From the beginning I had a pretty bad attitude towards modern romance If It Makes You Happy by Julie Olivia. This was not entirely the fault of Olivia. I am just so, so sick of the amount of pop culture that features single dads whose baby mamas walked out on their children so that they can find themselves.
I was also annoyed by the cover, which depicts our hero, Cliff, and heroine, Michelle, as high school students rather than the grown-ass adults they are. And the reader constantly being informed that Cliff is sarcastic when we never see him being sarcastic -- to the point that I wondered whether Olivia knows what the word means. And the constant reminders that THIS BOOK IS SET IN THE 90's. I get it. 90's tech. 90's fashion. 90's music. I don't care.
I understood that these were quibbles. But then -- then -- then -- I can't even.
When Cliff was in high school he knocked up his girlfriend. They got married and raised the baby and then another daughter, until the wife decided she -- you guessed it -- needed to find herself and went off to the big city (leaving Cliff with a stepmommy-sized hole in his heart for career-woman Michelle to step right into).
Okay, whatever. But when Cliff and Michelle have sex for this first time, they don't discuss birth control until they are actually having intercourse. Cliff is going to pull out -- yeah, how did that work out for you in high school, Cliffie? when Michelle tells him she is on the pill so all is good.
No wonder (spoiler) Cliff's teenage daughter has a pregnancy scare even though he spends the entire book worrying that she's going to get pregnant. Maybe a little less worrying, Cliff, and a little more making sure she goes to Planned Parenthood.
Also, let us hearken back to the 90's and what was going on then. Remember a little thing called AIDS? That was then a death sentence? Not to mention all the other STD's. We know that Michelle's ex-husband cheated on her, and she was with him pretty recently. Has she been tested? Has Cliff? The failure to have this conversation is not romantic; it is appalling.
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