A Deal with a Debutante | A Questionable Regency Romance

A Deal with a Debutante is the first novel released from Haven, Baker Publishing Group’s newest imprint. Haven is supposed to see a new line of clean but non-Christian novels. My word of caution to BPG would be to not confuse non-Christian with anti-Christian. Buckle up, y’all, cause I had some beef with this novel.

Main Themes/Family Friendly Considerations

You can write from a Christian worldview without mentioning God, and that’s what I expected from Haven. There’s a difference between mentioning God in a novel and having Christian views of love, commitment, morality, and so many other topics present in a novel. I was looking for these biblically-aligned themes to be present without directly referencing God.

What I actually received from Haven was disappointing. A Deal with a Debutante is written for teens and young adults and is a romance novel through and through, but the main themes were disturbingly unbiblical. 

There were four major red flags in the love interest between Calliope and Edward that were promoted in the novel. I’ll tackle the worst (in my opinion) one first.

The first red flag was the novel’s emphasis on the trendy concept of “sexual compatibility.” After an extensive conversation with a licensed counselor friend who specializes in marriage counseling, she told me that the idea of finding a person you’re sexually compatible with is a myth. The honeymoon phase of new relationships and cuddly feelings might last an entire novel, but only lasts six months to three years at most before physical interest will no longer constantly produce sparks and butterflies every day. Basing your attraction on sexual arousal is such a terrible idea. 

Additionally, the idea of “testing sexual compatibility” with the underlying assumption that sex and kissing will be thrilling and fulfilling for their entire lives is a staple of hook up culture, which no Christian should be endorsing or encouraging teens to participate in.

The second red flag is that Calliope’s number one reason for marrying is that she is following her heart, and her number one ideal characteristic in a man is someone who “knew how to have fun.” Those are terrible reasons for marriage and directly endorses things God tells us to avoid.

The third red flag is how Calliope believes she can “fix” him and make him perfect, which any married person will tell you is not possible. But in A Deal with a Debutante, it’s a cornerstone of their relationships.

The more romance novels I read, the more I’m disgruntled with red flag number four: how quickly the characters commit to each other. In A Deal with a Debutante, they see all of each other’s character, every virtue and every flaw, within a span of two weeks. Real life doesn’t work that way. Even in close relationships, psychologists will tell you that it can take several months to start to see all of the real person. You simply can’t make a clear-headed and fully informed decision about a potential spouse in two weeks. That’s absurd . . . but also weirdly heavily promoted in this book.

But why should I care about this? It’s just a made-up story, after all.

I care because we can’t expect to consume ungodly content — this includes books! — and still expect our lives to reflect Christ. We can’t give our children media that calls good what the Bible calls foolish and expect their view of God and life not to be impacted. And I can’t go on any social media platform without seeing young singles lamenting how hard it is to date in the current culture. We need to have better role models for romantic love and commitment, and I simply can’t recommend this novel because of its damaging views of romantic relationships and what factors should influence a life-long commitment between a man and a woman. 

Faith Elements

Faith is completely absent, and an ungodly view of marriage and relationships was heavily promoted.

Interested in Cleaner Reads?

If you’re looking for clearer romantic options for yourself or your teens, here are some of our favorites:

• Sense and Suitability by Pepper Basham
• The Sands of Sea Blue Beach by Rachel Hauck
• At Morning’s Light by Lauraine Snelling