Welcome Back, Booklovers! It's been a minute and I'm playing catch up on writing reviews. I've read a few Jackie Lau books in that past and I have a few more on my shelf. Donut Fall in Love was gifted to me by Berkley a few years ago and I finally got around to reading it. So keep reading for my thoughts.
Actor Ryan Kwok is hot off a press run for a rom-com that's been flopping hard. Still reeling from the death of his mother a few months earlier, Ryan is hoping to spend some time with his family. With their mother having been the glue that binds them all together they feel like strangers. His sister just had a baby and he's unsure how to support her. His father recently joined Twitter and does a lot of making jokes at his expense but in person they struggle to say more than a few words to each other.
Lindsay is a baker and Ryan has her give him private baking lessons to help him prepare for a celebrity reality baking show. It's a show he and his mother enjoyed watching together and he wants to appear on it in her honor. But he also doesn't want to make a complete fool of himself so he decides a little experience will help. They start to become friends and bond during the experience and of course the bonding leads to a little romance.
Lau does a great job building a slowburn relationship that deals with the realities of life. Death happens, grief is ever present and it isn't even however old you are. Lindsay is dealing with her mother dating for the first time after her father passed and even more surprisingly her mother is dating an Asian man while Lindsay's father was white. Something that would normally be skirted around as not to make anyone uncomfortable was addressed head on with real conversations about feeling disconnected from culture.
The ending did feel a tad rushed with drama thrown in that wasn't present for the majority of the book. Suddenly Lindsay was self-conscious about dating a celebrity even though it didn't bother her before and Ryan isn't exactly a mega-star.
No comments:
Post a Comment