An entertaining and sweet audiobook with diverse characters
I liked the concept of this book very much, the idea of a fake relationship in the context of a reality TV show is something I haven’t seen before. I’m not a fan of reality TV but I don’t mind reading about it so I recommend it even if this is not to your liking, especially if you enjoy the fake relationship trope.
D’Vaughn and Kris are paired as a soon-to-marry couple on the TV reality show Instant I do. In six weeks they have to convince their families that they are in love, engaged and planning their impending wedding. When both families buy into the idea and as both women get to know each other, the lines between fake and real start to blur…
This is a very enjoyable and feel-good butch-femme story in the fake relationship trope. What I liked most about this book is the cast of characters, mains and secondary alike, especially in its diversity. D’Vaughn and her family are African American and Kris is Hispanic. Additionally, D’Vaughn is a plus-size lady which is always great to read about as they are normally underrepresented in Sapphic fiction.
As Kris is Hispanic, this book has a few sentences in Spanish which are contextualized in English, so you don’t need to be bilingual to understand everything. However, there is some grammatical gender confusion that possibly comes from the written version and I don’t think is related to a gender-neutral approach to Kris because she’s referred to as male or female on different occasions. It confused me as a native Spanish speaker but I’m sure most English readers won’t notice anyway.
This is the first time I listened to Rebecca Lee narrating. I liked her general performance of emotions though I sometimes got confused with some voices. As I said above, this book has a few sentences in Spanish and even though the narrator doesn’t sound like a native speaker she does a good job. She shines mostly in the performance of some characters, especially when there is humor and histrionics involved.
Overall, an entertaining and sweet audiobook with diverse characters. 4 stars.
Length: 8 hours, 47 minutes.
