inlibrisveritas
Written on Apr 23, 2020
First about the meat of the book the romance. The romance itself is one that is very telegraphed at the beginning of the book and its one that is constantly harped on throughout the beginning chapters without them really even speaking to each other. They keep saying their good together, but over the course of 200+ pages, I kept seeing them not communicate with each other and practice toxic behavior. Jaxon is possessive, extraordinarily possessive. She can barely talk to another guy without him edging in or glaring at them. He also was incredibly pushy about her opening up about past trauma revolving around her parents' deaths. I get that it was supposed to come off as this firm sort of support, but given the conversation before it and the fight they had, it came off as yet another instance where he forced her to toe the line of his expectations.
This brings in point two, the fact that Em is a person who is sexually independent. This was a point I was all for at the beginning. Until she started slut-shaming any girl who didn't hear that was interested in any of the men in her life. The number of times "sorority bimbos" was used was incredibly frustrating. You can't preach about how you just like sex and there isn't anything wrong with that, but then turn around and insult someone because they also like it.
Point three, or the point that made we want to throw my entire phone away. The generalization of the entire continent of Africa. Em is set to go on a humanitarian trip to Africa for an internship. It is never mentioned what country, who she will be helping, or what they will be doing. What is said is that Jaxon thinks it's dangerous and that Em thinks that's the point and to also bring to light all the people the rest of the world has forgotten. She also thinks they need a ton of supplies to survive there. Africa has metropolitan cities, they have an economy, and everything else that exist in those "glamorous" places that Jaxon mentioned. Do they have crime? Yep. Do they have poverty? Sure. So does South America, Europe, and Asia...but they are not defined by it. So why is the entire continent of Africa suddenly vastly unsafe? This honestly could have been prevented by providing more context and by changing up the dialogue surrounding it. You don't get humanitarian points and you don't convince me of your character's golden heart by shipping them off to an entire continent for a vague internship in a supposedly dangerous area that's never fucking mentioned. You could have literally had her work within California at a homeless shelter or with a service that provides meals to the elderly who can no longer shop for themselves and it would have worked 100000% better.
I could write a damn thesis on why these little vague generalizations are not okay. *exhales*
In the end, I'm incredibly disappointed with this one and I think it's best for all involved if I don't continue with the series.
