saturnia's Book Journey

I loathed this. Here, have an internet-friendly numbered list all about why:

#1. The FMC is supposedly more than just the one-dimensional object of insta-lust who can manipulate men with a single look, but ultimately her success in this book hinges on her being, well... that. True love = being allowed to be a person? Is that what I'm supposed to take from this?

#2. The MMC is an asshole who thinks he is more enlightened than he is. Yes, that's kind of the point, but unfortunately, the resolutions provided to mitigate this behavior are all wrong. (See more below).

#3. The sex/kink content in this book is not well done, in my opinion. I was glad early on to see that there was a conversation about safe words and that they both seemed at least knowledgeable enough to have that conversation. That is where my approval ends. Why is there never a conversation about hard limits? Why is the MMC allowed to use degrading language while having sex with the FMC and then leave her alone to parse that and wonder if she liked it/work through her feelings/wonder if how he treats her in these moments = how he feels about her? Why is there never any aftercare? It’s not like there isn’t more than one sex scene in this book, and again, we've established that they're both knowledgeable enough to discuss safe words casually, so hello???? Where is the care and conversation?

#4. The domestic violence subplot was NOT well handled. For one, it comes way too late into the story, a fact that could be easily mitigated by the MMC opening up and discussing this stuff earlier, but NO, we can’t have emotional vulnerability from the MMC until he's been fixed! For two, it’s resolved and tied up in a pretty little bow in a jarringly fast fashion, while the idea of therapy afterward is a barely passing thought. 0/10.

#5. Every character who isn’t the FMC, the MMC exists as pure plot convenience. I don’t believe that these people are people so much as they are just plot devices. Villains, victims for the MMC to save so that the MMC looks good, convenient plot devices, overcome-able obstacles. Obviously, characters have to have purposes, but I don’t believe that any of these people ARE people so much as one-dimensional inclusions to drive the plot forward.

#6. This isn’t so much a critique of the book as it is the marketing. Putting this in a “Queer All Year” quest or marketing it as “diverse” when the main relationships on page are all M/F is a choice, and frankly, I don’t think it’s a good one. Labelling people as bisexual or queer is all well and good, but when you don’t bother to represent those relationships on the page, in ANY meaningful relationship throughout the book, even outside the main pairing, it’s a little pointless.

Anyway, I don't think M/F straight-up romance like this is for me.

let's start with the superficial problems first, shall we. the writing style feels like a USian's idea of what a stereotypical Brit talks like and it was irritating from the start, especially the way "bloody" was used so liberally, and it never got better. I also don't know if it's just me, but I don't understand why Ruben has to be from a fictional country that's essentially Denmark-But-Not-Denmark when it's set in the modern world and the language they speak is literally Danish. it's referenced to being in/around Scandinavia and every time details about it just pulled me out of the whole story. if the book was actually good I could have moved past these points, but it wasn't, so I couldn't.

I don't like instalove or instalust stories to start with, but even as their "relationship" developed beyond the initial setup I never felt any chemistry between them beyond Ruben's somewhat-innate urge to fuck Cherry. all of the characters, including the protagonists felt like they had one (1) personality trait each, and nothing more. Harald and Sophy were both cartoon villains and the other side characters were as equally one-dimensional and only served to be plot devices and drag the story along. the domestic/child violence plot came out of left field and felt like a poor attempt to shoehorn another serious topic into the story, with an absolute piss-poor conclusion to top it off.

as much as I love a diverse cast of characters, having a fat Black woman be the protagonist of your romance story does not feel particularly diverse when she still falls into the trap of romance character stereotypes. even with bisexual protagonists, it felt like an afterthought. bi erasure is real and I don't think bi people have to date people of the same gender to be seen as "valid" but bisexuality here is never actually represented in any proper way. it's an offhand comment which sure, it doesn't need to be a big coming out deal, but when there's an entire scandal based around Ruben being bisexual, having said scandal only ever vaguely referenced or danced around and it only ever being implied he slept with a man, there needs to be more. for so much of the marketing to rely on having bi protagonists there was little actual queer representation beyond the few sentences that feel crammed in. having both Cherry and Ruben be bisexual gives even more chance to have sexuality be explored as a theme in this book, but it's so painfully straight and bisexuality so carelessly tossed in as a diversity marker that I literally forgot Cherry was even bi until I was writing this review.

beyond the fact Cherry is not the typical romance protagonist (and I like that), this fell into the pitfall of every single thing I dislike about (modern) romance. Ruben is supposed to be Not Like Other Men when he is in fact, Just Another Man and aside from her appearance, Cherry falls into the "hot bombshell everyone wants to fuck" stereotype it's just not original. the sex scenes also rushed into kink stuff without proper consent/negotiations (no, asking what someone's safeword is as you start engaging in kink stuff does not count) or any aftercare so it just felt uncomfortable. is the "man pines after woman instead of the othee way round" plot that subversive when he ekes submission out of her in the bedroom? not for me.

overall, this book was a mess. it wanted to be a steamy fake-relationship romance while trying to tackle sensitive topics like child/domestic abuse and racism, leaving a hastily added mishmash of clichés and poorly addressed real-life issues behind.