Welcome Back, Booklovers! So earlier this month I read Jadesola James' Redeemed by his New York Cinderella. Well shortly after that her debut book The Sweetest Charade went on sale. I'd heard some good things about it so I decide why not read it right away?
The Sweetest Charade follows an influencer named Delysia Daniels who tags a professor named Dr. Alexander Abbott-Hill in a suggestive social media post. Once the picture goes viral and gossip starts circulating around campus Dr. Abbott-Hill reaches out to Ms. Daniels with threats to sue. Delysia's publicist comes up with a wild idea to have the two of them fake date after their implied relationship has brought them both 1000s of new followers and brands offering sponsorships.
Alexander has been working on a restoring an old luxury train that belonged to his family and Amtrak is calling now offering to fund his endeavors. So he agrees to the ruse and soon discovers that keeping up with Delysia's lifestyle is not easy. There's event appearances, planned content, and brands offering him freebies. And as they spend more time together it's clear there are feelings there that can't be ignored. Then a luxury trip designed to promote the restored train puts them in close quarters for a few weeks.
So Dr. Abbott-Hill was very pompous. But at the same time the author didn't want to lean into his clearly old money background. And I wish she would've gone more into it. He states he grew up fairly normal and is the poor cousin but his family's name carries a lot of weight around NYC and even the Philadelphia area. He's able to get into SoHo Lounge because they carry his family's wine as their house brand. His family has a name in the theatre scene in Philadelphia. It was said they once had a successful rail business. So there was no need for the random faux humble statements to downplay it. He may not have been into designer clothes but he and his family are very much about status. You go into the story thinking it's just a professor and influencer and that's the reason they're worlds apart. But the biggest gap between them was that he came across as much older though I'm not sure what their age difference was supposed to be. And she was new money and lived a flashier lifestyle, at least online.
I wasn't surprised to read that Jadesola James is a research librarian and to see her research cited after the story. You could tell she was really into the parts about the train and took care in describing all the details. Also the all expenses paid luxury train trip to different US cities is definitely my dream. It was a very unique element that I've never seen in a romance before.
This book was not that many pages but it felt lengthy at times because of the pacing. When the pace was fast I was speeding through it. But it would randomly slow down to try and make it a slow burn. It made it easier to put down the book. The chemistry between Alexander and Delysia is what kept me reading. Plus I found Delysia interesting and relatable There was a lot of depth to her character and I enjoyed reading about her struggling with her insecurities about her career path and her mother's health. She's also used to switching personas to portray a completely different person online than offline. While online she's very boisterous, offline she was quiet and reserved.
Also there was way too much blushing in this book with descriptions of the leads turning crimson from cheeks to ears. I'm not saying Black people can't blush just that unlike pale skinned white people you don't tend to see it on our faces the way you see them turning bright red. I don't care how light skinned these characters were supposed to be. It would've made more sense to describe how their facial expressions changed. Or just about the heat rising to their cheeks. Or getting that fluttering feeling.
The timeline was also kind of off. How was he able to take weeks off towards the end of the semester for the influencer luxury train ride? Because it was taking place around Thanksgiving. And then somehow later he's able to take off for months to Dubai during the semester. When at the beginning of the book it's stressed his job isn't even in good standing due to poor student evaluations.
Overall it was interesting and the sex scenes were well written. I just wasn't pining for Alexander and his pretentiousness.
Enjoyed the review
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