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A review by jackiehorne
American Love Story by Adriana Herrera
4.0
ARC courtesy of Netgalley
Readers of the previous books in Herrera's Dreamers series, featuring the romances of a group of Latino and Afro-Latino men who grew up together in NYC, have been waiting with bated breath for the details about the relationship between Patrice and Easton, a relationship only hinted at in Nesto's and Camilo's earlier books. Doctoral student Patrice Denis, who came to the U.S. with his mother as a refuge from Haiti, has focused his research on "how people of color experience discrimination through government-sanctioned public policy," while Easton Archer, from an economically privileged white Ithaca NY family, works in that city's district attorney's office. The two should be enemies, right? But their mutual physical attraction led to a hot affair the previous summer—an affair that ended as soon as Patrice stopped visiting his friend Nesto in Ithaca, focused on finishing the last year of his doctorate at Columbia. Easton was disappointed by Patrice's ghosting him, but still, now that Patrice has accepted a tenure-track offer from Cornell, he can't help but anticipate more than the occasionally hook-up from the sexy professor.
Patrice has never had a steady boyfriend—no time, and no emotional energy for all the drama. Especially the drama that would surely come with dating a rich white guy who works for the very institution that his research and activism is trying to disrupt. Thus, the first part of the story falls into that dreaded "no, we can't be together/oh, let's fall into bed/no, we can't be together" loop, a loop that I find particularly annoying no matter the gender of its participants. But when Patrice finally decides that he and Archer should give a relationship a try, the romance becomes far more engaging, with open-hearted Easton laying his emotions all on the line, Patrice still cautious, but taking tentative steps toward greater emotional intimacy.
Easton comes off as a bit too perfect, "woke" in all the right ways despite his DA work—I would have liked to know what led him to become a progressive, and then to take a job in the DA's office in spite of it. Herrera emphasizes Easton's wokeness by showing him prosecuting only one crime—a rape by a white boy of a girl of color—rather than by making Easton entangled in the systemic racism of the government institution in which he is employed. And by positioning readers to feel sympathy for him by making his family constantly belittle his work (they wanted him to work for the family vineyard instead). But as this is a category-length romance, wishing for a more nuanced portrait might be asking for too much.
Patrice is more subtly drawn—a quiet, thoughtful man, one who prefers to think before he speaks. But that quietness also often masks a deep anger at the injustices immigrants and people of color suffer in a country that is supposed to be the "land of the free," an anger that Patrice, a large, dark-skinned man, has learned will only lead to more injustice if he has the audacity to give voice to it out loud. That repressed anger, as well as his abandonment issues (his father kept his mother as a mistress, and, though he paid for the two of them to leave Haiti in the wake of the '91 coup, he was never actively involved in their lives), make Patrice's unwillingness to engage in any deep relationship with a potential romantic partner more than understandable.
The external plotline focuses on the racial profiling that the Ithaca police department is doing in recent traffic stops, Patrice's Tweeting and organizing to protest it, and Easton's wariness to speak out publicly about it, despite personally finding it objectionable. Easton's filling in as DA while his female gay mentor is recovering from heart surgery, and she pressures him to remain quiet so that the office can maintain a productive working relationship with the police. Needless to say, Patrice isn't happy about Easton's unwillingness to take a stand. And Easton isn't happy about Patrice's tendency to push him away at the first sign of disagreement or disappointment.
Herrera is particularly good at conveying the real anxiety and fear that people of color have about encountering the police during traffic stops—especially when the predictable happens to Patrice...
Another strong entry in a series with protagonists, and issues, that have far too rarely been featured in traditionally-published romance in the past.
Readers of the previous books in Herrera's Dreamers series, featuring the romances of a group of Latino and Afro-Latino men who grew up together in NYC, have been waiting with bated breath for the details about the relationship between Patrice and Easton, a relationship only hinted at in Nesto's and Camilo's earlier books. Doctoral student Patrice Denis, who came to the U.S. with his mother as a refuge from Haiti, has focused his research on "how people of color experience discrimination through government-sanctioned public policy," while Easton Archer, from an economically privileged white Ithaca NY family, works in that city's district attorney's office. The two should be enemies, right? But their mutual physical attraction led to a hot affair the previous summer—an affair that ended as soon as Patrice stopped visiting his friend Nesto in Ithaca, focused on finishing the last year of his doctorate at Columbia. Easton was disappointed by Patrice's ghosting him, but still, now that Patrice has accepted a tenure-track offer from Cornell, he can't help but anticipate more than the occasionally hook-up from the sexy professor.
Patrice has never had a steady boyfriend—no time, and no emotional energy for all the drama. Especially the drama that would surely come with dating a rich white guy who works for the very institution that his research and activism is trying to disrupt. Thus, the first part of the story falls into that dreaded "no, we can't be together/oh, let's fall into bed/no, we can't be together" loop, a loop that I find particularly annoying no matter the gender of its participants. But when Patrice finally decides that he and Archer should give a relationship a try, the romance becomes far more engaging, with open-hearted Easton laying his emotions all on the line, Patrice still cautious, but taking tentative steps toward greater emotional intimacy.
Easton comes off as a bit too perfect, "woke" in all the right ways despite his DA work—I would have liked to know what led him to become a progressive, and then to take a job in the DA's office in spite of it. Herrera emphasizes Easton's wokeness by showing him prosecuting only one crime—a rape by a white boy of a girl of color—rather than by making Easton entangled in the systemic racism of the government institution in which he is employed. And by positioning readers to feel sympathy for him by making his family constantly belittle his work (they wanted him to work for the family vineyard instead). But as this is a category-length romance, wishing for a more nuanced portrait might be asking for too much.
Patrice is more subtly drawn—a quiet, thoughtful man, one who prefers to think before he speaks. But that quietness also often masks a deep anger at the injustices immigrants and people of color suffer in a country that is supposed to be the "land of the free," an anger that Patrice, a large, dark-skinned man, has learned will only lead to more injustice if he has the audacity to give voice to it out loud. That repressed anger, as well as his abandonment issues (his father kept his mother as a mistress, and, though he paid for the two of them to leave Haiti in the wake of the '91 coup, he was never actively involved in their lives), make Patrice's unwillingness to engage in any deep relationship with a potential romantic partner more than understandable.
The external plotline focuses on the racial profiling that the Ithaca police department is doing in recent traffic stops, Patrice's Tweeting and organizing to protest it, and Easton's wariness to speak out publicly about it, despite personally finding it objectionable. Easton's filling in as DA while his female gay mentor is recovering from heart surgery, and she pressures him to remain quiet so that the office can maintain a productive working relationship with the police. Needless to say, Patrice isn't happy about Easton's unwillingness to take a stand. And Easton isn't happy about Patrice's tendency to push him away at the first sign of disagreement or disappointment.
Herrera is particularly good at conveying the real anxiety and fear that people of color have about encountering the police during traffic stops—especially when the predictable happens to Patrice...
Another strong entry in a series with protagonists, and issues, that have far too rarely been featured in traditionally-published romance in the past.