I read the entire thing with a stupid grin on my face and almost immediately fell in love with both of our MCs. It turned out to be okay for them, because they fell in love at the end, but even then, if I were their family I would have things to say to them. I loved getting to meet their families and see how their families reacted to the news of their marriage. Because they literally accepted them into the family, loved them and were excited for their daughters, and for that to turn out to be just a reality show. The premise of the show is to convince your closest friends and family that you’re getting married to the person you’re paired with — in six weeks.

Their stories are so relatable, I definitely cried especially reading through D'Vaughn's coming out, and Kris' relationship with their family. Moderate: pregnancy, racism, colorism, lesbophobia/lesbomisia, religious bigotry, alcohol consumption, emotional abuse, fatphobia. Curvy, femme and very closeted D’Vaughn is hoping to diversify the cast of this season of the show with her presence as a queer, Black, full figured contestant.So there was little doubt that watching D’Vaughn and Kris plan a fake wedding would be absolutely delightful. I do have a couple of criticisms: The first handful of chapters were all somewhere around 30 pages and that’s just a personal pet peeve of mine. The way their relationship was built on explicit communication and the book had no third act breakup as a result was exactly what I like in books.

This book follows the story of D'Vaughn and Kris who are on a dating show where they are paired together to try to trick their families into believing that they are getting married in six weeks. The entire premise of the book kind of cracked me up because as an arospec asexual person my brain doesn't always comprehend the trope of love at first sight or committing to someone that you barely know and I consider it a success that I fully believed in this romance and their love story even though it all happens in 6 weeks. What’s even better, though, we’re introduced not only to them, but to their families too (and quite a few more LGBT characters while we’re at it). The story has great pacing, and you experience things in the moment, a bit like it would be if you were watching the show. They'd accepted ,e in all of my cocoa-brown-skinned, plus-sized, and lesbian glory, so I suppose they were doing something different for season three.To find a book where black lesbian culture is accurately portrayed with such loveable and well rounded characters was truly something else. I’m not a fan of reality TV but I don’t mind reading about it so I recommend it even if this is not to your liking, especially if you enjoy the fake relationship trope. At some points it kind of felt like the author was figuring things out as she went along, but didn’t go back to shore up any leaks that may have been caused in the story.

Romances that decenter both whiteness and the gender binary are still dismayingly rare in traditional publishing, so to see a Black lesbian stud as a central character is like water on a parched bit of ground. The story strikes the perfect balance for its subgenre, reflecting queer people’s authentic experiences while keeping the mood light and frothy.However, I’m not sure if I would be as bold as her to come out to my family on national television on a reality tv show. She’s always been a little bit reserved, so she decides to audition for “Instant I Do,” a popular reality show. I went in for the fun strangers to lovers fake dating to win a reality show premise and got so SO much more out if it.

D’Vaughn and Kris meet through the reality TV show Instant I Do, which pairs up contestants who’ve never met and gives them six weeks to convince their loved ones they’re getting married, all while actually planning a wedding. Now even though this is a mostly low angst story, the family's response to the whole thing was way too chill to be realistic. A reality TV show where you compete to convince family and friends you're getting married, and then decide whether to say I do or take the money instead.Rep: Black Tejano lesbian cis female MC, fat Black lesbian cis female MC, Afro-latina lesbian cis female side character, side MLM couple, Tejano gay cis male side character, various Black and Tejano side characters, white pansexual cis female side character, Black femme lesbian cis female side character, white queer cis male side character, fat Black heterosexual trans female MC, nonbinary side character.