whitneydaniell

by: Zariah L. Banks
Published: Mar 23, 2023
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction
358 Pages, E-Book ARC Courtesy of NetGalley
GoodReads Link

As much as I wanted to enjoy this book (for multiple reasons), I just didn’t, for multiple reasons. I wanted to like it because I enjoy stories about black people, black culture, and black love but, this was not that.

The first thing I couldn’t get past was the writing style of the author. I have not read any other Zariah L. Banks novels but, if this story is any indication of her writing style, I would have to respectfully not engage. Of all the highlights and annotations I did in this book, 99.9% of them were surrounding her use of certain words and her writing style. Here are a few words I had questions about:

• “Dead-ass facts” – New York City people, isn’t “deadass” and “facts” the same in this context? Like redundant? Get back to me.
• “I’m not gon’ cap.” – Do twenty-somethings speak like this? I wouldn’t know, I’m a thirty-something. Let me know.
• “On fleek” – Is this still a thing?
• “Gully” – pretty sure this is a 90s thing.
• “Respeck” – Just. Make. It. Stop

Then, there are the awfully written sex scenes. THRASHING. JOYSTICK. YONI. APRIL. SLIPPERY FOLDS. ROOFTOP. Literally, nothing about the writing of the sex scenes was appealing. Every word made me cringe.

Number Three. Patience is immature, emotionally inept, and so far from self-aware. She admitted to taking a backseat to her ex while propping him up and forgetting about her own needs. Then leaves that situationship for another, with no time in between to figure out herself. That bothered me. Patience needs therapy badly but instead, the people in her life just overlook her bad behavior, Lennox included.

My Final Thoughts: Don’t read this if you don’t have to.

One-Word Summary: Deadass