Scan barcode
sakusha's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
The book was about the romance between Dean (an ENTJ) and Solange (an ESFP/ENFP) which started out as just an act but developed into something real.
Good song for the book: “Give Your Heart a Break” by Demi Lovato.
Dean was the typical perfect man: handsome, tall (8), patient (181), apologizes (166), always smells good (199), attuned to Solange (276), doesn’t complain (280), doesn’t blame her (338), has a successful well paying white-collar job (10), yet is somehow muscular (131), has trim hips (284), a commanding tone (21), but can also make his voice soft and comforting (247), has a sense of humor (24), silky soft hands (56), minty breath (78), soft plump lips (88), nice butt (267); he says she’s beautiful (287); he cooks and cleans well (90, 285, 320), is concerned about Solange more than himself (24), puts her first (181), prioritizes her comfort and sexual pleasure (235, 271, 291), distracts her from feeling bad (267), asks for consent and respects Solange’s boundaries (169), lets her hog the pillows on their bed (274), defends her and her mother (279), feels he doesn’t deserve her even though he is more of a prize than she is (375), his home is neat, organized, and aesthetically pleasing (231). Solange narrated that Dean likes to be bossy in the bedroom, which turns her on (287), but all I saw was him being submissive to her throughout the whole book. His “only task in life is to make her come” (255). He’d sign over the deed to his home if she asked for it (256). She “owned” his body (272). He told her, “I’d like to feed you. Listen to your beautiful voice as we talk. Where it goes from there is your choice” (284). Wow. Imagine if it was a woman saying all that about/to a man! Hypocritical feminists would say the book was abusive! They don’t want women to serve or live for men, but they want men to serve and live for women! That’s not equality, people!
Dean only had one flaw, which made me like him the most: he wanted a practical relationship based on compatibility instead of one based on love (114).
Quotes from Dean I liked:
“That warm, fuzzy feeling in your chest is fickle and clouds your judgment. Makes you indifferent to things that should be red flags. Convinces you that it—and only it—matters when we all know on some rational level that will never be the case” (30).
“[Carrie] complained that our relationship wasn’t growing in the way she’d hoped. I wasn’t romantic, she said. Didn’t tell her I loved her. Didn’t sweep her off her feet and all that jazz. But I was a solid boyfriend, I thought. Faithful. Supportive. And I cared for her. None of that was enough” (91).
“For years, I’ve clung to a view about love that boils down to this: It isn’t worth it. I never doubted that it existed or that people experienced it. But I regarded it as a weakness. One that would leave me vulnerable and insecure. I need stability, I told myself. And giving my heart over to someone would make me weak, would surrender my future to their whims, would only leave me disappointed. So I focussed on securing all the trappings of stability I could think of: a well-paying job, a home, a partner with the same ambitions as mine. And I was fine” (374).
“I know firsthand how volatile relationships can be. One day you’re in love. The next day, you’re not. You have expectations, and when someone doesn’t meet them, you’re disappointed. Gutted, even. Why *wouldn’t* I want to take all of that out of the equation?” (303)
Solange responds with “Because then you’re just existing” (303). And sleeping around with a different stranger every few weeks or months is NOT “just existing”? She asks, “Is that what you want? To go through life being physically present and emotionally absent?” (303) Then she doesn’t even let him answer, and continues: “Well, that’s a cop-out, Dean, and it’s lazy.” No, what’s lazy is Solange’s lifestyle of not making any decisions or committing to anyone or anything. “You want the trappings of being in a committed relationship, but you don’t want to roll up your sleeves and do the work necessary to be worthy of it” (303). What hard work? She just wants Dean to have feelings. There is no work involved in that. Work is keeping a steady job and making a commitment to be with someone you *don’t* have feelings for—all the things Dean was doing and Solange was not. Hey Solange, how about YOU do the hard work of settling on a plan, a job, a man, and a place to live, and accept your decision, no matter what the outcome? By age 28, it’s high time you start behaving like a responsible adult instead of like a careless child who lives for nothing but pleasure.
Solange had a problem with how Dean is “driven by a single-minded desire to attain professional success” (260). But she wouldn’t like him if he was just a bum on the street or a minimum wage worker, would she? Women (or at least this author) apparently want a man who is rich but doesn’t care about his job? Hypocritically, Solange doesn’t criticize Kimberly, a black female lawyer who also wants to become a law firm partner (315). So it’s okay for black women to aim for professional success, but not okay for white men?
Dean is the kind of man I want! Steady good paying job, wants commitment and kids, isn’t needy for emotional expression, and he’s good looking to boot!
What Solange wants: a man who gives 100% of himself, is committed to her and emotionally available (35), “someone who isn’t so fixated on never deviating from their life plan and can appreciate the freedom in exploring all their options until they land on the right one” (261). (Has she ever considered that Dean thinks he already HAS landed on the right option? Just because he figures out what he wants sooner than she does doesn’t make him thoughtless or wrong.) She’s 28 and hasn’t had a steady partner in ages, but she’d rather be single than be in a bad relationship (35).
Complaints about the book:
Too much unnecessary cussing.
Too many characters that weren’t different enough to remember—mainly Solange’s family members. Couldn’t tell the aunts apart or even remember their names.
Too much Portuguese. Some of the phrases we English speakers can figure out from context, some of them are explained right away, but others just aren’t. It’s annoying that the author seems to assume we’ll all understand Portuguese.
The author doesnt separate narration from dialogue, but includes them in the same paragraph. I dont like this because i don’t always notice the quotation marks in a paragraph, so i dont notice when the narration ends and becomes dialogue.
Mistakes: first Solange is said to be drinking “an overpriced special blend” of coffee (52), then later it says she only drinks plain black coffee with no cream or sugar (75). Dean gave Solange a dossier on himself, but there was no mention of her giving him one, until Dean already read hers (75).
Dean: “This all-consuming lust makes sense to me. Attraction. Pheromones. The dopamine hit that goes along with being horny. It’s biology, plain and simple. My only job here is to drive her wild. I won’t stop until I make her come with my tongue” (259). Actually, the plain and simple biology is that a male should only care about his own sexual pleasure. Caring about a woman’s sexual pleasure has no biological basis; it is something taught to men by modern society. Secondly, there’s no biological reason for oral sex, since it doesn’t reproduce the species. So him performing oral sex and wanting to make her come are two things entirely based on what he’s been taught by modern society, not based on biology.
Unrealistic: Besides the obvious unrealisticness of the male romantic interest being virtually perfect, the book was also unrealistic in having him admire single mothers (237, 278) and Solange for being strong (252). Check out Youtube or any dating site, and you will see that men do not want or respect strong women or single mothers. Dean supposedly learned from a nursery rhyme to treat pussies with “the care and respect they deserve” (257) - as if a little toddler boy is going to already know that pussy is a word for that part of a woman’s body, or that he’ll remember that rhyme at an older age when he *does* know pussy is a word for that part of a woman’s body?
Dean unrealistically calls “Thank U, Next” by Ariana Grande an appropriate takedown of her exes (144). The song’s lyrics hardly say anything about the exes, so how is her “takedown” justified? Just because she’s a woman confident in her choices we should assume that her exes were jerks unworthy of her? This is an opinion typical of a biased woman automatically siding with her fellow female, but not a realistic opinion for a man. Not to mention, how would females respond to a man singing “Thank U, Next” to his female exes? My guess is that women would be offended that he is treating his exes with such disrespect, as if they are just objects easily replaced. Well that’s exactly what Ariana Grande’s song is doing. Dean is supposed to be in favor of a steady, committed relationship, and Grande’s song is about going from one relationship to the next; totally not consistent with his personality.
Leftist political bias of the book, as evidenced by:
Solange is apparently in favor of sexism and censorship when she tells Dean he can’t talk about PMS when all he did was ask an innocent question—if it was safe to be around her during that time of the month (265). Maybe she should tell Nia that since she’s a woman, she’s not allowed to talk about blue balls (130)? But nah, the leftists think women and POC can do and say whatever they want. Only the white men need to be censored. Hypocrites!
Anti-capitalist viewpoint. Solange looks down on Dean for wanting to be successful in his job (260). She apparently agrees with the quote “Mo money mo problems” and pushes her viewpoint on her students (262). If money is such a problem, then why do you leftists keep wanting to raise taxes? Hypocrites. Money makes the world go ‘round, whether you like it or not. And hey, if America’s capitalism sucks so much, then why did Solange’s whole family choose to move here from Brazil?
The book implies that most landlords are evil liars and take advantage of their poor, innocent tenants (270). As if nobody was ever evicted because they actually DIDN’T PAY THEIR BILL. Here’s a tip for you renters: if you don’t want to be at the mercy of a landlord, SAVE MONEY AND BUY YOUR OWN HOME. But that will require a good paying job, which will take hard work. Not willing to do the hard work or save money? Then don’t complain when you’re under somebody’s thumb. You could always just pay your rent on time and follow the rules. That will drastically reduce the chance of you getting eviction notices! Simple as that!
Usage of the term “Latinx” (150, 309). Now this word does make more sense if you want to refer to Latin American people whose sex is unknown or mixed, despite Spanish using the -o ending for mixed groups in which even only one man is present. However, the author uses it to refer to a single “Latinx man” (150) and “Latinx mothers” (309). This is stupid when she could’ve just used “Latino” and that would’ve meant “Latin American man,” and all mothers are female and therefore Latinas. But the author is obviously leftist, so she has to use the trendy leftist words and ignore logic and even cultural sensitivity. Have any of these leftists actually asked Latinos who have never been in the US if they prefer to be called “Latinx”? Doubtful. American leftist ways are pushed on Latin Americans, and they have to accept what goes against their culture and language to appease the leftist bigots.
Solange’s way of living - 28 years old and not wanting to settle down yet (237). She’ll probably want to settle down when she starts to get too old or ugly to be desirable. When the guys stop paying her attention, she’ll panic and want to secure a man who will stay with her. She narrates that “there’s no shame in being alone,” (325) and yet she still wants to be loved and sexed by a man. Bet she’d find it shameful if she was a 28 year old virgin, or a virgin her entire life. What she, the author, and modern leftists want to encourage is sleeping around with no strings attached, and being proud of it, calling this liberation and controlling their own destinies (328). That’s not being alone. That’s temporary dating. I don’t like when either sex is a slut, and I don’t like that this way of living is encouraged and celebrated today. If a person knows they will “settle down eventually,” why not settle down NOW? She finds a great guy (Dean) and still won’t “settle” with him? Because why? Wants to keep her options open? Holding out for someone even better? Childhood is supposed to be over at puberty, then it got extended to 18 because of compulsory schooling, and nowadays people still think it’s okay to act like irresponsible, immature, hedonistic children through their 20s because of what they see in the media. Books like this one encourage admiration of Solange’s lifestyle while looking down on Dean for being a successful man with a plan. It’s supposed to be showing Dean’s positive growth as a character/person when he starts to adopt Solange’s way of “dating for the sake of dating” with no agenda or endgame (292, 353). THAT is how you end up with a rise in single motherhood! And broken hearts! Solange literally tells Dean to stop thinking (293)! So the modern way of life is: suspend all thought, don’t have a plan, don’t try to get a successful job, get a pro bono lawyer to sue the landlord when you can’t afford to pay your rent, just have lots of sex and hope your birth control works. Hooray for hedonism! Congrats, humanity, you have devolved into cavemen.
Solange says her dad had no business saddling her mom with a kid if he didn’t want to hang around (238). Well Solange, maybe he didn’t want to settle down yet? But he still wanted the sex just like you? And ya know, even if condoms or birth control are used, accidents can still happen. So if you don’t want to be saddled with a kid, don’t be a slut! Wait until marriage/commitment to have sex, hypocrite! And even marriage is no guarantee of a couple staying together, because 50% of marriages end in divorce! Why? Because people like Solange are looking for that warm, fuzzy feeling, and they bail when it ends! So don’t base your relationships on that stupid warm, fuzzy feeling! Know why a mother stays with her child even when the child is behaving badly and says s/he hates her? Because the mother makes the commitment to raise that child, not because it’s always fun or pleasant, but because it’s her duty and responsibility! If you want a relationship to last, you have to make that commitment because of duty and responsibility, not because of love or pleasure!
Several mentions in the book of how it takes a village to raise a child (271), which is Hillary Clinton’s phrase when she was indirectly saying she wasn’t the stereotypical mother who baked cookies. Dean narrates that he’s worried that he doesn’t have the kind of support network that would help him raise a child (235). A support network is useful, but not NECESSARY. Dean was raised by a single mom, and he turned out fine. Solange was raised by a big family of women, but the big “support network” wouldn’t have been necessary if her father had just stayed in her life. Leftist politicians want to replace the nuclear family with “the village” which is a cloaked way of saying “let the government raise your kids.” Not quite the same as what the masses of leftist commoners think it means.
There are lesbians in the book who are fully embraced and not questioned. They are flawless characters, and only portrayed positively (100). They are both black, and if this book was realistic, the black father mentioned in the story wouldn’t approve of his daughter’s lesbian relationship, because statistically speaking, most black men are prejudiced against homosexuals (and women, for that matter). But of course this story paints the black father as perfect, so he fully accepts his daughter’s lesbian relationship. (The vast majority of LGBT people are white. Source: https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/visualization/lgbt-races/ This is likely because leftist whites want to join the oppressed victim club in whatever way they can, and unfortunately for them, they can’t change their race.)
Nia asks “Why are heteros so obsessed with blue balls?” (130) As if every hetero is? As the only people who are “obsessed” with it are heteros? Part of the definition of racism is assuming every person of a certain race will be like the stereotype of that racial group. This is prejudice. Imagine a character saying “Why do blacks like watermelon?” This assumes all black people do, based on a stereotype. The left would have a problem with jokes or generalizations made about POC/LGBTs, but they don’t have a problem with the same treatment toward whites or heteros. Hypocrites!
Education: Dean narrates that “high school teachers are notoriously underpaid”(316). It’s a common leftist opinion that teachers aren’t paid enough. They get paid more than minimum wage, and they get over three months off work per year, so why are they complaining? Greed, that’s why! If they care so much about money, they should get a different job! But no, they’d rather make bad choices and complain when they don’t get what they want. If you’re a teacher who truly has a passion for teaching, you won’t care how little you get paid.
On p. 262, a student named Layla writes to Solange, “Thank you so much for making school fun again. If I’d had you as a teacher in high school, I probably would have finished” (262). So the author blames boring teachers as the reason why POC don’t graduate? Why does high school have to be fun? It’s supposed to prepare you for the workforce. Work isn’t meant to be fun. You’re supposed to do your job whether you like it or not. Life isn’t all sunshine and roses. And a teacher shouldn’t be encouraging adoration of Biggie Smalls saying some phrase with improper spelling such as “Mo money mo problems” (262). Adoration of stupid media celebrities (and peer influence) is why kids turn out bad. How about admiring people like Dean who grew up in hardship and still landed a successful career? It just takes some hard work! Not a dismissive attitude of “mo money mo problems.” If you sit around moping about how much you’re a victim and how much the world sucks, you’re not going to be successful, and the only one to blame will be YOU. (On p. 322, Dean’s mother blames herself for Dean’s flaws, while Solange responds with, “We’re all informed by our experiences, but how we react to them is partly on us.” But she wouldn’t dare say the same of her sweetheart students! Because they’re POC, so that makes them untouchable and perfect, only failing in society because of systemic racism!) And don’t even say that Dean had white privilege to become a lawyer, because GUESS WHAT? The black characters Kimberly and her father are ALSO LAWYERS! Take a look around you and notice how many REAL RICH BLACK PEOPLE THERE ARE IN THE US: Oprah, lawyers, actors, rappers, news anchors, politicians, football and basketball players! There are rich black folks galore! So you can shut up about your white privilege theory!
Racism: Solange’s relative says Dean “seems more promising than the average white guy” (313). So most white guys are trash? Imagine this statement: “He seems more promising than the average black guy.” The leftists would be crying RACIST! But it’s okay to trash talk whites, huh? Believing that is racist!
“Black” is capitalized. Solange’s best friend is black, and he is described as having a perfect goatee and perfect complexion (68). Can’t have any imperfect minority groups, right? Unrealistic!
The bad characters in the story are all white (Henderson, Peter, and a fat guy on an airplane). The author tries to make Peter out to be even worse than he already is by him assuming Solange would know what things were on a Spanish restaurant menu, despite knowing Portuguese, not Spanish (216). But then the book also mentions her family making a bunch of SPANISH food such as Picadillo (308) and empanadas. So Solange WOULD have known foods on the SPANISH menu! She was just playing dumb to make Peter feel bad for making a valid assumption?!
Dean’s white mother doesn’t have her life together and keeps failing at relationships while the Brazilian females in Solange’s family are glorified as perfect: successful financially, single but happy, and ALL their food is glorious and delicious—unrealistic (325). (Dean’s mom crying about her latest failed relationship: “He was just as shitty as the others. Well, he was good in bed, I’ll give him that” [299]. Sounds like Solange: good in bed but shitty in every other way. She wouldn’t make a good wife or mother. She is too selfish. Doesn’t hold down a steady job, doesn’t want to stay in one place, doesn’t want to commit to one man, expects him to cook and clean because she sucks at both. The only thing Dean likes about her is her beauty! Which will fade! This is why relationships fail! They’re based on beauty and sex instead of logic, duty, compatibility, and commitment!)
Race is made an issue when it shouldn’t be in a truly equal world. Dean says “I’m not taking Kimberly and Nia [the black lesbians] to an all-white frat party” (121). Why should it matter if the party is all white? Blacks can’t attend parties with lots of white people? I thought segregation was over, but the leftists are bringing it back. Equality means ignoring race and MIXING, not segregating! Race should be a NON-ISSUE if we are all EQUAL.
Solange teaches a GED class, and all of the students are POC. So what the author is implying is that only POC are too stupid or lazy to get a HS diploma. Sorry to burst your bubble, people, but there are plenty of whites who don’t graduate either. In fact, the only people I know who didn’t graduate from HS and had to get a GED (and I know of several) were white. Anyway, the author calls the students sweethearts, probably wanting to paint them as poor victims of an oppressive system rather than at fault for their own failures in school. Unrealistic, because the kids who fail to get a HS diploma, no matter what their race is, are usually not sweethearts but rebels. It’s very easy to get a HS diploma with just a little bit of effort, so the only people who fail to get one are those who purposely put in no effort.
Dean narrates that he feels nervous “talking to a bunch of teenagers, none of whom are white and all of whom have different life experiences than mine as a result” (211). As if only POC can be poor, raised by single moms, have life struggles, etc.? Dean grew up with a single mom despite being white! And his single mom is so far from wealthy that when she loses her home, she has to shack up with her son rather than get her own place! Any person of any race can experience struggles, poverty, stress, depression, prejudice, and discrimination!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Sexism
kingrosereads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
3.75
A cute fake-dating bilingual romcom.
Free spirit Solange Perreira can't stay still. She's constantly on the move, looking for adventure and her eventual place in the world. Currently she's working as an adult educator for a nonprofit academy to complete her graduate program while getting ready to move across the country at summer's end. This is when she agrees to help her cousin, a wedding planner, to play makeup assistant for the bride. Strait-laced Dean Chapman is getting married, though it's not for love. After overhearing a concerning conversation between the bride and the man she declared her love for, Solange decides to save Dean from a loveless marriage, not knowing it was a modern-day marriage of convenience. Dean's plans thwarted and in need of a serious relationship so he can be promoted for partner, he ropes Solange into a fake-dating scheme to improve his career prospects. However, Dean's anti-love beliefs are challenged when Solange slowly wiggles her way into his heart.
This book has romance, comedy, cheesiness, and family. The Perreira family is amazing and so wholesome. I love the Tias so much! This book was a bit cringey, but I did find it funny and cute. I cannot see a group of adult humans believing for one second that Dean was in a serious relationship so soon after his wedding was crashed. I wish there was a little more time in between the wedding and this fake relationship so I could believe the firm was so accepting of the relationship.
I love the Brazilian representation and that there wasn't an over explanation of what was said in Portuguese or the cuisine. I simultaneously wished I had a family like the Perreira family, while being glad I didn't have a bunch of meddling family members.
Should I mention the sex party? Cause that was the most out-of-pocket thing I've ever read in a romance novel.
I'll definitely have to check out the other book in this series.
Free spirit Solange Perreira can't stay still. She's constantly on the move, looking for adventure and her eventual place in the world. Currently she's working as an adult educator for a nonprofit academy to complete her graduate program while getting ready to move across the country at summer's end. This is when she agrees to help her cousin, a wedding planner, to play makeup assistant for the bride. Strait-laced Dean Chapman is getting married, though it's not for love. After overhearing a concerning conversation between the bride and the man she declared her love for, Solange decides to save Dean from a loveless marriage, not knowing it was a modern-day marriage of convenience. Dean's plans thwarted and in need of a serious relationship so he can be promoted for partner, he ropes Solange into a fake-dating scheme to improve his career prospects. However, Dean's anti-love beliefs are challenged when Solange slowly wiggles her way into his heart.
This book has romance, comedy, cheesiness, and family. The Perreira family is amazing and so wholesome. I love the Tias so much! This book was a bit cringey, but I did find it funny and cute. I cannot see a group of adult humans believing for one second that Dean was in a serious relationship so soon after his wedding was crashed. I wish there was a little more time in between the wedding and this fake relationship so I could believe the firm was so accepting of the relationship.
I love the Brazilian representation and that there wasn't an over explanation of what was said in Portuguese or the cuisine. I simultaneously wished I had a family like the Perreira family, while being glad I didn't have a bunch of meddling family members.
Should I mention the sex party? Cause that was the most out-of-pocket thing I've ever read in a romance novel.
I'll definitely have to check out the other book in this series.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Sexism