Review: 1.5 stars
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 07 29, 2013
#SPOILERS#I went into this book with high hopes. I had reviewed the first book, "A Betting Man," and I loved the character of Spencer, who was one of the MC's boss. I was looking forward to Spencer's story and seeing how Ms. Gasq-Dion went about redeeming Blaine, who was the moron who made that horrible `bet' with Kent.In this installment, Kent and Terry from book one are on their way to wedded bliss. Kent has asked Spencer and Blaine to help plan his surprise proposal and wedding to Terry. This causes Spencer and Blaine to be thrown together and in some instances they have to pretend to be boyfriends! (I love that trope). The two men fight their attraction to one another, Blaine, because of his dysfunctional family, and Spencer because he's got a child and a nasty ex-wife. As the two men get closer, outside forces threaten their happiness.First up, I hate writing negative reviews. Hate it. I understand the amount of time, effort and passion an author puts into writing a story and I don't think any ethical reviewer wants to tell a person they've never met that they didn't like the book the author more than likely slaved over.Unfortunately, "A Marrying Man" suffers from two huge issues that means I cannot give it higher than 1.5 stars. I will explain.In my "A Betting Man" review, I said this: "Yeah, Kent's a self-absorbed d-nozzle who loves himself to a degree I found nauseating, he treats women as objects -- we won't even get to the way women are portrayed in the book..." I hand-waved some of the sexism in that book because the character of Terry was so overwhelming lovely, plus Kent's mother was a gem, which evened out the misogyny. But in "A Marrying Man," this book loses that charm because it constantly bashes the main female characters as either: flirty whores, drunken mothers or gold-digging, narcissistic ex-wives. There is really no escape from the sexism in this book.Blaine's ex-girlfriend, Porsche is portrayed as an airhead. While Spencer's ex-wife, Vanessa is the worst representation of a self-absorbed "bitch" I've seen recently in an m/m novel. When you add in the fact that the MCs in "A Marrying Man" are all sexist pigs, it went downhill very quickly for me. Hence, I could not relate to any of the characters, main or secondary.In one scene, after Vanessa finds out that Spencer and Blaine are together, she threatens Spencer that she'll call the cops and claim that Blaine molested their daughter if her ex doesn't stop seeing Blaine...and pay her more alimony. Yeah, it went there.There was no attempt to make her an actual real-life person, she was a cardboard cut-out of a gold-digging shrew who was willing to send an innocent man to prison for child molestation just to get more money. Vanessa's "redemption" at the end of the book did not fit in with her prior characterization and defied common sense.Now, I'm not blaming Ms. Gasq-Dion for the misogyny that exists in m/m books, as we've had this discussion on Reviews by Jessewave before; but in "A Marrying Man," the author fell into the trap of writing character(s) who are so unlikeable, sexist and unredeemable that as a reader I couldn't sympathize with any of them. Let alone get over my distaste of them.The second huge issue with the book was there seemed to be no difference between Spencer and Blaine. They were both entitled boys, not grown men. The characterizations were two-dimensional and at times, I confused who was who, so much so I had to take notes to keep each man separate in my head. With a well-written book you do not have to do that. In the previous book, while I didn't like Kent, I did adore Terry and their characterizations were distinct, so I felt something was missing in this installment.Because "A Marrying Man" was listed as a Romantic Comedy on the publisher's web site, I was expecting to be amused, not upset. I know humor is subjective, but this book had none of the flirty, funny flavor of it's predecessor. To conclude, I wanted to like this book. Spencer and Blaine were intriguing characters in "A Betting Man," but in this installment, they lost their charm. Add in the female-bashing, which ran through the entire book, and I cannot give "A Marrying Man" a higher rating.Reviews by Jessewave