Two households, both alike in owning Vietnamese restaurants, in SoCal, where we lay our scene. Fortunately, Bảo Nguyễn and Linh Mai are brighter than their Veronan counterparts, although their situation is no less complex: their parents have bad blood that goes far deeper than a culinary rivalry. This is an enjoyable #OwnVoices YA contemporary which…
Let’s start with the concept behind In the Vanisher’s Palace: it’s an f/f retelling of Beauty and the Beast in a hybrid sci-fi/fantasy setting infused with Vietnamese culture and fairy tales. I was extremely excited by this, and on the whole, I wasn’t disappointed. The devastating “breaking of the world” by an alien race known…
Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions – like grief. And love. He thinks he’s defective. His family knows better, that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships,…
Like other novels in Silhouette’s new Bombshell line, A Perfect Cover is not a romance. It’s a suspense novel starring a smart and resourceful female heroine, working undercover to solve a series of ugly murders. It’s pretty darn good. The book opens with a couple of episodes out of the life of our first-person-narrator, Lacie…
It took me over 10 years to read this book. Well, let me explain. It sat on my TBR shelf for 10 years before I finally decided to grab some of the oldest (and dustiest) books and read them. I wish I had read this book when I first bought it because I had cheated…