A review by bookishends
Something Cheeky: A Novel by Thien-Kim Lam

3.0

I was excited for this book, and although I didn’t love it, there was still a lot to like about it. As a theater girlie, I really loved seeing everything that went into Derek putting on the musical. The sabotage also made for some tense moments that kept me wanting to read to see how the characters would react or adapt. I also loved how adamant Zoe was on portraying Vietnamese culture how she and Derek had always envisioned. Derek was such a people pleaser, but it created good conflict, and made for a satisfying ending.

I did wish the romance storyline had been as interesting as the theater storyline though. This book has demi rep, which is very cool, but it was different than I expected. Because the main characters were friends in the past, Zoe is reunited with Derek and experiences pretty instant attraction to him. Since we didn’t get to see that history between them or see them just being friends until the attraction grows, it didn’t feel much different from any other kind of romance. I also felt like if you haven’t seen someone in six years, there’s a lot of relearning you need to do about that person. But Zoe and Derek didn’t seem to have changed much since college, and there wasn’t much discovery between them, so the romance again felt underdeveloped. I almost wished the story had been dual timeline just so that we could actually see instead of hear about their friendship in college. 

The book also took some time to sink into because some of the dialogue felt forced in the beginning, and there was an over-explanation of details. I had to put it down for a few weeks and come back to it, but I liked it better when I revisited it.

If you like ‘he falls first and he falls harder’, the importance of community being highlighted, and theater galore, you might want to pick up this book. I do like the Boss Babes, so I would probably read another book by the author if Reina ends up being a main character in her own story.

*Thank you to the publisher for the ARC and gifted finished copy. All opinions are my own*