Tag: 2021 publication

The Sweetest Remedy

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Rating: ⭐⭐.5
Author: Jane Igharo
Genres: Fiction, Romance
Pub. Date: Sep. 2021

I picked this up right away after really enjoying Ties That Tether, but unfortunately, it didn’t have any of the same charm. Both books are a bit overwritten and don’t do a very good job at “show don’t tell”. But the characters in Ties That Tether had a lot of chemistry, which I felt was really lacking from this story. The romance was very instalove and it didn’t feel organic to the rest of the story.

The central story is really about Hannah meeting her estranged family for the first time and discovering her Nigerian heritage. Hannah grows up bi-racial, living with her white mother and never knowing her Nigerian father. When he passes away suddenly, she is invited to attend his funeral and get to know the rest of her family, meeting an interesting family friend, Lawrence, along the way, to whom she is attracted.

Overall, I thought the story had a very strong central idea, with lots of really great themes to explore around identity, class, family, heritage, and racism. Even though this is labeled as a romance, I actually found the romance detracted from the rest of the story. While it had a great premise, it was lacking in depth.

All of the characters felt really one dimensional and there wasn’t real tension between any of them, despite the author continuously setting up barriers between each of the characters. In my opinion, none of the conflicts had any real emotional depth, and the characters were basically wealthy Nigerian royalty, so it was really hard to relate to them or feel any empathy for them. I empathized with Hannah, but I don’t think the author committed to the entire spectrum of grief that Hannah likely would have experienced. Where was the rage at her father and his family for casting her out? Where was the deep sadness about never having the opportunity to know her father? Even the children who did know him hardly seemed to be mourning him, so the entire thing just read like a fantasy.

Which is really the problem I had with this book. I felt like the author had lived Ties That Tether. She understood Azere’s interpersonal conflict and feelings. Even though Azere and I have almost nothing in common, her emotions and longing were still incredibly relatable. I’m not convinced the author really understood the content of what she was trying to say in this book. Everything about this story read like a self-insert fantasy to me. If you grew up disconnected from your heritage, I could see the longing of gaining a family and a culture and finally feeling seen. But how easily the siblings accepted Hannah, and how they were so rich, and how she immediately meets a sensitive and nice Nigerian man to instruct her in the ways of Nigerian culture, seemed so transparently a fantasy to me. Like the author was dreaming about being adopted into a rich and affluent family.

There was no tension between Hannah and Lawrence, and there was no tension between the siblings – except for Tiya. Everyone was too easily accepted and forgiven. Sure, everyone wants a happy ending, but this was too convenient. Give me some grit! It’s a fluffy read, but neither of Igharo’s books are really fluffy stories. Ties That Tether had a good balance, but it was lost in The Sweetest Remedy and the plotline felt detached from reality.

Anyways, I like it less now that I’ve written the review. It was a disappointment. Read Ties That Tether and skip this one. 2.5 stars.

Float Plan

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Author: Trish Doller
Genres: Fiction, Romance
Pub. Date: Mar. 2021

This was fine. Not the best, not the worst; a bit bland and ultimately forgettable.

While this is a romance, I’d say it’s more general fiction than romance, as it centers around a young woman trying to come to terms with the death of her fiancé by suicide. If that sounds like a heavy topic for a romance, it’s because it is.

It is handled well. I can only imagine how painful it would be to be in Anna’s shoes and this is primarily a book about her processing her grief and learning how to move forward with her life. One day she walks out of her job and her life and decides to take her sailboat on a 1700 mile trip through the Caribbean that she was planning with her fiancé.

Along the way, she hires Irishman/sailor Keane to support her on her journey, but he is battling his own demons after losing his leg in an accident and struggling to find work. The story follows these two individuals to beautiful locations around the Caribbean while they both attempt to move on.

The reason I didn’t love the book is because it felt like it had absolutely no tension of any kind. Even though the central themes are around grief, this is a feel good and lighthearted book. There are no conflicts, limited romantic chemistry, and no real depth in processing grief. I would expect both characters to feel anger and sadness mixed with the elation of exploring such beautiful locales. But everything is just bland.

Overall, I don’t think the writing is very sophisticated. Just because it’s a romance doesn’t mean there can’t be depth. There’s a lot of secondary characters, but no meaningful relationships. Everything was solved too easily and I would have preferred to read less about each island they visited in lieu of some real depth from the side characters.

Anyways, I could go in depth about how the narrative is lacking, but it’s not meant to be that type of book. It’s the first in a 3 part series and I bought the whole thing on book outlet, so I will pick up the next one, The Suite Life (which I read is the best one). It’s great if you want a feel good travel book, but don’t expect any real depth. Show don’t tell!

Six Crimson Cranes

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Elizabeth Lim
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pub. Date: July 2021

After I read and loved The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, I found Six Crimson Cranes suggested as a similar read and quickly purchased a copy of the beautiful UK edition. Six Crimson Cranes is about 17 year old Princess Shiori and her 6 brothers, who are cursed by their step mother. Her brothers are turned into cranes and Shiori is forced into silence, her identity hidden by a bowl covering her face. She is abandoned far from the castle where she grew up and forced to try and break the curse and save the kingdom.

I did enjoy this. It wasn’t my favourite, but it wasn’t hard to read and was a compelling story. There are lots of really likable characters, it has a creative and intriguing world, and Shiori has a lot of characterization. There’s a lot going on and it made for a compelling start to the novel. Between the dragon and the curse, there’s a lot of action to take in. Although I did think the book struggles with some pacing issues. It starts off quick and it has an explosive ending, but it gets a bit lost in the middle of the book and I found the story dragged once Shiori is cursed. She spends a lot of time at Castle Bushian, and while this is a very important part of the story for character development and relationship building, I really think it could have been trimmed down. At 450 pages, I think this book could easily have been 50-75 pages shorter.

That said, it has a very smart plot, but maybe a little bit too smart. In some ways it’s predictable (I had no trouble guessing who was behind the shenanigans at Bushian Castle), but in other ways it’s convoluted. There’s a lot going on in the kingdom, but limited information is revealed to the reader before the end of the book, which I found confusing and overwhelming after such a slow middle. I will be returning for book 2 once the paperback releases, but I kind of wish this had been a standalone instead. That said, there is definitely some unfinished business, so I’m excited to see where things go in the next book!

Ghost Forest

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Pik-Shuen Fung
Genres: Fiction
Pub. Date: Jul. 2021 (read Mar. 2022)

I’ve been putting off my review for Ghost Forest because I don’t have a lot to say about it, but I do still want to write a short review because I think this is a very understated book and I really loved it!

I stumbled upon it at my local indie bookstore and admit to be primarily drawn to it for the cover art, but it’s also Canadian lit, so I quickly purchased it and let it sit on my shelf for a few months before finally reading it. I guess I forgot immediately after buying that it was also written in prose, or likely I would have read it sooner since it’s a quick read.

Ghost Forest features an unnamed narrator, a young girl whose family immigrates to Canada in the 1990’s. Though most of her family settles in Vancouver, her father continues to work in Hong Kong as an “astronaut father”. The novel explores her relationship with her father over the years, as a young girl living in Canada, to a young adult also living in Hong Kong when her father becomes very sick. Over time her relationship with her father has become strained as she never really felt like he was around and she re-examines her family history as her father becomes sicker.

The writing is really beautiful and I loved how the author explored family dynamics and all the ways in which immigration and new cultures can fracture a family. While the book centers around the protagonist and her father, it also features an oral history of her other family members, including her sister, mother, and grandmother. It’s a family history, but it’s also a book about love, grief, and memory. How things became what they are and the thoughts of what might have been. Many returned to Hong Kong years later, but this family opted to stay in Canada, even though they partially relocate back to Hong Kong when the father is sick. It explores identity and belonging and is a classic immigration story that I’d recommend to any Canadian. A quick read filled with gorgeous prose!

People We Meet on Vacation

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Emily Henry
Genres: Fiction, Romance
Pub. Date: May 2021 (read Mar. 2022)

So many people told me to read Beach Read, but I just had a feeling this was the one for me. I’m still planning to read Beach Read, but after a slew of enemies to lovers books recently, I really wanted to read one about friends to lovers because I had a sneaking suspicion I would really like it. And I did!

This book is a lot more subtle than some of the other romances I’ve read, but it’s the one that felt the most real to me. Poppy was a more relatable character – as sexy as the enemies to lovers trope was in books like The Love Hypothesis and The Spanish Love Deception (and as compelling as those plots were) – I do really think this is the better book. Every person I’ve ever loved has been my friend first and there’s something so lovely reading about two people that genuinely like each other. 

People We Meet on Vacation is about two friends, Alex and Poppy, and their relationship over the past 12 years. They’ve been friends for a long time and even though they live in different cities, they’ve always taken the time to travel together once a year… until something happens on their most recent trip and they don’t talk for 2 years. Poppy realizes she misses Alex and invites him to take one more trip with her, to which he agrees.

This book is subtle and I liked that about it. It’s not as quick paced as some of the other romance books I’ve read because the present day storyline is constantly interrupted to return to one of their past trips. This slowed the pacing down initially, but as you progress further into the book, you realize this friendship is not quite the relationship you thought it was. There is just as much romance in the development of their friendship, because it never really is just a friendship. Just-friends don’t bring this kind of complicated conflict into your other relationships and you can’t help but root for these two people to be together. 

I say this is a subtle book because it is also very much about loneliness and allowing people the space to say and be who they really are. Poppy and Alex recognize that love isn’t always the most important part in a relationship. Relationships are also about making the space for your partner to communicate their needs and being willing to compromise on your life together. That two individuals still need to take the time to work on their own shit before they can be what the other person needs. I felt like this had a lot more maturity and that they had the kind of solid foundation that a successful relationship would be built on.

I also liked that both characters were well developed and flawed. I really think Alex is one of the strongest love interests. To talk about romance we must acknowledge that they are primarily written by women, for women, and so the men are often a bit more fantasy than most of the men I’ve met in real life. We read romance for the escapism of it – because we are human and we want to read emotional stories about people falling in love. But so many of the men are almost so perfect in their love for the protagonist they become caricatures. Alex felt very real, like someone I could honestly fall in love with myself. He’s quiet and a bit weird. He has anxieties and he’s afraid to put himself out there. He knows what he wants, but isn’t quite sure he deserves it and recognizes the ways in which he’s not willing to compromise. 

Likewise, Poppy is chasing after something she thinks she wants without realizing that it’s really that she’s running away from something instead. We’re sold this ideal and she thinks filling her life with travel and new people will make her happy – that it will compensate for the inadequacies she felt when she was younger. We all like to think our bullies go on to make nothing of themselves, but they are just flawed people too and we are only holding ourselves back by trying to prove ourselves to them later. If you make decisions based on the way you are perceived by someone else, you are still not living for yourself. Was it unrealistic that two friends could be so blind for so long? Maybe, but these two people wanted such drastically different things that I could believe it. 

It’s also a subtly sad book that made me reflect a lot. I really wasn’t sure if we were going to get a happy ending or not. I wish the author had dedicated a bit more time to the ending because she introduced several new themes in the last 50 pages about self care and compromise, that I really would have loved to see explored further. So overall I really liked this book, perhaps even more than The Love Hypothesis. I did rate that one higher because it was so compelling and I couldn’t put it down, but I do think this is the better story. The other books I read were that fun, all-consuming love, this was gentler, but it also felt a lot more real. It’s nice to get swept up in a love story, but it’s also nice to sink into one, and that’s what I feel like I did with this one.