Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked the first half more than the second and would have been happy if the book ended there but it was a cute book.
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
medium-paced
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
a slow burn book, it was really good and loved both the main characters backstory
I really wanted to like this story as it seemed like a nice, cultural, light-hearted read, but I could not sit through the writing style. Predictability isn't a negative thing to me because I think it's fun and quite common for romcoms - the issue was it that it read like a wattpad story.
I wanted to love this book. Honest. An artist and a NASA engineer with conflicting views on fate and destiny meet serendipitously and then fall in love? Yes, please. But the NASA engineer was over-the-top wooden and Rooney Something Gao — literally, her middle name is Something — was too quirky for words. Seriously — apart from the ridiculous middle name, she’s also afraid of butterflies, wears only hand-knitted red wool items (for the red strings in the title, get it? Get it?), and firmly believes that dumplings taste better after midnight like some weird Gremlin. (Fact: Dumplings are delicious 24/7.) I was all set to rate this three stars UNTIL the wooden MMC receives a letter from his absentee parents that make him decide somehow that he can’t be with Rooney after all. I expected some kind of big black moment (hellooo, it’s a romance novel!) but this one straight up made no sense and just made me angry. There were lots of emotional moments in the story where the reader was expected to make a leap to understand the characters and I prefer romances that lay everything out on the page. But I was ready to throw the whole book away at the 80% mark and am only giving it two stars because the premise itself was darling.