A Big Surprise for Valentine's Day by Jackie Lau

 

🍎🍎🍎🍎

The fourth and final book I read for the  Lunar New Year Readathon hosted by LaceyBookLovers and remarkablylisa was the fourth and final book in Jackie Lau's Holidays with the Wongs series. I read A Big Surprise for Valentine's Day on Valentine's Day. I did a brief overview of the series in my review of book 3. 

The last book focuses on the only daughter of the Wong family, Amber. She runs into her brother's friend from childhood, although their families on both sides were friends. Sebastian had moved away for university and his residency (he's a doctor). Now he's back and living in the next town over (the same as Amber) and they run into each other in the family planning section at the grocery store. I love how instant the chemistry is between them and that they both almost enjoy the forbidden feeling between them since they knew each other as kids. We also get an outrageous "girls day" scene with Amber, her mom and grandmother that had me dying of laughter. Ah Ma get completely drunk off of a pina colada and it's just great fun. Plus Amber and Sebastian are so well suited in the bedroom. Oh, and how can I forget to mention that Amber is a crafter! She crochets and makes funny cross-stitches. She loves making and people always tell her to sell things, but she doesn't want to make her hobby her job in that way. Be still my beating heart.

I didn't mention this in my previous review, but another thing I love about Jackie Lau is the way the "conflicts" are between the couple. Everyone always seems so emotionally mature and wants to talk things out. If they run from a situation, it doesn't last long. It's so low angst and just something that makes me happy reading and gives me all of the feels. If I could move to a fictional world by any contemporary author, it would hands down be Jackie Lau. This was such a cute wrap up to the end of the series and I'm sure we'll see them mentioned or in the background of her other books. She does Easter Eggs for her other couples so brilliantly! I was excited to see that she released a compendium of all four books in print and this is at the top of my wish-list!

Have you read A Big Surprise for Valentine's Day?

Bookishly Yours, 

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: A Big Surprise for Valentine's Day, Jackie Lau, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 116 pages, published 2020

A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year by Jackie Lau

 

🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

The third book I read for the Lunar New Year Readathon hosted by LaceyBookLovers and remarkablylisa was book 3 in Jackie Lau's Holidays with the Wongs series, A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year. Before we get into too much of the review, this series is the 4 siblings of the Wong family and all of the books are based around the end/beginning of year holidays. They are shorter novella length, but Jackie Lau still manages to pack a good amount of quality content into these. She's one of my favorite contemporary writers. How can you go wrong with great humor, lots of foodie scenes, hockey galore (she and her books are set in Canada), great chemistry between the couples and the sense of family that Jackie creates. 

This book focuses on the youngest son Zach and his good friend Jo. Zach and Jo both are back in their small hometown. They have connected after both suffering through broken engagements. They meet every Friday for drinks and hang out periodically. After book 1 and the disastrous (was it really?) dinner where their parents and grandparents tried setting up all the kids; Zach forms a plan. To avoid a similar situation with Chinese New Year, Zach asks Jo of pose as his girlfriend for the dinner. Smartly, they decide to go on a couple of dates beforehand since it's a small town and news travels fast.

Oh how I love the fake relationship trope, especially when paired with friends to lovers. Zach and Jo had so much chemistry. I also loved the after dinner Pictionary. Another thing I loved (which I mentioned during my review of Radiance), is that he kept finding little ways to touch her. Taking her hand, sitting close enough to brush against her and things like that. I absolutely cave for it. Plus we get a bit of amateur hockey as they both play for the town's team. Honestly, what more does this book need to be complete catnip for me? I know! crafting and/or crocheting. Guess what though, Jackie Lau has other characters that are crafty and crochet, including Zach's sister Amber (who is book 4). 

I'm so happy I finally picked up A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year. It was just what I needed after reading Steele Your Soul to keep me out of a book slump. I think once I get through February, I'll start her Cider Bar Sisters series (the only ones I haven't read from her yet). If you haven't read Jackie Lau, I couldn't recommend her enough. One of my favorites is The Ultimate Pi Day Party!

Have you read A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year, Jackie Lau, 5-stars, 0 days, eBook, 104 pages, published 2020

Steele Your Soul by Decadent Kane

🍎🍎

The second book I read for the Lunar New Year Readathon (hosted by LaceyBookLovers and remarkablylisa) was Steele Your Soul by Decadent Kane. This is book 3 in her Trouble with Elves series. After my huge tbr for the readathon with all my options, I ended up picking something not on my radar for either. I did want to read something that would also work for FaRoFeb. After scrolling and going through my kindle, goodreads and my tbr, I finally settled on this. I have not read the first two books in this series, which is rare for me. Usually I read things in order. 

I'm not sure if starting with this book meant I missed something? Maybe a little bit of world-building? I don't know if I'll go back to read the first book at this point. Okay, so this book is definitely more novella or even short story length. At first we see Elven pirate Joren Steele. He looks off of his boat and meets eyes with Pepper. She has just left a meeting with a drow (evil elf) woman that has sold her some special spice. In her mind, she mentions something about him possibly being fated mates since she feels a pull of attraction to him she's never felt before. 

Something happens and she ends up on his boat. Then the drow working with Joren tries to steal her and rape her. While this is happening Joren runs into his "lady" at this dock and they get intimate in an alley. First of all, I know that they just met, but to immediately have Jorean sleep with someone else I didn't like. Then after the whole thing with Tide, he takes this other woman to his ship and they hang out all night. We see Joren sleeping with this other woman MORE than the entire relationship of him and Pepper. Not cool. Then she's kidnapped, blahdy-blahdy-blah and he ends up saving her at the cost of his ship. Then they have "thank god we're alive sex" in a cave before the drown king magically floats them to him. Then it was the end. 

This is two-stars because I was intrigued by the world and dynamic of normal elves vs drow. It seems that they get some sort of disease that causes them to lose(?) their soul and all elves has this disease inside them. It's just when it gets activated, if it does. I just wish that it either went full fated mates or just strait insta-lust erotica. I didn't like, as mentioned above, we saw more sexy times with another woman that wasn't our heroine. As as soon as they kind of got together, end of book. I would love to see an extended version of this book. I definitely would love more Elf fantasy romances, especially dealing with the drow element. Makes my table-top gamer heart happy.

Have you read Steele Your Soul?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Steele Your Soul, Decadent Kane, 2-stars, 0 days, eBook, 59 pages, published 2014

The Duchess War by Courtney Milan

 

🍎🍎🍎🍎

The first book I read for the Lunar New Year Readathon (hosted by LaceyBookLovers and remarkablylisa) as well for Seasonally Booked Up Book Club - Winter of the Wallflower (hosted by Kelly and Dana) was Courtney Milan's The Duchess War. Courtney has been on my tbr forever, and I was excited to finally get to the first book in her Bothers Sinister series.

I was torn on this book. I liked it. I liked Minnie for the most part and I liked Robert for the most part. Their relationship was cute, but there were times were I felt the chemistry was missing between them. But just as I was thinking that, there would be a new scene that proved me wrong. It felt a little up and down. Also, I didn't enjoy the "big" secrets between them. It felt weird that pretty early on that Robert trusted Minnie enough to share his, but she was still holding back and didn't share everything. It also seemed a little extreme, but I know that mob mentality and people were weird back then. It just seemed harsher than it needed to be. I have to give it to Courtney though, Minnie's backstory was unique and unexpected. I also really enjoyed her writing style. It swept me up pretty quickly.

I think it's a 4-star because while I like our main couple, it felt lacking sometimes. Or there was a weird understanding between them that wasn't addressed as quickly as I wanted (although the third act conflict was wrapped up pretty decently). The other part of this, is probably an unpopular opinion. Minnie and Robert fight the patriarchy pretty heavily throughout the book. I understand that most romances, especially the more modern historicals do provide commentary on the patriarchy. However, I don't like it to be as prominent in the story. I think this is why I'm not as fond with the regency era historicals that deal with couples in different classes and/or focused on the lower class. I just prefer it to not be so heavy handed. Reading for me is an escape from all the stuff we deal with on a day to day basis. Side note: that's also why I don't watch documentaries very often unless it's someone or something I'm very interested in.

Back to happier musings! Overall I did enjoy this book and will continue with the series at some point. Plus I think the covers are gorgeous. I'm super excited to get to Sebastian and Violet's book (#3). They had such great banter throughout this book and such an interesting dynamic. 

Have you read The Duchess War?

Bookishly Yours, 

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Duchess War, Courtney Milan, 4-stars, 1 day, eBook, 268 pages, published 2012

Lunar New Year Readathon Wrap-Up

 Happy (late) Lunar New Year! 

I hope you had fun this past weekend celebrating both the Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day! Here in northern Colorado we had a crazy cold snap and the weather was consistently negative degrees and never really got above 5 degrees. That's cold for us. Thankfully, I didn't have any plans anyway, so I focused on reading and cleaning house over the weekend! Plus the Colorado Avalanche came back from their enforced quarantine for covid protocol.

So, despite my lengthy plans and tbr, I ended up only reading 4 books for the readathon and then started a random historical for a book club later this week (Love Only Once by Johanna Lindsey for the Historical Hellions Book Club). Below is my finished prompt list. I am a little backed up on reviews now, but hopefully by the end of this week I'll be able to get most of them posted. I have updated with links to all of the reviews!

Here are the books I read (in order read) with ratings. As my reviews go live I'll update with links to the reviews! 

1. The Duchess War by Courtney Milan - 🍎🍎🍎🍎 - Prompts met: New to You Author, Recommended to You & Red on the Cover

2. Steele Your Soul by Decadent Kane - 🍎🍎 - Prompts met: New to You Author

3. A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year by Jackie Lau - 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 - Prompts Met: Release from 2019-2021, Recommended to You & Red on the Cover

4. A Big Surprise for Valentine's Day by Jackie Lau - 🍎🍎🍎🍎 - Prompts Met: Release from 2019-2021, Recommended to You & Red on the Cover

So, I only read 4 books and ended up with 1x 5-star, 2x 4-stars and 1x 2-star. Thankfully after getting through Steele I went straight into Jackie Lau. It's a good thing too because it helped keep me from getting into a book slump. I'll go into more depth in my reviews for those two, but I love Jackie Lau. Her books always hit that sweet spot for me where it's funny, steamy and so swoony. She is one of my favorite contemporary authors. I definitely could've read more of her, but I was wasting time trying to figure out what to read next. I was so torn on trying to find something that I was in the mood for that would also work for FaRoFeb, but nothing was sounding good. I probably spent a good 35 minutes on Saturday afternoon just going through various books on my list, kindle and goodreads just trying to figure out what I wanted to read next.

Still, I'm still pretty happy to get through 5 books this weekend; 4 being for the readathon. It seems low, but considering I started Friday night when I got home for work, not too shabby. Overall it was a nice change of pace and I'm always happy to read more historicals and Jackie Lau, but I'm definitely read to get back to Grace Draven's Wraith Kings and more fantasy romance this week.

Did you participate in the Lunar New Year Readathon this past weekend? If so, how did it go?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

Lunar New Year Readathon

Wrap Up is posted!

 Happy Lunar New Year!

I don't personally celebrate Lunar New Year but have participated in celebrations in the past, both in college and when I was studying abroad in Japan. To celebrate diversity in Romancelandia, LaceyBookLovers and remarkablylisa are hosting the short readathon. It runs from February 12th through February 14th. Since it's shorter, they have shared the prompts below instead of a bingo board.

This fits in perfectly with my current reading plans, so I'm super excited to get some more Asian diversity in my reading! For the Seasonally Booked Up - Winter of the Wallflower club (hosted by Kelly and Dana), this week's book is Courtney Milan's The Duchess War. I'll be starting this on Friday (instead of earlier) since Courtney is Asian! I've been really wanting to get into her books and this is doubly the perfect chance! 

To stick with my FaRoFeb reading (before I sink back into historical romance at the end of the month for my other clubs), I've gone through some of my fantasy romances and specifically curated a list for my weekend reads. I have a pretty big list of options (maybe too many), but since I'm a mood reader I'd figure I'd get a bigger list than waste time trying to figure out what to read next. 

I'll just give a few of the items from my list that I'm thinking of reading!
📚 Joan Swan's Phoenix Rising series
📚 Allyson James - Black Dragon (Book 2 from Dragon series)
📚 Ruby Dixon - Barbarian's Rescue (Book 14 from Ice Planet Barbarians)
📚 Michelle M Pillow - Zhang Dynasty (Part of the Qurilixen World)
📚 Alexandra Ivy's Dragons of Eternity Series
📚 Marjorie M Liu's Dirk & Steele Series
📚 Jade Lee's Romantic Fantasies Series
📚 Meljean Brook - The Iron Duke (Book 1 from The Iron Seas)

Hopefully that also gives you some great options if you're joining in the readathon and/or FaRoFeb! Also, I'd like to get to the holiday novellas by Jackie Lau (one of my favorite authors). She has one each for Lunar New Year AND Valentine's Day (books 3 and 4 of her Holidays with the Wongs series).

Are you participating in the Lunar New Year Readathon? If so, use #lnyreadathon on all the socials!

Bookishly Yours, 

Stasi🍎