Reviewed by Kimberley
TITLE: So Into You
SERIES: Intoxication Book #1
AUTHOR: Remmy Duchene
PUBLISHER: Pride Publishing
LENGTH: 125 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2016
BLURB:
From Lust to Love in its purest form…
Alfred Leung’s life is in the crapper. From his gold-digging, racist mother and a cheating ex-boyfriend to his hang-ups about sex—everything in his existence depresses him. Add to it passing his days serving faux French food in a diner. It isn’t how he planned on spending the rest of his life, so the fates have definitely conspired against him. Just out of a relationship, he decides to focus on work and going back to one of the things that makes him happy—photography. Then, in his Armani suit, Darius Stark walks through the door of the diner, and Alfred’s world is about go into a tail spin he never saw coming.
Darius Stark hasn’t been with a man in years. Men see the suit and run screaming in the other direction or they tear-ass toward him because they see dollar signs. He decides to focus on his business, but soon he’s buried himself so deeply in his work that years goes by without someone to love. Finally, he sees Alfred and wants him, but Darius is about to find out not everyone thinks he’s almighty and that some men are flawed.
REVIEW:
This is the first book in Duchene’s Intoxication series and I must say that it’s off to a very good start. I enjoy reading books from this author as all of her books feature interracial couples with at least one of the romantic lead MCs being one of color. She consistently features a man of color in all of her books.
As quiet as its kept, I can’t think of any other author in this particular genre that consistently feature men of color as a lead MC in their books and not just as background or supporting characters. Now that I think about it, she’s the only author in this genre where one of the MCs featured is consistently a man of color (though not always black). This is what originally attracted me to her work.
This story gives us two wonderful characters. Alfred and Darius. Alfred is a man who’s abandoned his dreams and sacrifice his happiness to please his hateful shrew of a mother. He’s a hard working and is a dutiful son, constantly dealing with his selfish, obnoxious mother.
What I found particularly interesting about the story is that Alfred wasn’t even looking for love; his heart wasn’t at all open for business. But of course, life being what it is, throws certain people in your path and love makes an appearance when you least expect it.
Darius Stark has the three Bs going for him: beautiful, brilliant, and a billionaire, shows up at the restaurant where Alfred works and ends up in Alfred’s path. Although it wasn’t love at first sight, there was definitely a strong attraction between the two men.
I loved the interaction between Darius and Alfred. There were cultural and racial differences but as with all of her books, she didn’t dwell on it or make it a ‘thing’. It was just two men acting on their attraction towards one another.
I loved how she didn’t have Alfred being overwhelmed by Darius. She could’ve written a tired Cinderella or in this case, CinderFella, style story with Alfred being swept off his feet by the gorgeous billionaire but she didn’t. She gave Alfred some fire, he’s his own man with a strong personality. Alfred was hard to get but he wasn’t playing at it or playing it up. He honestly didn’t think that he and Darius had anything in common. To him, Darius comes from this world of money and power and Al being this down to earth former dancer turned waiter, just didn’t think he’d fit in to. He didn’t realize that Darius was as down to earth as he is.
Both MCs are dealing with issues with prejudice and drama from family members but she didn’t drag that out, darkening the storyline. She didn’t give the prejudiced family members that much importance in the story; they didn’t dominate the storyline at all. She opted to tell the story of these two great guys falling for each other instead.
The story was light but not overly so; she managed to strike the perfect balance of the mood and tell a really good story.
The editing, which was a bit of an issue when she first started writing, has improved tremendously and was well done. She’s honed her craft and is really coming into her own as a writer.
I applaud the fact that she incorporates ethnic men into these stories. There is a huge empty space in this genre when it comes to diverse characters in general, black men in particular and she’s filling it quite nicely.
As a woman of color who enjoys this genre, it’s always nice to see yourself represented. She represents and celebrate different ethnicities and cultures by bringing them together and writing about them loving each other. I also like the fact that she doesn’t stereotype these characters. They’re just a couple of guys who happen to have different colored skin loving each other. And it’s a beautiful thing to read.
I will definitely keep an eye out for this author and I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about interracial couples.
RATING: 
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