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sophia_sol) wrote2023-01-09 10:03 am
sophia_sol) wrote2023-01-09 10:03 am
Wild Rain, by Beverly Jenkins
EDIT dangit this is a harpercollins book and the strike is still ongoing, I forgot to check before posting this review! I'm not going to take it down at this point but I'm gonna be more vigilant for checking going forward so I don't post any more. Find out more about the HarperCollins union strike here.
Hmmmm this is a case where I see and respect what the book/the author is doing, but didn't actually vibe with it myself, unfortunately.
Wild Rain is a Western romance novel featuring a Black m/f leading couple. Westerns are really not my thing to start with, though I do appreciate that at least the narrative acknowledges Indigenous people and their rights in ways the genre usually hasn't. And as a romance novel, this is one that features high romantic/sexual attraction in the leading couple, with Instant Attraction being a major feature, which is also not my jam as romances go. I do appreciate that Spring and Garrett don't act on their attraction until they know at least something of each other's good qualities, but still. And then they are all in with each other after just a couple weeks of knowing each other!!! I do not get the allos.
And......I don't love Jenkins' writing tbh. The prose is workmanlike bordering on awkward. And although "show don't tell" as advice is an oversimplification, this book could really use a little less telling. It's show AND tell, constantly. I don't remember noticing this in the previous Jenkins books I read, so maybe I'm just not in the right headspace to read past it right now? idk.
The book does have many wonderful features! Including: the portrayal of Black people in history, how seriously it takes sexual assault, the acceptance that not every woman wants children and not every happy ending has a marriage, the friendship between Spring and her sister-in-law, the acknowledgement of the ways a traumatic childhood can affect a person for life, and the way the lead couple were able to trust each other and lean on each other both physically and emotionally.
But although the good things kept me reading, the things that didn't work for me were strong enough that I didn't actually particularly enjoy the book. Which is too bad! I think this would be an excellent read for people who are not me.
Hmmmm this is a case where I see and respect what the book/the author is doing, but didn't actually vibe with it myself, unfortunately.
Wild Rain is a Western romance novel featuring a Black m/f leading couple. Westerns are really not my thing to start with, though I do appreciate that at least the narrative acknowledges Indigenous people and their rights in ways the genre usually hasn't. And as a romance novel, this is one that features high romantic/sexual attraction in the leading couple, with Instant Attraction being a major feature, which is also not my jam as romances go. I do appreciate that Spring and Garrett don't act on their attraction until they know at least something of each other's good qualities, but still. And then they are all in with each other after just a couple weeks of knowing each other!!! I do not get the allos.
And......I don't love Jenkins' writing tbh. The prose is workmanlike bordering on awkward. And although "show don't tell" as advice is an oversimplification, this book could really use a little less telling. It's show AND tell, constantly. I don't remember noticing this in the previous Jenkins books I read, so maybe I'm just not in the right headspace to read past it right now? idk.
The book does have many wonderful features! Including: the portrayal of Black people in history, how seriously it takes sexual assault, the acceptance that not every woman wants children and not every happy ending has a marriage, the friendship between Spring and her sister-in-law, the acknowledgement of the ways a traumatic childhood can affect a person for life, and the way the lead couple were able to trust each other and lean on each other both physically and emotionally.
But although the good things kept me reading, the things that didn't work for me were strong enough that I didn't actually particularly enjoy the book. Which is too bad! I think this would be an excellent read for people who are not me.
no subject
Jenkins is one of those authors whose books (Forbidden, Destiny's Captive) are a delight to dive into.
Random detour is random: one thing that I've noticed is that I've gotten out of the habit of binge-reading thru an author's novels the way I used to some 4-5 yrs or so ago. It's how I got thru most of Ilona Andrews' two main series (the Kate Daniels and the Hidden Legacy)--which was way more enjoyable that I'm making it sound like right now. Currently, if I read an author's books, I gotta way months (sometime even a full year) before picking up another one. Or else I just don't have a good time. Go figure.
Anyways, I just checked and I do have that book in my library queue. There's a 3-month wait right now, so I won't even get the chance to flip thru its digital pages until sometime in early Spring. Such is life!
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I do still occasionally binge-read a particular author (eg Robert Service poetry collections, a couple years back) but yeah, I do a lot less of that than I used to too. Huh, I hadn't really thought about that before!
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We need t-shirts.
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