Photo via Goodreads.
In honor of Cydney Rax’s third novel in The Love and Revenge series (Revenge of the Mistress), here’s my review for My Married Boyfriend (the second novel in the series).
Title: My Married Boyfriend
Author: Cydney Rax
Date Read: September 11th – September 28th, 2016
Date Reviewed: September 28th, 2016
Introduction: I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. I wanted to read a soap-opera style novel with lots of love, angst and drama, and I definitely found it! My Married Boyfriend is the second of three novels by Cydney Rex in this series. The book was easy to pick up without reading the first novel, but there were some aspects of the novel that took me some time to connect (Rashad’s mistresses and their children). Reading the first novel would be easier for the reader, but you can easily pick this book up and figure it out as you go along.
Spoilers Ahead?: Yes.
Quick Summary: Rashad has many women in his life, and a lot of drama as well. His wife kicked him out, leaving him unable to see Myles or Kiara in all her pregnant glory. Alexis, and his daughter Hayley, are friends with Kiara. And of course, his other mistress Nicole wants to marry him and is pregnant with his child. This novel follows mainly Nicole, but Rashad, Kiara and Alexis as well.
Evaluations: I found this novel to have a fast moving pace, but it lacked in sophistication. I found this book almost to easy to read, and the twists and turns that happened were far to obvious. This book is definitely great if you want to turn your brain off and read a steamy yet dramatic romance, but it’s not for anyone who’s looking for a sophisticated or complicated read. I found myself loving some chapters and hating others, and it became a love-hate relationship with the novel. But, that’s of course, just my opinion. Looking at other reviews, readers who are into romance and soap operas LOVED this novel. I am not a major fan of romance/soap opera styled stories, I enjoy reading them in between my psychological thrillers, horror and young adult sprees.
Plot: The plot is fairly simple – Rashad has children with three women, and he has to juggle them. Kiara is his wife that he is divorcing, and she is pregnant (possibly with his child). Alexis is his baby mama and she has Hayley who is about two years old. Nicole, who is a little crazy, is currently pregnant with his child. Oh, and all three work together in Kiara’s office. The plot follows your typical soap opera plot line – Rashad potentially cheating, Kiara keeping his kid away from him and keeping the father of the child a secret, Nicole cheating on Rashad, Rashad finding out, and so on. It’s incredibly easy to follow, and it’s slightly predictable. That being said, it was never dull. The plot kept me interested and I didn’t want to put the book down. Often with romances I want to put the book down and take a break. Yet, I was able to truck along through this novel.
Characters: Rashad was not my favourite lead male. He has three women he is trying to keep relationships with and sometimes he treats them horribly. I felt like he was the weakest point, when he could have been the strongest.
Nicole being crazy seemed like the obvious trophe that could have happened. Rashad breaks up with his wife and his baby mama for a crazy woman who is having his baby. I have seen this on television a lot, but not in print. It was an interesting take, but I didn’t enjoy seeing Nicole as constantly crazy. I would have liked her to been crazy for a reason, and to have moments where I felt bad for her, yet I didn’t. When bad things happened to Nicole I felt like she had it coming, because it was set up that way.
Kiara & Alexis – These women were the strongest points of this novel, and they weren’t in it all that much. Kiara was a very strong lead woman for being in a supporting role. I enjoyed her aspect of the story, since she seemed human. Unlike Nicole, I felt for Kiara when negative turns approached her. I had strong emotions for her. I would have liked Nicole to be written in a similar fashion to her. Alexis was also a strong character, but she was clearly a secondary character and was only used for plot movement. She could have been used more in this novel, and I hope she’d more involved in the third (and first novel, which I haven’t picked up yet).
Themes/Creativity: Creativity wise this novel is great. I have rarely seen the soap opera norm of man having a child with a crazy woman in print. I enjoyed reading it, but I felt like Nicole was positioned to be the bad guy. Overall, it was creative and kept my hooked.
For themes, soap opera type novels rarely seem to have them. If you picked apart this novel you might be able to try to piece some together, but I don’t think Cydney Rax intended for there to be any strict themes.
Uniqueness: In the category of unique, having a diverse cast was nice. I felt like the book was a little to stereotypical and could have been written better in that sense since the novel had a diverse cast of characters. It’s pretty typical for a soap opera type novel, but as I’ve said, in print it’s done a great job of translating it over. I could see this novel becoming a television series such as Desperate Housewives or the many reality television shows that are currently on air.
Strengths: Kiara and Alexis – strong female leads are always great!
Weaknesses: Rashad and Nicole – these two characters were stereotypical and did not make me feel for them, which they should have. They were our main characters!
Score: 2 out of 5. I expected so much more out of this novel, and I felt that it lacked in many areas. Our leads left me without emotions for them, our diverse cast was written to be stereotypical of their ethnicity, and the writing style felt like it was meant to be a very easy read. I did love Kiara and Alexis, and I also loved how quick this novel moved, but the negatives out weighed the positives for me in this novel. That being said, I’d like to read more by Cydney Rax. She seems to know how to write drama, and I’d like to see her grow as she writes more.
