Phew this took me a long time to get through! Could’ve used a lot more geography and a lot less politics.

This was heavily pro-American and a U.S.-centric take on global politics. I was annoyed there were entire chapters dedication to 1 or 2 countries, and then for literal continents, Africa and also Central + South America, had just one chapter that lightly skimmed through some of the countries.

I don’t keep up with global politics or world geography so I did learn a lot but I would also like to learn more from a non U.S.-centric author after this.

I was really torn on rating this 4 or 5 stars because some of the stories were SO good and some of my complaints are more formatting issues but had to go with 4 since I didn’t love everything about this.

Let’s be clear Babalola is a fabulous writer, she has a very lyrical and beautiful way of writing, I think my main adjective to describe it would be “rich.” Very rich in detail and color and texture, I could FEEL the locations. It actually reminded me a lot of Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers which is in my top 10 romances, so maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much.

WHAT I LIKED:
If you like audiobooks, I cannot recommend this one enough. There’s a whole cast of actors and they all have stunning British accents, Babalola’s is a Nigerian British accent and I could listen to her speak ALL day, wow. The pacing of the narrators was also excellent, just overall a good production.

I quite enjoyed the ones set in modern day, my favorite was Psyche, who was a social media manager, and Olympus represented “big media.” I liked the reimagining of the wall between Pyramus and Thisbe, in a college dorm setting that was really cute.

I liked that Babalola included some original writing, including her parents’ story which was sweet to listen to her mother narrate that. I will say I am unsure of the lessons/morals we were supposed to come away with from her own work, but good stories at least.

WHAT I DISLIKED:
I agree with several people’s reviews that say to make it past the first story. It meanders and takes quite a while to get to the meat of the plot, it feels like the first half is about the protagonist swimming and her grace and power which was well written and interesting but then it turns out it had nothing to do with the rest of that myth’s plot so you’re left confused.

I really enjoyed the diversity of myths selected, I hadn’t heard of most of the original myths. Which actually made it harder for me to follow along, because these are reimagined myths, so not knowing the foundation I wasn’t sure how things were altered/adapted. Babalola does do a brief recap of some in her conclusion which was very interesting but I could’ve used that at the beginning or end of each myth. I also would’ve liked more detail about the originals - where were they from, specifically? What parts were adapted, and what modern take on the morals was she aiming for?

Thus we come to one of my biggest issues with the book, which could be because I’ve never read a collection of short stories by one author that takes place across genres. (Is this a common book type? I’m actually not sure!) Because some myths featured magic/goddesses/divine power in all different time periods, it was very difficult in the beginning of each story to understand the context and the world boundaries. It was a bit jarring to flip through very different worlds, each with their own set of parameters, somewhat at random. Was the protagonist described as a “goddess” because she was beautiful or because she was literally a deity? It was honestly difficult to tell sometimes.

OVERALL
Quite good, I will definitely keep an eye out for her next book. I like essays and short story collections because they’re easy to pick up and put down. I think the editor could’ve tightened the pacing of some things and included notes about each individual myth, but other than that this was a solid debut!

What I liked:
-Really great food descriptions, catch me heading to the nearest pho restaurant after this!
-this is a high school YA so there were some cute and sooo awkward moments of “what do I do with my hands near a girl I like” moments
-I enjoyed the inclusion of the history about family’s respective escapes from Vietnam and the fall of Saigon. -The audiobook was nice to listen to because both narrators were Vietnamese and so you could hear them properly pronounce the Vietnamese words sprinkled through the book. It’s a very tonal language and it’s so much better to listen to than to read (imo)
-the heart to hearts with their parents and them understanding each other better

What I disliked:
-described as a “forbidden lovers” trope but there’s not really that much tension especially since the protagonists don’t understand the source of the feud for the majority of the book
- far too slow paced, it also is a longer book than it really needed to be
-usually I have no problem believing two people should be together but I didn’t understand the depths of their feelings for each other at all. It felt like they had three convos, kissed a little, and decided they were willing to risk it all for each other. For what????? I was surprised they were so impacted by various events in the book, this seemed like a medium-level friendship.

Misc:
If you like this book you might also like Last Chance Books by Kelsey Rodkey, it’s a similar high school YA with competing family run businesses (this one of bookstores) and one of the families is also Asian, though that’s not really mentioned not a central feature/plot point like in A Pho Live Story. Tbh I felt similarly about that book as I did this one

Another 5

This book was SO hyped on bookstagram I was expecting to be blown away and I was NOT. Also, it has a lot of my favorite things: BIPOC protagonist, fake dating, office romance, only one bed, so I was expecting to love The Spanish Love Deception for many reasons.

I knew going in that this was a slow burn romance but I didn’t realize that meant we would be reading every. single. thought. Catalina has. It was easy to skip paragraphs/pages because one thing would happen (even something as small as the male lead speaking to her) and we would have to listen to a solid two pages of her subsequent thoughts.

The book ostensibly takes place over a few weeks, but maybe 30% of it happens the day before Catalina’s sister’s wedding. It is apparently a LONG day. Also, the whole point of this book is for Catalina to attend her sister’s wedding and that was almost entirely skipped over. There were a few mentions of the overall event but it was mostly Catalina and Aaron’s preparing for the wedding, how hot they both found each other, and then them departing.

Obviously Aaron has been in love with Catalina for ages, but it seems wildly unrealistic that Catalina also feels this passionately after their 1 week together after years of dislike. Especially since her past relationship triggers are very much present in this new relationship (in a different way but still) and suddenly Aaron just expects her to trust him and not worry about something that had previously wrecked her and caused her to leave her home country???

The end got VERY over the top in Catalina’s thoughts and proclamations of love, it just felt strangely dramatic for a previously not effusive person.

Overall this was fine and I will most likely read her next one, but it will not be top of my list.

I liked the second book better than the first! This was stellar.

I liked that this was a little darker than the first, which the author did have a trigger warning/note about in the beginning. I enjoyed the discussions of PTSD and how the previous murder/hostage-holding had impacted Lila because I feel like books like this usually would reference the past like a “haha that’s crazy that that happened” way and then promptly move on which just doesn’t seem realistic to me. I liked seeing in the sequel it was more of a vibe of “actually moving on from something like that is HARD and I am not doing well!!”

In that vein, I liked the love triangle aspect and that Lila was like “thank you for your interest but I must focus on myself right now, I’ve been through a lot” which is also rare in a romance-esque novel. Put yourself first, girl!

Small moments I enjoyed:
I still laughed out loud several times, even with the darker tones. I love how much her family loves each other. I love all the discussions of therapy and seeking help and how it is stigmatized in many communities. I loved how naturally diverse and interesting all the side characters were! (Though I will note if I had to criticize one thing it would be that there were a few too many people to keep track of and I got lost on who some people were sometimes.) I listened to the audiobook so it took me a while to realize their cafe name was Brew-ha (I only noticed when I looked it up on GoodReads) which is indeed a great pun for them. The food descriptions were

As soon as I saw this cover I realized I hadn’t read a m/m romance where both leads were Asian, so I figured now was the time!

It’s official: I am a Carina Press Adores fan!!! I love what they’re doing with own voices diverse gay romance (the first one I read was D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a wedding, which was incredible). To be clear I’ve only read two books by them, but now I will make a concerted effort to try more.

This was cute, I read it in two days. I haven’t read a business/finance focused romance in a long time (maybe ever? I’m not sure) so it was interesting seeing that side of things.

The chapter endings/transitions were quite abrupt and more time passed in between that I anticipated, I must say. Sometimes I got annoyed with the wealthy boss, but I also think that was kind of the point.

I liked the discussions of demisexuality, which I knew about from reading a review ahead of time, so I was surprised by the level of steam in the book. It’s not wild, to be clear, but more than I expected.

This didn’t gloss over the consequences to the boss’s actions or sweep the downfall under the rug which I enjoyed. Sucks to suck but also this is the real world and actions have consequences!!

This is a 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

This is the second time in a week where I liked the second cozy mystery in the series better than the first!

I laughed out loud several times, the strength of female friendships really shone through (both with Vero and Finlay but also Amy and Theresa), and the love triangle was perfectly executed (could have used way more details tho). And there were far fewer moments where I thought “absolutely no one is going to think that, quit acting so erratically and paranoid,” which often happened with the first.

Let’s be clear, you must definitely be able to suspend your disbelief FREQUENTLY but that’s fine, I am very adept at that.

I did NOT see the surprise reveal coming at the end, I thought it was going to be left hanging for the third book to cover but nope, surprise!!!!

I wish we had gotten to learn more about Vero’s story since it was heavily alluded to.

I again read this one super quickly, I was so excited to get back into the plot, it was very amusing. I need to find more cozy mysteries like this!!!!

Just as funny and warm and tender as I remembered. It has recently been brought to my attention that I am into the “hot mess/seemingly competent yet deeply insecure” trope and boy does this fit the bill there.

Some amusing quotes:
Luc: Do you really think I’m beautiful?
Olivier: You are beautiful Luc, I’ve always thought so. Like an early self portrait of Robert Mapplethrope. Um, not the one with the bull whip in his anus, obviously.

“….[this] was a hope so vain that Carly Simon could’ve written a famously enigmatic song about it.”

I’ve really been feeling like rereading this the past couple of weeks and I am glad the library came through pretty promptly.