Hood Luvin From A White Boy, #1 by Sha Jones (Mini-Review)

Series: Hood Luvin' From A White Boy, #1
# of Pages: 147
Publication: August 20th, 2019
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Urban Romance
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There’s no feeling better than being treated like a queen and having your sexual desires fulfilled by a black man. However, when Javo, a sexy, charismatic white man with the swag to match enters the scene, he becomes every woman’s fantasy. After being abandoned in a dumpster in the hood like trash at just two weeks old, a black family finds him and raises him. Growing up in the black community, Javo naturally develops a swag that attracts black women. When he meets Mahogany, a beautiful, dark-skinned woman who has no interest in dating outside of her race, he turns on his charm and makes her second guess her preference. Being dark-skinned, Mahogany has always felt that she wasn’t good enough, especially after facing betrayal over and over again from the black men whom she'd always put on a high pedestal. All of her thoughts and feelings began to change when Javo comes into her life and is blown away by her beautiful, melanin skin. Mahogany will soon find out that Javo isn’t like the trifling low down men that she’s dated in her past.

Yes, I know the title is not something that you would typically see on my blog; however, this is definitely a situation where you should not judge the book by the cover. Hood Luvin From A White Boy is not the best written book that I've ever read; however, it definitely has enough action and intrigue and I devoured this book in about two days. While I'm sure that these books will focus on the relationship between Mahogany and Javo, this first installment focused on Javo's life. Not wanted by his birth parents, Javo is placed in a dumpster until he is picked up by his adoptive parents. Growing up mostly around black people, growing up in a black neighbor, and attending a predominately black schools, Javo becomes fully immersed in black culture. Jones writes his character in a way that he genuinely feels a part of the black community and not someone who is trying to be something that he's not. Jones also writes Javo in a way that the reader has no choice but to feel for him and his situation. He doesn't get along well with his adoptive father and he wants so badly to learn about his birth parents. Yet, in spite of all these things Javo is still a gentleman and cares so deeply about other people including Mahogany. One of the downsides to taking the time to focus on Javo's back story in this book is that we don't really get to know Mahogany that well. Her life feels like it's nothing but gloom and doom because she's always in a messed up situation. However, I definitely enjoyed that Jones explored her feelings towards interracial dating. A lot of black women (this is solely my opinion) attempt to work out relationships and love with black men and never honestly consider other races as an option while our black male counterparts do. It's a very interesting dynamic and I'm hoping that she explores it more in the next few books. 

"She was tired of praising black men, who she saw to be kings, just to get nothing in return." 

One thing in particular that I did not enjoy about this novel was the unexplained reason as to why Rochelle, Javo's adopted mother, did not think that it was pertinent to take Javo to law enforcement after she found him in a dumpster. Sure, Jones notes that Rochelle watches the news to look for stories about missing children; however, there was always going to be a high likelihood that she would miss a story or that the story of a missing child would go unreported. I feel like if she went about adopting him the legal way and acquiring a legitimate birth certificate and social security card they wouldn't fun into all the issues that I'm sure they will have in future books. It just didn't seem realistic by any means and it feels as though most people would have more common sense then to keep a child without notifying anyone that the child was found in a dumpster. Nevertheless, with her superb character development Jones makes up for some holes in her plot development. 

"Sharon Ann and Joe put up a front during the press conference, crying and acting as if they were suffering due to their son's kidnapping. There was no evidence that Sharon Ann or Joe had dome something bad to their child, so there were no charges filed."

While there isn't a lot of romance that happens between the main characters in this book, the reader can definitely see how Jones is going to spend a great bit of time focusing on the development of a friendship that will eventually turn into a romantic relationship. The slow burn feelings that I got from these two characters really illustrated everything that I love in romance novels. I made sure I checked out the next book on Kindle Unlimited. If you're looking for a new urban romance novel to check out I would definitely recommend giving this one a try. 

"Mahogany had no problem with whit men, but that wasn't her thing. She wanted to stay within her culture and date her own race. In her mind, there was nothing that a white man could offer her."