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A review by katykelly
Love Again by Rasheda Ashanti Malcolm
3.0
Flawed premise, some affecting scenes, not a stand-out.
I had very mixed feelings whilst listening to ‘Love Again’. Romances aren’t really something I dabble in much, they really have to capture me with a particularly memorable female or irresistible male. Too often they fit patterns that means they are predictable and just one of a very crowded market.
‘Love Again’ tries to be different. But I can’t say that does it any favours’ at least for me. Honey is 30, living with her mother and step-father still and her mother is trying to find her a husband. This both annoyed me and made the book anachronistic - this plot device would suit something set in a culture or a time where this was common. To bring Ashley into Honey’s life, where she persuades him to pretend to be dating her, to get her mother to desist with her suggestions? It just seemed forced.
Honey actually annoyed me, created to be a strong character but to me she just seemed prickly and slightly condescending. Ashley might not be Mr Darcy, but he’s a perfectly decent man, clearly attracted to her. Her rebuffs weren’t that realistic as the text even gives us multiple clues of her attraction that she too acknowledges.
With a gang of friends that every good rom-com has, Honey’s are outside of the usual mould, and seemed overdone to be as far from what you’d expect as possible, rather eye-opening in their appearance as under-represented groups. There are some stories there that actually caught my interest more than Honey’s.
Ashley had my sympathy. There is another potential love interest, a little too obviously unsuitable and the plot gives Ashley all the advantages, some directions stir emotion in ways that made me feel manipulated. With a few scenes that were affecting, Honey also changes her mind about her plans and every time you see it coming.
Maybe this type of book just isn’t for me, There is only so much you can do within this genre. As audiobooks go, the narrator tries valiantly with the male voices but you can’t ever forget that it’s a woman voicing them and I’m afraid I didn’t like the voicing of the men characters. The young women fared much better, and the structure and narrative style made this a very suitable choice for an audio read. It’s also fairly brief, and pleasant enough.
For me though, I couldn’t help but continually critique. I didnt’t like the idea or how it was carried through, and no one character took it above the average.
With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.
I had very mixed feelings whilst listening to ‘Love Again’. Romances aren’t really something I dabble in much, they really have to capture me with a particularly memorable female or irresistible male. Too often they fit patterns that means they are predictable and just one of a very crowded market.
‘Love Again’ tries to be different. But I can’t say that does it any favours’ at least for me. Honey is 30, living with her mother and step-father still and her mother is trying to find her a husband. This both annoyed me and made the book anachronistic - this plot device would suit something set in a culture or a time where this was common. To bring Ashley into Honey’s life, where she persuades him to pretend to be dating her, to get her mother to desist with her suggestions? It just seemed forced.
Honey actually annoyed me, created to be a strong character but to me she just seemed prickly and slightly condescending. Ashley might not be Mr Darcy, but he’s a perfectly decent man, clearly attracted to her. Her rebuffs weren’t that realistic as the text even gives us multiple clues of her attraction that she too acknowledges.
With a gang of friends that every good rom-com has, Honey’s are outside of the usual mould, and seemed overdone to be as far from what you’d expect as possible, rather eye-opening in their appearance as under-represented groups. There are some stories there that actually caught my interest more than Honey’s.
Ashley had my sympathy. There is another potential love interest, a little too obviously unsuitable and the plot gives Ashley all the advantages, some directions stir emotion in ways that made me feel manipulated. With a few scenes that were affecting, Honey also changes her mind about her plans and every time you see it coming.
Maybe this type of book just isn’t for me, There is only so much you can do within this genre. As audiobooks go, the narrator tries valiantly with the male voices but you can’t ever forget that it’s a woman voicing them and I’m afraid I didn’t like the voicing of the men characters. The young women fared much better, and the structure and narrative style made this a very suitable choice for an audio read. It’s also fairly brief, and pleasant enough.
For me though, I couldn’t help but continually critique. I didnt’t like the idea or how it was carried through, and no one character took it above the average.
With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.