Occasionally, in the middle of meandering through one's to-read list, one comes across short recommendations by authors for which one has the utmost respect and then realize that the stories said authors are recommending have been on one's radar for ages and one has entirely forgotten to get around to them.
Also, Zen Cho's incredibly fun and delightful style of writing apparently rubs off on one. Historical romance is not exactly a vice (if only because my actual vices are so much worse that this is practically a virtue), but it's certainly something that falls into the mental category that I think of as cake-like books - not exactly healthy, but delicious and with far more substance than candy. This novella is definitely cake-like and an incredibly fun, short read.
But part of why it transcends what I think of as "just fun" (which, make no mistake, is a vital category) lies in how it engages with questions of race and female autonomy and desire in a way that it evocative of, but not exactly in line with either early 20th century writers or romance novelists. Cho isn't afraid to push the boundaries for what is allowed to happen to a romantic heroine OR who is allowed to be the romantic heroine. Jade is a fantastic character and I enjoyed the 20,000 or so words I spent in her diary. We need more women like her in our books and I can't wait to explore what else Cho has written.