Title: Who I Am and What I Want
Series: N/A
Author: David Michael O’Quinn
Genre: Contemporary Romance / Transgender (TMF)
Length: Novel
Publisher: Self-published (July 21st, 2012)
Reviewer: Thommie
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥2.5~3 Hearts
Blurb: A post-operative transwoman tries to lead a “normal” life in Western Mass.
Desiré Andersen has been through a lot in her life. From her grandmother dying, being kicked out of the apartment she shares with her mother and brother, and leaving her pimp boyfriend. Finally on the straight and narrow she gets a retail job and quickly moves up in Hollywood.
Like most things in life her heart gets in the way threatening to hold her back. A series of events over the course of four years leads her to figure out who she is as a person not just a transsexual and what she wants out of life as far as career, love, and family.
Product Link: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/210386
Review: Okay, so this book is divided in two. First part is “Who I AM” and I quite literally loooved it. That is the story of a little girl born in the wrong damn body, and as it appeared in the wrong family, too. Her father dies early and from that moment on her life becomes a living nightmare. Her brother is bound on making her life Hell and her, while seeing the abuse and violence, turns a blind eye. The only reason Desire survived her childhood at all was her surrogate family. The family of her best friends who always kept an eye on her, and her grandmother. Who while alive couldn’t help her much, did so by her death, leaving Desire a huge amount of money that translates into her independence. The first part of the story follows on with Desire going from relationship to relationship, hardships along the way and abusive men in her life all leading into her finding who she really is.
And while I loved this part of the story I also got an extreme headache with the flashbacks and the narration. It took me a while, but I finally figured it out that the whole book is written as a script. Told in an almost clinical way, as if the narrator is hiding behind a peephole seeing it all and leaving all feelings and emotions in your imagination. Something that makes Desire’s story even more horrific in your eyes.
However there comes part two of the book, “What I Want”, which lost me completely. I simply couldn’t see it or get attached to the story. This part starts with an Oprah show where Desire is a guest. Her life has taken off and she is now a star, but things are quite different from what part one made you think they were going to be. This entire part is so full on fast-forwards and flashbacks that it requires you to constantly be on your toes and full focused in order to follow the story. It irritated me a lot. I was too invested in Desire’s life with her husband that this entire back and forth hit on my nerves and didn’t let me enjoy it. To add more to my irritation the author focused so much on the outfit Desire wore that I had this feeling of reading “Sex & the City” with Carry Bradshaw’s obsession with trend marks.
The People’s Choice Awards Desiré’s Dark Brown hair is bunned at the base of her neck as she stands in a Fuchsia Dalia MacPhee One-Shoulder Ruffle Dress with Multifloral Aldo Shurkus Pumps in between her sisters Monica who’s wearing a Navy Adrianna Papell Polka Dot Halter Dress with Pink Enzo Angiolini Show You Pumps as her Blonde wavy hair falls past her shoulders & Rachel in a Red Laundry by Shelli Segal Draped Jersey Gown paired with Red Charles David Complex pumps with her Blond hair in a high bun.
And that flows on in the entire second part of this book and really made me want to close it and stop reading. Let’s just that part two is like reading a TV show something that doesn’t appeal me at all.
So in the end, I liked only half of this book. The end itself was the predictable happily ever after, after a lifetime of struggles for the heroine who finally, finally got all she ever wanted.