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A review by the_escape_artist_
Lessons in Corruption by Giana Darling
4.0
3.5 stars. Young Jax teller vibes with a book nerd! Yes please. I enjoyed this book and gave me what I want in this type of story. I found the juxtaposition of the older woman who had been groomed and infantilized her entire life with the mature for his years MC prince to be really interesting. Typically I don’t like stories with this kind of dubcon power dynamic (teacher/student) but this story switched the narrative in a unique and interesting way.
Now to the not so good, the reason it isn’t ranked higher for me is because there were certain elements that I HATED. Firstly, I hated the way kings speaking dialogue was written. There is no need for him to drop the possessive pronouns. Lots of writers do this for their “tough guy” characters to make them sound rough around the edges. No one talks like that, regardless of their criminal record and it is super distracting.
Secondly, I hate when writers try to make their bad guys less bad. The MC dealing nothing but weed is laughable. Of course we don’t want our hero dealing meth and trafficking women, but weed only, come on, be bold enough to make those morally grey characters actually morally grey.
Thirdly, why did the rival biker group have to be Mexican? And so stereotypical. When the only brown people in your book are criminals it feels racist, particularly when you’re writing a book that takes place in BC, where nearly half of the province is POC and 30 % are immigrants.
These issues pulled me out of what was otherwise a very good story. I will read the rest of the series, and still recommend this book, just hoping to see a little less of the bad dialogue in the future instalments.
Now to the not so good, the reason it isn’t ranked higher for me is because there were certain elements that I HATED. Firstly, I hated the way kings speaking dialogue was written. There is no need for him to drop the possessive pronouns. Lots of writers do this for their “tough guy” characters to make them sound rough around the edges. No one talks like that, regardless of their criminal record and it is super distracting.
Secondly, I hate when writers try to make their bad guys less bad. The MC dealing nothing but weed is laughable. Of course we don’t want our hero dealing meth and trafficking women, but weed only, come on, be bold enough to make those morally grey characters actually morally grey.
Thirdly, why did the rival biker group have to be Mexican? And so stereotypical. When the only brown people in your book are criminals it feels racist, particularly when you’re writing a book that takes place in BC, where nearly half of the province is POC and 30 % are immigrants.
These issues pulled me out of what was otherwise a very good story. I will read the rest of the series, and still recommend this book, just hoping to see a little less of the bad dialogue in the future instalments.