Happy Pride Month!
First of all, T.J. Alexander’s Dedication at the beginning of Triple Sec reads “to all sluts everywhere–cheers.” The rest of the book is as delightful as the dedication. We get to see the formation of a happy polycule, a woman come into her own, and the creation of many alcoholic beverages.
Mel Sorrento is a career bar tender working at a swanky New York City cocktail lounge. She’s good at her job, and maybe a little bored serving the tech bros and finance guys that make up most of the clientele. After an unpleasant divorce, she does not believe in love. So when Bebe, who is married to Kade, proposes that she and Mel date, Mel decides to use the relationship as a safe way to get back into dating. After all, dating an already married woman, even with her spouse’s permission, can’t go anywhere, can it?
In addition to this being a solidly enjoyable read, a couple of things stood out to me. One was Mel’s struggle to let go of her ideas about how committed romantic relationships work. The other was the way we really get to know Mel through her actions, and especially through the sex scenes with Kade and Bebe.
Our patriarchal and heteronormative culture doesn’t offer many models for what committed, romantic relationships look like. Mel and her ex-wife had tried to make their relationship look like a heteronormative monogamous marriage, but gay, and it didn’t work for them. So Mel flails for a while trying to understand how to do consensual non-monogamy and committed non-monogamy. As someone who came to understand themselves as aro-ace later in life, I can relate to Mel’s struggle to fit her relationships, and the relationships around her, into the familiar narrative. But, the socially acceptable narrative doesn’t work for a committed non-monogamous relationship. Once Mel accepts that her relationships, romantic or not, are individual entities that require specific attention and effort, all of her relationships improve. As a side note, I also loved her efforts to be the best committed non-monogamist ever and the cuddle session that happens when she inevitably fails.
Triple Sec is told entirely from Mel’s point of view. We only see her from her own perspective, and she has no idea why anyone would fall in love with her. We see who Mel is in the way that she handles the stressed out lounge patron who wants to propose to his girlfriend in a tired and cliché manner and in the way she helps a stressed out bartender at an art opening. In those moments, we see her confidence, experience, and compassion unfiltered. We also see Mel without her own jaundiced lens when she is having sex with her partners. In open door romances, the sex scenes tell us a lot about the characters and their relationship. Alexander does an amazing job of illuminating Mel and showing us the vibe that captured Bebe and Kade’s attentions. The single point of view is also, I think, the book’s greatest weakness. I think I would have found Bebe and Kade more interesting if I had a sense of them beyond what we see through Mel’s eyes.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Atria Books and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.
