This week in class I finished my first book for the Independent Reading Project. My first book was “All I Asked” a black romance novel written by Barbara Keaton. When I first started to read “All I Ask” I thought Wow this is a really great book until I got to the middle of “All I Ask” I thought this whole book is extremely predictable because it follows that black romance formula. The black romance formula is a woman is bitter because of a previous break up so she is angry at all men, so when she meets a man she ignores their existence, but one day the right man comes along which she rejects but the man likes her so much that he doesn’t stop trying to get her attention, finally the woman goes on the date with a man and they both slowly fall in love with each other, after a short period of time of knowing each other the man and the woman fall madly in love and find that they cannot live without each other, then they get engaged, and soon after have the wedding of their dreams. In “All I Ask” it uses this very formula Deborah Anderson “Deb” a woman that has just broke up with her college boyfriend Mario meets Darrin Wilson a friend of a friend at a party, when Deb first meets Darrin she ignores the fact that he even exist, until the bump into each other at a restaurant and finally exchange phone numbers, when they finally go on a date both Darrin and Deb find that they are each other’s soul mate and wish to never part from each other. Soon after meeting each other Darrin proposes to Deb and they get married and have a happily ever after. I thought Barbara Keaton made her book so predictable and a huge cliché of black romance novels. If Keaton would have added a twist like embracing the fact that Darrin thought his ex-girlfriend Traci was calling him and made her pop at the same time that Deb came over and Deb and Darrin temporarily broke up. I think some type of wrong turn would make this book excited and known to more people.
I agree with you Sydney. I felt that All I Ask By Barbara Keaton was very predictable as well. There were many of times during this book, that I already knew what was going to happen next. What Barbara Keaton was definitely missing in her book was a twist. I knew that she was trying to make it seem that romance and love is possible for everyone, even if they have been burned a couple of times. But I do believe that there could have been a more creative way to get that message portrayed in her book, rather then go the predictable route like she did.
ReplyDeleteThough I have never read this book before it does sound like the plot to a lot of other books and movies. Maybe you should try reading the back of the book first and seeing if it will be predictable and if so you should probably choose another book.
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