Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon - A Book Review
Synopsis:
Xeni Everly-Wilkins has ten days to clean out her recently departed aunt’s massive colonial in Upstate New York. With the feud between her mom and her sisters still raging even in death, she knows this will be no easy task, but when the will is read Xeni quickly discovers the decades old drama between the former R&B singers is just the tip of the iceberg
The Secrets, lies, and a crap ton of cash spilled on her lawyer’s conference room table all come with terms and conditions. Xeni must marry before she can claim the estate that will set her up for life and her aunt has just the groom in mind. The ruggedly handsome and deliciously thicc Scotsman who showed up at her aunt’s memorial, bagpipes at the ready.
When his dear friend and mentor Sable Everly passed away, Mason McInroy knew she would leave a sizable hole in his heart. He never imagined she’d leave him more than enough money to settle the debt that’s keeping him from returning home to Scotland. He also never imagined that Sable would use her dying breaths to play match-maker, trapping Mason and her beautiful niece in a marriage scheme that comes with more complications than either of them need.
With no choice but to say I do, the unlikely pair try to make the best of a messy situation. They had no plans to actually fall in love.
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes:
- Forced Proximity
- Marriage of Convenience
- Small Town
- Interracial
3 more books to go until I’ve completed the A-Z Reading Challenge I planned on doing for 2024, at the end of 2023.
My choice for letter X was a struggle to find, but after lots of searching, I came across Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon – the second book of a series that can be read as a standalone, exactly what I did as I didn’t want to read the first book of the series.
Ah I’m not sure how I feel about this book and I’ve left time for it to stew and for my thoughts to lie, but I’m still not sure!
It was a nice easy read and I wasn’t not motivated to read it, but something about it just didn’t hit where it needed to hit. It didn’t leave a lasting impact on me and I didn’t care for the characters – not enough for me to consider reading more from the author.
I didn’t think I would like how quickly the characters’ feelings developed, but I wasn’t mad about it – I actually liked it because it made the story progress more instead of it feeling like nothing was happening. I liked that it was straight to the point and wasn’t filled with unnecessary filler.
The thing that I think has me feeling “meh” about it is that there was a scene of pegging mentioned and other sexual preferences/orientation that I haven’t read before. I’m not sure how I feel about it and I don’t think going forward it’s something I’d look for, at all. For me, I like men to portrayed in a certain way and in this book, the male main character wasn’t.
I felt like there was a deliberate and intentional effort to include “woke” topics in the story – both male and female characters were bi. I just felt like it wasn’t done right, it felt like it was just mentioned for the sake of it and to add diversity. I don’t think it had meaning – it felt forced.
At times, I cringed at the female character Xeni and how she made numerous comments about her being the shit and how attractive she was. I felt like it was meant to ooze confidence but all it did was make her appear cocky and full of herself.
I also felt like the whole “aunt is her real mother” plot was brushed aside too quickly. We saw Xeni struggle with the revelation, but the answers she got seemed wishy washy.
I did in the middle of the book, I did consider adding the first book of the series to my tbr, especially during that female protagonists interaction with Xeni, where they reflected on her story, but not in a urgent rush. Then after the whole pegging scene, I ultimately decided the themes of Rebekah’s books aren’t for me.
Overall, I can’t say Rebekah is an author I’d revisit again.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Georgia
🌷
Georgia
🌷
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