Red Flag Blurbs

As I said in my last article, there’s now no shortage of romance novels with disabled characters but most of them are terrible.

I stumbled on this one and I like the cover. That looks legit like a guy who actually uses a wheelchair and it’s not easy to get or create models for your disabled characters on cover art.

Then I read the blurb.

So no I have not read this book and there’s very little chance I’ll be reading it because this description is packed with red flags for me. Maybe it’s a great book, but I’m highly skeptical.

Let’s start with the word “confined.” Referring to someone as “confined to a wheelchair” is a big red flag for me. It’s not necessarily an automatic no. Perhaps it’s some kind of taking back a difficult term, maybe it’s how the ignorant character with internalized ableism really is feeling.

But it suggests that this is a person who has never been anywhere near the disability community.

I say that because I got reamed out by an 80 year old woman in the 90s for using that term in a summary of a letter someone had sent to the disability rights organization I was volunteering at. I had just used the same language from the letter but the owner of the organization gave me an earful about how unacceptable that phrase was. Let me reiterate, that was an 80 year old woman thirty years ago. So for anyone to not be aware of how icky that phrase is suggests to me that they don’t know enough about disability life to write a disabled character.

The next red flag for me is the basic plot summary. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this exact type of premise (infinite times perhaps?) and each time it’s like the author and all the reveiwers think this is the most fresh and new idea ever.

Here are the cliches that are just exhausting to keep seeing in books:

He doesn’t want pity, he just wants to be miserable and sulk about his lifeHe’s the crankiest grouch that ever grouched but the nurse/caregiver/person hired to keep him from offing himself can change his perspectiveHe pushes her away for her own good/protection

Please tell new stories.

But they probably won’t because the reviews are always full of praise for doing something so new and unexpected actually writing about a bitter disabled guy finding love. Sigh.

So now you may look at my new book that is coming out in January 2024, see the title and the cover, and say “But Ruth, your book doesn’t look any different.” Is this not going to be that same old cliche of a bitter disabled guy who is grouchy about his “broken body”? No, it’s not.

Kevin Murphy is coming back to Cedar Harbor where he did his rehabilitation after losing both legs to an IED ten years ago. He tells everyone he’s retiring from his professional sledge hockey career and wants to start an amateur team to help others, but the truth is more complicated. There are things he’s hiding from and a small New England town like Cedar Harbor is the perfect place.

Carly Jennings is a beloved and respected fundraiser, tapped to help Kevin with his sledge hockey team idea. Behind her polished exterior of perfection she’s hiding her own struggles like the insomnia that plagues her.

Though Carly is excellent at what she does, Kevin is wary of an able-bodied outsider taking over his project and he doesn’t understand why they should spend money on events when it could be spent directly on the team.

The two start off on the wrong foot (as it were), but start to find common ground after being stuck in an elevator at a gala event.

Kevin is a little grouchy and he is bitter about something but it isn’t his disability, it’s how abled people try to take over and do things for disabled people without knowing what they actually need.

Having been involved in disability rights for thirty years myself I am fairly confident that I can do this book justice but you’ll have to tell me what you think when it comes out in January. You can sign up for updates and behind-the-scenes content at my website https://www.ruthmadisonbooks.com

Sledge Hockey Team Of Cedar Harbor COMING 2024 #booktube #authortube #smalltownromance

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