Okay, so. I just--...
Let’s just get this over with.
The Wedding Date is a romance novel by Jasmine Guillory that chronicles the interracial, romantic relationship between the book’s protagonist and high-power lawyer, Alexa Monroe, and medical doctor, Drew Nichols. The two meet in a broken-down elevator while Alexa is en route to visit her sister in celebration of her sister’s recent ascent to partner at a New York City law firm, while Drew is begrudgingly in town for a wedding between his best friend and ex-girlfriend. Cue mutual thirst and a couple of corny puns, and the two find themselves deeply in lust and, somehow, with Alexa having agreed to go with Drew to this wedding. From there, well, we begin the cringey and painful path through this book.
Let me start by talking about things this book does well. Alexa is a curvy and professionally successful black woman that is passionate about the social programming she is able to facilitate through her job at the Berkeley mayor’s office. Her sister and friends are also educated black people who are living out their professional dreams despite the many challenges they have faced both in the workplace and throughout their lives. In the book’s sex scenes, consent is a normalized and openly communicated element that precedes every sexual act. These are good things.
My issues with The Wedding Date are, frankly, many of the things the book is praised for. Alexa is black and Drew is white and their interracial romance is often touted as a point of celebration. However, Drew enters the relationship with a lot of unchecked privilege and Alexa often has to overextend herself to make their relationship work. Here are a few other issues I have;
Their relationship is largely predicated on mutual sexual interest while lacking the emotional closeness to withstand hard times.
Drew does not respect women and, by extension, Alexa.
The two do a terrible job at communicating with one another and find themselves in annoyingly preventable disagreements.
Drew has a, frankly unsettling, temper.
Drew overall gets away with so much, while having the temerity to accuse Alexa of things that are simply not aspects of her character due to his own insecurities.
Alexa is insecure about her body and the book frames Drew’s whiteness as subtext for why he is, “objectively”, more good-looking than she is.
And throughout all of this, we, as readers, are hoping that these tendencies will be examined or, at the very least, acknowledged at SOME point. But that never actually happens. Alexa and Drew leave the book pretty much the same as they entered it and the readers are gaslighted into believing that their relationship is a desirable and healthy one. The social shorthand the book utilizes to justify Drew’s behavior, Alexa’s insecurities, their constant miscommunication, etc. I think points to a more unsettling framing of romantic love; that this is the best that someone like Alexa can get.
Drew might have abs, but his essence as a person is toxic. And I’m sad to see that a book with so much praise valorizes someone like him and a relationship like this. Even if you’re in the mood for a light, romantic read, there are many other books that advance representation AND portray healthy relationships. Find one of those. Please spare yourself.
Feel free to check out our episode where Ako, Traci from The Stacks, and I go into more detail about our thoughts!