Why, in the year 2021, is a major publisher like Kensington putting out a book with MULTIPLE instances of a racial slur in it for no good reason? The G word (g*psy) isn’t a word you should be using unless you are of Romani origin, same as you should not be using the N word unless you are Black, and the G word is used many, many times in this book with not a Romani in sight. Full context; the characters attend a house party at which they are informed a game called a ‘g*psy hunt’ will be played. No further details are forthcoming initially and the hero and heroine get to virtue signal by saying if it’s actually a hunt of Romani people, they would put a stop to it. The game turns out to be a simple treasure hunt, with the G word being used for it for… well, no real reason I could actually discern.
It is not difficult to stop using words which are slurs. It should REALLY not be difficult for a major publisher like Kensington to have a list of words which you just MAY NOT USE and for their editors to run searches on those words.
In the year 2021, this is quite simply unacceptable.
I was already hating the book before I ran across the G slur, by the way. It’s the lowest stakes imaginable - the heroine turns down the hero’s proposal at the beginning of the book because he doesn’t love her. Instead of doing the honourable thing and letting her go to find someone who DOES love her, he decides to pursue her and convince her to marry him anyway, because his wishes outweigh her happiness, I guess? Anyway, after an extremely feeble threat to the heroine’s safety, from which she competently rescues herself, the hero realises he does love her after all, blah blah, happily ever after.
How this drags on for over 300 pages is beyond me. It’s one of the dullest books I’ve ever waded through, and I’ve read The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher. Losing my temper over finding the G slur repeated in the middle of it is about the only thing that kept me awake enough to read to the end, so that I can write this critique with a full and complete knowledge of the whole book.
It’s terrible. Don’t waste your time.
This is the third book I’ve read by this author; the first, The Marquis She’s Been Waiting For, I gave two stars because I found it boring and low-stakes. I figured I’d give her another try and the second book of hers I read, Believe In Me, I actually liked and gave four stars to. But this. After this, I’m done. This gets one star, and I’m spitting mad that a major publisher is putting their name on this rubbish.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.