From the author of Counting Down with You and A Show for Two comes a new YA contemporary about a girl who accidentally sabotages an up-and-coming local band and falls for the guitarist while secretly trying to make up for her mistake.
Liana Sarkar lives and breathes music, hoping to follow in the footsteps of her A&R coordinator father. Maybe if she succeeds, he’ll finally give her the time of day instead of drowning himself in work to distract from the grief of her mother’s passing.
When Liana accidentally sabotages an up-and-coming local band, Third Eye, she makes it her mission to steer them towards success—without them discovering her role in their setback. But as she gets closer to Third Eye, especially their enigmatic leader Skyler Moon, it becomes harder to hide the truth.
With both her heart and their futures on the line, will Liana be able to undo the damage she’s caused?
Overall Recommendation:
Stay With My Heart is full of musical references and a romances that sweeps you off your feet. Liana was a well-fleshed out protagonist to sympathize with as she embarks on this secret mission to make the band, Third Eye, into a great success. I loved the realness of her struggles, the songs she connected with, and her growing relationship with each of the boys in the band. The romance was so organic even while the impending blow up over her secrets hangs overhead. I couldn’t put this down, and Tashie has slowly secured a spot as a writer that just gets what I want in a love story.
When Chloe Chang gets dumped via USPS after moving across the county from NYC to LA, her first instinct is to throw her box of memories in the garbage. Instead, she starts buying other teenagers’ break-up boxes to create an art exhibit, Heartifacts. Opening night is going great, until she spots Daniel Kwak illicitly filming his best friend’s reaction to his ex’s box. When she tries to stop him, an intense discussion ends up launching a creative partnership and friendship… and a major crush for Chloe.
There’s just one problem: Daniel is dead set on not being another rebound.
Five times he’s been the guy who makes the girls he’s dating realize they want to get back with their ex. And he refuses for there to be a sixth. She insists she’s over her ex, but when he shows up unexpectedly with his new girlfriend, it turns out Daniel was right. She isn’t ready for a new relationship.
She throws herself into making Heartifacts successful, but flashy influencers threaten her original vision of the exhibit. To create the exhibit she’s always wanted, Chloe needs to go back to basics, learn to work with artists in a more collaborative way, and discover what love can be. Only then will she convince Daniel she’s truly ready for everything they could be to one another.
In the tradition of Jenny Han and Emma Lord, Jennifer Chen’s Artifacts of an Ex is a story of love, art, and finding your way when everything you know has changed completely.
Overall Recommendation:
Artifacts of an Ex touches on key themes of loving yourself and learning to let go before falling in love again. While I agree with these things, the execution was not as strong as I had hoped and it was hard to believe in Chloe’s newfound love for Daniel while her breakup was still so fresh. I had also wished for more about her family as they felt like filler rather than important side themes to explore in the book. Overall it was an okay read but it did take me a while to finish it.
**Artifacts of an Ex comes out November 14, 2023**
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review
There were plenty of things I wanted to love about this book: themes of heartbreak, new love, and the feelings they invoke in us universally. Perhaps some of it was too much to explore altogether in this one novel, or my expectations were too high, but it felt like it bit off more than it could chew.
Chloe quickly gets dumped early on in the book. Her idea to form an art exhibit from people’s shared experiences of heartbreak from an ex was unique and refreshing.
But too much focus was perhaps on the actual planning and replanning of the exhibit. She is apparently a big enough YouTuber who is known for, well, planning. As PlanItGirl, she utilizes a number of, what I guess to be, sponsored items from stationery brands for her planning journals and writing utensils. I never understood all of it as it’s not explicitly explained, so either this is a popular real brand I have absolutely no idea of or it wasn’t meant to be analyzed beyond its mention in the book.
Then we have her Asian family. There are a few side plots with them, namely the fact they moved to LA to be with her ill grandmother. Their search for the recipe ingredients in her grandma’s famous pineapple cakes was fun and I loved the dynamic with her Ahma when she could remember who Chloe was. However, nothing more substantial really takes place beyond this and it leaves me wondering if they were just plot filler to pad out the story. They all feel a little too two-dimensional for characters that did take up a certain amount of space in the book.
My biggest problem, though, was how hard it was to believe Chloe could just fall in love with Daniel so fast after such a breakup with her ex. She barely had time to process her feelings, and when her ex, Jake, popped back in her life post-breakup, she clearly had hoped to still give it another try with him if he also wanted that. This was after she had met Daniel and thought he could be someone of interest to date. With Daniel’s history and his concern as the “rebound” guy, her reassurances to him that she wouldn’t do that seems super hypocritical.
For a book about love, whether new love or loving yourself with your flaws and all, I didn’t really feel either of these things from Chloe’s journey. That, perhaps, is why it was so hard to love this as much as I had hoped from the synopsis. With more focus on this main theme, I may have learned to love it more but it just wasn’t for me.
Francine always has a plan. Ollie wants no part of it.
Francine loves her grandfather, but their time together is running out. He has one final wish: to see a male heir carry on the family traditions. Francine knows his ideas are outdated, but she would do anything for him. Her solution? Ask Ollie Tran, a family friend (and former crush, not that it matters), to pretend to be ceremonially adopted and act like the grandson A Gūng never had.
Ollie generally avoids the odd, too blunt (and fine, sort of cute) Francine, whose intensity makes him uncomfortable. So when she asks him to help deceive her dying grandpa, Ollie’s not down. He doesn’t get why anyone would go to such lengths, even for family. Especially with a backwards (and sexist, Ollie keeps stressing) scheme like this.
Francine, however, is determined to make it happen, and soon Ollie finds himself more invested in her plan—and in her—than he ever thought possible. But as the tangled lies and feelings pile up, Francine must discover what exactly she needs for herself—and from Ollie. Because sometimes the boy you always wanted isn’t what you expected.
Overall Recommendation:
With deep insight into family responsibilities in an Asian household, The Boy You Always Wanted poses the question of love for our family members while struggling with cultural viewpoints that are outdated in today’s society. I find this read was particularly impacting because I 100% relate to the premise, however, for those who aren’t Asian or their families are not like this, the story can still be fun with the cultural elements an insight into the workings of the Asian diaspora.
**The Boy You Always Wanted comes out August 1, 2023**
Thank you Edelweiss and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review
When it comes to Asian representation in YA, you know I’m there. The premise of The Boy You Always Wanted hit close to home for myself and the author, and perhaps many of us who know what it feels like to be a girl in a culture where it’s seen as secondary.
Francine’s grandpa is dying but to deal with the grief of impending loss, she wants to make him feel at peace with what he’s leaving behind. I really loved this aspect of the story. I felt seen in this book, navigating Asian experiences in a modern world. While I understand people may come into this book with expectations of sexism resolved and people standing up for themselves, it’s not always quite so simple.
For the author and myself and any of you who knows what it feels like to be seen as less than in this way, the resolution isn’t something that may be present in the lifetime of those we love. I appreciated how Michelle asked that question throughout: how do we reconcile our deep love for our family members with the sexist and outdated views they carry in this modern society? I see it in myself sometimes as the granddaughter next to my younger brother. I see it in my mother’s family, to have 5 kids just so grandpa can ensure there is a son born into the line. I see it in my father’s family, where I’m treated slightly better as my father’s daughter than my cousin as my aunt’s daughter. How do I balance the love I have for my grandparents and the love I know they have for me even though certain comments don’t sit well? There’s no easy answer, and for that I appreciate it wasn’t just brushed aside so easily with a fix-all solution. Sometimes, there really is none. We can only hope to do better by teaching the next generation better.
That being said, while I loved the cultural aspects and deeper thought behind the story, everything else was not as great. I couldn’t get behind Ollie’s extremely dislikable character. He was awful to Francine, up front and in his thoughts since we get his POV. His redemption wasn’t enough, especially with how rushed the romance felt on his part. He wasn’t a terrible person as he did do his best to play the male heir part for Francine’s grandpa, but he just wasn’t very mature. I liked Francine well enough, even all the “quirks” that bugged Ollie and the others. I just don’t feel their romance worked as he didn’t respect her enough for so long. It was like the excuse boys pick on girls because they like them, not because they’re simply bullies.
The pacing was also a little slow with not much build. The climax wasn’t as crazy as I anticipated but at the same time was oddly predictable once the “twist” from left field was made known to us. I will reiterate that this story isn’t just for Chinese Americans or Chinese Vietnamese (which holds a dear spot in my heart). There’s lots that can be learned from such an intimate look at filial duties and family dynamic here, however, what propels you to finish it may be stronger if there is more of a personal connection like there is with me.
Down the Rabbit Hole 