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A review by danielles_reads
Indigo by Beverly Jenkins
Did not finish book. Stopped at 72%.
DNF @ 72%
Forgot to write a review for this.
I was looking forward to reading this since I've heard a lot of good things about Beverly Jenkins, and I'm looking to expand my historical romance horizons past Courtney Milan lol. I thought the premise of this sounded really interesting, and I was looking forward to reading about two abolitionists on the Underground Railroad falling in love.
But ultimately, this fell into too many alpha male / innocent virginal female tropes for me. It was especially frustrating since it didn't make sense for a woman like Hester, who risked her life all the time saving others, to be portrayed as so naive that she doesn't even know what an orgasm face is, lol. I kept trying to give this book slack since it was published in the 90s and romance as a genre was a lot different then, but Galen kept bothering me more and more as he continually overstepped Hester's boundaries. Once hehumiliated her in church in front of everyone she knew and essentially forced her to marry him, I knew I had to stop. Nothing he could do in the future would make up for that in my eyes. That crossed a line.
Additionally, I didn't love how the first intimate scene (not sex, but foreplay essentially) took place at 25% into the book. My favorite part of reading romance is the tension and pining, which isn't really felt when the two MCs "give in" to their attraction as it were at a quarter of the way into the book. Then it really just became a story of "when will she commit?" which is not very interesting to me. I also didn't like how there were so many sex scenes. I got tired of him sucking her nipples over and over again lol. I did like the scenes of them making mud pies together because it was nice to see them connecting as friends, but then it would be immediately followed by more nipple sucking lol.
Honestly, though, I don't regret trying this since, like I said, I'm trying to widen my horizons. I did learn more about the history of the romance genre from our Discord buddy read, which was great. I wouldn't mind reading more from Beverly Jenkins in the future either, but I will make sure to read her more recent work.
Forgot to write a review for this.
I was looking forward to reading this since I've heard a lot of good things about Beverly Jenkins, and I'm looking to expand my historical romance horizons past Courtney Milan lol. I thought the premise of this sounded really interesting, and I was looking forward to reading about two abolitionists on the Underground Railroad falling in love.
But ultimately, this fell into too many alpha male / innocent virginal female tropes for me. It was especially frustrating since it didn't make sense for a woman like Hester, who risked her life all the time saving others, to be portrayed as so naive that she doesn't even know what an orgasm face is, lol. I kept trying to give this book slack since it was published in the 90s and romance as a genre was a lot different then, but Galen kept bothering me more and more as he continually overstepped Hester's boundaries. Once he
Additionally, I didn't love how the first intimate scene (not sex, but foreplay essentially) took place at 25% into the book. My favorite part of reading romance is the tension and pining, which isn't really felt when the two MCs "give in" to their attraction as it were at a quarter of the way into the book. Then it really just became a story of "when will she commit?" which is not very interesting to me. I also didn't like how there were so many sex scenes. I got tired of him sucking her nipples over and over again lol. I did like the scenes of them making mud pies together because it was nice to see them connecting as friends, but then it would be immediately followed by more nipple sucking lol.
Honestly, though, I don't regret trying this since, like I said, I'm trying to widen my horizons. I did learn more about the history of the romance genre from our Discord buddy read, which was great. I wouldn't mind reading more from Beverly Jenkins in the future either, but I will make sure to read her more recent work.