line we all walk when we’re searching for love beyond sunrise.

As the story opens, Blue is once again in recovery.  Never one to give up, she returns to the playing field she is most familiar with – her favorite lesbian bar.  Heading into the night with her usual flair, she “had already decided  . . . that night, that someone would be accompanying me home when I returned. And, I couldn't wait to meet the lucky girl- whoever she may be” (p 7).

In vivid description, the reader takes a walk on the wild side and experiences the G Spot through Blue’s eyes.  As she ponders all the possibilities, she is pleasantly surprised by a little taste of New Orleans personified in the confident and stylish lesbian named Joie. 

Joie approaches without hesitation and soon acquaints Blue with the irresistible charms of The Big Easy.  Just as quickly as one can fall in love with New Orleans, Blue is captivated and swept away by Joie.  From the moment they first lay eyes on each other, there is a combustible chemistry, both burning for each other from the start.  Within forty-five minutes they are enroot to Blue’s place.

The tension mounts as the seduction continues on its course, each moment filling with their desire to consume one another.  Sleighty’s descriptions are hypnotic, and it’s easy to get absorbed into their energy.  The heat radiates from the pages and carries the reader over from a steamy night into an even more scorching morning.   By the time they are through, Blue has no doubt that she has fallen in love again and all seems like a new, happy future for her, until….

You’ve never known good love to go bad so quickly, and to make it worse, Blue doesn’t know why.  The mystery continues as Blue tries to overcome her most quick heartbreak, only to find Joie return to her life and, because of how sexually energized they are with each other, continue to turn a blind eye.

But when Joie displays behavior too strange to ignore, it’s Blue’s roommate, Dee, who has to break the news to her.  Dee, a rookie cop, cares deeply about Blue, enough to shock her into reality when need be.  She and Blue share a wonderful friendship where honesty is always the best policy, like it or not.  When Dee delivers the truth about Joie, Blue is faced with potential decisions she would rather not have to make.  Because of how she feels about Joie, Blue decides to lay low about Dee’s news, and her claim on the right to be silent gets her more than she could have ever bargained for.

Sleighty gives us a story filled with humor, hopes and dreams.  She explores our tendency to associate good sex with falling in love and combines her story with passionate responses and relatable actions and consequences.  Sleighty also shares insight on life’s ironies and what it means to “make hay while the sun shines”.  Sleighty spares nothing from her readers and the emotional journey she takes them on is worth every minute of the read from some of the most erotic sex to some of the most disappointing heartaches of all. 

There’s a survivor in Blue, one that gives us more than a series of sexual escapades and adventure.  Sleighty has created a hero in Blue, one that champions for us all with a sharp wit and a sharp mind.  She lives life to the fullest.  She is a risk taker.  She loves hard with all her body and heart.  She takes a licking and keeps on kicking ass.  And always, she takes life’s disappointments with a shrug of her shoulders, a dusting off of her heart, and a confident step towards whatever lies over the next hill.

“The Right To Remain Silent” must be heard.  Read it.  Listen.  Then understand why sometimes the best answer to heart break is a good friend and a hot cup of coffee.

J. Aguilera, MLA

Professional reviewer, writer and poet

January 2, 2009