FF Friday

I listened to the audiobook for this, which was pretty short (3 hours and 20 minutes). I really enjoyed it! It's definitely a light read, not an epic sprawling romance, but was very sweet and still managed to have a fair amount of emotional depth.

My understanding is this book is a spin-off of the author's heterosexual romance A Princess in Theory, in which an undercover prince (from a fictional African country) falls in love with an ordinary American woman. The main characters of Once Ghosted, Twice Shy are said prince's sexy butch assistant (Likotsi) and an unrelated femme second-generation Haitian-American (Fabiola).

I really liked each of the main characters and their dynamic-- one of the most important aspects of romances for me!-- which I was worried might be lacking when I found out it was a spin-off. In retrospect maybe that was silly of me... so often the side characters in books are my faves!

I also thought the backgrounds of the characters were really well done. I appreciated that there's a bit of culture clash between the two leads without it being a painful aspect of their relationship, and I was very impressed with how Fabiola's background informed her character and the story without defining her. As the child of an immigrant I find that a lot of stories fail to hit that balance for me-- either it's not present at all (fine, but of course it feels nice to see my experiences Represented) or it completely takes over to the point where it's unpleasant to read or otherwise not what I'm looking for in a casual read.

To me Once Ghosted, Twice Shy had the perfect balance of all that. Although I have very little in common with Fabiola, details in her experience from the immigrant-family perspective let me connect with her in a refreshing way, and definitely enhanced my enjoyment of the book.

There's some edits I would have made personally (I thought the opening could have been a little stronger; I didn't like some language choices, such as always referring to "the dating app" on which they met) but felt very satisfied by the time I finished the whole thing.

I really liked listening to the audiobook; I think the narrator not only had a very nice voice, but also did a great job conveying the two characters without going over the top. The two leads also have different accents which I could imagine would be harder to envision if you were just reading it. That being said, there were spicy parts of the book which I didn't realize going in, which came close to being an embarrassing surprise as I was not wearing headphones!

Recommended for:

• people that think they'll enjoy a well-contained, thoughtful short story that focuses on a specific window of time in a romantic arc
• people that like realistic portrayals of two competent, likable adults working out a relationship together
• people that like butch/femme relationships with a very balanced dynamic
• people that like when femmes top and butches bottom
• people that enjoy representations of inter-cultural relationships and/or second-generation American experiences

Not recommended for:

• people that want an epic sprawling romance
• people that primarily want problematic/taboo elements in their romance/erotica
• people that may be triggered by descriptions of the unjust treatment of immigrants in the United States