Many authors have what I call a theme or a formula
for their books. For many, it could be the genre, e.g., mafia, baby, etc., but for some, it could be the actual
characters themselves. Let me explain. Author Blue Saffire, in her recent
release of the Yours series, discusses briefly why she, in many of her books,
describes her black female characters with less than traditional African
American features. For instance, many, if not most of her black heroines have
light eyes and/or blonde hair. As we all know, black people come in a variety
of sizes, shapes, and skin tones, and I think it’s great that we celebrate our
own diversity. But you know me; there is always a “but” in there; it just
seems, and not just this author, that I have noticed in the IR genre in
general, an overwhelming amount of seemingly black heroines possess European
features. Again, I completely understand that we all don’t have brown eyes and
kinky hair, etc., but goodness, what is the percentage of us who do have
“chocolate” skin also have blonde hair and blue eyes? And, is it so wrong to
write a character with traditional African features? With “chocolate” skin,
curvy body, natural hair, and brown eyes? I honestly get what the author is
doing and am impressed that throughout her story, she touches briefly on
colorism and loving your features no matter how different they are from the
“norm”. But is this celebrating our diversity or is it mainstreaming your work?
(This is not to say this author does this. I honestly want to know because this
has been more prevalent in this genre in an effort to be more universally
appealing to non-black readers). Ok, I am going to get off my soapbox and get
to this review:
This review, as you will soon be able to tell, will
be a combination of both books in the series.
One thing I will say is that because all of these
stories contain characters from her other series, a clearer family tree is
sorely needed. Though the author does provide a character roster in all of her
books, a clearer and more structured family tree or list is needed because
there is constant crossover and new additions with each new installment or
series. I say this because, and I don’t know if many other readers caught on to
this, but in the first book of the series Yours, Kimmie is “pregnant”, but
readers don’t know this because it’s not discussed in the first book, although
the author gives it away in her list of characters.
Sephora is a beauty, but with like most of these
stories, she doesn’t realize her own worth or appeal. Her mother has always put
her down, and she feels like the ugly duckling. One night, she meets the
handsome and dominant (Although, as a reader, I really didn’t get that vibe
from him) Nick Lincoln who changes her life. Nick enjoys being in control of
all things and because of his past has many demons. He is captivated by
Sephora, and once she comes of age, whether she knows it or not, she is his.
In the first story, Sephora is running from Nick and
essentially from herself. She doesn’t know who she is (not in an amnesiac way,
but trying to find her way), and everyone has an opinion about how she should
live her life. I get that this series is supposed to include BDSM, but
honestly, it didn’t read like a BDSM story. It did include some BDSM elements
like the collar and playroom, but it wasn’t fully fleshed out. I just felt like
this was added as a tag-on. Let me explain. Nick collars Sephora, but she
doesn’t even know the significance of a collar until her brother explains to
her what the necklace represents. Huh? Isn’t that a Dom’s responsibility? And
all the men, including Sephora’s brother Luke, have a “darkness” that can only
be explored through BDSM because of their past. (Sounds cliché much?)
Now in the second story, it’s all the back and forth
with Sephora and Nick, the “I love you’s and I will never leave you’s:, we get
it. There were chapters of them saying
the same thing repeatedly but in different POVs. I felt like it was more to the story, but the
author wasted space going over the same thing. I actually liked the idea of
this story but more was needed to the story. The author kept repeating herself
with these characters. It was the same fight and argument every other chapter.
And the sex scenes? Nothing seemed fresh, which is sad because this story could
have been better if the author explored more of the suspenseful aspect of the
story and not just adding superfluous scenes.
The author mentions that all of her stories build on
each other and that readers will see a crossover of many characters from her
other series. I don’t take issue with this, but a timeline is sorely needed.
Because there are so many characters in these books, it’s virtually a mind
overload trying to keep up with all of them and figure out what’s going on, and
the actual time the story is taking place. The many nicknames that each
character has only adds to the confusion. It is honestly difficult to say that
this was truly Nick & Sephora’s story because there were so many characters
and aspects of the story.
I will say that editing is much improved from her
earlier series, but it was still hard at times to tell who was doing the
talking. Things are happening in these stories, but they are not really fleshed
out. A new chapter begins, and the reader is to infer what happened next.
Events and happenings seem a little all over the place and include many
chapters of just the author narrating and no character interaction or movement.
And all of Sephora’s insecurities are like whiplash— she is strong and
confident and proclaims to fight for her man one minute and then the next, one
misunderstanding or Nick speaking with another woman, she becomes withdrawn.
When Sephora does finally find’s her voice, she
makes silly decisions. For example, she knows the story of his ex and his
parents and is warned repeatedly to stop digging. Although she knows it’s
dangerous, she continues on, yet one disparaging comment about Nick and she
breaks down? These stories, although fused with a promising element of
suspense, are drowned out by the characters defending their relationship and
Sephora trying yet again to come to terms with their relationship.
In conclusion, this is not a personal attack on the
author, so please don’t take this personally. As a reader, this is my opinion,
and yes, a review is an opinion. This is not the gospel, and no, I don’t expect
others to agree with me, so save the comments from the fan girls. While this wasn’t
my favorite book by the author, this is not to discourage others from reading
the series. I’ve actually enjoyed Blue Saffire’s work, specifically, The
Brothers Black series. I just didn’t love this story. It seemed rushed and not
fully fleshed out. Please don’t judge this book based on this one review but
for yourselves.
