Review: Found By You by Victoria R. Smith

Found by You by Victoria H. Smith

July 17th, 2016

 So the first scene basically goes like this...

Now that I have your attention, you can stop drooling. This is actually my first Victoria H. Smith book that I've finished front to back and really liked. I own a few of her books, but I'm ashamed to admit I haven't read every single one. Expect a review for Sugar Love soon, but until then, I'm on this book.

I liked it. I had the pleasure of reading it via audiobook, which is my life now, but there weren't a ton of things I didn't like. Not to say I found everything to my taste. I still thought it could work on shaming other women, whether it be slut shaming or body shaming. The feminist in me is never going to like when a woman is pitted against another one just for the sake of conflict. And I'm a little bit too "Pro-Hoe"to judge another person's business in the bedroon, or how they earn their money.

But I'll just say how I feel in the review.

Found by You follows the exploits of Griffin, a college athlete and Roxie, the girl he falls for.

Things I liked:

The f/f sub plot. Roxie's best friend was a closeted queer girl. Even though the space used for her character ended in abuse(so disgusted by that btw)you can't say representation doesn't matter. Because I get excited even when queer women are side characters.

I kind of liked Griffin. He seemed like a reformed jackass, so I'm glad the jackass side of him was gone by the time the story was done with. He was Texan, and a lot of sexy people come out of there. There was just something missing for me, especially since he didn't have to pay for his past mistakes, and that read to me as white, male and privileged.

Roxie was cool too. Fiery. Not a pushover. I liked her better than Griffin, which is good. She had a difficult back story, which was somewhat uncomfortable, but you'd have to read to find out more on that.

Things I didn't connect with as much:

Roxie was dark skinned, which was awesome. But she had bright green eyes and "good" hair. I put good in parenthesis, because I'm being sarcastic. My fellow sistas who are living, walking Roxies, I know you exist. I'm not by any means trying to say her having these features were unrealistic.

But they're not common. And it made me feel like the loser in the back again for not having those features. It's taken more than half my life to love my dark skin, dark eyes and nappy hair. This is especially hard, when I balance American Black, and Latinx spaces, that both tell me I don't fit anywhere.

It's becoming rare to see someone who looks like me completely. Sometimes I overlook culture for color, or color for culture. But I'm pretty sure I'm living proof you can date a white guy, and be Black as hell, with nappy hair and SURPRISE-SURPRISE. He'll still be attracted to you.

And I'm not talking bigots who don't like anything different. I'm talking about your average guy who probably still needs educating, but is willing to listen.

Calling to authors out there. Please exoticize brown eyes!

I hated that Griffin was 6'6". Another thing people don't realize. Sexing someone that tall isn't always fun. When the position is comfortable for them, it's often not for you and vice versa. I think Roxie was 5'3"? That's a 15 inch height difference. Their sex scenes seemed inconsistent, because most of the things he did weren't easily plausible with their height difference. I'm saying this from experience B.

Provided by Huffington Post. (BTW this is a 19 inch height difference)

There were also times when he was described as standing next to her, but being able to dance with their foreheads close, without any mention of the effort that'd take with his height.

There are a lot of things I've had to unlearn over the years, and requiring a man to be tall(should I want be with a man) is one of them. There are so many things that attribute to being a decent man, and I don't think being abnormally tall should always be a requirement.

But that's the feminism talking...

I also thought Roxie was cool, but she didn't have any goals outside of Griffin. For a hot second, we learned through her past she'd done a little sex work(Sex work is a broad term for any type of service provided or performed for compensation) and it was supposed to be for body positivity. But once Griffin found out, it was like the one thing she had to herself that she gave up once again for the sake of Griffin.

Even the end, there was no mention of her graduation, or mention of a degree upon moving to support Griffin's career. So I predict a life of catering as a Basketball Wife in her future, which btw does not sound like a fun job.

I wasn't crazy about the voices, but they grow with you after 5 hours.

Overall, I'd read another book from Ms. Smith again. Even better if it's audiobooks, because her books tend to be longer than I like to read with Romance. Scoop it up via Amazon!