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A review by bookish_kristina
Burn for You by J.T. Geissinger
Did not finish book.
DNF @ 60% before they even banged, that’s how bad this was.
This book is why you shouldn’t go into an author’s backlist. This hasn’t aged well, the FMC is a one-dimensional stereotype and the MMC is just rich and broody. Geissinger’s style as an author has improved a lot but this one was hard to read. Since this was released in 2017, I’m not going to elaborate much on my thoughts but let’s just say I concur with the following observations by other reviewers:
1. The FMC is a biracial woman, the cover does not depict this.
2. The FMC was written as a New Orleans stereotype and as I listened to the audio, this was exacerbated x 100 with the female narrator who hit the ‘foghorn leghorn’ ‘woo chil’ southern elements way too hard. I had trouble listening to it, it felt like a cartoon.
3. The villain of the story was a cheating black man, the saviour of the story a rich white one, both competing for Bianca’s affection. Was this necessary?
4. What was the point of having the special needs child Jackson adopted in this book? He was there twice, followed by a harried nanny and was only used to prop up the MMC.
5. A white woman narrated for the woman of colour character… I feel like this is along the lines of other white washing being done by the book cover.
6. The hero was kind of a brooding loser. He was just rich, from a wealthy family. His whole personality was that. He had no job or business of his own and was DESPERATE to marry to keep his trust fund because without it he’d be poor… uh boo fucking hoo, get a job. Or he could work for his family company but he doesn’t want that. JT can and has written way better heroes than him.
7. I think overall more beta readers of colour needed to review this book before it went to market, it was just stereotype after stereotype. If white writers want to write diverse characters, and they should, they should go into it thinking they know little and getting help from the community they are trying to represent. Even co-writing with someone who knows better. Don’t send this garbage into the world and propagate stereotypes just to check off diversity boxes.
8. I cringed a lot in this one. I know it’s older and has aged badly. I also know this author has done worse before in terms of trans and gay people being butts of jokes but her newer stuff seems better. We all grow and learn so I’m not trying to cancel her for this book, but gah it was racist and not a good example of diversity in romance. Don’t read this and think you've read a diverse book, you haven’t. You read a book filled with stereotypes and inaccurate depictions of people of colour.
I’m disappointed in this book, but I’m not disappointed in all the reviewers who have since called out this book!
It gets two stars because the banter was funny.
This book is why you shouldn’t go into an author’s backlist. This hasn’t aged well, the FMC is a one-dimensional stereotype and the MMC is just rich and broody. Geissinger’s style as an author has improved a lot but this one was hard to read. Since this was released in 2017, I’m not going to elaborate much on my thoughts but let’s just say I concur with the following observations by other reviewers:
1. The FMC is a biracial woman, the cover does not depict this.
2. The FMC was written as a New Orleans stereotype and as I listened to the audio, this was exacerbated x 100 with the female narrator who hit the ‘foghorn leghorn’ ‘woo chil’ southern elements way too hard. I had trouble listening to it, it felt like a cartoon.
3. The villain of the story was a cheating black man, the saviour of the story a rich white one, both competing for Bianca’s affection. Was this necessary?
4. What was the point of having the special needs child Jackson adopted in this book? He was there twice, followed by a harried nanny and was only used to prop up the MMC.
5. A white woman narrated for the woman of colour character… I feel like this is along the lines of other white washing being done by the book cover.
6. The hero was kind of a brooding loser. He was just rich, from a wealthy family. His whole personality was that. He had no job or business of his own and was DESPERATE to marry to keep his trust fund because without it he’d be poor… uh boo fucking hoo, get a job. Or he could work for his family company but he doesn’t want that. JT can and has written way better heroes than him.
7. I think overall more beta readers of colour needed to review this book before it went to market, it was just stereotype after stereotype. If white writers want to write diverse characters, and they should, they should go into it thinking they know little and getting help from the community they are trying to represent. Even co-writing with someone who knows better. Don’t send this garbage into the world and propagate stereotypes just to check off diversity boxes.
8. I cringed a lot in this one. I know it’s older and has aged badly. I also know this author has done worse before in terms of trans and gay people being butts of jokes but her newer stuff seems better. We all grow and learn so I’m not trying to cancel her for this book, but gah it was racist and not a good example of diversity in romance. Don’t read this and think you've read a diverse book, you haven’t. You read a book filled with stereotypes and inaccurate depictions of people of colour.
I’m disappointed in this book, but I’m not disappointed in all the reviewers who have since called out this book!
It gets two stars because the banter was funny.