• Home
  • ABOUT
  • Contact
  • Reviews By Genre
    • Black Romance
    • Contemporary
    • Cowboys & Westerns
    • Erotic
    • Historical
    • New Adult
    • Paranormal
    • Romantic Elements
    • Science Fiction/Fantasy
    • Suspense
  • Reviews by Theme
    • Celebrities
    • Harlequin Category
    • Holiday
    • LGBTQIA
    • Low Heat
    • Millionaires & Billionaires
    • Motorcycle Club
    • Multicultural
      • Black
      • East Asian
      • South Asian
      • Latinx
      • Interracial
    • Novellas & Anthologies
    • Royalty
    • Small Town
    • Sports
  • Reviews By Trope

Romance and Sensibility

From First Page To HEA

3.5 stars, Black Romance, Contemporary, Review, Romantic Elements

32 Candles by Ernessa T. Carter

April 28, 2019 Leave a Comment

Rating: ★★★ +.5| 352 pages | Contemporary | Amistad (Harper Collins) | 6/8/2010

 

Ever since Davie Jones was a child she’s wanted a Sixteen Candles-style romance and a Jake Ryan of her very own. But John Water’s endings don’t happen to poor dark-skinned outcasts in the deep south–so Davie Jones sets out to get it for herself.

This Sixteen Candles send up manages to be a combination of a romance novel, that 90’s brand of African American Women’s fiction and like a dash of M.F.A storytelling. I enjoyed following along on Davie’s journey as she leaves her small southern town to remake herself. She doesn’t always make the best choices but I was really rooting for her and liked that she was finding a family of her own. I had a much harder time with the romantic pairings, I just could not root for any of the relationships in this book.

32 Candles is an enjoyable read with a complicated heroine navigating the messiness of life and coming out the other side. I’ll admit, I haven’t seen Sixteen Candles (and at this point will probably have a hard time watching from a modern day context) but I think fans of John Waters will find a little something more in this book.

Currently Reading

Kat
Jess

A spin-off of Books and Sensibility, this blog was created in 2015 to talk exclusively about romance novels--From the first page to HEA !

Follow Us on Bloglovin’

Follow

Subscribe !

Reviews By Rating

  • 1 Star
  • 2 Star
  • 3 Star
  • 4 Star
  • 5 Star
  • Unrated

Search

Book Blog

Blog Archive

Abou

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
@romanceandsensibility

I came across this trope a lot this year -Kat #spicybooks #booktok

♬ Still Into You Drill - ShoBeatz

Social Slider

  • Time for a cover reveal! Wall Street Journal bestselling author @kennedyryan1 is excited to reveal the gorgeous special edition paperback
  • The small town of Honey Hill isn’t big enough to handle the feud between Mayor Lunden Pierce and Quade Cannon—-the
  • Picked this up on a trip to 2nd & Charles . Can’t wait to dive into this series - J
  • Welcome to the snack / book pairing challenge! To enter, tell me what snack you are pairing with your current
  • Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you’re joining us tomorrow for the Black Friday Readathon. You can still sign up using the
  • I’m ready for the Black Friday Readathon! If you want to join us and read all day on Black Friday
  • It
  • It
Design by SkyandStars.co

Copyright © 2023