....And Then The Fandoms Came

So, I won this book (along with its sequel) in a giveaway on Twitter. I had kind of heard a little bit about it. (More like I had seen the cover a few times when I would be going through my GoodReads stuff). 

While DTtG wasn't the funniest thing I've read, it certainly had me laughing at certain points, which I liked. I did like that the heroine's issue(and getting better) for herself rather than just soley for her romantic interest. And I know with Chick-Lit/Women's Fiction/Woman-lead stories there is kind of a given that the story will focus more on heroine, but, however, let's be honest, that hasn't always happened. So, it was nice to the heroine trying to get better for herself with the issue she had. Granted, there was some underlying "I'm doing it for my fiancé/significant other"-type stuff but it wasn't beat over the head that much. At least not in my opinion. There probably could have been just a little bit more "I'm doing this for me  " type of stuff but meh. 

I would say that I did like this. My biggest issue with this was perhaps two things: 

1. The first was the fact that the book pulled that "super attractive guy that the FMC is attracted to turns out to be gay the entire time" type of thing. And I'm not bothered by this because "Oh, they made a character gay.". Not at all. I think representation is great. My issue with it is that it comes off as a stereotype or caricature instead of just having a gay character, if that makes sense. I feels like the comedy or shock value this was supposed to have was done at the character's expense rather than with the character. If that makes sense. So, it's just.....ew.
2. My other problem is that there are parts where the heroine imagines weddings based off of things people say, like if someone mentions a food type or dress or culture. And I didn't have a problem with it, for the most part. This was until it went into culture territory, and the wedding she was imagining came across, at least in my opinion as cultural appropriation. Like there was one segment where she imagined a Mexican wedding, and the she saw the groom in a matador's costume and she had a flower in her hair and etc. So, I had issues with that when it came to culture.

I didn't really have an issue with anything else. I did see a little bit of sexism but it wasn't overwhelming, if that makes sense, but again, this might be all a matter of opinion. There were a few moments I think when stuff was settled out to "women do XYZ" and "men do ABC" if that makes sense but most of the negative stuff I saw was pinpointed to one character usually, and it wasn't saying that "all women are like this" I think. So....

Point being, I didn't see half as much sexism as I kind of expected, which is actually refreshing and surprising. 

So, long story short, I did enjoy it and it was really good. Glad I read it.