Painted Faces

by L H Cosway

[Angie]

Painted Faces has some amazing things going for it, but sadly I found the actual romance quite problematic. Freda has just gotten a new neighbor. She hits it off with Nicholas right away as they're both fluent in banter. Freda's roommate has already invited Nicholas to dinner, and then Nicholas invites them to see him perform at a club the next night. Much to Freda's shock, Nicholas is a drag queen!

Painted Faces actually started off quite great. The prologue is an introduction to Nicholas (the rest of the book is Freda's POV) and how he got into drag. It's actually quite heartbreaking and I was definitely interested in learning more about him. Unfortunately, I ended up not being able to stand him and he's the main reason the romance did not work for me at all. However, I did love how sexuality and identity were handled. Nicholas is a drag queen, but he's also straight, and he identifies as a man, but he does need to dress up in order to perform how he wants to. It just goes to show that not everyone fits into nice, neat boxes. Although I was annoyed that Freda said she must have a bit of lesbianism in her, because she's attracted to Nicholas even when he's dressed up.

Now, for the romance portion. Nicholas comes on way too strong. That first day they meet, and he comes over to dinner, he comes up behind Freda and presses himself against her and tells her that he wants to fuck her. She immediately tells him to back the hell off. Does he? No, not really. Throughout the book he continues to touch her and say overtly sexual things to her, one time even getting a slap across the face, and saying it's all in good fun. How about...NO! He just will not stop! It's not sexy! He upsets Freda, and then laughs it off later like it's no big thing.

But even worse than this is that their entire relationship is built around the "No means yes" concept. Freda tells him to stop, slaps him, whatever, but it continues. As they get to know each other, she does find herself wanting to be with Nicholas but deciding it's a bad idea because she doesn't want to get hurt by him. This causes her words to not match up with what she's thinking. She'll say "no" to Nicholas, but in her inner narrative she says that she doesn't want him to stop. Apparently Nicholas is a mind-reader so he doesn't stop! I mean, I totally get that she doesn't mean it when she says no, but the very fact that she's saying no means that he should take that to mean no until she says otherwise!

On that same note, Nicholas tells Freda a couple of times that she does have a choice, or that the choice is up to her about where their relationship goes. Then the next words out of his mouth are "I want you to..." NO! Stop! Her choice! Stop inserting what you want and then taking it, because no means yes! The only time he accepts her choice is when it lines up with what he wants! None of this is romantic to me!

Painted Faces had an absolutely wonderful premise and I loved that it challenges rigid notions of sexuality, but that so-called romance? No. Just no. And I don't mean no in the sense that no means yes. I just mean no.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.