The heart wants what the heart wants, and our hearts want books.

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Darling Readers, we invite you to gird your loins as the beginning of Maas Distraction 2023 is upon us. In the coming week we shall begin our re-read of the Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas. If you would like to join us on the adventure you know where to find us on Instagram and Facebook. We’ll keep the world posted there.

I have some disclaimers I want to introduce about today’s title.  While You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi was nominated for Best Romance in the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards, if I ask for a romance novel, and you recommend this, I will have so much judgment on your reading tastes.  Technically, there is a romance, and there is a HEA, HOWEVER, this is NOT the romance novel I was looking for!  I wouldn’t hesitate to describe it as a love story, though.  Also, this was not the right book for me at the time I read it.  I was, and am, experiencing my own grief at the loss of a close friend, and grieving for the loss experienced by his wife, children, and family.  Reading a book I didn’t know (or more accurately didn’t remember) was about grief wasn’t the greatest of choices, and my review will be influenced by that.  My view on how this title is not representative of the romance genre and shouldn’t be classified as such stands separate from that, and I’ll expound upon it below.  

If one reads the marketing copy (which I sometimes do, and almost never remember), one knows You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi is the story of Feyi as she journeys into becoming a person after the loss of her husband.  She has an amazing cheerleader and sounding board in her BFF / roommate Joy, and she’s putting one foot in front of the other.  Antics occur, and she finds herself dating a great guy who arranges for her to have an amazing opportunity to exhibit her art and a fabulous stay in a luxury home on a tropical island, complete with a live-in celebrity chef, his dad.  While the story revolves around Feyi finding her new self, and figuring out how to proceed when she has a crush on her not-quite-boyfriend’s dad, it’s truly about so much more than that.  Themes include grief, overcoming, healing, family, friendship, maturity, and the parent-child relationship.  I really enjoyed the way art and cuisine showed up in the background in a big way for the characters in this title.  

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty is a fabulously written title, with lush descriptions of the scenery from the brownstone in New York to the vibrant sunrises and everything in between.  The supporting characters are dimensional, even though Feyi is the focus, and I really liked Joy, Nasir, and Alim being so thoughtfully and thoroughly described to the reader.  While I’m definitely interested in reading more from Emezi, I am not going to reread this title.  As I mentioned, it was the wrong book at the wrong time for me, I think it’s more than that.  I couldn’t find anyone to root for in this title.  Feyi seemed to be leaping without looking or considering on quite a few occasions, with no thought of the consequences.  She’s just barreling through life, and it really bothered me.  Alim is somewhat of a tragic figure, but I also take issue with some of what has happened in his life off the page, and I just struggle.  I think I’d have had less of a hard time during another time, but my rating is affected by how I experience each book, so this one is getting three stars from me.  It’s beautifully executed, but I don’t like it.  That is what my issue with calling You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty a romance novel – I had no emotional satisfaction at the end of this title.  I’m wondering what in the crazy pants is going to happen next and how in the world there’s an uplifting epilogue for these two, because it’s not on the page.  I’m also sure the lack of bow didn’t help my lack of adoration for this text.

What’s a title you appreciate for the execution, but didn’t enjoy?

~Nikki 

Akwaeke Emezi is a Nigerian-born multidisciplinary artist and writer who was called a Next Generation Leader by TIME Magazine, is a National Book Foundation ‘5 under 35’ honoree, and has given talks at such prestigious locales as Princeton University, Meta, and MoMA to name a few. They have seven published works in multiple genres including today’s romance title and another fiction title, two YA titles, a poetry collection, and two autobiographical works which includes their debut, semi-autobiographical novel, Freshwater. Emezi is a multiple times New York Times Bestselling author, Freshwater was long-listed for the Carnegie Medal of Excellence and the Women’s Prize for Fiction, named a Best book of 2018 by multiple entities, and won multiple awards and was as finalist for numerous other awards and accolades. Emezi was awarded a Global Arts Fund Grant in 2017 for their video art, a 2017 Sozopol Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction. The screen rights for You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty were won at auction for Amazon Studios spearheaded by Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society production company. They have been photographed by Annie Leibovitz, graced the cover of TIME Magazine, and profiled in the February 2018 issue of Vogue.

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty was an escapist read for me. Nikki found a mirror with the grief of the characters and her (our) grief of recent loss, whereas I focused on Feyi’s process of finding her joy in what life has left her. The joy of her friends, her lovers, and the joy of finding someone who sees and loves the person you are – not the person they want you to be. I really resonated with Feyi’s lack of confidence in her career progression. The entire reason for her going on an island trip with Nasir was because her art was to be shown at a gallery with other Black artists. By this account, she is a successful contemporary artist whose work is known by curators, collectors, and patrons outside of the Northeast United States. The following line was a mirror for me: “A brief pang of envy shot through her—so much of her time was spent in uncertainty, wondering if she could be doing more with her work, if she was just coasting while funded with blood money.” I ask a similar question all the time, coasting on my husband’s income while I struggle to fund my business and supplement his income while still being asked for and looked to for advice and guidance from friends, clients, and other agents. I’m busy all the time but not always with actions that will produce income now. I tell myself I am planting seeds, but there are only so many seeds that will actually grow into something fruitful. 

Truthfully, I loved You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty. It is raw and messy and inherently human. I had been in a bit of a reading slump (still kind of am, truthfully, it’s hard to find the proper escapist reads that I don’t know I need until I start them, but I digress) and it helped me lose myself in something so different from my reality that I barely put the book down. I read the majority of it in about two sittings. I’m giving Emezi’s genre-bending romance novel 4 stars. It more than exceeded expectations, but I am also not likely to re-read it, nor would I recommend it to someone looking for a ‘romance novel.’ At the back of the book there’s a transcript of “A Conversation with Akwaeke Emezi” and there is this answer that I just adored:

Who doesn’t want to read a DILF novel?? (Actually, quite a few people.) In the words of the Marie Kondo meme, I love mess. I think it’s fascinating what people will do when they prioritize their pleasure.

And what is JOY except the pleasure of the soul?

~Ashley

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The following post includes affiliate links. More details here.  As you’re doing your Amazon shopping, we’d be ever so grateful if you’d use our affiliate link to do so as it helps pay the bills around here!

Darling readers, it’s bad when I’ve had a book checked out for three weeks and just remembered why I looked it up on a whim.  Had I heard about Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston way back when it first came out?  Yes.  But not super interested.  Then Amazon announced the movie is coming out in August, and color me interested (pun intended) because I do enjoy reading the book before watching the movie.  I WAS NOT READY and now, I want everyone to read this…well, everyone who can handle some open door scenes, even if it means skimming.

In Red, White and Royal Blue, which was published in 2019, we have the college senior and First Son of the United States, Alex Clairmont-Diaz, literally crashing into His Royal Highness Prince Henry, the spare, at a Royal Wedding and hijinks ensue. The novel is from Alex’s perspective and he loathes Henry and all he stands for in this enemies to lovers, fake friendship novel.  I don’t normally go for college-age romances, but when you put one of the leads as FSOTUS and he’s very into politics (my major) and you make it during a campaign to get his MOM reelected… I’m HERE FOR IT.  

But wait there’s more!  Yup, McQuiston takes these two public figures, gives them dimension, a fabulous supporting cast, and snappy dialogue. I raced through it, despite having four titles in progress while reading Red, White and Royal Blue.  There is so much to love in this novel, including the scenes in which McQuiston paints in their vision for what the 2020 election could look like (without the pandemic – which is why I pointed out the 2019 pub date), how being a public figure can alter the way people parent their children, the importance of a core friend group, and antics famous people engage in for a good time, or to win a bet.  Just like Senator Diaz, Alex’s dad, Nora’s my favorite, but that doesn’t mean I don’t adore the rest of this fabulous, quirky cast, from security and staff, all the way through the families, well, most of them at least.

I’m giving Red, White and Royal Blue a solid 4.5 stars.  It was everything I didn’t know I wanted and more, but I don’t see myself rereading it (except maybe during a potential future tragic election cycle to give me hope), which is why I’m rounding to 4 stars.  I do see myself investigating McQuiston’s backlist though, because they’ve done some pretty magical things with this title and I hope Amazon does well by them, these amazing characters, and all of us!

What’s a book you read because it was a movie, and loved?

~Nikki 

Darling Readers, author Casey McQuiston has blown me away with this 2019 debut romance novel. I’m honestly surprised Red, White and Royal Blue is a debut title. It reads like a mid-career title with a cast of dynamic characters, multiple structure choices – like text and email chains, and a collection of the best highs and lows a group of twenty somethings could find to do – especially when they’re big on money and low on time. I’m definitely adding One Last Stop and I Kissed Shara Wheeler to my TBR. McQuiston is an author who writes queer romance because they’ve stated that “they want to write books that would have made them feel less isolated as a queer teenager.” Red, White and Royal Blue won an Alex Award in 2020 which is given to ten titles published for adults from the previous year that have special appeal to young adults, aged 12-18. McQuiston writes in the new adult fiction genre from their home in New York City with their poodle mix, Pepper.

I think my favorite part of Red, White and Royal Blue, besides how two families can become one bigger, better family, is how Alex and Henry are the biggest ding dang history nerds on the planet, and they’ve found in each other a mirror for their nerd-dom. Yes, they each admit that the other is objectively handsome and fit and desired by the general public, but what is more subtle than that is how they are each attracted to the other because of interests that are not public knowledge. Like when Alex overhears Henry chatting with a pediatric cancer-patient about Star Wars during their ‘friendship tour’ together at a London hospital. This example of how nerds love nerds will come into play several times during their relationship. My other favorite is this quote from Alex: “Straight people, he thinks, probably don’t spend this much time convincing themselves they’re straight.” And this is what every teenager needs to hear and understand, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. Being who you are, who the Universe created you to be, is your greatest gift to the world. So, let’s focus on doing that more.

I’m going to give Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston 4.5 stars but reserve rounding up because of the improbability that I will re-read this title. I love this book for its plot, its alternate universe, the sexy romance, and its diversity – if you couldn’t tell, FSOTUS Alex Claremont-Diaz  has a Mexican father and caucasian mother.  A seriously fabulous book, and one that I’ll be recommending again and again.

~Ashley

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