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A review by lolajh
D'Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding by Chencia C. Higgins
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
4.75
Features two black lesbians who comfortably call themselves lesbians! Absolutely adored these two characters and their relationship (apart from the miscommunication trope that happened a lot). Something about full grown adults getting flustered over their partner gets me every time.
Kris, my beloved butch lesbian, is such a gym bro, which always comes off to me every single time as kinda problematic in a disordered eating way, especially her talking about her weight loss story and being kinda fatphobic and that she was only “healthy” once eating less and losing weight. Quick weight changes just always seem a bit iffy, especially since she doesn’t see D’Vaughn’s fatness that way, so it seems to be something that she’s internalised that I think didn’t get a lot of attention. Other than that, though, Kris has had issues with past relationships only being short-term and she wants to settle down and find a real romance for herself, which is admirable and seeing her character overcome her toxic behaviours with other people and really learning to love with D’Vaughn.
D’Vaughn is a plus-size closeted femme lesbian, who had a coming-out arc with her family that was very emotional. D’Vaughn’s body type really meant everything to me. She is explicitly described as fat, yet she has genuine love and appreciation for her body that I really respect and admire. Not once is weight loss ever a goal for her, which is just so different to the majority of media that has fat people in it, and I just really, really loved how her body wasn’t something she wanted to fix. That’s just who she is, how her body was when she ate enough and was healthy, because skinny absolutely does not equate to being healthy. God I just really loved her,and loved being surprised at her being the dom and Kris the sub when they have sex. Kris is always this cocky and flirty character so her getting flustered for the first time and getting railed by D’Vaughn was such a masc lesbian experience, I loved it.
And their relationship, although having far too much miscommunication between them, was ultimately quite wholesome (and a happy ending) where the pair absolutely make each other better people. Not usually a fan of marriage tropes in books, but this one proved that they can be tolerable.
Also, the very mild descriptions of the trans characters seemed off, unnecessary, and quite stereotypical and they had no plot lines and just seemed to be there for trans rep and may as well not have been in there. Also, there are talks of queer sex between Kris and a gay guy, and the convo is not at all trans-exclusive, with the guy saying he needs his “meat hard and throbbing”, perpetuating guy equals penis and girl equals vagina and excluding the vast amount of trans people in queer relationships. Being cis and in relationships with cis people is fine, just don’t automatically assume everyone else is like that. This kind of language is very normalised, excluding trans people from everyday conversations is normalised, but I’m sure that this was not intentional and that with education it can definitely improve.
Kris, my beloved butch lesbian, is such a gym bro, which always comes off to me every single time as kinda problematic in a disordered eating way, especially her talking about her weight loss story and being kinda fatphobic and that she was only “healthy” once eating less and losing weight. Quick weight changes just always seem a bit iffy, especially since she doesn’t see D’Vaughn’s fatness that way, so it seems to be something that she’s internalised that I think didn’t get a lot of attention. Other than that, though, Kris has had issues with past relationships only being short-term and she wants to settle down and find a real romance for herself, which is admirable and seeing her character overcome her toxic behaviours with other people and really learning to love with D’Vaughn.
D’Vaughn is a plus-size closeted femme lesbian, who had a coming-out arc with her family that was very emotional. D’Vaughn’s body type really meant everything to me. She is explicitly described as fat, yet she has genuine love and appreciation for her body that I really respect and admire. Not once is weight loss ever a goal for her, which is just so different to the majority of media that has fat people in it, and I just really, really loved how her body wasn’t something she wanted to fix. That’s just who she is, how her body was when she ate enough and was healthy, because skinny absolutely does not equate to being healthy. God I just really loved her,
And their relationship, although having far too much miscommunication between them, was ultimately quite wholesome (and a happy ending) where the pair absolutely make each other better people. Not usually a fan of marriage tropes in books, but this one proved that they can be tolerable.
Also, the very mild descriptions of the trans characters seemed off, unnecessary, and quite stereotypical and they had no plot lines and just seemed to be there for trans rep and may as well not have been in there. Also, there are talks of queer sex between Kris and a gay guy, and the convo is not at all trans-exclusive, with the guy saying he needs his “meat hard and throbbing”, perpetuating guy equals penis and girl equals vagina and excluding the vast amount of trans people in queer relationships. Being cis and in relationships with cis people is fine, just don’t automatically assume everyone else is like that. This kind of language is very normalised, excluding trans people from everyday conversations is normalised, but I’m sure that this was not intentional and that with education it can definitely improve.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Racism and Cursing