One Last Word by Suzanne Park

 

If you could send loved ones one last message before you die, what would you say?

Sara Chae has invented an app, One Last Word, which allows you to send messages to anyone you want to when you die.  It stores the messages you have written and sends them off after news of your death.  After a drunken night of fun, Sara’s messages are accidentally sent out including to her long-time crush, Harry.  Will Sara be able to get her app launched successfully into the world?  Will she and Harry finally have a chance?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I have read and enjoyed Suzanne Park’s novels in the past.  I enjoy her characters and stories and this one did not disappoint.

·       I enjoyed that Sara was a strong woman in the Tech world.  As a female engineer, I love and enjoy STEM novels.

·       The book was overall on Sara’s journey as an Asian female in a primarily white male dominated tech world.  How can she work to carve out her own place in this world?

·       Sara’s parents also have ideas of what Sara should be, especially compared to her sister Jia.  The family interactions and expectations were interesting.  Sara was a workaholic trying to meet her family’s expectations, but she felt like she was never meeting them.

·       I loved the sweet romance between Sara and Harry.  It is a second chance romance if they never acted on their mutual crush in high school?

·       There are a few steamy scenes in this one.

·       Sara and Harry seemed like real people that I would be friends with.  Sara especially was very relatable.  This was a great character driven novel.

·       I loved the humor in this book and laughed out loud many times.

One Last Word is a charming character driven romance set in the tech world.  I enjoyed it!

Book Source:  Review copy from NetGalley. Thank-you!

The Do Over by Suzanne Park

 

If you had to go back to your college or high school to complete courses, would you, do it?  It would definitely be different now going back so long afterwards.  I’m sure I would love taking classes and meeting new people, but it wouldn’t be the same with the friends from my original college run not there.  With a job, husband, and kids, I wouldn’t be able to go back right now realistically!

Lily Lee has written a book and is making a success of her career.  She is about to start her dream job when she discovers she can’t be hired because she never actually graduated from college due to a technicality.  She returns to her alma mater determined to finish her degree with as little fuss as possible.  When she gets there, she discovers that her TA for her computer science class is her ex-boyfriend from college, Jake Cho.  How can this be?  Luckily her best friend Mia does not abandon her and visits a lot.  Will she be able to finish her degree, figure out her love life, and write her next book?  Lily has a lot on her plate.

I really enjoyed Lily’s journey in this book.  I really liked the honest look the book took at mental health and the expectations that our families place on us.  In Lily’s case, her parents’ expectations caused worsening anxiety to develop over time.  It also had an interesting discussion of how mental health is not often discussed in South Korean families. 

This novel had an overall theme of female empowerment that I enjoyed.  Lily has an arch enemy couple of rich siblings who seem to be ripping off her book series idea and are writing their own self help book in the same vein as hers.  It is hilarious as the brother that is part of the team mansplains at events what it is like in the working world for women and seems to not see the problem with doing this. 

I liked the second chance romance storyline with Jake.  The book flashed back to show what ended their relationship ten years previously.  The romance didn’t seem to be as well developed as it seemed to be a secondary storyline in this novel, and I was okay with it. 

Overall, I really enjoyed The Do-Over.  I loved Lily and her journey.

Book Source: Review Copy from NetGalley and Avon Books.   Thank-you! Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Christmas Clash by Suzanne Park

 

Title:  The Christmas Clash

Author:  Suzanne Park

Narrated by:   Jay Lai and Jennifer Sun Bell

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 17 minutes

Source: Review Copy from NetGalley.  Thank-you!

Do you have a favorite mall?  Do you still have a mall around you?  Did you like hanging out in one as a teenager?  My Mom worked at Pearlevision / NuVision in the mall when I was a teenager.  It was great fun to go to work with her and my sister or a friend and then roam the mall all day long.  The mall of my youth is a bit sad and empty now when I go back home.  I enjoy our mall in Green Bay and my daughter thinks it is very exciting.

The Christmas Clash involves two teenager who work at a mall, Chloe Kwon and Peter Li.  Peter Li drives Chloe Kwon up a wall.  While Chloe works taking pictures of kids with Santa, Peter works at a North Pole Virtual Reality center right across the atrium from her.  As they fight over business, they are carrying on the fight between their parents.  Their parents each own a restaurant in the food court, the Lis sell Chinese food and the Kwons sell Korean food.  They have a bitter rivalry that their children don’t understand.  When Chloe and Peter discover that the malls new owner plans to evict everyone and tear the mall down, they ban together to save the mall.  Will they be able to save the mall and will their feelings for each other change?

This book was so delightful.  Chloe and Peter were great characters with great teenage angst . . . and chemistry.  I also enjoyed a friends to lovers’ trope as was the case in this story. . . although it is a teen story so it was more friends to boyfriend/girlfriend.  I like that it was like Romeo and Juliet, but the rivalry was between two food court restaurant owners.  I especially liked when Chloe started to question why exactly there was a rivalry and decide not to continue carrying it on to the next generation.  Both characters face racism as Asian Americans and I thought it was an interesting look into a realistic aspect of their lives.

I loved Chloe’s zest for fighting for saving the mall and her parents business.  The story of being in the mall brought back so many happy memories of my youth and local mall. I also liked that she had goals in life as a photographer and she pursued her goals.  Both her and Peter face challenges as the second child compared to their “perfect” older siblings and it was a great thing for them to bond over.  It was a great coming of age story for them both.

The story was a dual narrative told in chapters from Chloe or Peter’s perspective. Jay Lai and Jennifer Sun Bell were perfect narrators and were the voices of the characters to me.

Loathe at First Sight by Suzanne Park

 Loathe at First sight was a great book that cheered me up and had several laugh out loud moments for me.  Even better, this lighthearted at times book, also delved into the sexism and racism that occur when a young woman of Korean descent tries to make her way in the world of video gaming.  This book was so much more than meets the eye.

 Melody Joo is has gotten a new job as a video game producer.  As one of the few women and only Korean at the company, she is looked down upon by her male colleagues.   She also ponders the sexist world of video games and for a lark tells her friend that they should make a game with male strippers fighting for survival in the post-apocalyptic world.  Her boss overhears and needing a new game for women, he decides to make her project the top priority.  Melody faces a lot of complications, but will she be able to make her game a success?

 As a female in the primarily male field of engineering, I felt Melody’s story.  The awkward sexist talk where you have to laugh along and being treated as a lesser than are unfortunate experiences.  I loved her perseverance, and how she called people out on sexist and racist comments.  I liked the honest look that for Melody to make it, she had to work harder than everyone.

 I really liked all of the characters and side stories in this novel.  Melody has romantic feelings for the intern, Nolan, who also happens to be the nephew of the main boss.  Although Nolan is actually older than her, she knows it is inappropriate due to their positions of power.  I liked how their relationship played out.  I also thought Melody’s parents were hilarious. Her mother has an obsession with Melody getting married and seems to always focus on the negatives. Nolan and Melody’s parents’ accidental lunch together was hilarious.  I laughed out loud. Melody’s friends were fantastic as well.

 Favorite Quote:

“Was I angry that they were like this?  Or was I angry at myself for wishing I was a part of it?”

 Overall, Loathe at First Sight was a delightful story with great characters, plot, humor, and a realistic look at being a woman in a male dominated field.

 Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow. Thank-you!!