Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee | YA Romance

          

"Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee"
Book Review by Dhiraj Sindhi

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee

Author: Sher Lee

ISBN: 978-1035028313

Genre: Young-Adult Romance

Length: 272 Pages

Publication Date: 15^th June 2023

Publisher: Pan Macmillan India

Cover Art: Myriam Strasbourg | Website: www.myriamstrasbourg.com

Cover Designer: Casey Moses | Website: www.caseymoses.com

Order your copy right now: https://amzn.to/44LeZ5u

About the author:

SHER LEE writes rom-coms and fantasy novels for teens. Fake Dates and Mooncakes is her debut. Like the main character, she has made mooncakes with her favorite aunt and has an abiding love for local street food (including an incredible weakness for xiao long bao). She lives in Singapore with her husband and two adorable corgis, Spade and Clover.

Sher Lee with Spade and Clover

Instagram: @sherleeauthor

Website: sherleeauthor.com

Disclaimer: This review is only intended for initiating discussions. The opinions and views presented in this article are my own and do not reflect anything about the book's author. 

REVIEW

"Fake Dates and Mooncakes" is a feel-good teen drama that had me hooked from the very first page. From the outset, it was clear that FOOD would play a vital role, and the delectable prose, steeped in Singaporean and Chinese culinary traditions, lived up to the promise hinted at in the title. Set in the vibrant backdrop of Brooklyn and the Hamptons, the narrative unfolds through the eyes of Dylan. His world revolves around family – Aunt Jade, along with her children Megan and Tim, not to mention their lovable pet, Clover the Corgi. Dylan grapples with a life-altering decision, torn between pursuing a career as a veterinarian or a chef. At the heart of it all lies Wok Warriors, Aunt Jade's Singaporean-Chinese takeout restaurant, where Dylan lends a helping hand when he's not buried in his studies. However, his world takes an unexpected turn when Theo, the son of a wealthy businessman, enters his life. Theo crashes his cousin's wedding uninvited, with Dylan reluctantly posing as his pretend boyfriend.

Watching Dylan navigate the world of "rich-people problems" alongside Theo was undeniably adorable. Dylan agrees to this charade because of his growing fondness for Theo. On the flip side, Theo's character raises some eyebrows. More often than not, Theo's well-intentioned actions and privileged background seem to bring more chaos than harmony into Dylan's life. Their relationship becomes overshadowed by the financial support Theo provides. Consequently, the focus shifts away from matters of love or genuine dating; it becomes more about friendship and Dylan's reliance on Theo, as it appears he has no other confidant in this endeavour—winning the mooncake-making contest to save Wok Warriors.

Honestly, I found it challenging to see their relationship as anything beyond friends with benefits. Dylan brings emotional depth to their connection through his rich cultural values, while Theo helps Dylan navigate the challenges of opulence, attention, and some rather indifferent individuals. This dynamic didn't resonate with me. Their relationship feels shaky right from the start, lacking the profound connection I was hoping for, aside from a few symbolic gestures like the bracelet, baseball cap, and 'remembrance,' which contribute to the plot but don't really add depth to their bond. However, apart from the aspect of love, other themes are skillfully woven into the narrative. I found myself captivated by the exploration of the legend of Chang'e, the sensitive handling of xenophobia, the tantalizing food, and the intricacies of mooncake-making. Whether you're seeking solace in a comforting read during your leisure time or looking to mend a wounded heart, this book is a perfect choice.

Happy Reading!

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Book Review: The Part I Left with You by Rahul Saini | Contemporary Fiction

    

Book Review

The Part I Left with You by Rahul Saini

The Part I Left with You by Rahul Saini

Author: Rahul Saini

ISBN: 978-9353451585

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Length: 236 Pages

Publication Date: 30^th March 2021

Publisher: Juggernaut Books (Sales and Distribution - HarperCollins India)

Cover Design: Amit Malhotra 

Cover Designer: Website: https://www.amit-malhotra.com/ | Instagram: @gul_e_abbasis

Order your copy right now: https://amzn.to/3yhCQug

About the author:

Rahul Saini has a master’s degree in English literature. He is the bestselling author of many novels, including Those Small Lil Things: In Life and Love and Paperback Dreams.

Rahul Saini

Instagram: @writingrahul

Facebook: @rahul.saini.1213

Twitter: @writingrahul

YouTube: Writing Rahul

REVIEW

“Love feels like a great misfortune, a monstrous parasite, a permanent state of emergency that ruins all small pleasures.” – Slavoj Žižek

The Part I Left with You by Rahul Saini is a light-hearted, chucklesome and unputdownable contemporary fiction novel that dives deep into the waters of love; while exploring varied opinions on and experiences of love, relationships, break-ups and moving on, it strives to close in on the realities of this ‘ugly and cruel world’. The book narrates the stories of three main characters – one mostly witty, another melancholic, esoteric and the third who is turning over the page she was stuck on for long in order to start afresh.

The narration of this book involves all these three characters’ POVs. It is a fine and balanced mixture of different kind of narrative techniques, including first-person, third-person (limited omniscient) and epistolary style, which in my opinion, completes any piece of literary work because using these literary devices in the non-linear narrative writing keep us readers hooked and emphasizes on little themes of the story and it is what makes a truly gripping novel such as this. Rahul Saini has handily achieved this. On top of everything, the cozy contemporary writing style worked like a charm on me.

“Artists’ lives are just endless struggles and that struggle ends only with their last breaths.” – Rahul Saini

Talking about the content, each of the 34 chapters seemed to me like a separate short story discussing a distinct subject, idea or viewpoints, or narrating a subplot, backstory or (my favorites from this book) completely different short tales – story within a story – fascinating and magnificent. What I mean to say is that these chapters have something very unique to offer from craziness to drama to dreams to arguments to philosophy to romance to thrill to sorrow…you name it. These all short stories are linked together by these three characters and what they are seeking out.

Having said that, let me briefly introduce you to the characters. Ratna is in love with her favorite author, Ronit Sukhdev. The book opens with this amazing poem titled ‘Not Gibran, On Love’ written by Ratna (honestly, I recorded this poem several times day after day, but like most of you, I hated my recordings, so it only made to one of my best friends), for she is a literature and journalism student and for this fact and a little lie, she gets an opportunity to stay with the love of her life for a few days. While ecstatic Ratna wants Ronit to be a little cheerful if not as much as her, Ronit‘s life has come to a standstill as he hasn’t yet gotten over his break-up with Nitasha. He has completely isolated himself from the world and does not wish to publish his work anymore. It has been a year since the break-up and Nitasha is finally coming to terms with her choice of letting go of her relationship with Ronit and she’s carving the way out with newfound hope.

“To learn an art is an act of meditation. You can’t keep jumping around, running all the time, trying a hundred things, understanding nothing and pretend that you are learning everything.” – Rahul Saini

The best thing about this book is that it has books everywhere. In every alternate chapter, you can find book titles, quotes, bookstores or other bookish stuff. The author has expounded a lot of powerful arguments, opinions and statements on love, life and the world that are worth knowing by heart. I would like to quote a few such lines here. However, it doesn’t make the book downright ‘serious’. Nope. Rahul Saini has totally wrung out the essence of comfort and amiability from the writing style. Ratna’s character is a witty character, for she can turn anything into humour, be it because of her lack of wisdom or her childlike behavior. She’s a humorous character indeed, but not a caricature at all! I loved everything she did and how she behaved around her crush, for whatever reason, because I can’t imagine staying with my crush and not messing up. She made me laugh and some lines made me emotional too.

The primary theme of the book is what the title suggests. While it’s not appropriate to reduce any work to a sentence, it represents an idea that ‘when two people spend a lot of time together, they lose themselves and gain each other’. This is what is happening in the book. Now, I won’t go in-depth regarding this. There are plenty of other subjects discussed and tackled in those individual short stories I talked about, forming minor themes and elements that hold the potential to make a real difference. There are also things that you would want to ignore, which are just characters being themselves.

“If creative people were happy with the world around them, they would never feel the urge to create anything new.” – Rahul Saini

Anyway, my favorite take-away from this book are those unforgettable, significant stories/chapters that provide you the food for thought. Some of these are – one on Slavoj Žižek (yeah, I copy-pasted that), another on the mirror phase, and the third titled, ‘The Shark in the Pool’. Apart from that, I liked Ratna’s relationship with her father and the depiction of how differently books are important to the lives of authors and readers. Not eulogizing, but I can’t express my admiration enough for the illustrious writing style that really got me high; I relished it, of course except for a few parts.

Lastly, ‘The Part I Left with You’ is a charming, cozy contemporary book and an absolute page-turner that you would want to read around this time to feel lighter; it has way more tales and joy in store for you than what its synopsis promises. 

“When two people spend a lot of time together, they lose themselves and gain each other.” – Rahul Saini

Happy Reading!

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Disclaimer: This review is only intended for initiating discussions. The opinions and views presented in this article are my own and do not reflect anything about the book's author.

Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Don't forget to subscribe. Don't forget to subscribe for more content. Thank you so much for reading!

Will see you in the next post. Till then buh-bye. Take Care. Peace. ☮