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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was determined to finish this book, but I am supremely annoyed with it. For a start (and minor as my annoyances go), given the premise that one of our leads is an erotic author, I was expecting more from the smut. But really there was only one scene of it, and the rest was either fade to black or glossed over in summary. So that was disappointing. Then there is the issue of Charlie as a character. It seemed like the author was trying to frame him as an unreliable narrator of sorts, where he is unaware of his own self-destructive tendencies. The problem is, Charlie never actually does anything that feels even remotely dangerous. He never has any close scrapes or scares that we see, he only gets wildly drunk once during the course of the novel and it's in celebration, and nothing in his internal monologue reflects any kind of self hatred. No passages where we watch him try and fail to not spend money, or rationalize his spending. (Except for his ‘tab’ at the fox, which I’m not counting because Forester just hand waves that ‘debt’ away). He doesn’t even seem all that careless in his own narration — he seems to have genuinely decided to turn his life around, and is taking measurable steps towards that goal. And yet, all of his friends and family act as though Charlie is seconds away from self detonation at any time. The Charlie his friends talk about and the Charlie we read about seem like two very different people, and this made most of the “stakes” in the book feel hollow and overwrought. I don’t actually believe that Charlie is sabotaging his entire life by marrying Alma, I think it’s a contrived and silly conflict(more on that below). And all of this is worsened by the actual resolution to the problem of Charlie’s marriage not being solved by him and Miles growing as people or whatever, but by outside intervention(read: meddling) by their friends. Ugh.
Also, this may just be a me thing, but. There’s this common theme in queer historical romance where marriages of convenience that allow the character(s) to pass for straight are framed as undermining or being incompatible with the love story, and I am kinda sick of it. To me it projects icky modern ideas (and ideals) about true love being a thing you only experience with one person, and love being in some way a form of possession of another person. It also ignores the historical reality of queerness, and the many happily married queer people in lavender marriages, or marriages of friendship. And holds up marriage as the be all and end all of romantic dedication. What annoys me is not that individual characters feel this way about marriage, but that it’s such a prevalent theme, even in queer books. So I don’t wanna judge this book too harshly for it, but also it’s a thing I’m tired of.
So yeah. I’m annoyed. Much in the way I usually when a book has great potential but fails to execute. I’m going to try to read the second book because we need more drag queen protagonists, but if it has similar issues to this book I will not torture myself.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No