A Hearts On Fire Review

TWO STARS--Interracial MM romance, it is not as easy to find one without stereotypes and walking cliches. "This is Love" was chock full of them. I wanted to like this book but the tone, characterization, lack of plot and length worked against the possible potential.

Andy is young, white and lives off of his rich father's money. He is in the closet because his father is homophobic. And racist. Andy doesn't care supposedly. (He does but he protested a lot of about not caring for the first third of the book) He has got the #richwhiteboyblues Boo-hoo!

Enter Merrick, an older African American, ex-SEAL, ex-con (he was wrongly accused but wants all potential employers to know he was locked up) and has a mega ton chip on his shoulder, thick Mt. Everest times two kind of big, okay? He's outright rude and disrespectful but at least he keeps it real? *rolls eyes*

Merrick is hired by Andy's father's friend to work on Andy's estate as a landscaper/handyman. Andy is put in charge of keeping an eye on Merrick because he's 1)African-American and 2) an ex-con. This is Merrick's first job since being out of jail. Merrick takes the job grudgingly because he shouldn't have to work for those kind of people but needs the money.

And when that behemoth of a chip encounters spineless, poor little rich boy, do sparks fly?

Nope.

He mouths off to Andy. But Andy lusts for Merrick's tattooed rocking bod. The two start a lackluster romance with hot sex and no character development. Add a mushy, predictable plot and so-so dialogue and you have "This is Love."

*sighs*

Let's get to the problems, shall we?

- The price tag/designer name dropping. I'm not monetarily rich but friends that I have that are wealthy do not name drop as much as Andy and the narrator did in this book. It is a pet peeve of mine to have to read about "ten-thousand rugs" or Gucci/Fendi/whatever name brand you think the rich are wearing. It is tacky. It is tasteless. Please. Stop.

- I liked neither main characters. Andy was spineless. Merrick was rude. Both were angry for no apparent reason and were one dimensional. Then tie in the insta-love and lame internal struggles (whatever the ex-con/'drunk one night stand' debacle was...it came off lame.)

- If Andy is so rich and has the best of everything, why did he speak the way he did. I'm not going to say a thug but for someone who never stepped foot in 'that part of town' he sure sounded like he'd fit. All of the rich people talked like this as well. *shakes head* This issue ties in with my next point.

- There were no character differentiations. Every character talked the same, shared the same thoughts just differed in physical descriptions. You have a female character acting like a teenage boy acting like an older man acting like Merrick and acting like Andy. Come on, a teenage boy discussing the finer points of gay adoption and surrogacy? *snaps fingers* Oh. Wait. There's Lupita, the Hispanic maid with "Meester". No. She could have said Mister with a heavy accent. She could have. "Meester" was annoying after the tenth time.

- The length...the HEA started around 70%...why did the story carry on? For predictable strings to continue to be retied? It stretched out unnecessarily into boring mush. Boo.

I love IR but this was just too full of stereotypes and cliches to be enjoyable for me. A star for the cover. A star for the sex. Those two can only carry a lackluster story so far." ( )