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Blog Tour and Review: Well, That Was Unexpected by Jesse Q. Sutanto

An outrageous, laugh-out-loud YA rom-com about a girl who’s whisked from LA to her mother’s native Indonesia to get back to her roots and finds herself fake-dating the son of one of the wealthiest families there, from the author of Dial A for Aunties.

After Sharlot Citra’s mother catches her in a compromising position, she finds herself whisked away from LA to her mother’s native Indonesia. It’ll be exactly what they both need. Or so her mother thinks.

When George Clooney Tanuwijaya’s father (who is obsessed with American celebrities) fears he no longer understands how to get through to his son, he decides to take matters into his own hands.

To ensure that their children find the right kind of romantic partner, Sharlot’s mother and George’s father do what any good parent would do: they strike up a conversation online, pretending to be their children.

When the kids find out about their parents’ actions, they’re horrified. Not even a trip to one of the most romantic places on earth could possibly make Sharlot and George fall for each other. But as the layers peel back and the person they thought they knew from online is revealed, the truth becomes more complicated. As unlikely as it may seem, did their parents manage to find their true match after all?

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Annotate with Me: If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope that you’re doing well and staying safe! This week, I’m bringing you another Annotate with Me post, and this time I’m highlighting my favorite book — If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio!

I did annotate a copy of If We Were Villains earlier this year, but I did so before I really started to develop my process for annotating, so, I wanted to try again with my more specific and detailed system. I also thought this was the perfect time to do so because I’ve (unintentionally) reread If We Were Villains on September 14th for the last two years — so it made sense to do a reread and re-annotation this month!

This post is basically all spoilers — I can’t really get into the nitty gritty parallels, influences, and foreshadowing without doing so — so if you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend reading it and then checking this post! Okay, it’s gonna be a long one, friends, so get comfy, grab some tea, and let’s get started!

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Book Recs: Gossip Girl Book Recs

Hello, everyone! You all may not know this, but Cossette and I both love Gossip Girl (we are Blair Waldorf stans first, and humans second. Also, Dair should’ve been end game), and since the fifteen year anniversary of the show’s premiere is on the 19th — I’m sorry what? — we thought it would be fun to share some Gossip Girl recs with you!

When we were coming up with this post, we originally thought of recommending books based on your favorite character, but then thought “what if we recommended books we think the characters would like?” and so, this list was created! So grab a cup of tea, and some macarons (approved by Blair) and get cozy!

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Arc Review: Begin Again by Emma Lord

As usual, Andie Rose has a plan: Transfer from community college to the hyper competitive Blue Ridge State, major in psychology, and maintain her lifelong goal of becoming an iconic self-help figure despite the nerves that have recently thrown her for a loop. All it will take is ruthless organization, hard work, and her trademark unrelenting enthusiasm to pull it all together.

But the moment Andie arrives, the rest of her plans go off the rails. Her rocky relationship with her boyfriend Connor only gets more complicated when she discovers he transferred out of Blue Ridge to her community college. Her roommate Shay needs a major, and despite Andie’s impressive track record of being The Fixer, she’s stumped on how to help. And Milo, her coffee-guzzling grump of an R.A. with seafoam green eyes, is somehow disrupting all her ideas about love and relationships one sleep-deprived wisecrack at a time.

But sometimes, when all your plans are in rubble at your feet, you find out what you’re made of. And when Andie starts to find the power of her voice as the anonymous Squire on the school’s legendary pirate radio station–the same one her mom founded, years before she passed away–Andie learns that not all the best laid plans are necessarily the right ones.

Filled with a friend group that feels like family, an empowering journey of finding your own way, and a Just Kiss Already! romance, Begin Again is an unforgettable novel of love and starting again.

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Annotate with Me: Portrait of a Thief

Hi, besties! As I am fully in my annotations era, I thought it would be fun to start a new post series called Annotate with Me. In this series, I’ll be highlighting one of the books that I’ve recently annotated, show you what supplies I used, share photos of my annotations and discuss some of the things I chose to highlight and comment on throughout the book. Since we just wrapped up our read of Grace D. Li’s Portrait of a Thief for TeaTimeReads, I figured this would be the perfect book to start with!

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Review: This Place is Still Beautiful by Xixi Tian

Two sisters. A shocking racist incident. The summer that will change both of their lives forever.

Despite having had near-identical upbringings, sisters Annalie and Margaret agree on only one thing: that they have nothing in common. Nineteen-year-old Margaret is driven, ambitious, and keenly aware of social justice issues. She couldn’t wait to leave their oppressive small-town home and take flight in New York. Meanwhile sweet, popular, seventeen-year-old Annalie couldn’t think of anything worse – she loves their town, and feels safe coasting along in its confines.

That is, until she arrives home one day to find a gut-punching racial slur painted on their garage door.

Outraged, Margaret flies home, expecting to find her family up in arms. Instead, she’s amazed to hear they want to forget about it. Their mom is worried about what it might stir up, and Annalie just wants to have a ‘normal’ summer – which Margaret is determined to ruin, apparently.

Back under each other’s skins, things between Margaret and Annalie get steadily worse – and not even the distraction of first love (for Annalie), or lost love (for Margaret) can bring them together.

Until finally, a crushing secret threatens to tear them apart forever. 

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Let’s Talk: Partial August TBR

Happy “salt air and the rust on your door” month to all that celebrate! With August comes the end of the summer camp program that I run — we officially wrap up on the 12th — and I’ll be taking some time off work to rest and recharge before starting our fall programs. I’m planning on getting a lot of reading done in the 2 weeks I’ll be off work and I thought it would be fun to share some of my August TBR with all of you!

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Arc Review: Seoulmates by Susan Lee

Her ex-boyfriend wants her back. Her former best friend is in town. When did Hannah’s life become a K-drama?

Hannah Cho had the next year all planned out—the perfect summer with her boyfriend, Nate, and then a fun senior year with their friends.

But then Nate does what everyone else in Hannah’s life seems to do—he leaves her, claiming they have nothing in common. He and all her friends are newly obsessed with K-pop and K-dramas, and Hannah is not. After years of trying to embrace the American part and shunning the Korean side of her Korean American identity to fit in, Hannah finds that’s exactly what now has her on the outs.

But someone who does know K-dramas—so well that he’s actually starring in one—is Jacob Kim, Hannah’s former best friend, whom she hasn’t seen in years. He’s desperate for a break from the fame, so a family trip back to San Diego might be just what he needs…that is, if he and Hannah can figure out what went wrong when they last parted and navigate the new feelings developing between them.

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Blog Tour + Review: The Accidental Pinup by Danielle Jackson

Rival photographers are forced to collaborate on a body-positive lingerie campaign, but they might have to readjust their focus when sparks fly.

Photographer Cassie Harris loves her job—her company Buxom Boudoir makes people look beautiful and feel empowered with her modern twist on classic pinup photography. Cassie’s best friend, Dana, is about to launch her own dangerously dreamy lingerie line and wants Cassie to shoot and direct the career-changing national campaign. But company politics and Dana’s complicated pregnancy interfere, and Cassie finds herself—a proud plus size Black woman—not behind the camera but in front of it.

Though she’s never modeled herself, Cassie’s pretty sure she can handle the sheer underwear and caution tape bralettes. She’s not sure she can work so intimately with the chosen photographer, her long-time competitor in the Chicago photography scene, Reid Montgomery. Their chemistry is undeniable on set, however, and feelings can develop faster than film… 

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