As soon as I read the synopsis, I thought three things:
1. Oh this sounds problematic af
2. I wonder if it’s going to be like “Chasing Amy” (the movie)
3. I gotta read this
I’ve liked the other Ni’ssan books that I’ve read so I was nervous that this book was going to make me not want to read anything else by her. Given the synopsis, the storyline could’ve easily gone the full-on homophobic route with Cool trying to “turn Bebe out” or whatever, but Ni’ssan didn’t do that.
Now, there are a few characters in “Keepin’ It Cool” who are homophobic and used a gay slur for lesbian all willy-nilly but, again, the overall tone of the book wasn’t homophobic. It was about two people who fell in love without trying and one of them trying to figure out their sexuality.
(Side note: When Cool finally revealed what TD meant, I can’t even lie. I laughed 😂)
Also if you’ve seen “Chasing Amy”, this book is not that. At a young age, Bebe realized she was attracted to men and women but chose to only date women because a dude she had a crush on called her an “ugly [insert slur for lesbian]”. After that, Bebe was essentially like “fuck men” and started dressing more masculine and dating women exclusively. Pretty much Bebe was bi but didn’t want to acknowledge it.
Cool and Bebe together were cute. I liked how sprung Cool was over Bebe; however, I didn’t like that Cool would refer to Bebe as “his bitch”. (If you’re wondering, Cool is the typical alpha MMC in an urban romance so he’s pretty problematic.) I was also thoroughly entertained by Cool and Bebe. Those two didn’t play behind one another and would whoop anybody’s ass if needed.
Cool’s nickname shoulda been Psycho or some shit. He was chill about his approach to situations but this 🥷🏾 was off his rocker for real. He consistently lost his shit and would keep a calm demeanor…unless someone disrespected Bebe or was Wacko. Then all bets were off. And Bebe was disrespected A LOT.
There was a whole lotta, whole lotta going on within the pages of “Keepin’ It Cool”. I wasn’t ever bored while reading it. I don’t want to give anything away but I’ll just say whenever Cool and Bebe would leave their little bubble, some shit was going down.