ARC review: D’Vaughn And Kris Plan A Wedding by Chencia C. Higgins

I was sent this book as an advance copy by the publisher via NetGalley for reviewing purposes, but all opinions are my own.

D’Vaughn and Kris have six weeks to plan their dream wedding.

Their whole relationship is fake.

Instant I Do could be Kris Zavala’s big break. She’s right on the cusp of really making it as an influencer, so a stint on reality TV is the perfect chance to elevate her brand. And $100,000 wouldn’t hurt, either.

D’Vaughn Miller is just trying to break out of her shell. She’s sort of neglected to come out to her mom for years, so a big splashy fake wedding is just the excuse she needs.

All they have to do is convince their friends and family they’re getting married in six weeks. If anyone guesses they’re not for real, they’re out. Selling their chemistry on camera is surprisingly easy, and it’s still there when no one else is watching, which is an unexpected bonus. Winning this competition is going to be a piece of wedding cake.   

But each week of the competition brings new challenges, and soon the prize money’s not the only thing at stake. A reality show isn’t the best place to create a solid foundation, and their fake wedding might just derail their relationship before it even starts.

Carina Adores is home to highly romantic contemporary love stories where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters. Discover a new Carina Adores book every month! 

Release date: January 25th

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★★★.5✩✩

I really enjoyed this Black lesbian romance with fake dating! The romance was a little swoony in a way I don’t often feel contemporary romance tend to be, and I like how much communication there was both between the main characters and between them and their friends or relatives (especially their one person who knew about the relationship being fake).

Personally I was a little surprised seeing the book being narrated in first person by the two different POVs of D’Vaughn and Kris simply because I haven’t read an adult romance in this person in ages. It threw me off a little at first because I’m so unused to it and because it comes with a much heavier internal monologue than I like, but it was easy enough to get back into it. While it’s still not my favorite narrative style I admit it worked for this book and to really show D’Vaughn’s and Kris’ personalities.

There’s a lot that went on in the book with all the wedding prep that was part of the show unbeknownst to their families and it was a little much at times but it was also easy to skim a little if that’s not your thing (like it isn’t mine). Things sped up towards the end where it felt like just a list of things they had to complete while involving their families but I liked at the beginning especially when things moved a little more slowly, especially I liked how D’Vaughn’s coming out was handled. I think the easier way to handle it was to have D’Vaughn be happy with the reaction she got from her mother, but I like that she didn’t settle for that and was actually angry at her mom even though she objectively knew it could have been worse. But her anger was rightful and I love seeing queer characters not settling for that type of reaction. Silence ≠ support and she struggled for all those years and it was refreshing to see her not brush it off.

One thing I didn’t like at all was the whole concept of the reality show and how they’re supposed to lie to their families and actually involve them in all of this only to be like “surprise everything was fake” at the end, but I knew that was gonna be that when I went into it so I knew what to expect. But I also felt like there were so many plot holes within it that it was a little distracting. Like I think it was mentioned that the cameraman was supposed to be inside D’Vaughn house after church (where she eventually got to talk to her mom after coming out publicly to her) but he was never mentioned again and her mom only saw the cameraman the next time they all met. And I couldn’t really believe people were okay with being filmed for so long with so little explanation?? The parts where D’Vaughn and Kris were supposed to do the filming were also either missing or possibly I’m the one who missed them because it was only mentioned in passing but yeah overall I found it a little hard to actually suspend my belief about this being part of a reality show and I tried to just enjoy the fake romance aspect of it.

Overall while there were some things that didn’t fit my personal tastes this was still a cute and really enjoyable lesbian fake romance with a heavy focus on (big!) families, so if that sounds like something you’re into I can only recommend you check this out!