What We Were Promised is both a look at life in modern day China and an observation on the unchanging nature of humanity. “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main” John Donne told us. This book shows that as a universal…
Our immigration system is a hot topic in the news lately and it seems like personal accounts of success and failure by people who come to this great land are broadcast by our media on a regular basis. Bury What We Cannot Take is a story of immigration which moves the issue to a historical…
There are a lot of historical mysteries on the market these days, but not so many set in ancient China. And of those, how many, in English, were originally written by a Chinese author for a Chinese audience? The Golden Hairpin by Qinghan CeCe, originally written in 2015 and translated into English just this year,…
Contingency Plan is the second book in Robyn Bachar’s Galactic Cold War series. Set in an alternate future in which the Cold War never ended, the series follows the crew of the privateer spaceship Mombasa as they follow the trail of a super weapon developed by the Soviets that may paint the entire intergalactic map…
My experience with books set in China has not been stellar – I’ve read too many authors who seem only interested in transplanting characters with western attitudes to a more exotic setting. Janie Chang’s Dragon Springs Road, I am happy to say, does not fall in this category. If anything, by adhering so strictly to…
So, here’s where I make my confession that this is my first book by Ms. Thomas. It’s a literary crime that it took me this long to pick up one of her spellbinding stories, but I’m paying my penance by devouring her back catalogue, I promise. Regarding this work, while I really liked a lot…
I don’t think The Liar’s Dice enhances Gambled Away. The slow pace, the setting, and ambiguous ending struck a discordant note with me and for me, it is the least successful novella in the anthology. A murder and the ensuing search for the killer drives the plot and unfortunately, Ms. Lin sacrifices the romance in…
I’ve really enjoyed previous Jeannie Lin books, but A Dance With Danger felt to me like a Tang Dynasty version of wallpaper regencies. Don’t get me wrong; I’d still take it over most other categories, and even over some longer, more detailed works. But on the whole, the book was not what I’d hoped for….
I have to state upfront, that I’m a Sherry Thomas fangirl of immense proportions. I’ve loved each and every one of her books (including her recent YA titles) and take delight in her skillful storytelling, her wonderful prose, the complexity of her characterisations, the angst and ultimately, the superb way her romances unfold and the…
When one reads a lot and in a specific genre, after a while, there is seems to be a sameness about books that makes one almost indistinguishable from another. So when I picked up Sherry Thomas’ My Beautiful Enemy, I immediately knew this book was out of the ordinary. Think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets…