Sexy romance that delivers
3 stars
Content warning Spoilers for another book, Detransition, Baby, by Torrey Peters
Exactly my jam, and an easy read. April and Dennis meet at a kink club and are having sex within a few chapters, but while sometimes I respond badly to characters being instantly attracted, this worked very well for me, probably because Aimes anchors their attraction very much in their specific personalities and histories. Some people object to "negotiation" scenes, and I get that sometimes they can seem check-box-y, but this one was very much not about having a predetermined set of questions, but very much about feeling each other out: Do you like me? Do you care that I'm trans? Do you want what I want? Are you going to be weird about it?
Most importantly, can I trust you? Just enough to let myself have this vulnerability with you?
And really, isn't that at the core of every human relationship?
For the Love of April French is a romance novel, so the plot is "Will these two people make it work," and the author is obviously on the reader's side, so the whole thing was an easy ride, but didn't feel contrived. The characters have their individual reasons why the relationship is going to go through upheavals, and they felt organic, both when the difficulties arrived, and when they were overcome. The supporting cast is larger than some romance novels manage, but all the characters were distinct and most were likeable. I picked this book up to start it and finished it in one sitting, and at just under 90K that's very doable but not a forgone conclusion.
(spoiler for Detransition, Baby but I read this right after, and it was a very funny comparison. In Detransition, I kept waiting for the characters to get romantically involved, since there was a certain frisson, but actually that's... not a thing that always happens? Sometimes there's a vibe but you don't do anything about it? I had been reading so much romance/fic that I hard forgotten this was a mere genre convention, and not universal. Anyway, back in my home territory!)
April is white a trans woman, and has had a lot of short term fun, but her one major long-term relationship ended pretty badly. Dennis is a Black man who wants to take care of people but has fucked it up before and is determined to get it right. (While reading this book, I thought "this author is white," and looking her up later, I was not wrong, but I don't think she fucked up or anything? She just goes a lot deeper on how trans-ness will affect April and Dennis' relationship than how Dennis being black will. (Granted, I'm neither.)) April is scared to be let down, and Dennis is scared to push, but because this is a romance novel you know they will somehow make it work. Probably the fact that their kinks are so amazingly compatible helps them keep on working on it.
Speaking of kinks, the author gives detailed content warnings which I will not recapitulate, but instead will link on her (web page)[https://www.pennyaimes.com/afcw] but know that if you want warnings around how kink and/or trans issues are treated, this is a book that those warnings may be applicable for.
