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A review by jessielzimmer
Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Kristina McMorris
2.0
*I Got Mad, The Two Main Men in This Book Are Prideful Morons*
I am so disappointed by the book. It's marketed as a historical romance, with the inside summary leading you to believe it's about a young white woman (Maddie) and young Japanese man (Lane / Tomo / Takeshi?) falling in love and marrying just before Pearl Harbor. The book (in my opinion) leads you to believe it's a love saga about the two of them struggling with issues while living together in an internment camp.
It's not. The core of the book is actually a bromance between Lane and Maddie's asshole, self-pitying, manipulative brother, TJ. Can you tell I don't like TJ? I don't, he's a piece of shit. Everything that happens to him is 99% of the time brought on by his own stupid actions, but it's always everyone else's fault.
Lane, at a certain point, isn't much better. Abandoning his family, his wife and his daughter *that he hasn't even met yet* to go serve in a war, because muh pride. He even puts his need to prove he's not the enemy above his own family. So much for Japanese honor and shit. The way white people look at him is more important than living long enough to raise his own daughter. Don't even get me started on his "need" to rescue TJ, who spends much of the book being a racist cunt.
I can't decide if the author secretly wanted to write a gay novel or a war novel, but I wish she'd done either of those. Because the book that was advertised was *not* the book I got. Maddie, especially had very little purpose besides being pushed around, ordered and damn near bullied by the men in her life. First by her father's expectations, then by her brother being an asshole, and then by Lane - the man she sacrifices everything for.
There's so many pointless plot threads that I feel like the book needed a meaner editor. The car accident + mute Dad plot that was resolved by Baby Ex Machina, the romance between Jo and TJ that had very little basis and was a clear case of "rules for thee but not for me" with TJ. And Lane just being an idiot. His daughter NEVER gets to met him because of his fucking pride and his hard on for TJ. TJ a man whose problems are 99% his own doing! He was an angry, vengeful, cunt to his so-called "brother". Also the whole violin career side-trail is just fluff honestly. By the end it felt like a cheap add-on.
I'm just so frustrated because I thought this was going to be an interracial love story about overcoming odds. But it's not. The author says the inspiration was two brothers fighting on different sides of a war, and it shows. I wish the author had the balls (ovaries?) to write just that, rather than shoe-horn in almost non-existent romances where the one who sacrifices the most besides Maddie (meaning Lane), gets the shitty ending. While the guy who's an asshole throughout most of the book gets to live happily ever after.
Lane's death didn't add depth to the book. It just made me mad.
Won't be reading this author again. Really glad I got this one from the library.
I am so disappointed by the book. It's marketed as a historical romance, with the inside summary leading you to believe it's about a young white woman (Maddie) and young Japanese man (Lane / Tomo / Takeshi?) falling in love and marrying just before Pearl Harbor. The book (in my opinion) leads you to believe it's a love saga about the two of them struggling with issues while living together in an internment camp.
It's not. The core of the book is actually a bromance between Lane and Maddie's asshole, self-pitying, manipulative brother, TJ. Can you tell I don't like TJ? I don't, he's a piece of shit. Everything that happens to him is 99% of the time brought on by his own stupid actions, but it's always everyone else's fault.
Lane, at a certain point, isn't much better. Abandoning his family, his wife and his daughter *that he hasn't even met yet* to go serve in a war, because muh pride. He even puts his need to prove he's not the enemy above his own family. So much for Japanese honor and shit. The way white people look at him is more important than living long enough to raise his own daughter. Don't even get me started on his "need" to rescue TJ, who spends much of the book being a racist cunt.
I can't decide if the author secretly wanted to write a gay novel or a war novel, but I wish she'd done either of those. Because the book that was advertised was *not* the book I got. Maddie, especially had very little purpose besides being pushed around, ordered and damn near bullied by the men in her life. First by her father's expectations, then by her brother being an asshole, and then by Lane - the man she sacrifices everything for.
There's so many pointless plot threads that I feel like the book needed a meaner editor. The car accident + mute Dad plot that was resolved by Baby Ex Machina, the romance between Jo and TJ that had very little basis and was a clear case of "rules for thee but not for me" with TJ. And Lane just being an idiot. His daughter NEVER gets to met him because of his fucking pride and his hard on for TJ. TJ a man whose problems are 99% his own doing! He was an angry, vengeful, cunt to his so-called "brother". Also the whole violin career side-trail is just fluff honestly. By the end it felt like a cheap add-on.
I'm just so frustrated because I thought this was going to be an interracial love story about overcoming odds. But it's not. The author says the inspiration was two brothers fighting on different sides of a war, and it shows. I wish the author had the balls (ovaries?) to write just that, rather than shoe-horn in almost non-existent romances where the one who sacrifices the most besides Maddie (meaning Lane), gets the shitty ending. While the guy who's an asshole throughout most of the book gets to live happily ever after.
Lane's death didn't add depth to the book. It just made me mad.
Won't be reading this author again. Really glad I got this one from the library.