From Little Tokyo, With Love by Sarah Kuhn

 

“If Rika's life seems like the beginning of a familiar fairy tale--being an orphan with two bossy cousins and working away in her aunts' business--she would be the first to reject that foolish notion. After all, she loves her family (even if her cousins were named after Disney characters), and with her biracial background, amazing judo skills and red-hot temper, she doesn't quite fit the princess mold.

All that changes the instant she locks eyes with Grace Kimura, America's reigning rom-com sweetheart, during the Nikkei Week Festival. From there, Rika embarks on a madcap adventure of hope and happiness--searching for clues that Grace is her long-lost mother, exploring Little Tokyo's hidden treasures with cute actor Hank Chen, and maybe...finally finding a sense of belonging.

But fairy tales are fiction and the real world isn't so kind. Rika knows she's setting herself up for disappointment, because happy endings don't happen to girls like her. Should she walk away before she gets in even deeper, or let herself be swept away?” - taken from Goodreads.com

Rika feels like she doesn't fit in anywhere. Orphaned at birth, she lives with her doting aunts and cousins. Biracial, she is often made to feel out of place in her Japanese American community. When she bumps into a famous movie store at a parade, Rika’s life is turned upside down when she realizes that her mother may be alive after all. With the help of the handsome Henry Chen who just so happens to be filming a movie with her supposed mother, the two go on a quest to uncover the truth. Rika must confront not only her own insecurities but fight against a racist bully and society's preconceived notions in order to uncover her own happily ever after.

Visit Sarah Kuhn’s website.

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury (Blood Like Magic book 1)

 

“After years of waiting for her Calling—a trial every witch must pass in order to come into their powers—the one thing Voya Thomas didn’t expect was to fail. When Voya’s ancestor gives her an unprecedented second chance to complete her Calling, she agrees—and then is horrified when her task is to kill her first love. And this time, failure means every Thomas witch will be stripped of their magic.

Voya is determined to save her family’s magic no matter the cost. The problem is, Voya has never been in love, so for her to succeed, she’ll first have to find the perfect guy—and fast. Fortunately, a genetic matchmaking program has just hit the market. Her plan is to join the program, fall in love, and complete her task before the deadline. What she doesn’t count on is being paired with the infuriating Luc—how can she fall in love with a guy who seemingly wants nothing to do with her?

With mounting pressure from her family, Voya is caught between her morality and her duty to her bloodline. If she wants to save their heritage and Luc, she’ll have to find something her ancestor wants more than blood. And in witchcraft, blood is everything.” - taken from Goodreads.com

This was a unique dark story about one girl’s path during her coming-of-age ritual to gain her family’s witch powers. When she fails at her first attempt and begs for a second chance, Voya Thomas is given the task of destroying her first love within the next 30 days. Easy right? Not even when Voya has yet to meet her first love. What begins as a quest to make her recent genetic match fall in love with her soon opens the tightly locked vault of family secrets that the adults tried to keep buried. A thrilling and unexpected ending that sets up a new story arc for the next book in the series.

The story will continue with book two, expected sometime in 2022.

Visit Liselle Sambury’s website.

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen (Loveboat, Taipei book 1)

“When eighteen-year-old Ever Wong’s parents send her from Ohio to Taiwan to study Mandarin for the summer, she finds herself thrust among the very over-achieving kids her parents have always wanted her to be, including Rick Woo, the Yale-bound prodigy profiled in the Chinese newspapers since they were nine—and her parents’ yardstick for her never-measuring-up life.

Unbeknownst to her parents, however, the program is actually an infamous teen meet-market nicknamed Loveboat, where the kids are more into clubbing than calligraphy and drinking snake-blood sake than touring sacred shrines.

Free for the first time, Ever sets out to break all her parents’ uber-strict rules—but how far can she go before she breaks her own heart?” - taken from Goodreads.com

Well, this book is it is not exactly what I was expecting (it doesn't take place on a boat) and that was a good thing. I was deeply entrenched in Ever Wong's story of self-exploration in both herself and her culture. The only problem I had was how the love triangle played out and whose heart was broken. I thoroughly enjoyed how the story ended so I am not sure what the second book will be about. 

Book two is expected in 2021.

Visit Abigail Hing Wen’s website.

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

“With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions, and do what must be done. The one place she can let her responsibilities go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Still, she knows she doesn’t have enough time for her school’s new culinary arts class, doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain — and shouldn’t still be dreaming of someday working in a real kitchen. But even with all the rules she has for her life — and all the rules everyone expects her to play by — once Emoni starts cooking, her only real choice is to let her talent break free.” - taken from Goodreads.com

I don't think I would have read this book but, I adored the audio version read by the author herself. Emoni's story of growth over senior year of high school with all of the responsibilities that have been placed on her shoulders is amazing. Her love of food and cooking as well as that of her young daughter Shine without the book. I would love to see a short story about Emoni's life turns out. One cannot help rooting for her.

Visit Elizabeth Acevedo’s website.