Ana Maria & the Fox

Ana Maria and the Fox (Luna Sisters Book 1)- Liana de la Rosa

Berkley

Release Date: April 4, 2023 

Rating: 📚📚📚

Synopsis: Ana María Luna Valdés has strived to be the perfect daughter, the perfect niece, and the perfect representative of the powerful Luna family. So when Ana María is secretly sent to London with her sisters to seek refuge from the French occupation of Mexico, she experiences her first taste of freedom far from the judgmental eyes of her domineering father. If only she could ignore the piercing looks she receives across ballroom floors from the austere Mr. Fox.

Gideon Fox elevated himself from the London gutters by chasing his burning desire for more: more opportunities, more choices. For everyone. Now, as a member of Parliament, Gideon is on the cusp of securing the votes he needs to put forth a measure to abolish the Atlantic slave trade once and for all—a cause that is close to his heart as the grandson of a formerly enslaved woman. The charmingly vexing Ana María is a distraction he must ignore. 
 
But when Ana María finds herself in the crosshairs of a nefarious nobleman with his own political agenda, Gideon knows he must offer his hand as protection . . . but will this Mexican heiress win his heart as well?

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Seeking safety from the French occupation of Mexico, Ana Maria and her two sisters are sent to London while her powerful father remains in Mexico to help the government fight for freedom. In London they experience their first taste of freedom from their father's strict rule, and set out to charm London Society in the hopes of making a good impression that might help Mexico. Gideon Fox, grandson of an escapes slave, is determined to use his position as an MP to end the Atlantic slave trade forever. He doesn't have time for anything but work- especially not distractions like a beautiful woman. But Ana Maria and Gideon can't seem to stay away from each other, so will that help or hurt their causes?

There were things about this book that I really enjoyed, and things that didn't work as well for me. I loved the cover and whenever Ana Maria is describing Mexico to Gideon, or missing Mexico and thinking about it, this cover and its beautiful colors hit perfectly. Ana Maria could describe what she was missing and you could feel the warm sun, smell the food, the colors were vibrant- everything was lovely and alive. So very different from how she and her sisters experienced England! I also loved learning a bit about a different part of history than what we normally see in an 1860s romance- between the book and the author's note I really want to go find some nonfiction books to fill in even more about Mexico and the French occupation etc. at this time.

For the most part, I found Ana Maria didn't stand out as much for me as her sisters did. Maybe this was the eldest sister still trying to be what her father wanted, even when she was trying to be her own person, but I never quite figured out who Ana was beyond a devoted daughter, a fierce protector of her sisters, a person who wanted to help others, and someone who was drawn to Gideon. Maybe that would have been enough if she wasn't being contrasted to her fiery little sister Gabby or her bookish and secretive, quiet sister Isabel, both seemed to overpower her personality at times. Gideon also seemed like someone who didn't want to stand out. He was so devoted to his work and his cause he seems to have forgotten he was also supposed to have a life of some sort and always felt guilty thinking about anything but work. Admirable compared to some of the young men you meet in these books who do nothing but drink and gamble- there's never a doubt that Gideon is a good man. But the hot and cold waffling that he and Ana Maria do through most of the book got old pretty fast for me. They clearly enjoy spending time together, they like talking, but Gideon worries any time he spends with her will damage progress on his bill in Parliament. And it loops like this over and over. The end result is a slow burn until we finally get to the marriage of convenience about 70% through the book, in a way that felt more hurried and forced than I had expected. 

The general pacing of the book was slower than I tend to like, dragging in the middle. It picks up any time Ana talks about Mexico and does an excellent job highlighting the lack of focus on the world outside of England usually seen in books like this-from lack of mention of the war in the newspapers to some of the sisters' admirers not knowing that Spain and Mexico aren't the same country- and really celebrates the potential for more multicultural options in historical romance books moving forward. The idea was great, but I have to admit the execution of plot and characters needed a little more work for me. 

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review 

Sex and Vanity

Sex and Vanity- Kevin Kwan

DoubleDay/Random House

Release Day: June 30, 2020

Rating:

📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao and she instantly can't stand him. She can't stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can't stand that he knows more about Casa Malaparte than she does, and she really can't stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa and they are caught by her snobbish, disapproving cousin Charlotte. "Your mother is Chinese so it's no surprise you'd be attracted to someone like him," Charlotte teases. The daughter of an American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself in favor of the white side, and she adamantly denies having feelings for George. But several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekending with her new fiancé, Lucie finds herself drawn to George again. Soon, Lucie is spinning a web of deceit that involves her family, her fiancé, the co-op board of her Fifth Avenue apartment building, and ultimately herself as she tries mightily to deny George entry into her world--and her heart. Moving between summer playgrounds of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant fashion, Sex and Vanity is a truly modern love story, a daring homage to A Room with a View, and a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures.

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From the creator of Crazy Rich Asians comes a new world of over-the-top money, family, and romance in New York.  When George and Lucie meet at a friend's wedding they are teens who barely speak to each other but are still drawn together.  One night, one indiscretion, and one drone send them apart.  Years later they are back in each other's orbit and Lucie has to decide if she's going to stay on the path she's planned for herself since she was 8 years old, or take a risk and go for what her heart really wants.

Sex and Vanity is a pretty good description of most of the people in this book- emphasis on the vanity.  It's Crazy Rich Asians up a notch.  The only exceptions seem to be our heroes, Lucy and George and their mothers- all other friends and family are shameless name droppers and have black belts in one-upmanship.  Lucy has spent her life trying to fit into this world, while believing that she isn't good enough for it because she's half-Asian and she doesn't look like her father's Plymouth Rock WASP family.  Every time she manages to enjoy a moment as herself, something happens to shock her or shame her back into her protective little shell.  She thinks she has to be what everyone else wants her to be, but George sees her for who she actually is, or could be.  

While I enjoyed the book, with its fast paced writing style and breezy over-the-top world, I wish we had gotten to see George more.  The reader actually gets very little "George" time, which makes it hard to believe in love between George and Lucie.  He almost never talks, does nice things without fanfare but just to help people (which is great, no complaints there- especially compared to Cecil!) but I hard a hard time following Lucie through her feelings for him.  At first she doesn't like him, on no basis at all.  Then she does, on no basis at all.  Magnetic pull might be a good start to a relationship, but it never got beyond that for me.  He seemed like a Mr. Darcy type who never got turned into a character to know, but just an idea.

Light summer fun to help make people smile, Sex and Vanity will be enjoyed by everyone who enjoyed the world of Crazy Rich Asians.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review  

The Marriage Game

The Marriage Game- Sara Desai
Berkley/Penguin Group
Release Date: June 9, 2020

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: After her life falls apart, recruitment consultant Layla Patel returns home to her family in San Francisco. But in the eyes of her father, who runs a Michelin starred restaurant, she can do no wrong. He would do anything to see her smile again. With the best intentions in mind, he offers her the office upstairs to start her new business and creates a profile on an online dating site to find her a man. She doesn’t know he’s arranged a series of blind dates until the first one comes knocking on her door…

As CEO of a corporate downsizing company Sam Mehta is more used to conflict than calm. In search of a quiet new office, he finds the perfect space above a cozy Indian restaurant that smells like home. But when communication goes awry, he's forced to share his space with the owner's beautiful yet infuriating daughter Layla, her crazy family, and a parade of hopeful suitors, all of whom threaten to disrupt his carefully ordered life.

As they face off in close quarters, the sarcasm and sparks fly. But when the battle for the office becomes a battle of the heart, Sam and Layla have to decide if this is love or just a game.

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Sam Mehta is a calm and control-oriented person.  He doesn't do noise, family, fun, or distractions.  Blaming himself for his sister's bad marriage and current pain, he has one focus: make the man who hurt her face justice.  But his plans- and his new office- get derailed when his landlord gives his office to someone else and has a heart attack before telling Sam about the change.  Layla is all energy, colors, and chaos as she tries to pull her life together and start her own business, but now she finds herself sharing an office with an uptight jerk who won't leave.  When Layla finds out her father set up blind dates for her, Sam and Layla make a deal: she'll go on the dates and if she gets married to one of the men, Sam can have the office.  No marriage means Sam's out.  Sam might start out as trying to save Layla the way he couldn't save his sister, but somewhere along the way his feelings to Layla become anything but  brotherly.

The Marriage Game is a definite opposites attract book.  Layla is all about emotions and empathy, helping her family and trying to move forward after bad things happen. She claims to not know who she really is and what she really wants, but instinctively she goes for exactly what is right for her- and only starts messing up when she thinks about it.  Sam is all about control, safety, and security. He thinks he knows what he should do and believes that he doesn't deserve happiness.  Both have suffered and I love how Sara Desai shows us the different ways people react to the troubles life brings us.  People can (and as this book shows us, do) become confusing contradictions of thoughts, feelings, and actions when it comes to trying to fix things that are broken and to prevent future pain.  

Desai celebrates Indian culture through food and family, and immerses the reader in a beautiful world of scents, sounds, and colors that explode from the page.  Sam and Layla may be in an office upstairs, but the reader can smell the scents of traditional Indian food cooking in Layla's family restaurant downstairs.  Busybody aunties drive everyone crazy with their matchmaking ways and odd attempts at American-Indian fusion food.  Bad dates mean a variety of humorous situations that inadvertently bring Layla and Sam closer together.  I wish we'd gotten the chance to get to know more of the people in Sam's life, like his sister Nisha, but I recognize that this was part of the point: Sam had closed himself off from his family and we only got to see them through Sam's pinhole vision. It works very well and makes you feel even sorrier for Sam- if we want to get to know Nisha better, think what her own brother is missing out on!

The Marriage Game is about discovering what really matters to you.  Who are you when everything falls apart?  What do you want moving forward? What are you willing to fight for?  Sam is about to discover that sometimes the worst thing that can happen to you is also the best thing that can happen to you.   

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Pride, Prejudice, & Other Flavors

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors- Somali Dev
William Morrow/Harper Collins
Release Date: May 7, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: It is a truth universally acknowledged that only in an overachieving Indian American family can a genius daughter be considered a black sheep.

Dr. Trisha Raje is San Francisco’s most acclaimed neurosurgeon. But that’s not enough for the Rajes, her influential immigrant family who’s achieved power by making its own non-negotiable rules:

·       Never trust an outsider

·       Never do anything to jeopardize your brother’s political aspirations

·       And never, ever, defy your family

Trisha is guilty of breaking all three rules. But now she has a chance to redeem herself. So long as she doesn’t repeat old mistakes.

Up-and-coming chef DJ Caine has known people like Trisha before, people who judge him by his rough beginnings and place pedigree above character. He needs the lucrative job the Rajes offer, but he values his pride too much to indulge Trisha’s arrogance. And then he discovers that she’s the only surgeon who can save his sister’s life.

As the two clash, their assumptions crumble like the spun sugar on one of DJ’s stunning desserts. But before a future can be savored there’s a past to be reckoned with...

A family trying to build home in a new land.

A man who has never felt at home anywhere.

And a choice to be made between the two.

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Loosely based on Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice, Somali Dev's Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors centers around Dr. Trisha Raje, a talented neurosurgeon from a powerful Indian family, and DJ Caine, a chef specializing in Indian/French fusion foods who dropped everything and moved to California when he discovered his little sister had a terminal diagnosis of a brain tumor.  When Trisha says she can operate on Emma and save her life- but not her sight- DJ should be thrilled.  And he is. Except he hates the arrogant and privileged Dr. Raje, Emma refuses to have the surgery, and the only way he can earn enough to pay the bills is by catering a series of major events- for Trisha's family.  Both have pasts they need to deal with if they can have futures, but pain from the past doesn't let go easily.

Perhaps even more than Austen's original, a fitting alternative title for this book could be First Impressions.  Trisha makes a poor first impression on DJ without even realizing it, and everything she does after that only makes her worse in his eyes.  As is typical for doctors, Trisha is proud of how good she is at her work- occasionally almost to the point of arrogance.  It especially seems that way because while she's great with brains, she's not as good with people.  She claims to have emotional blindness, and never really feels comfortable interacting with anyone on a social level. What she really seems to have is a lack of confidence in herself for anything outside of her work.  Having trusted her roommate in college only to have that roommate harm Trisha's older brother means she's less likely to trust her judgment when it comes to people.  She has spent her entire life since then making herself pay for her mistake, and mourning the fact that it destroyed her relationship with her family.

DJ Caine is a loving older brother and a genius in the kitchen.  He knows the value of family- and little sister Emma is all the family he has left.  He also knows the importance of good impressions and getting along with others no matter how he feels.  DJ prides himself on his calm and friendly attitude when inside he's a mass of anger and unresolved issues from a hard childhood, and carries a chip on his shoulder the size of a continent but doesn't seem to be aware of it.  One poor encounter with Trisha and he allows all his anger and frustration to focus on her: a woman he sees as arrogant, entitled, and oblivious to others in her perfect ivory tower with her perfect family and no problems ever.

I found Trisha and DJ to be characters I sympathized with but at the same time couldn't always like.  DJ in particular I had a hard time liking for his harsh and judgmental attitude towards Trisha, although he seems to give everyone else plenty of chances.  Both characters were compelling, and complicated, but sometimes Dev's writing of them seemed inconsistent. For example, Trisha's comment that DJ overheard is one that jarringly doesn't sound at all like her, and she never remembers saying it so we never find out what she was thinking when she said it.  The secondary characters felt, for the most part, rather 2-dimensional.  They were there to make things complicated for the main characters and occasionally impart words of wisdom, but felt uneven to me.  Trisha's family claims they understand her and her awkwardness with people, but then never seem to take that into consideration when dealing with her.  It's hard to tell if they say and do things to make her feel bad because that's how she interprets them or because that's what is happening. 

Even when I wasn't always sure I liked the characters, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors was a book I had a hard time putting down.  Fast-paced and complicated, Somali Dev mixes together flavors of a variety of cultures and individuals to create a compelling, vibrant story.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review