Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I didn't really know what this book was about other than set in the 1920s. So quite unexpected how it all went. It is written in diary form and is unusual.
I feel bad to rate this so low, because the beginning had a lot of promise! But I didn't like this book for a few reasons. To begin, I felt it was far too short and rushed. Reading it on Scribd, I think it was only about 87 pages. It's very difficult to develop characters in that short of a time, and something felt missing. Main character Jade meets the author of a book she writes a scathing review about, they sleep together because she's curious about what sex is like, the sex is pretty lame and she's not even into him, she gets knocked up. But he has a wife (who seems to be bi/poly?), and the wife seems to want to both co-parent and possibly be with her, even though she's only met Jade a handful of times? Jade decides she is keeping the baby to raise alone. But she suddenly loves Ravi, the guy who runs a literary journal that she sometimes writes for (she literally doesn't realize it until she does, and it feels like there's no buildup to this intense love). Then she's off to an unwed mother's home/nursing home and makes a random friend, who writes to Ravi because Jade won't, and he magically comes to take her away and marry her, even though she knows neither of their families in their respective home countries will be supportive.
At the end of this book, I still liked the idea of Jade and Ravi as a couple, but with some changes. I think they deserved a longer book, not in epistolary format, to grow their relationship and explore more about reading/writing Asian literature (instead of just writing that Jade writes a little every day, besides her diary). I don't think an affair, and then pregnancy, with some foppish author guy even should have been used as a plot device. It felt soapy and weird.
I'm going to read some more things by this author before giving up, but I was disappointed in this story, and I can't hide it. Maybe the next story will be better?
At the end of this book, I still liked the idea of Jade and Ravi as a couple, but with some changes. I think they deserved a longer book, not in epistolary format, to grow their relationship and explore more about reading/writing Asian literature (instead of just writing that Jade writes a little every day, besides her diary). I don't think an affair, and then pregnancy, with some foppish author guy even should have been used as a plot device. It felt soapy and weird.
I'm going to read some more things by this author before giving up, but I was disappointed in this story, and I can't hide it. Maybe the next story will be better?
I thought I was going to just start this book, and then ended up devouring it in one go until very late into the night - and it was totally worth it. The VOICE of the main character is so clear, funny, and startlingly brash at times, her adventures and fellow characters so vibrant that it feels entirely real and perfectly larger-than-life at the same time. So good!
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
novella in the form of letters and diary entries written by a malay woman living in london in the 1920s. the marvelous thing about this book is that it maintains a light frothy tone despite discussing a number of topics you don't typically see in romance novellas:
it's a delight. i would recommend it everywhere
4 stars
Spoiler
polyamory, mental illness, colonialism -- actually let's linger in that realm a tick, main characters who are poc in a period piece whaaaaatit's a delight. i would recommend it everywhere
4 stars
This was an interesting novella set in 1920 about a Chinese writer, Jade Geok Huay Yeo, who grew up in Malaya and was sent to university in London and decided to stay and pursue writing as a career.
We get glimpses of her childhood and the contrasting philosophies between her mother and aunt about aging thanks to the influence of growing up in a British colony:
"My mother is a very modern in most ways, but she would still be offended to be accounted any younger than she is. Her opinion is that she did not struggle her way to the august age of forty-three only to have the dignity accorded to her years snatched away from her.
But Aunt Iris has become quite Western from living her so long. She has a passionate hunger for youth. It is especially hard on her to be thwarted in it because the British can never tell an Oriental's age, so she's been accustomed to being told she looks ten years younger than she is."
She has an affair with another writer named Sebastian Hardie, a B-list celebrity in literary/social circles who himself is in an affectionate but very open marriage with a wife who has lesbian lovers. There's a self-imposed confinement in a home paid for by the Hardies and a tidy escape in the end initiated by sweet, "mad" Margery that Jade met in the home. This was not quite a romance since Ravi and Jade spend little time on the page together, but Ravi, her editor, who she realized she was in love with late in the game shows up, professes his love, offers marriage and takes her away where they live out their HEA.
We get glimpses of her childhood and the contrasting philosophies between her mother and aunt about aging thanks to the influence of growing up in a British colony:
"My mother is a very modern in most ways, but she would still be offended to be accounted any younger than she is. Her opinion is that she did not struggle her way to the august age of forty-three only to have the dignity accorded to her years snatched away from her.
But Aunt Iris has become quite Western from living her so long. She has a passionate hunger for youth. It is especially hard on her to be thwarted in it because the British can never tell an Oriental's age, so she's been accustomed to being told she looks ten years younger than she is."
She has an affair with another writer named Sebastian Hardie, a B-list celebrity in literary/social circles who himself is in an affectionate but very open marriage with a wife who has lesbian lovers. There's a self-imposed confinement in a home paid for by the Hardies and a tidy escape in the end initiated by sweet, "mad" Margery that Jade met in the home. This was not quite a romance since Ravi and Jade spend little time on the page together, but Ravi, her editor, who she realized she was in love with late in the game shows up, professes his love, offers marriage and takes her away where they live out their HEA.
Oh my word. An absolutely charming, unconventional (yet totally roaring 20s) romance. I love it. I ship it. I want more stories with Margy.
Somehow this book about an open marriage, a womanizer, and a girl with very little sense can best be described as "sweet"? The whole thing was a little fairy-tale like though definitely not written as a fairy tale.