Tag: second chance romance

Dial A for Aunties by. Jesse Q. Sutanto | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Title: Dial A for Aunties

Author: Jesse Q. Sutanto

Format: eBook (borrowed)

Pages: 299

Publication Date: 4/27/21

Publisher: Berkley

Categories: Rom Com, Murder, Mystery, Family, Second Chance Romance, Contemporary

What happens when you mix 1 (accidental) murder with 2 thousand wedding guests, and then toss in a possible curse on 3 generations of an immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family?

You get 4 meddling Asian aunties coming to the rescue!

When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working at an island resort on the California coastline. It’s the biggest job yet for the family wedding business—”Don’t leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!“—and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her auntie’s perfect buttercream flowers.

But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy’s great college love—and biggest heartbreak—makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend?

I finally got a chance to read Dial A for Aunties after seeing it all over my bookstagram feed a few months ago. I love the cover and the synopsis is definitely intriguing! It had me at Asian aunties.

The best thing about this book is learning about the immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family and their wedding customs. I love how they switch from Mandarin, Indonesian and English. There was even a word I was familiar with which gave me a very good laugh. The word in Ilocano (a Philippines dialect that my family speak) for eggplant is tarong and in Indonesia it is terong. I thought that was so cool and funny because of how they were discussing eggplant.

The humor with all the aunts was funny and yet chaotic, and at times even triggering – reminding me of my family and their mini dramas. I don’t know how Meddy could deal with being at their mercy though. But family is family and they definitely had on another’s backs in this scenario. Meddy really is a good daughter, she was patient with her aunties and even gave up her dreams of the future for her family.

There is an accidental murder and then a mystery at the wedding in this story. Try hiding a dead body at a wedding? Yeah…you’ll have to read the book to see how that pans out! It reminds me of an 80’s movie called Weekend at Bernie’s combined with Crazy Rich Asians! I could definitely see this book as a movie.

Trigger: sexual assault, car accident, murder

This book is not realistic – at least I hope it never is because we hope Meddy who is in an accident and messed up situation does the right thing and report the body…right? Haha…I was waiting for that moment to happen. But Meddy freaks out and goes to her family instead who come up with some crazy plans on how to dispose the body. It’s wild but it works – like I said above, I could see this as a movie.

What I really wanted more of was Nathan and Meddy getting back together. I loved their back story. So if this had been just a second chance romance minus the dead body – I would have loved it more.

Why you should read it:

  • quick read, light read, chaotic, humorous, fun
  • learn about Chinese-Indonesian immigrants and their culture
  • Nathan and Meddy’s love story

Why you might not want to read it:

  • hiding a dead body and trying to win back your ex sounds crazy and not cute? lol very weird mix
  • too many things going on at once

My thoughts:

Suspend your disbelief for this one! Once you do that, it’s wild and chaotic, and sometimes funny. You get to learn a lot about the Chinese-Indonesian immigrant family, which I enjoyed a lot. I also loved Nathan and Meddy, and their second chance at romance and really wished the story was more about that than hiding a dead body but it was entertaining at least. After doing a search it looks like this will be a Netflix movie and I look forward to watching it!

📚~ Yolanda

Book Review: Repeat

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Author: Kylie Scott

Format: E-book

Pages: 304

Categories: Contemporary Romance, Memory Loss, Second Chances

Book Blurb:

When a vicious attack leaves 25-year-old Clementine Johns with no memory, she’s forced to start over. Now she has to figure out who she was and why she made the choices she did – which includes leaving the supposed love of her life, tattoo artist Ed Larsen, only a month before.

Ed can hardly believe it when his ex shows up at his tattoo parlor with no memory of their past, asking about the breakup that nearly destroyed him. The last thing he needs is more heartache, but he can’t seem to let her go again. Should they walk away for good, or does their love deserve a repeat performance?

MY REVIEW

Repeat is a second chance romance by the awesome, Kylie Scott. It’s an interesting story about a young woman named Clementine who loses her memory due to a head injury. So learning about who she was before and after her injury is quite fascinating. Especially when her “before” included a handsome ex-boyfriend, Ed, who seems to hate the sight of her. Interesting.

From that moment, I had to find out why, along with Clementine, Ed struggled with seeing her. Why did his friends hate her, what did old Clementine do before her injury? Was she really that awful? But there is also a mystery to be solved involving how she came by her injury – was it random or deliberate? If it was deliberate, who’s behind it? That mystery takes a back seat to the focus of the story though, Clementine and Ed’s second chance at love.

I love Kylie Scott’s writing but I had trouble getting into this story like I usually do with her other books. I wasn’t feeling Clementine or Ed until midway into the book. I think I just kept trying to piece together old Clem, but eventually I just wanted to forget about old Clem, because new Clem was pretty cool. She’s a survivor! Ed didn’t stand out much for me, except in the bedroom of course. 😬 And those bedroom scenes are sizzling hot. But I will say he’s very patient with her after getting rid of his anger for her.

I thought the ending was a little rushed but overall, I enjoyed reading this book and seeing Clementine find her new self and getting a second chance at love.