#19 IF LOVE IS GOOD TO ME by Francine Craft

Number of Book #19
Date Began and Finished 4/1 - 4/4 2008
Genre - African American Contemporary Romance
Year It Was Published - October 2007
Publisher - Kimani Romance #14
number of Pages 296
Mass Market Paperback
Reason for reading: Tbr
Rating 2.5/5 stars

Blurb or Synopsis: I decided to pick this book up because I had just read another book by the same author, and since that other book was still fresh in my mind, i wanted to see if i had the same feelings for this book as well. If so, i wouldn't' be reading her again...

The title IF LOVE IS GOOD TO ME comes from a song that is written by one of the main characters, and that seems to be the only connection to the book. The book takes us to Tenerife, Spain, because Dosha Steele is trying to escape the memories of a former love. In the prologue, Dosha and her new love Christian Montero, a man of mix racial ancestry, have just had their cards read and the results show a rather dark future. This is supposedly telling the reader that something bad is going to happen.

I'm not going to go into the plot. I felt a lot of this was not very structured, but what was really annoying was the dialog and way the book was written. I felt like i was reading an old fashioned harlequin from the 60's, and the use of a lot of dated lingo was also very grating on my nerves. After reading a few reviews on this book, I realized it wasn't just me. For some reason this book reads like it was written by someone who does not know modern lingo and I did not get the impression that Dosha was black. I also felt cheated by Christian's character, because he was supposed to be one of many descendants of African Americans called "Brown Babies", babies that were born as a result of American G.I's stationed in Europe. Yes, i got the sense that he was very Spanish, but there really wasn't any hint of the history of these people, except for the occasional reference to them.

I do not recommend this book, as I felt almost embarrassed reading it. I cannot imagine all her books are as bad as this, because she's published so many romances in her writing career. I am just hoping this is one of the few novels she's written that were not worth reading.