Holy moses I got so behind, and I still have one more I need to review but with the amount I’ve been talking about it offline, it definitely deserves its own review from me. So let’s get started.
The Bride Test, by Helen Hoang
I read and reviewed the first book in this series, The Kiss Quotient, and wasn’t so prude I wouldn’t read the second, so here we are. I like that the two books are connected without this one feeling like a sequel (a couple of characters overlap, and the main charater Khai had been namedropped in the first book, but that was it). Hoang continues to center people who are neuro-atypical in a way that tells a traditional story in a new way. Khai’s mother is determined to see him married while he has always avoided any kind of relationship – after a childhood tragedy, he believes that his autism has rendered him utterly incapable of love and he won’t be convinced otherwise. His mom insists on bringing him a potential bride home from Vietnam so enter Esme, a young mother and hotel cleaner determined to find a better life for herself and her daughter. Much like Kiss Quotient, it really is a very sweet book (and thankfully much less steamy). If you liked the first, there’s no reason not to continue right on with this one.
Gossip Girl, by Cecily von Ziegesar
My god this was just so bad. Guess I have to do at least one stinker a Bingo and at least this one was better than The Shack (that’s damning with faint praise – the stench of the Staten Island ferry is better than The Shack). It’s the same as the show. These kids are way too rich, way too good looking, and way, way too bored … and that’s it. The book follows I guess the first episode or two of the series from the sudden return of Serena van der Woodsen to the disastrous “Kiss on the Lips” party. It’s utterly vapid. Somehow my mother is synced to my GoodReads account to the extent that she gets an email when I mark a book finished. Gossip Girl was so inanely awful that I felt the need to explain myself when I saw her last weekend. Look, this book made the American Library’s Association of most banned books in 2011 so I’m counting it.
Bingo Square: Banned Books
The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, by Mackenzie Lee
This is another one where I got around to the sequel of a book I read and reviewed earlier this year, this time it’s the second of the Montague Siblings series. On my review of the first, commented that she loved the second and hoped I like it more, and guess what! I did! Maybe it’s because were well crafted women but I think this book will stick with me in a way the first did not. Here, Monty’s sister Felicity is still quite determined to be a doctor, but no one will let her into school. Her best hope is the surprise coincidence that her medical idol is getting married to her childhood best friend, though as the two of them had a significant falling out, she’s not 100% sure she can just show up. A stranger finances her trip under the condition she can travel in disguise as her maid and the story unfurls from there. Honestly, it was a real delight.
So there we go! Ugh I can’t wait for my next review this book was SO GOOD.