Reading Wrap Up (Sept)
Hello! For the blog post this month I'm going to do some mini-reviews of some of the books I've read since my last reading wrap-up in May. Since that time, I've read 12--almost 13!--more books, bringing my current yearly total to 28, almost 29. In this post I will only review a few, although my plan is to review the rest in another post later on.
By the Book by Jasmine Guillory
Goodreads Summary: Isabelle is completely lost. When she first began her career in publishing right out of college, she did not expect to be twenty-five, living at home, still an editorial assistant, and the only Black employee at her publishing house. Overworked and underpaid, constantly torn between speaking up or stifling herself, Izzy thinks there must be more to this publishing life. So when she overhears her boss complaining about a beastly high-profile author who has failed to deliver his long-awaited manuscript, Isabelle sees an opportunity to finally get the promotion she deserves. All she has to do is go to the author’s Santa Barbara mansion and give him a quick pep talk or three. How hard could it be? But Izzy quickly finds out she is in over her head. Beau Towers is not some celebrity lightweight writing a tell-all memoir. He is jaded and withdrawn and—it turns out—just as lost as Izzy. But despite his standoffishness, Izzy needs Beau to deliver, and with her encouragement, his story begins to spill onto the page. They soon discover they have more in common than either of them expected, and as their deadline nears, Izzy and Beau begin to realize there may be something there that wasn't there before.
Okay, somehow when I picked this up at the library and read the inside flap, it went completely over my head that this was a Beauty & the Beast retelling! I did pick up on that as the plot progressed though, and I thought Guillory did an incredible job of incorporating enough elements to honor the source material while also putting a fresh spin on the fairytale.
First of all, I enjoyed the main plotline of the book being the creation of Beau's memoir--the scenes where Izzy helped him write did a great job of deepening the connection between the characters, demonstrating Izzy's skill and quality as an editor, and peeling back the layers of Beau's personality. So often with romantic comedies the initial setup is abandoned in the first half of the story, but Guillory made the circumstances of the plot work for her characters instead of against them. Using the memoir as an opportunity to delve deeper into Beau's secret past and build a sense of trust between him and Izzy was very clever.
I liked that both Izzy and Beau developed their confidence, emotional intelligence, and communication skills as they spent more time together. Izzy was a delight from the start, and I found Beau really sweet if easily misunderstood. Guillory succeeded in making him just grumpy and hotheaded enough to reflect the Beast energy without crossing the line into jerk territory, especially when combined with Izzy's strong-willed determination. The confusion between them felt understandable rather than frustrating, and it was fun to learn more about them as they in turn learned more about each other.
The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu
Goodreads Summary: Jasmine Tran has landed herself behind bars—maple bars that is. With no boyfriend or job prospects, Jasmine returns home to work at her parents’ donut shop. Jasmine quickly loses herself in a cyclical routine of donuts, Netflix, and sleep. She wants to break free from her daily grind, but when a hike in rent threatens the survival of their shop, her parents rely on her more than ever. Help comes in the form of an old college crush, Alex Lai. Not only is he successful and easy on the eyes, to her parents’ delight, he’s also Chinese. He’s everything she should wish for, until a disastrous dinner reveals Alex isn’t as perfect as she thinks. Worse, he doesn’t think she’s perfect either. With both sets of parents against their relationship, a family legacy about to shut down, and the reappearance of an old high school flame, Jasmine must scheme to find a solution that satisfies her family’s expectations and can get her out of the donut trap once and for all.
This was a fun combination of a cute, wholesome romance and a relatable coming-of-age story. I sympathized with Jasmine's lack of direction as a young post-graduate, and I enjoyed seeing her come into her own professionally. The author did a pretty good job drawing the complicated picture of the family dynamics in a way where even when I picked a side in the argument, I still saw where each member was coming from. That said, the resolution of the conflict between Jasmine and her mom felt watered down and oversimplified, and therefore was unsatisfying for me.
The chemistry between Jasmine and Alex was sweet, and I enjoyed seeing their relationship develop on the page, especially their first date. The conflict over the family dinner gone wrong was a fresh take on the "rich family-poor family" trope, and the suspense leading up to that conflict was well done. I did think that the separation between the two around the 75% mark when Alex goes to China made the storyline drag a little bit; I wonder if it would have worked better if he had gone prior to the dinner to raise the stakes a little more (i.e "this is my first time seeing you in a month and it's a disaster"). Maybe the intention was to give us time to focus on Jasmine's new job, but I think the author could have given that plotline the same amount of attention had Alex taken a backseat due to their fight but still maintained a presence in her life. It felt kind of like he disappeared for a minute there, which made the energy between them feel even weirder when his return ended up being extremely anticlimactic. It almost felt like Jasmine's feelings for him had vanished when he did, and when he came back the chemistry didn't feel as strong as it had earlier. I'm not saying Jasmine's work plotline wasn't important, but there wasn't enough of balance between that and her romantic plotline in the final quarter compared to the rest of the book, in my opinion.
Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen
Goodreads Summary: Always a matchmaker, never a match...Olivia Huang Christenson is excited-slash-terrified to be taking over her grandmother’s matchmaking business. But when she learns that a new dating app has made her Pó Po’s traditional Chinese zodiac approach all about “animal attraction,” her emotions skew more toward furious-slash-outraged. Especially when L.A.’s most-eligible bachelor Bennett O’Brien is behind the app that could destroy her family’s legacy. Liv knows better than to fall for any guy, let alone an infuriatingly handsome one who believes that traditions are meant to be broken. As the two businesses go head to head, Bennett and Liv make a deal: they’ll find a match for each other—and whoever falls in love loses. But Liv is dealing with someone who’s already adept at stealing business ideas, so what’s stopping him from stealing her heart too?
This book was delightful, and I eagerly anticipate Jessen's next novel (Red String Theory)! The setup was unique and interesting, and I liked the deconstruction of compatibility matching versus the "opposites attract" approach when it comes to modern dating.
As someone who doesn't enjoy the "enemies to lovers" trope, I appreciated that Liv and Bennett's ire for each other as well as their "big secrets" were worked through pretty quickly. This allowed them to spend most of the book actually getting to know each other instead of bickering, which had the added bonus of demonstrating to the reader why they would be a healthy, well-matched couple in the long run instead of relying entirely on physical attraction. I especially liked how they bonded over feeling like they didn't belong due to having multicultural identities and how that bond developed into a deeper emotional intimacy--my favorite scenes were the burning of the joss paper offerings and the dancing scene.
One suggestion I would give to improve the story would be to either eliminate or develop the many extemporaneous characters that were left undeveloped--Jasmine talks a lot about how her family, friends, and co-workers are extremely important to her but other than her grandmother, her clients, and maybe her sister, most of those characters were introduced once or twice only to fade into the ether until the very end of the book. Maybe the story didn't need some of those characters at all, or perhaps the author could have tried to incorporate them more.
A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli
Goodreads Summary: Twenty-nine-year-old Niki Randhawa has always made practical decisions. Despite her love for music and art, she became an analyst for the stability. She's always stuck close to home, in case her family needed her. And she's always dated guys that seem good on paper, rather than the ones who give her butterflies. When she's laid off, Niki realizes that practical hasn't exactly paid off for her. So for the first time ever, she throws caution to the wind and books a last-minute flight for her friend Diya's wedding. Niki arrives in India just in time to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, where she meets London musician Sameer Mukherji. Maybe it's the splendor of Mumbai or the magic of the holiday season, but Niki is immediately drawn to Sam. At the wedding, the champagne flows and their flirtatious banter makes it clear that the attraction is mutual. When Niki and Sam join Diya, her husband and their friends on a group honeymoon, their connection grows deeper. Free-spirited Sam helps Niki get in touch with her passionate and creative side, and with her Indian roots. When she gets a new job offer back home, Niki must decide what she wants out of the next chapter of her life--to cling to the straight and narrow like always, or to take a leap of faith and live the kind of bold life the old Niki never would have dreamed of.
First of all, there were some things about this book I appreciated, such as Niki being a proud dark-skinned Indian woman despite facing colorism, and a long-distance relationship being a valid option for couples living on separate continents instead of one person being forced to give up their dreams for someone else.
That said, the plot of this book was kind of a mess, to be honest--it felt almost like a first draft. My biggest problem was that the scenes that had the most page time or detail didn't seem to be the most important ones, whereas the events I really wanted to see as a reader (such as her visiting her family in Punjab for the first time and connecting with her identity, which was supposedly a huge focus of the trip) were regulated to a summarizing paragraph of "we did this, I saw that, these people were there". Similarly, plot points that could have been great opportunities to characterize Niki or her views on relationships--such as her best friend confiding in her about her infertility issues or her parents' disappointment with her sister's deadbeat, white boyfriend--are introduced and then ignored. In the same way, Sam and Niki's relationship feels surface-level, and Sam is pretty one-dimensional so it's hard to see why she would feel so strongly about him after only 2 weeks.
I also struggle to understand why I am supposed to support Niki ignoring the texts of Raj, who she went on a successful date with before her flight, in favor of gallivanting with Sam in Mumbai. She has promised to go out with Raj upon her return, so it makes sense that he is maintaining contact; but for whatever reason the book characterizes his calling/texting as an annoyance. And it’s fair to say that Raj isn't her boyfriend, they aren't exclusive, and she doesn't owe him anything--but it is kind of weird to see her string him along (almost as a backup option) when her character is supposed to be a very self-deprecating, overly considerate person who would rather inconvenience herself than hurt anyone in any way. I didn't understand why she didn't just break things off or ask to just be friends if her feelings for Sam were so strong that she was considering moving--like why just ignore him? It doesn't help that during the date scene, Raj was written to be so charming and encouraging to Niki to the point where I actually felt their chemistry was better than her connection with Sam. The author tried to solve the problem by having Raj suddenly turn out to be a player who hits on the waitress in the very end, but it felt less like a plot twist and more like a last-minute attempt to prove that Sam really is the guy we're supposed to root for.
Lastly, I was troubled by some aspects of how India was represented in the story--while the acknowledgement of colorism in India was interesting, there was little acknowledgment that America itself is colorist and racist as well. The country is depicted as dirty and dangerous, with food that will give you food poisoning--again, something that could be true for parts of India, but is no less true for parts of any other country in the world, including the U.S. Additionally, Niki is confused about Diwali but the plot doesn't engage with any traditions or customs around the holiday after the first 50 pages or so, and by the end she still has no clear answer as to what Diwali is about...she ends up with a half-baked explanation that "it means different things to different people" which could be true, but isn't explored enough to really qualify as an answer.
Overall, this book could really have benefited from a detail-oriented and culturally-competent editor. It was big miss for me.
The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews
Goodreads Summary: Evelyn Maltravers understands exactly how little she’s worth on the marriage mart. As an incurable bluestocking from a family tumbling swiftly toward ruin, she knows she’ll never make a match in a ballroom. Her only hope is to distinguish herself by making the biggest splash in the one sphere she excels: on horseback. In haute couture. But to truly capture London’s attention she’ll need a habit-maker who’s not afraid to take risks with his designs—and with his heart. Half-Indian tailor Ahmad Malik has always had a talent for making women beautiful, inching his way toward recognition by designing riding habits for Rotten Row’s infamous Pretty Horsebreakers—but no one compares to Evelyn. Her unbridled spirit enchants him, awakening a depth of feeling he never thought possible. But pushing boundaries comes at a cost and not everyone is pleased to welcome Evelyn and Ahmad into fashionable society. With obstacles spanning between them, the indomitable pair must decide which hurdles they can jump and what matters most: making their mark or following their hearts?
This author is one of my new favorites, and one of the reasons is because she writes incredible leading men and incorporates progressive views into Victorian era romances. To begin with, I loved following the journey of Evelyn, who is intelligent, loyal, intuitive, and compassionate. Although we didn't get as many horse-riding scenes as I anticipated based on the summary, I liked how her talent as a horse rider both set her apart from the other women making their debut and also contributed to her finding a group of true friends amongst a pack of horse-riding single ladies. I'm a huge fan of regency-era romances and those sorts of storylines, so I found the plot engaging and entertaining--especially the fad of spiritualism and seances!
As for Ahmad, he's not only a dressmaker who truly adores his craft, he supports and respects women of all walks of life (including sex workers), is a staunchly feminist ally, and despite his best attempts to pretend he's a lone wolf, he's extremely romantic. I appreciated the novel's exploration of his childhood trauma, his struggles growing up as a mixed-race child orphaned due to colonialism as well as the racism and classism he faces in adulthood as a male dress-maker of color in England, particularly the way that he is fetishized by some of his clients. Matthews did a great job writing a character who is a green flag, yet also has their own struggles and room for development. The chemistry between Ahmad and Evelyn was incredible, and I had a great time reading about them falling in love despite their troubles. The ending felt satisfying and earned, and I look forward to having them make a cameo as a happy couple in the following sequels.
Speaking of which...
The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews
Goodreads Summary: A London heiress rides out to the wilds of the English countryside to honor a marriage of convenience with a mysterious and reclusive stranger. Tall, dark, and dour, the notorious Captain Jasper Blunt was once hailed a military hero, but tales abound of his bastard children and his haunted estate in Yorkshire. What he requires now is a rich wife to ornament his isolated ruin, and he has his sights set on the enchanting Julia Wychwood. For Julia, an incurable romantic cursed with a crippling social anxiety, navigating a London ballroom is absolute torture. The only time Julia feels any degree of confidence is when she’s on her horse. Unfortunately, a young lady can’t spend the whole of her life in the saddle, so Julia makes an impetuous decision to take her future by the reins—she proposes to Captain Blunt. In exchange for her dowry and her hand, Jasper must promise to grant her freedom to do as she pleases. To ride—and to read—as much as she likes without masculine interference. He readily agrees to her conditions, with one provision of his own: Julia is forbidden from going into the tower rooms of his estate and snooping around his affairs. But the more she learns of the beastly former hero, the more intrigued she becomes…
Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen
Goodreads Summary: When eighteen-year-old Ever Wong’s parents send her from Ohio to Taiwan to study Mandarin for the summer, she finds herself thrust among the very over-achieving kids her parents have always wanted her to be, including Rick Woo, the Yale-bound prodigy profiled in the Chinese newspapers since they were nine—and her parents’ yardstick for her never-measuring-up life. Unbeknownst to her parents, however, the program is actually an infamous teen meet-market nicknamed Loveboat, where the kids are more into clubbing than calligraphy and drinking snake-blood sake than touring sacred shrines. Free for the first time, Ever sets out to break all her parents’ uber-strict rules—but how far can she go before she breaks her own heart?
I feel like I both loved and didn't love this book, and I still can't articulate my feelings about it, so here comes a rant!!!
This book felt like one of those "messy romance" shows aimed at young adults where even though it's not groundbreaking, reflective of healthy relationships, or has a plot that hits all the right beats, you find yourself completely immersed anyway. The characters were complex, impulsive, and vacillated between selflessness and selfishness, but each of them also carried a specific wound that humanized their decisions: Ever's conflict between following her own dreams and honoring her family's sacrifices, Sophie's insecurity, Xavier's dyslexia and issues with his father, and Rick's hero complex/perfectionism.
The elements revolving around Ever's evolving sense of identity were the highlight of the story for me, especially when she was able to connect with other characters over the pressures and struggles they all faced despite their differing circumstances and upbringing. I understood Ever as a shy, somewhat anxious character fighting to break out of her shell and unleash a new side of herself. Her family dynamics made her easy to root for, and I appreciated how the character recognized the duality of her parents being controlling/hurtful while also holding space for their pain and misguided reasons behind their behavior.
While author definitely could have fleshed out the environment in a more detailed way by including more scenes and descriptions of Taipei, I liked what was there--the classes, the dance school, the final field trip, discussions about language and different ethnic groups in the area, and Ever's final performance integrating bo staff with the fans and modern lyrical dance. The club scenes were underwritten for my taste (outside of the snake blood sake scene), and the stakes of sneaking out compared to the consequences for being caught felt a bit unbalanced, but overall the first half of the story kept me engaged. The recurring element about the group of boys reclaiming anti-Asian tropes was fun and interesting to read.
The love triangle wasn't done well in my opinion, although the author succeeded in making me root for both boys at different points in the book. Unfortunately, as the plot progressed and new information was revealed, the contrast the author appeared to be trying to make between Xavier and Rick got murkier and murkier. The hypocrisy of Ever keeping her distance from (and harshly judging) Xavier because he may or may not be in a situationship with Sophie while drawing closer to Rick despite the fact that he is legitimately in a serious relationship with Jenna was not lost on me. While I thought the author did a good job presenting both guys as flawed, complex people, I didn't appreciate the loophole of mental health used to excuse what was at the very least emotional infidelity on Rick's part, nor the excuse that Ever could play with Xavier's feelings because he has a reputation of sleeping with girls and not committing to them afterwards. We never get Xavier's side of the story in that regard, and if we're taking the situation with Sophie into account, it gives the impression he's not as much of a player as everyone seems to think he is. And even if we accept that the rumors are true and Xavier is a player, the reader has come to know Ever as a kind, compassionate and morally upright character even when the other person doesn't deserve it, so her casually using and discarding Xavier despite knowing his feelings for her are genuine felt out of character. Meanwhile, Rick is being an actual player but it's okay because his girlfriend is mentally unwell? Listen, I appreciated the author's attempt at exploring how someone could be trapped in a relationship they don't want to be in because their hero complex prevents them from hurting the other person/how someone suffering from mental illness could use controlling behavior as a coping mechanism to the point of becoming abusive. But the way Jenna's struggles were described by other characters and how they were used to make Rick the eternal victim of their relationship made it seem like the author was demonizing mental illness. In my opinion, Jenna needing more from Rick than he could give was not the problem; it was the way she retaliated when he refused to give her what she wanted; yet the book gives the impression that it is her needs that are the problem. And when I'm reading that Rick draws emotionally closer to Ever while he and Jenna are still together; allows Ever to pretend to be his girlfriend in front of his family knowing that members of said family hate Jenna already; and is attracted to Ever to the point that they almost kiss while he and Jenna are a couple, it's hard for me to buy the justification that Jenna's lack of trust in him is entirely sourced in paranoia. I'm all for deconstructing Rick's "perfect boy" persona and showing that he is just as flawed as everyone else, but the details of the situation got to the point where the author was splitting hairs as to what was fair and what wasn't, and I wasn't buying it.
The part of the book that troubled me the most was what happened between Ever and Sophie. Revenge porn is nothing to gloss over; especially considering she spread the images not only throughout school and among Rick's family but into the general population of Taipei (by sending them to the dance school). The ramifications of that could affect Ever her entire life, and if I recall correctly there is still at least one copy still floating around that she may never be able to track and/or destroy. What's more, Sophie's "apology" for the situation was not an actual apology--instead of giving Sophie a genuine redemption arc or a chance to make it up to Ever in some way, the author put her in a dangerous situation to accelerate Ever's forgiveness and excused her behavior by exposing her insecurity. Did Sophie deserve to be abused? Absolutely not, and I'm glad Ever did the right thing to protect her from violence despite their conflict. But from a reader's perspective, it's not enough that Sophie has her own insecurities or that she's not as strong as she portrays--my feeling bad for her doesn't mean Ever doesn't deserve an apology, and one throwaway line of "I shouldn't have done that, it was terrible of me" wasn't enough. There was no acknowledgement of Ever's pain on Sophie's part, just a quick dose of self-flagellation that felt disingenuous and like a strategy to get Ever to forgive her out of pity (which worked, unfortunately). There was also no acknowledgement of all the other ways Sophie had manipulated Ever before escalating to revenge porn: the cutting remarks about Ever's clothes and looks out of jealousy, dragging her along to get the photos taken in the first place even though it meant skipping class, lying to her about Xavier and stealing the gifts Xavier left for Ever by pretending they were for her, and physically assaulting Ever after Xavier kissed her at the mansion. The way the author just swept all of Sophie's bad behavior under the rug after the scene were Ever rescues her and nothing was ever brought up again seemed dismissive, and contributed to the last quarter of the book feeling rushed.
Yet, despite all its flaws, I still found this book weirdly addictive. It was over 400 pages and I still finished it in a day and a half because I just could not pull myself away??? Apparently there is a film adaptation but allegedly it concludes about halfway through the events of the book and they change a lot of elements, so I'm not sure whether it would be worth checking out.
Additionally, I'm a bit on the fence as to whether to continue the series or not; at first I was excited to move on to the second book because it focuses more heavily on Xavier, but knowing his love interest is Sophie makes me far less interested in reading it...
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