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ashliesydel 's review for:
Dragged to the Wedding
by Andrew Grey
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I feel uber conflicted with this one. We have manly cop James who is out in Chicago but not to his family and friends back home in the Midwest. He needs a date for a wedding and enters a fake dating arrangement with Daniel aka Daniela a femme presenting man and drag queen.
They just need to pull this off for 6 days then both can return to their big city lives. This all sounded cute and funny.
What I struggled with was the uber pushy and Christian mom. She was incredibly overbearing to her adult children. She was a total Karen using the bible to justify her nasty behavior. She was unapologetic in her actions and words. This really rubbed me the wrong way. I know there are women like this. Her character was a bit too real for comfort if that makes sense.
Comedy wise this was giving 90's gay fun. Bird Cage & To Wong Foo. At first it was great but then as certain dangers were highlighted, I started to remember watching both those movies with grown up eyes and how they are actually really sad. Then I got mad because it's 2023 and this gay man was literally fearful of losing everything and that hurt my heart and made me angry. These types of stories SHOULDN'T have to exist anymore, but they do.
Also, I'm not a fan of cop romances. I'm guilty of NOT reading the blurb so I didn't realize James was a cop. For a good 50-60% of the book it was a nonissue, but then certain comments rubbed me the wrong way. Like how they had to keep bringing up his job and suggesting that he's an alpha male because of his job. Little jokes about how he wishes he could pull out his badge and exert power over the smallest of situations. I didn't care for that.
Overall, it was a fun read. I think I'm just too jaded and over analyzed the hell out of certain things. I'm also on my period so yes, we will blame my hormones for getting super emotional when certain aspects of the book triggered an image of Nathan Lane being exposed in Bird Cage and my heart dropping because he had so much love for his son, he was willing to pretend to be a female character rather than himself and that Daniela's character and presence represented the same selfless love and need to appease.
I would recommend this book, but I would definitely do so with content warnings.
MM FAKE DATING, COP, DRAG QUEEN, STRICT CHRISTIAN, HARMFUL LGBT COMMENTS, POLICE BRUTALITY, CLOSETED GAY, COMING OUT, & A SUPER KAREN
They just need to pull this off for 6 days then both can return to their big city lives. This all sounded cute and funny.
What I struggled with was the uber pushy and Christian mom. She was incredibly overbearing to her adult children. She was a total Karen using the bible to justify her nasty behavior. She was unapologetic in her actions and words. This really rubbed me the wrong way. I know there are women like this. Her character was a bit too real for comfort if that makes sense.
Comedy wise this was giving 90's gay fun. Bird Cage & To Wong Foo. At first it was great but then as certain dangers were highlighted, I started to remember watching both those movies with grown up eyes and how they are actually really sad. Then I got mad because it's 2023 and this gay man was literally fearful of losing everything and that hurt my heart and made me angry. These types of stories SHOULDN'T have to exist anymore, but they do.
Also, I'm not a fan of cop romances. I'm guilty of NOT reading the blurb so I didn't realize James was a cop. For a good 50-60% of the book it was a nonissue, but then certain comments rubbed me the wrong way. Like how they had to keep bringing up his job and suggesting that he's an alpha male because of his job. Little jokes about how he wishes he could pull out his badge and exert power over the smallest of situations. I didn't care for that.
Overall, it was a fun read. I think I'm just too jaded and over analyzed the hell out of certain things. I'm also on my period so yes, we will blame my hormones for getting super emotional when certain aspects of the book triggered an image of Nathan Lane being exposed in Bird Cage and my heart dropping because he had so much love for his son, he was willing to pretend to be a female character rather than himself and that Daniela's character and presence represented the same selfless love and need to appease.
I would recommend this book, but I would definitely do so with content warnings.
MM FAKE DATING, COP, DRAG QUEEN, STRICT CHRISTIAN, HARMFUL LGBT COMMENTS, POLICE BRUTALITY, CLOSETED GAY, COMING OUT, & A SUPER KAREN