#BookReview: The Breakup Vacation by Anna Gracia

Racism And Misandry Mar Otherwise Genuinely Fun And Funny Tale. This tale was marketed as essentially an updated Forgetting Sarah Marshall for more Zoomer sensibilities, and that kind of thing absolutely shines through. There is a shit ton of drinking and graphic on screen sex of the XXX damn near erotica level in a tropical location where the main cast has gone to “escape from” – but secretly damn near stalk – an ex of one of them. Ok, close enough to the movie – which, IIRC, MTV Films produced (MTV is also publishing this book).

So many people in the reviews here note misogyny, and many make their cases quite well. And yet there is also quite a bit of misandry here, where even the “good” males are only “good” because they agree with literally everything the females say and don’t genuinely challenge any of their preconceptions.

Even more problematic for me personally was the blatant anti-white racism. Including this line in particular:

“I don’t usually judge people, but when a white person’s like, “My family goes back six generations in Texas”, I’m definitely side eyeing them ‘cuz you know which side of the Civil War they were on.”

My family doesn’t go back “six generations in Texas”, but it *does* go back in the South to the Colonial era before the US even existed. Yes, that’s right – some of my ancestors came in via Virginia, not New York. One of them even died during the Civil War – *defending* the Union, at a battle in northern Alabama. I grew up with the scars of the war criminal terrorist bastard William Tecumseh Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign literally all around me, in the town that is the hometown of both the first female and last slaveholding – same person – US Senator. Her land, as described in her journals, was just a couple of miles from the trailer park I spent the first decade of my life in.

No, Ms. Gracia, you most certainly do NOT know “which side of the Civil War” such a person’s family was on, and to make such a claim is pretty fucking racist.

And yet the misandry and racism, while prevalent throughout the text, only serve to deduct a single star combined, as while prevalent they were also somewhat minor in that it wasn’t on every page. While I know others may claim otherwise, perhaps justifiably, that wasn’t my own experience with the text, at minimum, and I do know other reviewers who will (and I think here did?) 1* a book for any modicum of bigotry, even a single line, I try to judge the work as a whole.

And speaking of judging the work as a whole, this has to be one of the thinnest “romances” I’ve read in quite some time. Indeed, the entire “relationship” is more about the aforementioned damn near erotica sex and happening into each other while one of them is on vacation than anything, and the actual romance elements, such as they are, almost feel tacked on to ensure that it can be claimed to be a romance and satisfy RWA (and potential censors, if this ever becomes a movie) rules rather than actually, you know, building a genuinely romantic story. This was thus the other star deduction, and I can honestly say that across my 1100+ reviews I’ve written since 2018 alone, I genuinely think this is the first time I’ve ever deducted a star for such a reason. That I have here is telling of just how justified I think this reason in this book is.

Finally, the fact that a *fiction* book got 3* from me, given my “subtractive method” of rating where every single book starts out at 5* and I must have specific, describable, and preferably objective-ish reasons for deducting stars, should tell you just how problematic I personally think this book is. I think I’ve given less than a handful of fiction books 3* or less across those aforementioned 1200+ reviews, and yet this book managed to get on that particular list.

If you want a book for a tropical getaway, there are better books out there. If you want a book for a tropical getaway *and agree with the comments these characters make* – which is entirely your right – then yes, this book may be for you. But despite being genuinely funny at times, and despite my own completionist nature when it comes to book series, if I give Ms. Gracia’s books another try it will mostly be down to trying to give *everyone* a second chance at all times. And honestly, I’m not sure at this time that I would do that here.

Not recommended.

This review of The Breakup Vacation by Anna Gracia was originally written on March 5, 2024.

Featured New Release of the Week: Against the Rules by Laura Heffernan

This week, we’re looking at the second book in an excellent new series about geeky girls and the boys who love them. This week, we’re looking at Against the Rules by Laura Heffernan.

This was an interesting arc for Holly, one of the three best friends we were introduced to in She’s Got Game, Book 1 of this series. We pick up not long after that book leaves off, though other than spoiling that book this one can in theory be read standalone. (But read She’s Got Game first.) Holly has been left utterly devastated by the events of She’s Got Game, and Against the Rules is the story of Holly rebuilding her life and discovering what – and who – she wants… and having the courage to go after it, no matter the consequences.

In a bit of weird coincidence, Holly’s story even mirrors my own, to a point. As she is searching for her next programming job, she winds up interviewing in both Albany and Phoenix despite a nascent relationship she would like to explore, but knows will have to end if she moves to Phoenix (and even Albany is a stretch). My own story is that I had moved to the Southern Albany (the Georgia one, rather than the New York one Holly interviews in), where I had begun a relationship literally within days of quitting my teaching job and actively looking for my first programming job. The weekend before Valentine’s Day 2007 – when I had been dating this girl for less than a month – a company flew me out to Phoenix for a weekend long interview, similar to Holly’s experience. While hindsight would show the Phoenix interview to be an utter disaster, at Valentine’s Day I’m sitting in a Longhorn in Albany (Ga) having interviewed in both Phoenix and a town about 100 miles away called Macon, GA, and at the time I thought either equally likely. If I got Macon, I could make this nascent relationship work. If Phoenix offered me the job, I couldn’t ask this woman that barely knew me to leave her life and family and travel 1000 miles to live with a relative stranger.

In my own life, Phoenix basically told me to go to Hell… and Macon offered me the job. Moving to my nearby apartment was when I realized I loved this woman, and less than 2 months later she had the first ring from me. Within about 6 months of that move (give or take a couple of weeks), I had moved into her house in Albany and we exchanged a pair of rings there in the church she had grown up in. We had met less than 9 months earlier.

What happens in Holly’s life? Well, you’re just going to have to read this book to find out. 😉

As always, we end with the Goodreads/ Amazon review:
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