Tag: family

3.5 star, YA

ARC Review: All the Way Around the Sun by Xixi Tian

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

From the acclaimed author of This Place is Still Beautiful comes an evocative, achingly romantic road trip story about grief, diasporic identities, and deep-buried secrets that haunt us, perfect for fans of Past Lives and The Farewell.

Stella Chen’s life ground to a halt when her brother unexpectedly passed away a year ago. Raised together by their grandmother in the Chinese countryside before rejoining their parents in the United States, his absence destroys the connective tissue in her family. With another jarring move her senior year, from rural Illinois to unfamiliar surroundings in San Diego, she is left alone and adrift in her family’s suffocating silence and the void of unanswered questions around her brother’s death.

So when Stella’s parents force her to join her estranged childhood friend Alan Zhao for a college tour all over California, Stella dreads it. Alan is a reminder of everything Stella wishes she could be — popular, gregarious, unburdened — and a reminder of how lost she is.

As this road trip takes Stella and Alan down beautiful coastlines and through fraught family dynamics, Stella can’t help but feel the spark of why she and Alan were once so close. Before long, they find themselves pulled into each other’s orbits, forcing unspoken feelings and long-hidden truths into the light.

Thank you to Books Forward for this copy. All quotes are subject to change.

I tell you that we are the only two people in the world who have lived the same lives. The same memories growing up. The same arc. We flew over the sea together, you and I. I think this must mean that even though you are gone, I carry the parts of you onward.

One thing I have come to enjoy about Xixi Tian’s writing is the way she interweaves the Chinese immigrant experiences into her characters’ lives. While it may not be everyone’s exact experiences, including my own, the heart of our people’s collective struggles is there and that is something I find truly powerful to see in an English novel where only a decade ago it would not have been a story easily shared for the masses.

All the Way Around the Sun features themes of grief and finding one’s way through life after momentous changes. Told from Stella’s perspective several months after her older brother had passed away in college, I thought the best part of this book was the slow unfolding of her and her brother Sam’s story. As children they had grown up in China with their grandmother while their parents had come to America to make money first so they could give their kids a better life before bringing them over. I know these are the experiences of some Chinese immigrants and I cannot imagine the depth of hardship it would be for the parents to sacrifice time with their children during momentous milestones in their youth, but also for the children to uproot their childhood into a foreign place with people that are family but also strangers.

Continue reading “ARC Review: All the Way Around the Sun by Xixi Tian” →
5 star, YA

ARC Review: The Notorious Virtues by Alwyn Hamilton

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: The Notorious Virtues #1

A glamorous media darling, a surprise heiress, and the magical competition of a lifetime.

At sixteen, Honora “Nora” Holtzfall is the daughter of the most powerful heiress in all of Walstad. Her family controls all the money–and all the magic–in the entire country. But despite being the center of attention, Nora has always felt like an outsider. When her mother is found dead in an alley, the family throne and fortune are suddenly up for grabs, and Nora will be pitted against her cousins in the Veritaz, the ultimate magical competition for power that determines the one family heir. 

But there’s a surprise contestant this time: Lotte, the illegitimate daughter of Nora’s aunt. When Lotte’s absent mother retrieves her from the rural convent she’d abandoned her to, Lotte goes from being an orphan to surrounded by family. Unfortunately, most of them want her dead. 

And soon, Nora discovers that her mother’s death wasn’t random–it was murder. And the only person she can trust to uncover the truth of what happened is a rakish young reporter who despises everything Nora and her family stand for. 

With everyone against her, Lotte’s last hope is hunting for the identity of her father. But the dangerous competition–and her feelings for Theo, one of the Holtzfalls’ sworn protectors–turns her world upside down.

**The Notorious Virtues comes out April 1, 2025**

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for this copy in exchange for an honest review

Family trials. Cousin against cousin. Social unrest in a society built on crushing the lower classes even further down. Magic only the elite could access. The scary woods filled with the stuff in legends and nightmares.

This book has it all, and while the tropes are by far from unique, the way Alwyn Hamilton weaves the story together really makes every piece come alive. I was astonished at how much I liked this book while reading it as I feel I’ve gotten more jaded with time in my reading.

Built on 4 POVs that bring to life very different perspectives, we the reader can see this world from all angles.

  • Nora, the heiress apparent until she no longer was with the death (murder?) of her mother, the next heir in line
  • Lotte, the long lost cousin and descendant of the Holtzfalls, who grew up being abused at a convent in a small town away from the city her family rules
  • August, the newspaper journalist seeking after the truth, or at least the next big thing to get his paycheck in a city that keeps oppressing individuals like him
  • Theo, the knight bound by oath from his ancestor to protect the Holtzfalls with his life, though perhaps they don’t always deserve it

I felt the pacing and tension for the next plot piece was the perfect amount. Who doesn’t love a family competition for inheritance? From Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ Inheritance Games to Kayvion Lewis’ debut series, it’s definitely a trope that draws us in. I will say that the games were not solely the focus of the book, so you are forewarned if that is what you’re hoping it would be. While the trials they face are present, it’s time on page is less often than expected. The true highlight of the book comes in figuring out the mystery behind Nora’s mother’s death.

The lore crafted behind the rise of the Holtzfalls and the purpose of the Veritaz trials was well developed. Everything has a purpose and everything is more linked than one may expect. The integration into the same world of Hamilton’s other series is also probably a huge luring factor to this book, although I haven’t read it yet. It definitely takes careful planning to draw out a world that fits with an existing story but also add new details for this part of the continent. I loved the piecemeal way we got to see how this skewed society came to be and where the Holtzfalls lost their way somehow from what it once should have been.

Beyond the plot points, the characters equally drew me in. While I definitely favoured August and Nora’s POVs, the perspectives they all provided were supremely helpful in adding individual stakes in the overall game. The unlikely alliance between a lowly reporter and the heiress was always fun to see, and their witty banter was absolutely perfection. I’m a little less enthused with the romantic turn Theo and Lotte were headed towards, but if you enjoy the damsel in distress feel, then it works well enough. The biggest character development though comes from Lotte and Nora’s growth together as they figure out what it means to be an actual virtuous individual who doesn’t just look out for themselves or their rich buddies they control. I enjoyed the progression in their characters, especially as they’re competitors for the same ultimate prize.

The ending was also not what I expected and leaves the door wide open for what may come next in the series. I love that the author enjoys shaking things up and possibly having a different story arc in each book. The overall murder and family trials definitely wraps up in book one so it’s not that kind of cliffhanger, but the tidbit of what awaits in the next book has me almost wishing I didn’t read this book so early. Whenever book two comes out, it’ll be worth the wait if it’s anything like its predecessor.

5 star, YA

Review: XOXO by Axie Oh

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Cello prodigy Jenny has one goal: to get into a prestigious music conservatory. When she meets mysterious, handsome Jaewoo in her uncle’s Los Angeles karaoke bar, it’s clear he’s the kind of boy who would uproot her careful plans. But in a moment of spontaneity, she allows him to pull her out of her comfort zone for one unforgettable night of adventure…before he disappears without a word.

Three months later, when Jenny and her mother arrive in South Korea to take care of her ailing grandmother, she’s shocked to discover that Jaewoo is a student at the same elite arts academy where she’s enrolled for the semester. And he’s not just any student. He’s a member of one of the biggest K-pop bands in the world—and he’s strictly forbidden from dating.

When a relationship means throwing Jenny’s life off the path she’s spent years mapping out, she’ll have to decide once and for all just how much she’s willing to risk for love.

Overall Recommendation:

Call me an official K-pop fan because XOXO has gotten me into the culture and world of K-pop stars. I loved the angst of this forbidden romance between Jaewoo, this seemingly regular boy who appears for a wondrous night in LA, and Jenny, our normal non K-pop loving girl who prefers the cello. Her journey to Korea to study abroad for a term brought such an immersive experience of the culture and the process for K-pop stars. Fast paced and wholly enjoyable from start to finish, I couldn’t stop reading this romantic story between these two musical teens.

I’m starting off the year on such a high with XOXO, a book I honestly should’ve read ages ago. While I’ve always been adjacent to the world of K-pop, I’ve never really immersed myself in it though it has taken the world, deservedly, by storm.

In this beautiful and angsty story of a forbidden romance between a K-pop star and an ordinary transfer student from America, it gave me the whole spectrum of feelings. Fast paced from the start, the magical night Jenny and Jaewoo first meet in LA in her uncle’s karaoke bar showed how much chemistry they have. I didn’t want their misadventure to end as much as Jenny didn’t. And when he ghosted her for a few months until Jenny found herself transferring to a performing arts school in Korea for a term while they tend to her sick grandmother, you know the re-meeting would be filled with complicated emotions. Axie Oh didn’t miss a beat as I held my breath for what would come of this.

The love story definitely took center stage. I love a good forbidden romance that is filled with angst. Both rule followers and passionate about their music and responsibilities, they are clearly perfect for one another if extraneous factors such as a scandal from Jaewoo’s boy band XOXO wouldn’t cause a huge problem. The tensions were so good throughout, from the fear of being caught every time they did even something more than innocent friends would to the anxiety something would give in either of their music careers due to the time they chose to spend with each other over their competing priorities. Even the initial will-they-won’t-they start dating was fun to read.

But besides the romance, there are so many other things I enjoyed! You know me, I only give the best ratings for books that have everything going for it.

I’ve loved the influx of Asian representation in stories over the last few years. This is no exception. The immersive way Axie brought us into the world of Seoul, their culture that differs from North American standards (where else would dating a celebrity be a scandal just for the fact they’re dating?), and the in-depth look on K-pop trainees and debuted groups was truly fascinating. I’ve listened to K-pop occasionally over the years but never fell in love with it. Being in this fictional world has made me more curious and perhaps even more open to joining this music fandom in real life that so many enjoy.

The food and family dynamics in Korea were also represented. You don’t know how many times I was going hungry reading about black bean noodles (jajangmyeon) and kimchi and gimbap. Jenny’s dynamics with her mother and grandmother were also an important part of her story arc. Balancing the responsibility to practice cello to get into the music school of her dreams (and her mother’s dreams) while feeling the lack of support and presence from her mom was an interesting backdrop to set the familial conflicts, but one I can understand as an Asian adult who grew up in similar familial conflicts in the community.

The one thing that was the perfect icing on top of this already fun and emotional book were the other characters, especially the XOXO members. Found family is a huge trope here as the boys only have each other when they tour and face the pressures of debuting. While Jenny may not have her family for integral support, she found great relationships with these boys. From the fun loving youngest member to the serious leader who only wanted the best for Jaewoo, their love for one another was obvious. The highlight was definitely Nathaniel and his attempts to make life easy for Jenny, even when she thought his attentions and freely given friendship would only cause issues for the both of them. Her roommate Sori also initially came across as mean and stuck up but their relationship became something I loved as she stuck by Jenny in all the things she was unprepared for.

This book felt like a K-drama with all the best parts crafted into a fast paced story. If you enjoy a good forbidden romance, excellent characterizations and found family, with plenty of Asian representation, this book is 100% for you. There’s no time to waste! Best add it to your TBR when you can!