Review: First Love Languages

First Love Language by Stefany Valentine
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

SPOILERS AHEAD

A heartfelt coming-of-age story about a girl still reeling from the loss of her father and missing a connection to her biological mom and her Taiwanese heritage. You can tell that Catie’s yearning for family connection was something the author truly felt, and how much losing her first language, Mandarin, affected her after moving to the US after her parents’ divorce. This would be a great book for someone who is looking to connect with their heritage or someone who is trying to find themself as they grow and learn about what’s truly important to them to live a happy life.

This book was a little difficult for me to read at times, because Catie was kind of all over the place - worried about moving, about finding her bio family, about hurting her adoptive mom, about her job, about Toby, about learning Mandarin, about the stupid lies she was telling. I get it, it’s a lot to deal with. But I wanted to sit her down and say, “Just be HONEST with people.” I guess that’s what she eventually learned; I just wanted her to do it faster, haha.

There were a few elements I didn’t love as well. I’m not a fan of the book The Five Love Languages, and I’m not sure I would have picked this to read if I had known it would be such a focus. I appreciate Catie mentioning her dad had updated parts that were outdated in his copy, but he clearly valued it. Maybe that’s because of his Mormon heritage? I also didn’t love how much the Mormon church played a role in this book, but I would guess that’s an integral part of the author’s story, as well, and why it had to be included. I appreciate that Catie’s family has taken a step back from it, and it was nice to see some queer representation with Mavis, Alex, and others.

The other part I wasn’t sold on was Toby and Catie’s relationship, but that’s possibly because they seem so young to be professing love for one another. They clearly like hanging out and are drawn to one another, each finding the other very attractive, as well as good company. I get why Catie was nervous to tell Toby the truth about her non-existent boyfriend, but Toby seemed irrationally angry about it for way longer than I thought he would. And then suddenly, because he saw what Catie wrote about falling for him and admitting to the lie, he was suddenly ok with things? Seems a little too much of a switch.

Also, there are some inconsistencies with how Toby’s feelings are presented. When they are having their real first date at his house, he says, “Sorry for being too dense to see that I’ve had a crush on you since our first practice date. But I guess it took being with the wrong girl to make me realize I’d rather be with the one I love.” But like two seconds later, he says, “Ever since our first practice date, I’ve wanted to tell you that… and I’ve wanted to kiss you.” He also wrote her that letter in Mandarin the night after their almost-kiss and said, “Even though you have a boyfriend, I still fell in love with you.” So, I wish Toby’s feelings had been more consistently presented when everything was out in the open.

Regardless of the few issues I had with the book, I would definitely recommend it to those looking for a story about connecting with your biofamily, especially one overseas, dealing with the loss of a parent, and finding first love.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: The Jane Austen Society

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A lovely, thoughtful story about found family, mutual support through grief and loss, and how one can truly care for others. Interwoven with the stories of these people all drawn to one another in the small English town of Chawton are meaningful analyses of Jane Austen’s writing and characters, digging deep into why her work has enthralled people for so much time. Whether it’s her humor, sharp social observations, or realistic characters and relationships, there’s something about Austen’s work that continues to draw people in and soothe them, especially during their most challenging times.

I’ve been an Austen fan since I was a child - the first book I remember purchasing with my own money was Pride and Prejudice at age 12 - and am still finding new things to love in her work with every reading. This book has made me want to read them all again right now, and find people to talk about them with as Benjamin and Adelaide, Adam and Mimi, and all the others of the Jane Austen society do. I also love how much focus was given to the importance of maintaining Austen’s literary legacy in one place, in England, but also how that wasn’t as important as the emotional and physical well-being of one of their friends.

This was a delightful book that I happily recommend, especially to those who enjoy Jane Austen’s work or World War 2 era historical fiction.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

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Review: Djeliya

Djeliya: A West African Fantasy Epic by Juni Ba
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

A graphically striking and thoughtful reworking of West African myths and stories to tell a story of power and community responsibility, innovation and tradition, greed and humility, all circling around the importance of storytelling itself. Awa might be the advisor to the prince, but sure OSS the heart of this story, and the one who connects everyone and everything, for better or worse. I especially loved seeing the stories from her childhood with the djinnie, before things got bad.

The powerful the art style and coloring m in this book is especially appealing - the dynamism really helps draw you into the story. I can definitely see many of these pages as frame-able art. I also really appreciated how layered things were, like the different symbols that you could track throughout the story. Speaking of those, I really appreciated the index of symbols and stories the author included in the back. It gave me a lot more context to the story and also more things to look for on a reread.

The one issue I had is that the art was so chaotic at times that I had a hard time following what was going on. Sometimes I couldn’t tell the characters apart, and the action was so frequent I couldn’t always keep track of who was doing what. I actually read through a few sections twice because I was getting lost. I don’t think that’s a sufficient reason not to read this one, but figured I’d mention it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review purposes.

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