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[mermaidsirennikita]

May 2017 Book Roundup

This month was so-so; some releases were good, some weren’t.  But Renee Ahdieh dropped a new book and that’s always a good thing!  I do feel like I read a few books that I normally wouldn’t have (The Love Interest, because I never read male protagonist books) for better or for worse.  Right now I’m working on Angie Thomas’s “The Hate U Give”, so that’ll get reviewed at the end of the month!

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan.  4/5.  This sequel to “Crazy Rich Asians” is set two years after the events of the first book, kicking off with the preparations for Rachel’s wedding to Nick.  Of course, her future mother-in-law isn’t to be kept out of the process despite Nick cutting her out of his life, and swoops in at the last minute with the identity of Rachel’s long-lost father.  Meanwhile, Nick’s cousin Astrid is struggling with her marriage still (and her friendship with ex-fiance Charlie), actress-turned-billionaire’s-wife Kitty Pong is trying to fit in to Hong Kong society, and... lots of other drama.  “China Rich Girlfriend” is similarly fun and super gossipy, in the same way that “Crazy Rich Asians” was.  I enjoyed the antics of Kitty, and loved seeing Rachel get to know her family, especially her brother.  Plus, it was refreshingly clear once again that Nick Young, while deserving a firstname lastname introduction, is not a Christian Grey type--he’s a sweet, realistically goofy guy who happens to be hot and rich.  I wish he and Rachel were a *bit* more interesting, but they’re very likable.  What took this book back a bit is that while I appreciate Kwan not wanting to duplicate his first book is the lack of Singapore high society adventures.  I miss Nick’s crazy family, especially his mother Eleanor, whose appearances in this novel were woefully short.  Eleanor is the BOMB DOT COM.  The mainland stuff just wasn’t as fun.  With that being said, I was super invested in Astrid’s storyline, which aside from whatever Eleanor is doing is my favorite part of these books.  So frustrating.  So romantic.  While I didn’t love this quite as much as “Crazy Rich Asians”, I’m still left waiting excitedly for the next book.

The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King. 3/5.  This fantasy novel takes place in a world in which the rajahs are each allowed a maximum of one hundredth ranis (queens), which they pick from these convent-like places in which young girls are reared to be both wives and warriors.  Kalinda, or Kali, is chosen as Rajah Tarek’s hundredth and final queen, which means that she’s obligated to fight his courtesans, many of which hope to kill her in a chance to take her place as the last queen.  Complicating an already difficult situation are the motives of Kali’s future husband and her desire for a captain in his service.  Among other things, of course.  This book had an interesting premise, but a lot of things became a lot more predictable than they should have been.  I liked moments of women supporting each other, but they were dragged down by stereotypes--like the older queen envying the younger one and being basically all-around kind of evil.  The villains in general were fairly flat, and Kali’s relationship with Deven, the captain in question, just kind of happened out of nowhere.  It’s unfortunate because I don’t mind a forbidden romance cliche if it’s done well, in fact I tend to love it--but Deven and Kali seemed really fucking stupid the entire time. With that being said, it was an entertaining read when I didn’t think about things, and the concept was interesting.  That being said, I feel like the fact that the author used Hindi words versus making up shit for her fantasy world was distracted as fuck--this book isn’t set in India, but it still refers to saris and ranis and much more.  Why?

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins.  2/5.  Single mom Nel shows up dead in the nearby river, living behind her teenage daughter and a sister she hadn’t spoken to for years.  Nel had been obsessed with the pool in which her body was found--a pool with a history of suicides, including that of Katie, her daughter’s best friend. At first, Nel’s death is brushed off as a suicide--but as time passes, it becomes clear that she knew much more than it initially seemed.  Ugh, I wanted to like this so badly because I did enjoy “The Girl on the Train”.  But... what?  I didn’t so much mind that the mystery here was much more obvious than that of TGOTT--or that the themes were just... less about human flaws and reliability, and more about very obvious domestic drama.  There was a bit of a twist at the end, but not much.  All of this I would have cared about more had there been fewer POVs.  Who is the lead?  Nel’s sister, Jules, who has a dark past we keep flashing back to?  Her daughter, the troubled Lena?  But there are a lot of other characters we keep flashing to, and I didn’t care about half of them, and... There was very little suspense.  Not entertaining.

The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich.  3/5.  Caden--a name given to him only recently--has been raised to be a Love Interest.  His task?  To seduce his Chosen and--for the rest of their lives, ideally--manipulate her and sell her secrets to his “owners”.  The problem: a Chosen always has two people competing for his or her affections, a Good and a Bad.  Caden is a Good--the boy next door--and Dylan is a Bad--the quintessential damaged bad boy.  The two are sent to pair with Juliet, a super smart girl whose potential means she’s up for manipulation.  Whoever she doesn’t choose will be killed; and the issue is that Caden is beginning to fall for Dylan, rather than Juliet.  Look, gay prettyboy spies is on paper a great idea.  And there are some charming things about this book.  The conceit of the good boy being pitted against the bad is interesting, and I liked the struggle the boys had.  But it was all a bit young and underdeveloped for me.  Someone will love this book, I just didn’t.

Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy.  4/5.  Teenage Ramona has been living with her father and her sister in a FEMA trailer since Hurricane Katrina.  Now her sister is pregnant, and she feels obligated to stay after high school to help with the baby--even (or especially) after their flaky mom returns.  To add to all the complications, she’s in an on/off sort of thing with a girl who’s closeted, while Ramona, who has always identified as a lesbian, is not.  THEN, her childhood friend Freddie returns to town.  Freddie is a boy; Ramona has never liked boys.  But she might like Freddie.  This book got some shitty ratings by people on Goodreads without it being read; I won’t lie, years ago I once gave a book a one star rating on there because the author was (and still is) a shitty person.  But now I wouldn’t--I just wouldn’t read the book.  I feel like it’s super dicey to review something you haven’t read/seen, and the reason why people have been low-rating this book is because they think that Freddie is turning Ramona “straight”.  No.  The entire relationship is about how complex sexuality is; not all people identify as straight their whole lives until they meet someone of the same sex that they like.  Some people really do identify as gay for a long time and then meet someone of the opposite sex; it happened to a close friend of mine.  My close friend identifies not as straight now, but bi.  There aren’t really labels put on Ramona’s sexuality as she figures it out because she is really JUST figuring it out.  She might not ever like any guy besides Freddie.  She certainly doesn’t stop liking girls.  I feel like Murphy handled the issue really well, and at any rate Freddie and Ramona’s relationship isn’t the point of the story.  The point is the poverty Ramona lives within, and her struggle between her loyalties to her family and her desire to be somewhere else and do something more.  It’s a really lovely story, and I recommend it.

Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh.   5/5.  This Mulan retelling (a retelling in a loose sense but a retelling nonetheless) is set in Heian Japan, and centers on Hattori Mariko, a girl on her way to marry the emperor’s son.  During her journey, she’s ambushed by the fearsome Black Clan, with her guards and servants murdered.  Disguising herself as a boy, she finds the Black Clan and decides to infiltrate their ranks to figure out why she was targeted--and perhaps put off her marriage for a bit longer.  As Mariko is drawn into the world of the Black Clan--and becomes entangled with the mysterious Okami--her twin brother, Kenshin, pursues her relentlessly.  I really love Renee Ahdieh, and I especially appreciate the fact that she writes historical fantasy that isn’t given a European setting.  At first, I sort of doubted the Japanese angle for a retelling of a Chinese story, but it worked here.  Mariko is a strong, unyielding, an flawed heroine who certainly spends a lot of time lying to herself, which I appreciated.  One of the things I loved about this book was how much Mariko learned about her own privilege as a noblewoman, and the reality of the world versus what she’d been brought up in.  (Also, she gets a great callout from another woman in a scene, and it’s just fantastic.)  There is definitely a romance present, but it’s a slowburn in the best way.  Okami is super hot, and Mariko is definitely physically drawn to him before emotions get in the way, which I love.  There are fantastical elements as well, but they’re well-done and honestly, a lot of the story read as a historical adventure to me.  I loved it.

Hold Back the Stars by Katie Khan.  1/5.  (Wow, what a drop.)  Carys and Max are trapped in space with ninety minutes of oxygen left, after which they’ll die.  As they desperately try to find a way out of their situation, they relive their love story and all that went wrong (and right) with it.  I feel like this is one of those “quirky” books where the protagonists are in an outlandish situation but you fall in love with their very real romance.  And I’m not totally against this when it’s done right, but Carys and Max were insufferable, their world didn’t make sense, and I zoned out very quickly.

The Girl in 6E by A.R. Torre.  4/5.  Deanna Madden makes her living as a cam girl, having cyber-sex with men and women for money; she also hasn’t left her apartment in three years, due to her intense need to kill.  Lately, she’s been more tempted to interact with other human beings than ever, in part due to her attraction to UPS guy Jeremy--but she knows exactly how much of a threat she is to society.  But when a client begins showing particularly deviant behaviors, Deanna is drawn out--for better or for worse.  I’m really bad at describing this book, because a good 70% of it is a creeping sense of dread, Deanna working with her clients (and shrink) and the looming threat of the antagonist.  The actual antagonist is nothing amazing.  The strength of the story is Deanna and her struggle between wanting to kill and wanting to protect people--along with the cam subculture.  The author did their research, and you can really tell.  The book is incredibly fast-paced and vivid.  It’s an awesome thriller.  The only reason why it doesn’t get a 4/5 is that I felt that Jeremy wasn’t super compelling, but I didn’t dislike him.

Scribe of Siena by Melanie Winawer.  2/5.  Neurosurgeon Beatrice heads to Siena after the death of her brother, a historian intent on uncovering the secrets of a fourteenth century plague.  There, she discovers the journals of Gabriele, a fresco painter, and upon being sent back in time falls in love with him.  There were subplots, of course, but the main core of the story was Beatrice and Gabriele’s love story, and it was super weak.  He just wasn’t my type of guy--and honestly, he was so ridiculously idealized that he became bland.  For that matter, it didn’t feel like the author did much research about the period; I didn’t feel like Gabriele was a painter of the time, and I took issue with how easily Beatrice fit into fourteenth century society.  Not a winner.

Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan.  4/5.  The final entry in the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy has the Young clan swarming back to Singapore after matriarch Su Yi has a heart attack.  Nick is left hoping that he’ll reconcile with his grandmother before she dies. At the same time, Astrid is having issues with her divorce and her relationship with Charlie; Kitty Bing, now married to an even richer billionaire, is still struggling to become accepted by upper class society while battling her stepdaughter, Colette; and the villainous Eddie is still social climbing while trying to get as much as he can from his grandmother on her deathbed.  This series is so enjoyable, and while Rich People Problems still wasn’t quite as good as Crazy Rich Asians, I feel like it returned to the roots of the series: Young family drama in Singapore.  I loved learning more about Su Yi, and I admire Kevin Kwan’s ability to let go of the more settled core couple a bit--Nick and Rachel--in favor of tying up the still high key drama happening in the lives of Astrid and Kitty.  This is a very satisfying conclusion, and it was at turns hilarious and heartwarming.