Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club by Roselle Lim
Goodreads Blurb: A new heartfelt novel about the power of loneliness and the strength of love that overcomes it by critically acclaimed author Roselle Lim.
Newly minted professional matchmaker Sophie Go has returned to Toronto, her hometown, after spending three years in Shanghai. Her job is made quite difficult, however, when she is revealed as a fraud—she never actually graduated from matchmaking school. In a competitive market like Toronto, no one wants to take a chance on an inexperienced and unaccredited matchmaker, and soon Sophie becomes an outcast.
In dire search of clients, Sophie stumbles upon a secret club within her condo complex: the Old Ducks, seven septuagenarian Chinese bachelors who never found love. Somehow, she convinces them to hire her, but her matchmaking skills are put to the test as she learns the depths of loneliness, heartbreak, and love by attempting to make the hardest matches of her life.
This is an ARC review thanks to a gift from the publisher, the book comes out August 16th, 2022
My take: 3 out of 5. It’s a cute book, it just never goes beyond that. I absolutely loved the whole sophie and the Old Ducks relationship, that was adorable as were all the nicknames they have. However the romance aspect of it felt really forced and not believable. I just never bought Sophie’s relationship and i think the book would have been better without it in my opinion, It came too easy. As for the parental relationship, lets not even get started on that, i really REALLY disliked them. Plus can someone explain to me these toxic parental expectations and relationships? Is this normal?
Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee
Goodreads blurb: Lizzy “Overachiever” Chung, Esq. has her life mapped out neatly:
* Become a lawyer. Check.
* Join a prestigious law firm. Check.
* Make partner. In progress.
If all goes to plan, she will check off that last box in a couple years, make her parents proud, and live a successful, fulfilled life in L.A. What was not in her plans was passing out from a panic attack during a pivotal moment in her career. A few deep breaths and a four hour drive later, Lizzy is in Weldon for three weeks to shed the burnout and figure out what went wrong. And what better place to recharge than the small California town where she spent her childhood summers with her best friend, Jack Park. Jack Park didn’t expect to see Lizzy back in Weldon, but now he’s got three weeks to spend with the girl of his dreams. Except she doesn’t know of his decades-long crush on her–and he intends to keep it that way. She’s a high-powered attorney who lives in L.A. and he’s a bookkeeper at his family’s brewery who never left his hometown. He can’t risk their friendship on a long shot. Can he? When Lizzy decides that the local bookstore needs a little revamp, of course, Jack is going to help her bring it back to life. But the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to ignore there might be more than just friendship among the dusty shelves and books…Sometimes the path to the rest of your life has been in front of you all along.
This is an ARC review thanks to a gift from the publisher, the book comes out July 26th, 2022
My take: 2.5 out of 5. Maybe I would have liked this book more if I had not read it straight after Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club, and I might have been saturated with the “Asian parents are unreasonable and we cant be happy because we need to fill parental expectations” storyline. However, even without that its just an ok book. It was, in my hallmark channel ranking, what I would call a predictable and naughty. I knew exactly how it would end up from chapter 2 and the buildup to it was not as fun. There was too much chemistry and too little backstory for my taste. I want to know more about their background, why were they friends, why did jack never say a thing for 20 years. Also the mom, really what is up with asian mothers in literature (or at least my literature this month) Are they really this stereotypically bad? The big positive: I loved all the book talk and kind of want a bookstore to sit down and read in now.
The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth
Goodreads blurb: THE HUSBAND A heart surgeon at the top of his field, Stephen Aston is getting married again. But first he must divorce his current wife, even though she can no longer speak for herself.
THE DAUGHTERS Tully and Rachel Aston look upon their father’s fiancée, Heather, as nothing but an interloper. Heather is younger than both of them. Clearly, she’s after their father’s money.
THE FORMER WIFE With their mother in a precarious position, Tully and Rachel are determined to get to the truth about their family’s secrets, the new wife closing in, and who their father really is.
THE YOUNGER WIFE Heather has secrets of her own. Will getting to the truth unleash the most dangerous impulses in all of them?
My take: 3.75 out of 5. Its a really good thriller and I devoured it in one day. however its just not as high as my expectations of it were after reading the Good sister and the mother in law. Although the title is a great continuation to her title series, it really is not about the younger wife. It is told through three stories the two daughters and the younger wife so really the book is a lot more varied in points of view and characters than what that makes it out to be. I kind of loved that there was a lot of psychological thriller both within the book but also to the reader. The book ends and you really need to check yourself to see what was real and what wasn’t and I really enjoyed that aspect. One big issue i think that there is a huge event(spoiler alert: there is a rape ) that gets completely glossed over and not properly discussed.
Spoiler alert for after you read: i had a discussion with @Pourandpages on instagram about how apparently the ending of the book was changed from the e-ARC to the final version which was what I read. Apparently the ending in the e-arc was left more ambiguous as to the culpability than the book and I think it caused some backlash.
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