RANDOMNESS THOUGHTS

**Disclaimer: I received a free electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.** Genre:  YA, Romance, Contemporary, LGBT Release Date: May 16, 2023   Description: " Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians in this heartfelt, joyful paperback original rom-com that follows an aspiring chef who discovers the recipe for love is more complicated than it seems when he starts fake-dating a handsome new customer. Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn. Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons. In Theo’s glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be just pr...

  **Disclaimer: I received a free electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.** Genre:  Middle Grade, Contemporary, Fiction, Childrens Release Date: February 28, 2023   Description: " This middle grade contemporary follows a big-hearted Taiwanese American girl as she aims to gain her family’s acceptance and save her favorite boba tea shop by selling her handcrafted amigurumi dolls.   Pearl Li is ready to spend the summer before seventh grade hanging out with her two best friends, crocheting the cutest amigurumi dolls, and visiting her favorite tea shop, Boba Time. Its quirky owner, Auntie Cha, is the only adult Pearl can confide in about her art—if only her tech-obsessed family would understand her love of crafts!   After Pearl learns of Boba Time’s financial troubles, she decides to sell her amigurumi to raise money for the shop. But as she navigates the ups and downs of running a business, Pearl realizes that monetizing her passion is ...

**Disclaimer: I received a free electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.** Genre:  YA, Contemporary, Romance, Asian Literature Release Date: May 4, 2021   Description: " In this sparkling and romantic YA debut, a reserved Bangladeshi teenager has twenty-eight days to make the biggest decision of her life after agreeing to fake date her school’s resident bad boy. How do you make one month last a lifetime? Karina Ahmed has a plan. Keep her head down, get through high school without a fuss, and follow her parents’ rules—even if it means sacrificing her dreams. When her parents go abroad to Bangladesh for four weeks, Karina expects some peace and quiet. Instead, one simple lie unravels everything. Karina is my girlfriend. Tutoring the school’s resident bad boy was already crossing a line. Pretending to date him? Out of the question. But Ace Clyde does everything right—he brings her coffee in the mornings, impresses her friends without trying, and even p...

  **Disclaimer: I received a free electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.** Genre:  YA, Contemporary, Romance, Fiction, Asian Literature Release Date: May 25, 2021 Description: " Crazy Rich Asians  meets  The Princess Diaries  in this irresistible story about Izumi, a Japanese-American girl who discovers her senior year of high school that she’s  really  a princess of Japan. Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in—it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, northern California town. Raised by a single mother, it’s always been Izumi—or Izzy, because “It’s easier this way”—and her mom against the world. But then Izzy discovers a clue to her previously unknown father’s identity…and he’s none other than the Crown Prince of Japan. Which means outspoken, irreverent Izzy is  literally  a princess. In a whirlwind, Izzy travels to Japan to meet the father she never knew and discover the country ...