As an avid romance reader and a black woman, I am constantly on the lookout for good books featuring main characters that don’t feed into unfortunate stereotypes about black people. Unfortunately, this book did not meet that criterion. I really wanted to like this book, and overall it was okay. But it was nowhere near being as good as the reviews I read would have me believe.
Chase’s character is an unrealistic caricature of a successful thirty something playboy. His behavior is that of a college kid and his attitude and treatment of women is horrible. After he starts dating Madison, Chase repeatedly reminds the reader that he’s never before had a real conversation with a woman or cared what one had to say. His behavior after the bet comes to light isn’t much better. What’s worse is that his family completely enable Chase’s behavior at the beginning, all the while saying Chase needs to grow up. Then the males of the family come up with the bright idea of a bet to have Chase date a woman of their choosing for 6 months. They have no regard for the woman involved, which is especially bad given that they know Madison is just now recovering from the death of her husband and kids. After making the bet, the males bemoan how Chase is playing with her and going to break her heart, but do absolutely nothing to stop it. To the contrary, at one point, they go so far as to up the ante. This made it very frustrating to read scenes involving Chase’s brother and father.
Also, the author’s treatment toward the end of the book of an admittedly unlikable side character’s history is downright disturbing. I don’t want to spoil anything for those who want to read the book, but in a part that I’m sure the author thought the reader would be cheering on Madison, I instead found myself wondering if Madison had any basic human decency. This was the first book I’ve read by Anna Black and although I didn’t hate the book, it will probably be the last one I read by her.