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kingrosereads's review
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
This was a decent, cute, a little steamy “one-night-stand-turned-love” romance.
The story takes place in a fictional town in downtown Atlanta. Rashida is a good critic and Elliot is an architect. Elliot’s handling his father’s business while he’s recovering from a heart attack. They has a very serendipitous meeting in a bar turned one night stand. Rashida wasn’t planning on ever seeing Elliot again. Unfortunately, on of his father’s projects is gentrifying Rashida’s grandmother’s community. It’s pegged as Rashida and Elliot being on opposite sides of this dispute, but really it’s Rashida on one side and Elliot trying to work and compromise with her. Rashida immediately takes up the defensive when she finds out who Elliot is and organizes protests and the sort without attempting to speak with Elliot given he’s not really apart of his father’s company. Elliot wants nothing but to help Rashida and also be with her, and Rashida spends a good portion of the book demonizing Elliot for being like “all men” while fighting her sexual attraction. Eventually, she loses that battle and falls for Elliot as they try to compromise. Of course there’s a miscommunication in the last bit of the book that leads to everything imploding.
I would say this book is an example as to why I don’t like the instalove or miscommunication trope. It just seems to unrealistic and immature. Rashida is this strong, independent woman, yet she’s incredibly insecure and immature when it comes to romance. It was just infuriating when Elliot had been so nice and willing to make life harder for himself just to make her happy.
I don’t think the romance was fleshed out enough. It’s clear they have sexual chemistry but there wasn’t much going on to make me believe they were falling in love. Much of this book focuses on zoning commission and business-type stuff. It was extremely irritating that everything was insinuated. Like the words “gentrification” or “gentrify” were only used a couple of times. And not once was race brought up. Again, just insinuated. Like it’s a Black community that’s being gentrified. A wealthy, white man has bought commercial land to “bring in better businesses” that will “improve the community”. The book’s couple is an interracial couple, like there’s no reason to insinuate that this is a race issue when it clearly is. If your romance book is going to spend more time on the politics and economics of gentrification, then don’t hold back or worry about making people uncomfortable. It felt it was watering down what was happening (“oh this will push out the elderly and the poor”) and not mentioning something that is extremely important and relevant. This is ATLANTA GEORGIA we’re talking about.
There were issues with repetition. Several times there were different things repeated throughout the book that just felt like it should’ve been caught during the editing reprocess (i.e. “The only thing I remembered about my father was a dark skinned man and the smell of mangoes.” Then a few chapters later. “The only thing I remembered about my father was dark skin and the smell of salt and sweat”. It was just weird and obvious since it happened more than once). The resolution was extremely rushed. Between Elliot and his father and Elliot and Rashida. The Reverend and Rashida’s mom didn’t even interact in this book so the whole thing between them was super weird and random. And the thing with Karla and her husband’s unfaithfulness was just randomly there with no development or real reason in being there. To further prove to Rashida the women in her family are cursed when her grandmother had a happy, loving, successful marriage to her grandfather?
I know it seems like there were a lot of negatives, but it was a decent story. I mean Rashida’s grandmother and her friends had me laughing. Elliot was incredibly adorable the cartoon cover does no do him justice. And Rashida was very passionate and funny in her own way. I like Rashida’s relationship with her grandmother and her community. I was let down that she wasn’t as confident in her own body because she was curvy and didn’t have a flat stomach. Just didn’t seem to suit her personality to be so sure in everything else but her love life and her body image.
Sex scenes are more steamy than spicy or smutty. More PG-13 than R. That’s not a criticism that is just for your information.
The bones are there, I just wish the relationship and story were developed more.
The story takes place in a fictional town in downtown Atlanta. Rashida is a good critic and Elliot is an architect. Elliot’s handling his father’s business while he’s recovering from a heart attack. They has a very serendipitous meeting in a bar turned one night stand. Rashida wasn’t planning on ever seeing Elliot again. Unfortunately, on of his father’s projects is gentrifying Rashida’s grandmother’s community. It’s pegged as Rashida and Elliot being on opposite sides of this dispute, but really it’s Rashida on one side and Elliot trying to work and compromise with her. Rashida immediately takes up the defensive when she finds out who Elliot is and organizes protests and the sort without attempting to speak with Elliot given he’s not really apart of his father’s company. Elliot wants nothing but to help Rashida and also be with her, and Rashida spends a good portion of the book demonizing Elliot for being like “all men” while fighting her sexual attraction. Eventually, she loses that battle and falls for Elliot as they try to compromise. Of course there’s a miscommunication in the last bit of the book that leads to everything imploding.
I would say this book is an example as to why I don’t like the instalove or miscommunication trope. It just seems to unrealistic and immature. Rashida is this strong, independent woman, yet she’s incredibly insecure and immature when it comes to romance. It was just infuriating when Elliot had been so nice and willing to make life harder for himself just to make her happy.
I don’t think the romance was fleshed out enough. It’s clear they have sexual chemistry but there wasn’t much going on to make me believe they were falling in love. Much of this book focuses on zoning commission and business-type stuff. It was extremely irritating that everything was insinuated. Like the words “gentrification” or “gentrify” were only used a couple of times. And not once was race brought up. Again, just insinuated. Like it’s a Black community that’s being gentrified. A wealthy, white man has bought commercial land to “bring in better businesses” that will “improve the community”. The book’s couple is an interracial couple, like there’s no reason to insinuate that this is a race issue when it clearly is. If your romance book is going to spend more time on the politics and economics of gentrification, then don’t hold back or worry about making people uncomfortable. It felt it was watering down what was happening (“oh this will push out the elderly and the poor”) and not mentioning something that is extremely important and relevant. This is ATLANTA GEORGIA we’re talking about.
There were issues with repetition. Several times there were different things repeated throughout the book that just felt like it should’ve been caught during the editing reprocess (i.e. “The only thing I remembered about my father was a dark skinned man and the smell of mangoes.” Then a few chapters later. “The only thing I remembered about my father was dark skin and the smell of salt and sweat”. It was just weird and obvious since it happened more than once). The resolution was extremely rushed. Between Elliot and his father and Elliot and Rashida. The Reverend and Rashida’s mom didn’t even interact in this book so the whole thing between them was super weird and random. And the thing with Karla and her husband’s unfaithfulness was just randomly there with no development or real reason in being there. To further prove to Rashida the women in her family are cursed when her grandmother had a happy, loving, successful marriage to her grandfather?
I know it seems like there were a lot of negatives, but it was a decent story. I mean Rashida’s grandmother and her friends had me laughing. Elliot was incredibly adorable the cartoon cover does no do him justice. And Rashida was very passionate and funny in her own way. I like Rashida’s relationship with her grandmother and her community. I was let down that she wasn’t as confident in her own body because she was curvy and didn’t have a flat stomach. Just didn’t seem to suit her personality to be so sure in everything else but her love life and her body image.
Sex scenes are more steamy than spicy or smutty. More PG-13 than R. That’s not a criticism that is just for your information.
The bones are there, I just wish the relationship and story were developed more.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Classism
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