Not Another Family Wedding by Jackie Lau

Natalie Chin-Williams might be a cranky professor of climatology who thinks the world is doomed, but she believes in lasting love…just not for herself. She has a long history of failed relationships, plus the men she dates inevitably want children and she doesn’t.

Now thirty-six and single, Natalie expects endless comments about her love life when she attends her baby sister's wedding. Worse, weddings are always drama-filled disasters in her family. She needs emotional support to get through the weekend, so she enlists the help of her friend Connor Douglas, the dependable family doctor.

The wedding reception goes south when a drunk aunt announces a family secret that sends Natalie reeling and shakes her faith in love. Luckily, she has her long-time friend to lean on—a man she somehow ends up kissing. But there’s no way this could turn into anything lasting, is there? That’s impossible for her, especially now…



There hasn't been a book by Jackie Lau that I haven't loved. She's one of my favourite authors at writing comedic situations that are also romantic and emotional. In this book, we have a main character that truly might be one of the characters that's closest to my heart now. She's in her 30s and doesn't want children. She lives within a family that's constantly asking her questions about when she's going to have them and that really affects her. I related a lot to her since I'm sure I don't want children and I've had a very similar journey with a lot of my relatives. She has to accept throughout the book that there are some members of her family that are trying to accept her and love her and who are fighting for her and some members that aren't worth caring for. Also, even though there were some tense moments and some sad moments, everything was so funny surrounding the problems with the weddings and I appreciated the sister relationship and that was also very relatable since I also have a younger sister who's my best friend and who's going to get married before me. 

I absolutely adored that Jackie Lau doesn't shy away from talking about important issues that affect the everyday life of her characters. In this book, there was a lot of talk about racism and especially internalised racism because Natalie is biracial with an Asian dad and a white mother. Additionally, it discussed problems and decisions surrounding pregnancies, abortion and postpartum depression. It was talked about in such a caring and tender way. It described how it also affects the people who surrounds the person who's suffering especially the children of the mother who's suffering of the postpartum depression and how they understood her as they got older. I'm so happy it discussed Natalie's abortion in a way that didn't diminished the way she felt but it wasn't this traumatic event that she was going to regret. I appreciated all those talks so so much. 

Connor was a fantastic hero. We didn't know everything about him since the beginning but I rooted for his happiness because he was obviously a good person who cared a lot about Natalie even if he wouldn't admit it. As we knew more about him, I began to love him and ship them as a couple and not only caring for Natalie and her happiness. What I adored the most about them is how different they were and how much they understood each other as well. Especially since she was such a pessimist about the world and he was a ray of sunshine. The gradual realisation that they cared for each other as more than friends was the best thing to read about. What I have to say is I'm aromantic and there were a lot of arophobic things as the phrase "just friends" was constantly used and it was implied that even though she didn't want kids she had to want romance otherwise she would be REALLY weird. I know those things weren't on purpose because there were a lot of discussions on prejudice and what other people think about your life and I know the author wouldn't do that to other people but it would be nice not to see those things in romance anymore. Other than that I have nothing bad to say, I loved every minute!



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Make Me Fall by Sara Rider

Enemies make the worst neighbors, but the best lovers

After losing her job, her home, and her friends in her divorce, Nora Pitts is determined not to make the same mistakes when she starts over in the small town of Shadow Creek, Washington. No more slaving away in the lab at the expense of her social life, and definitely no more men. Ever. But making friends in her thirties is so much harder than she anticipated. And when it comes to her gorgeous yet obnoxious neighbor, it’s a whole lot easier to make enemies.

Eli Hardin doesn’t have a lot of sympathy for his uptight neighbor, until he overhears her so-called new friends making fun of her un-datable status. Suddenly he finds himself volunteering for a date with a woman who’s been leaving angry hate-notes in his mailbox, and in way over his head. Because all it takes is one disastrous date with Nora for Eli to fall hard.

But falling for Eli isn’t something Nora’s ready for—not when he’s her complete opposite, and especially not when he turns out to be the best friend she’s made in Shadow Creek. But as her attraction and her feelings for Eli grow hotter, resisting him might just lead to heartbreak anyway.



A lot of what Sara Rider did with this book was absolutely amazing. It was such an enjoyable and beautiful romance with characters that had a lot of layers that they had to let go in order to be what they wanted to be and to be completely happy. I really enjoyed the first book, but this one topped it. I felt like everything was more complex and interesting and the situations felt like they had more dimensions and I was super happy to see that. I went into this book thinking that it was going to be something and it surprised me being something completely different. When you  begin the book, you think it's going to be rivals to lovers, because they're neighbors who hate each other. But then you realize that the real meat of the story is in their developing friendship, in seeing them accepting and caring about each other and then falling for each other. Normally, with friends to lovers you get friends that when the book starts they already know one another but here you get to see it grow from the beginning and it's wonderful. 

Like it happened with Real Kind of Love, the characters in this book felt like real people. The descriptions of their feelings and their interests made me care about their happiness and that's what you want in a romance. Also, the fact that they were complete opposites was so refreshing because they united in things that could complement them but also disagreed a lot and at the end worked things through and grew as people because of it. Additionally, I loved seeing a divorced heroine in her 30s struggling to make friends in a new town since that's a very real thing that people go through since they usually don't have the setting of a school or university to make long lasting friends. Nora has extreme germophobia and I loved that Eli always respects her feelings and boundaries and never questions what she has to do in order to feel ok. I thought that was very thoughtful of the author. 

I have to say that even though I liked a lot of things, I was still disappointed at the lack of representation. It was an entirely white, straight, cis, allo book without characters with marginalized identities and that never lets me like a book completely. There was a little LGBT+ rep coded and a lot of mental health coded but it was never talked about at all on text and I think this book would have been amazing if those things would have been included and talked about because Nora had a lot of reflections about her germophobia but it never went further than that, even when it got really bad.  But that is a choice that the author made for her character. Even though those things affected my overall enjoyment, I loved the plot and the characters! 


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If I Loved You Less by Tamsen Parker

                                                 

Sunny, striking, and satisfied with her life in paradise, Theodosia Sullivan sees no need for marriage. She does, however, relish serving as matchmaker for everyone who crosses her path. As the manager of her family’s surf shop in Hanalei Bay, that includes locals and tourists alike.

One person she won’t be playing Cupid for is the equally happy bachelorette down the street. Baker Kini ʻŌpūnui has been the owner of Queen’s Sweet Shop since her parents passed away and her younger brother married Theo’s older sister and moved to Oahu. Kini’s ready smile, haupia shortbread, and lilikoi malasadas are staples of Hanalei’s main street.

However, Theo’s matchmaking machinations and social scheming soon become less charming—even hazardous—to everyone involved. And when she fails to heed Kini’s warnings about her meddling, she may be more successful than she ever intended. Theo has to face the prospect of Kini ending up with someone else, just as she realizes she’s loved Kini all along.

A modern retelling of Jane Austen's Emma.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38965901-if-i-loved-you-less
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Loved-You-Less-ebook/dp/B07H3RGN22


This book was everything I've ever wanted from an Emma retelling. It was adorable, lovely, soothing and infuriating at times but it was also a deep exploration of human emotions and relationships and a look inside a very morally questionable main character who does things she thinks are right but everyone can see they don't always have the best results even if they have good intentions. I didn't want a main character who was perfect and proper and was presented as a good person. Theo is a brilliantly constructed character, she's annoying and irritating and she's never presented as being a role model. She's a work in progress who wants to be better and who's growing as a person throughout the book. I was rooting for her because I knew her potential but I know that she could come off as very annoying. Her relationship with Kini was my favourite thing ever. The chemistry between them wasn't over the moon but the dynamics that they had and their friendship was incredibly believable and that made me have confidence in them as a couple. Their little interactions that weren't supposed to mean anything but meant everything in the long run brought a smile to my face every time and Kini was always there for the teachable moments for Theo and I think that says a lot about her character. Also, she said "badly done" and I was DEAD. 

For reference, I want to say that Emma is one of my favourite books in the entire world and definitely my favourite classic. I think Tamsen Parker did it justice. I don't know how she did it but even though it was a complete different setting and a complete different era, she maintained the same feel and atmosphere that the original book has. And I would say that it was elevated with the f/f relationship and the construction of the secondary characters. Now, let me talk a little bit about them. If you read Emma or If I Loved You Less, you know there are a lot of secondary characters that you need to follow in order to understand the conflict. This happens because it's a small town and you need to get the feel that everyone really knows everything and is up in everyone's business. The characterization of all these people that you were meant to follow was completely wonderful. I felt like I knew all these characters, their personalities, their dreams, their motivations. I could picture them in my head so so clearly and normally I hate having to remember a lot of names and a lot of characters but in this book it came naturally to me. It was like I was so immersed in this book that I was there meeting them and getting to know them in real life. 

This took place in Hanalei, a small town in Hawaii and the cast was of a diverse background. Kini was implied to be Native Hawaiian but I don't think we get on page confirmation on that. I think we should have gotten more from that since the description felt a bit shallow. Of course, I can't talk about the representation and I would love to hear from someone with that heritage. Also, Theo identified as queer and I really liked how her identity was shown as something fluid and how she went on tangents about that because that's something I do as well with my sexuality. I think a lot of my enjoyment with this book was influenced with my enjoyment of the original because there were a lot of things in common. But I have to say that it was well written, it felt like Theo had a growth because she was an awful person at some points but she worked to be better and the descriptions of the settings and feelings were beautiful. Definitely one of my recent favourite books. 



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