Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - D'Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding

Love is blind meets married at first sight meets sapphic rom-com!!

This book was SO stinking cute and so well written!

Our MCs sign up for a game show, to convince their families that they are getting married for a chance to each win $100,000.

The only flaw in their plan? Each of them begin to question what’s real and what is reality tv?

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lisacanteven's review

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I really loved this book until the church scene. I am healed from my religious trauma, but that doesn't mean I want to read a book with an unrealistic scene inside a church. It almost felt like the author is trying to redeem the church, redeem christianity altogether. I didn't like it. I thought if I could get past that scene the rest would be okay. But then in the next chapter, the other POV is recapping the church scene and is even more Christian-coded. I just didn't want to wait around while low-key being preached to and shown that Christians can be good people. Please, I don't need a Christian redemption arc.

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arkwen452's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book! D'Vaughn & Kris Plan a Wedding is sweet, funny, emotional and offers readers the classical twist of love-based reality shows--only we get to watch our couple actually fall in love! I have not read a lot of Sapphic romance books because of the male-gaze and patriarchal stereotypes that I've grown up seeing. Now, I cannot wait to find more books like this one.

Even with the lite tone and vie of the this book, there are some serious topics that our characters bring to the table; such as D'Vaughn using the show to come-out to her family and Kris, who is attractive, has a huge social media following and very comfortable in her skin wanting to find real love while using the show as her starting point. Of the pair, I connected with D'Vaughn the most. Like her I am generally shy and while I announced my Bi-sexuality in the presence of my family, it was not planned or a conscious choice. Instead in response to something completely unrelated in the mist of a heated discussion about someone else. So her choice to use the show to help her take such a huge step, I could understand.

The little Jitter Cam snibbits were my fave parts between the chapters. In my opinion as a mood reader, it's rare to find a book you want to keep on your permanent re-read list.

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thissagreads's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Let me start by saying, I REALLY don’t like romance books. That’s no mystery , no thrill, no “gasp” moments so it’s kind of boring in my opinion. Plus, there were things that felt cringey as I read, like the constant pet names that Kris would use (it drove me bonkers) and the fact that

D’Vaughn was using the reality tv show as a way to come out to her mom

it was so lame and predictable. And I really hate the trope of someone

who’s closeted, telling their parents and then they have this whole sad and/or angry vibe throughout most of the damn story. It’s overdone!!! Can we get more ladies loving ladies who are already out PLEASE?

Unfortunately there we’re many times this book felt like it was panning to passive aggressively stand up and lobby for LGBTQIA rights and it felt like common sense (I’m speaking from personal, VERY GAY experience).

I gave this book 2 stars for the concept of the story, and for the spicy scenes between the two main characters Kris and D’Vaughn.

And I’m not sure if it was for that reason, plus the cheesy romance that made me STRUGGLE to finish this book, but it definitely reminded me why I don’t care for romance books.

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kyeruhh's review

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emotional lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I misunderstood the premise of this book (I thought the MCs were already friends) so admittedly I was a bit confused in the beginning. The plot moved very quickly and the relationship between the characters wasn’t quite insta-love but definitely close to it, which I tend not to be a fan of. I also expected it to be more angsty but it just wasn’t. The characters were pretty emotionally intelligent which, while refreshing, wasn’t the reality TV messiness I was hoping for. That’s said, I liked all of the characters in the book including the extended cast and thought the familial relationships and friendships between them were really sweet.

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