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Book Review of Kissing Outside the Lines: A True Story of Love and Race and Happily Ever After

DaynaAlyson avatar reviewed on + 31 more book reviews


I will start by admitting that I did not read this book in its entirety, but I did get about two-thirds of the way through it before I couldn't take anymore. The author of this memoir is one of the most whiny, judgmental, and self-centered people I have ever read about. I wanted to reach through the pages of the book and shake her and tell her that the world does not revolve around her and her needs!

The book is written by a white woman who falls in love with a Korean man. Everything in their relationship is seemingly perfect, EXCEPT the fact that her fiancée's family does not like her because she's white and not Korean. Ok, wait actually, her fiancée's EXTENDED family doesn't like her because she's white and not Korean. Oh, actually just some of her fiancée's aunts don't like her because she's white and not Korean. That's right, the fiancée's parents, sister, and cousins all have no issue with her. She spends the whole book whining about some bitchy, stuck-up old women in her husband's extended family who probably would have been bitchy and stuck up whether they were Korean or not, so to me it really had nothing to do with race.

Diane Farr, I'm white and I don't find you particularly likable. I do find you selfish, condescending, judgmental and overly dramatic! A friend asked if it was possible that I feel this way because I know you are an actress, an understandable question. However, I don't believe your choice in profession had any influence on me as I have no prejudice against actors. I had never heard of you or seen any of the shows you said you were on, and so came to this book with no preconceived notions as to what you would be like. Now that I have read your memoir (or enough of it anyway) I think you're annoying.