What happens when you combine a no-nonsense woman who knows what she wants, the man she’s been pining after for years, a meddling little sister, a birthday celebration,and a surprise cameo by Carole Baskin?
Dylan St. Jaymes
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One of the things you have to know about me to understand my adoration for this novel is that I LOVE “trash” reality shows: The Chasing series, The Housewives Franchise, OG Real World and the messiest of all: MTV’s Catfish. So a book based off two people falling for one another while catching a catfish? Right up my alley.
I am not a fan of first person POV. In fact, I am known to click right out of a sample or fanfic when first person POV enters the chat. I am also the head cheerleader for #TeamDualPOV. So, the fact that this book is written in first person and entirely in Desta’s POV and I did not care is a pretty big indication of just how much I enjoyed it.
I’m a fan of both comics and romance, so when I heard about Blaze I knew I had to pick it up. Finding out that both of the MC’s were Black men and the story incorporated kink were added bonuses.There’s a lot about this book I liked and a few things I didn’t, but overall it was a fun read.
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Danny Griffin is a talented artist with a sunny disposition, an uncanny ability to attract trouble and a desire to explore his submissive tendencies. It’s the latter that sends him down a dark street and into the path of three knife wielding attackers. Luckily for Danny, and unluckily for them, St. Louis superhero Blaze is out patrolling and rescues Danny from certain doom. There’s an instant chemistry and attraction between the two and even though Blaze sends Danny safely on his way, he can’t let go and engineers a way to see him again by buying Danny a membership to the kink club he belongs to.
Between the stress of her job, her emotionally distant fiance, his overbearingly bougie parents, and her disapproving mother, Antonia Harper is struggling to muster up even the tiniest bit of her Black Girl Magic. Antonia’s never met a personal conflict she wanted to deal with head on, so she does her best ostrich impression until everything, and I mean everything, in her life implodes.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a resident of Romancelandia in possession of a few hours of free time, must be in want of their next great read. It’s a also a truth, less universally acknowledged, that in order for that read to qualify as “great” it also has to be, on some level, relatable. And it is a bitter truth, often whispered but rarely acknowledged, that “relatable” is frequently coded language for white. While we would all like to think a community built on love and the belief that everyone deserves to live happily ever is devoid of the soul crushing inhumanity of racism and prejudice, that is simply not true.
If Virginia is for lovers, then Romancelandia is for dreamers. We live in a world that’s uncertain and often unfair and while a lot of us are putting in the work the change the things we can no longer accept, sometimes we need to rest and reset. And in those times we dream of escaping to a place where we know, in the end, love really will conquer all. Romancelandia is that place. It’s a place where good always (eventually) triumphs over evil, everyone finds their soulmate(s), and “they lived happily ever after” isn’t an ending— it’s a promise.
Sometimes the most unexpected combinations make the best pairings and no one knows this better than the residents of Romancelandia. Opposites attract is a time honored and battle tested trope that helped create the very foundation our fair city rests on. Knowing that we love our opposites-attract romances the way citizens of Shondaland love popcorn and wine, Crystal B. Bright (yes, that is her actual factual legal name) offers her unique take on the trope by pairing sultry R&B divas with good ole country boys for her Love & Harmony series.
