True Colors by Yolanda WallaceMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books in exchange for an honest review.
Characters
This book stars two young women, both of whom have their own point of view shown in the book.
Taylor Crenshaw
Taylor is a twenty-five year old young woman who is both the daughter of the current President-elect of the United States of America, and completely opposed to most of the President-elect's political platform. Taylor's parents are right wing conservative Republicans. Taylor is a left-wing Democrat, and, for that matter, openly lesbian. The parents and Taylor have their differences (including the part wherein the parents didn't approve of Taylor's college major, so Taylor had to pay for it herself, plus her graduate program), but both parties are attempting to 'live' with each other. As the book opens, it is days away from the inauguration, and Taylor is attempting to have a last fling before shutting herself up/off for four years. That's the plan at least. As noted, her point of view is represented in this book.
Taylor has the odd and annoying habit of talking to herself out-loud.
Roberta 'Robby' Rawlins
Robby's age wasn't given (yet), but she's likely close to Taylor's age. Robby and Taylor first meet at Robby's job at an antique store. But, unknown to Taylor, Robby also has two other jobs, both of which might cause issues for Taylor: Robby works on a political blog (anonymously authored, and called 'The pH Factor'); and works as a go-go dancer.
Has porcelain features.
Characters which may or may not be of importance in the book
Steven Alesana is Taylor's Secret Service agent. He is very large. Former Army sergeant.
Miles Osgood is the owner of Osgood Antiques, and the boss of, and friend to Robby. Is gay and fancies Steven.
Terry Crenshaw
Taylor's father and current President-elect. And yes, I've already had issues attempting to read a book that includes a 'Terry' and a 'Taylor'. I've seen both names used interchangeably with men and women, and both are similar enough to annoy me.
Thomas Jefferson 'TJ' Crenshaw
Son of Terry & Tina Crenshaw. Brother, and friend, of Taylor Crenshaw.
Christina 'Tina' Chrenshaw
Mother of Taylor and TJ. Wife of Terry. First Lady.
If you spot a character with a name that starts with T, there's a good chance they are somehow connected to the Crenshaws. Shesh. hehe. Terry, Tina, Taylor, TJ. mmphs.
Sheridan Kincaid
Daughter of a conservative, rich, politically powerful family based in Richmond Virginia. Like Taylor, Sheridan is also a lesbian. Possibly unlike Taylor, Sheridan is less . . . blunt, open, about 'the lesbian thing'.
Candy Ferrell
'Wife of [Taylor's] biggest campaign contributors.' '[P]ushing sixty'. Is either a closeted lesbian or a bisexual based on her rather bad attempt to seduce Taylor.
Lieutenant Harper Hutchinson
Medal of Honor winner. Daughter of a 'recently retired' five star general (which is impressive since General Omar Bradley died in 1981. Which is important since he was the last living 5 star general, and that specific rank was retired upon his death; the US Navy version, Fleet Admiral ('five star flag officer') has not been in active use since the death in 1966 of Chester W. Nimitz).
Other Secret Service Agents of Note
Ethan Moss and Lily - other agents who shadow Taylor.
Portia Thomas
Friend of Taylor's who asked her to attend a ball, and Taylor returned the favor by inviting her to her father's inaugural ball.
Story and review
Two women date. One comes from a prominent family, so prominent that her father is the President of the United States of America (or President-elect in the first part of the book). The other? Story isn't clear, but she comes from 'the wrong side of the tracks', or at least that's what she said when she talked about her relationship with the first woman she loved. Or, in other words, two women who come from different worlds. One originally from Richmond Virginia (this being the 'wrong side of the tracks' Robby), the other originally from Missouri, both currently living in Washington DC (with Taylor being the 'prominent family' one).
They actually have a lot more in common than seemed to be expressed in the story. I mean, beyond just the part where both are lesbians. There's also the part about great mounds of debt; both seem quite capable of insta-lust/love. And I suppose some other things here or there.
There's really not a whole lot to say here - Taylor and Robby meet when Taylor stops in at Robby's place of work (her antique store job, not her go-go dancing job). Taylor likes the look of Robby and so they date. Meanwhile Robby has secrets she's hiding from Taylor, like the part where she's using Taylor to get stories she can post to her political blog. And the go-go dancer thing. I'm sure there are other things as well.
There were a ton of people to follow, though there were just two points of view, Robby and Taylor. Sadly, though, most of the side-characters (with exceptions) are much more interesting and believable than Robby and Taylor who seemed destined to do everything in their power to mess up their lives and stuff.
I had certain 'issues' with the book that added to my disconnect from the book, that pulled me from the story. Like an incident involving blog posting. At around 37% into the book, Robby gets Miles to post a blog story for her while she is with Taylor. To 'throw Taylor off the scent', to get Taylor to not think that Robby is the blogger reporting on Taylor's life. Several issues with that - like, say, the fact that scheduling a blog post exists (even if the whole point was to have someone post from a specific location (which wasn't the case based on context, since Robby asked where, after the fact, Miles had posted from), then you can still set up a scheduled post from there (tracing that seems iffy, but whatever)). As noted, it was something that pulled me from the story and caused me to take a break from the book. Then there were other things. Like the soldier who had won the Medal of Honor award? Lieutenant Harper Hutchinson.
Beyond the part where the military women in this story seemed much more interesting than either of the main characters, referring to Harper and Portia here, there's some odd bits that turned up regarding Harper. Like the part where she's a Lieutenant in the Army. Who, context revealed, never graduated college. Vaguely confusing, that. A lieutenant who hadn't graduated college? There's a piece missing there, I'm sure. It can happen, just . . . a piece missing. Then there's her father. Described as 'recently retired five star general'. I'm noting things here that pulled me from the story. There was no reason to make Harper a lieutenant, but she was, so that pulled me from the story. No reason to make her father a five star general, he could easily have been listed as a four star general. Easily because they still exist. The last five star general died in 1981 (Five Star Generals still exist, heck, there's actually a level above that that also technically exists (General of the Armies, though the only one who held that rank while being alive, though not on active duty (I believe) was General Pershing, promoted to that rank so that he'd still be above the newly created 5 star generals)). See, I went and spent time looking crap like that up for a character that has no impact at all on the story - the father I mean. Could have been a four star general but nooo had to make it be a five star general. Pfft.
Robby and Taylor's personalities were weird. They seemed to bounce between thoughts and feelings with no sense. Falling into and out of insta-love/lust/hate/friendship. 'You betrayed me!!!' While also being super quick to jump to conclusions (both of them - Taylor says a specific thing to Robby, Robby then thinks that all of her secrets had been revealed and that she was forgiven and so didn't need to mention certain things because Taylor already knows them. I had to read that section three times because it bloody confused me - both why Robby would think that, then just what the fuck Taylor actually told her ((view spoiler).
I may have lost that last paragraph. Okay, I know I did. Sorry.
Then there were certain other things that pounded against my head that caused me issues - 25 year old daughter uprooting her entire life to move to Washington DC, forced to do so by her parents, to change graduate schools . . . and this is the same woman who has been forced to pay for her own education? Seriously? She uprooted herself from the college she's paying for to go to one in Washington DC? Hell, Trump's kid is still going to some elementary school or whatever in New York. She's not on good relations with her parents, they dominate and control her life, and she pays for it. Literally, money-wise. She has mounds of student loan debt now. ? Oh, and then there's the weird Sheridan issue. Is she evil? Good? Grey (something in-between)? Well, her own words paints her as an evil bitch, yet Taylor seems to like her and trusts her despite her own words. Insta-friends. WTF?
Oh, and I might as well mention sex. Yes yes, there's a bunch of graphic depictions of sex, but I'm mentioning it now for: surprise strap-on sex! Surprise BDSM! Gah. pfft. Thanks. Just pull me out of the story why don't ya. Yeah, both of these are things that occurred under the control and direction of Robby, they surprised Taylor and . . . . she liked it. But still, she wasn't exactly given much chance to put a word in one way or another about whether she wanted anything to do with it. mmphs.
Stupid bloody politics. If it wasn't for a section that occurred, I'd probably rate this book lower ((view spoiler)). But it held my interest because of it. Especially the 'should she or shouldn't she'. And . . . spoiler. (view spoiler)
In theory I can understand the interest in mixing Taylor and Robby. But Taylor and Portia, or Taylor and Harper looked a hell of a lot more interesting than Taylor and Robby. Hell, Taylor and Lily (the secret service agent), who had no chemistry, would have been more interesting - though only because I could then mention the HBO show VEEP. The romance between Taylor and Robby, though, just was not at all believable. Lust? Sure. Fling? Sure. Romance? No. They had roughly zero chemistry.
Funny thing there - I'd watched the first 3 seasons, took long break, watched season 4 and 5 while reading this book here (not literally at same time, I was in between pages while watching). The really rotten bitchy, self-centered woman that is the main focus of the show, you know, the VEEP, has a daughter on the show . . . who turned out to be a lesbian (shocked the daughter it did), who ended up in a romantic relationship with her mother's secret service agent.
I might have liked the book more if not for VEEP. Possibly. Because a lot of the 'evil parents'!!! was more . . . in theory than in reality. The mother on VEEP showed what an evil bitchy mother is like. This book? Daughter and parents have different political views. Like daughter is pro-lesbians and LGBT stuff, father, the USA president, is all like - they shouldn't marry!!! Conflict. But that was most of what was in the book - yeah, that's a major thing to have to deal with, but it rarely actually got seen in the book (hell, the father kept doing things that seemed downright accepting of LGBT people, where was the evil?). And I'm saying all of this, while now admitting that the daughter on the show is paper thin personality/story/character/etc. Still more interesting story than what I read in this book. Hell, now I want to read the book form of her relationship - there was a whole lesbian fiction book like relationship shown in one specific episode (the relationship is over more than one episode, but one episode showed, through the documentary, the whole relationship) - meeting, being asked out, noting not lesbian, realizing lesbian, having the best sex ever, loving life, meeting her parents, being introduced as a work friend, relationship now over, heartache, months pass, begging, apology, reunion - sounds like a lesbian fiction novel, eh?). bah, lost track of myself again there.
I’ve rambled. Too much rambling. Too much about VEEP.
Rating: 2.75
July 24 2017
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