Tag: Asian romance

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Time Loops & Meet Cutes

352 pages Publisher Atria/Emily Bestler Books Publication date

May 6, 2025

ABOUT THE BOOK

Jackie Lau returns with a thoroughly unique love story about a woman reliving the same Friday over and over again—and the intriguing man who can’t quite remember her.

Noelle Tom really shouldn’t have eaten those dumplings at the night market. But the old woman at the stall said they’d give her what she needed most, and what Noelle desperately needed after another long workweek was food.

Except now she’s reliving the same Friday. Every morning her alarm goes off at 6:45, and the Wordle answer is always “happy.” Worst of all, any work she does at her job as an engineer? It’s erased when she wakes up. Monday might never come in this workaholic’s nightmare. Noelle has no idea how being trapped in a time loop is the “thing she needed most,” and a trip to the food stall doesn’t help…because there’s no sign of it.

Then she meets good-looking Cam, who appears in multiple places on her Friday. While the brewery owner seems to have no memory of their encounters, there are signs he might be the key to getting un-stuck. But Noelle can’t figure out how, even when she steps outside of her comfort zone and lives a little. As she grows attached to him, she becomes more worried that she’ll never escape the loop and he’ll never recall her name. And if she does ever get out, can they be together in the “real” world?

MY THOUGHTS

Time Loops and Meet Cutes is an absolutely adorable story.
I liked that the story didn’t just focus on the time loop and the romance but putting an importance on rekindling family relationships and focusing on the importance of working a job.
I don’t think anyone can control time like in this story but the continuality of the sameness day after day makes me think with sadness of dementia patients stuck in their mind in their own time loop. Lots of humor and good times, I really like the author’s writing style.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Jackie Lau decided she wanted to be a writer when she was in grade two, sometime between writing “The Heart That Got Lost” and “The Land of Shapes.” She later studied engineering and worked as a geophysicist before turning to writing romance novels.

Jackie lives in Toronto with her husband, and despite living in Canada her whole life, she hates winter. When she’s not writing, she enjoys gelato, gourmet donuts, cooking, hiking, and reading on the balcony when it’s raining.

For more information, please visit jackielaubooks.com, where you can sign up for Jackie’s newsletter.

Enjoy your day. Thank you for stopping in.

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Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie: Fake dating but does Mother know best all along?

352 pages Atria/Emily Bestler Books May 7, 2024 publish date

ABOUT THE BOOK

MY THOUGHTS

This has to be one of the cutest fake dating romances I’ve read. From starting to fake date to please Mom to family drama, fake cake making lessons to oh so real kisses I loved this book.


As the fifth and only unmarried daughter left in her Asian Canadian family, and she’s used to her mother matchmaking ways but when her mother starts her matchmaking ways at her sister’s wedding things hit a new low.


When Emily Hung meets Mark Chan her mother’s friends son, her mother is insistent they’ll get married and the fake dating starts, surprisingly he goes along with it. From visiting boba shops to fake cake decorating classes they seem to always run into their friends that they must convince this is the real thing so the pda comes to the forefront. What happens when this fake affection turns into not to miss sweet kisses that are wanted by them both?

Family drama, fun, laughs and cherry pies make this one fake romantic dating story not to miss.

Pub Date 07 May 2024
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

Photo by Katerina Holmes: https://www.pexels.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jackie Lau decided she wanted to be a writer when she was in grade two, sometime between writing “The Heart That Got Lost” and “The Land of Shapes.” She later studied engineering and worked as a geophysicist before turning to writing romance novels.

Jackie lives in Toronto with her husband, and despite living in Canada her whole life, she hates winter. When she’s not writing, she enjoys gelato, gourmet donuts, cooking, hiking, and reading on the balcony when it’s raining.

For more information, please visit jackielaubooks.com, where you can sign up for Jackie’s newsletter.

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Another Valentine’s Day read, Not your Valentine by Jackie Lau

136 pages January 24, 2023 by Kobo Originals

About the Book

Helen Tsang is tired of the pitying looks. From her parents, her friends, and even the bubble tea shop guy, who recognized her from the video. Almost one year ago, some loser couldn’t mind their own damn business and filmed an unsuspecting Helen’s very public break-up during what was supposed to be a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner. A video of her ex-boyfriend saying, “It’s not me, it’s you. You’re holding me back” went viral.

Desperate to give everyone something else to talk about and with Valentine’s Day approaching once again, she asks her long-time friend Taylor Li to be her fake boyfriend, just to prove that she’s moved on and hasn’t sworn off love. (Spoiler alert: She’s totally sworn off love.) Taylor is the perfect option—single for once, and for some godforsaken reason, he loves Valentine’s Day.

But Helen didn’t expect was how easy it would be to get Taylor on board, fitting right into the boyfriend-shaped hole in her life. All she wanted was a couple sickeningly sweet dates to fill her social feeds, not corny text messages of silly heart-shaped cakes, and bouquets of flowers that harbor hidden meanings. Wanting to be around his sunshine attitude and delicious forearms all the time? That definitely wasn’t expected.

With February 14 quickly approaching, it’s getting increasingly difficult to ignore her feelings, especially when she starts wishing it wasn’t all an act.

Oh God. What has she done?

Kobo/Goodreads

My Thoughts

This is another book that published last month but I wanted to post it on Valentine’s Day because that just made sense. This was a quick and short read, clocking in at under 140 pages but it felt like a full length read. Helen Tsang absolutely dreads Valentine’s Day as last year on that day a very public break up happened. To make it worse it was recorded and then it went viral. During what was supposed to be a romantic dinner he says, “It’s not me, it’s you. You’re holding me back” First she is mortified then the anger sets in. When her mother and even the boba tea shop owner bug her about a boyfriend, she’s just had enough. Enter her long-time friend Taylor Li. He’s a friendly guy and will do just about anything for Helen even pretend to be her boyfriend just to stop the pitying looks Helen is getting. Over dinners, casual times and talks Helen decides and it seems Taylor is in on it too this fake boyfriend thing just isn’t working out. Nope! What was once fake dating has now become the real thing, not able to stop think about each other and the possibilities of what’s to come. I liked the story; it was a fun romance. The drawback for me was the frequent f bombs that were dropped. This is my first read by this author but if her other books have the same wording it’ll be a no go for me. In my opinion they add nothing of value to the story.

The Author

Jackie Lau decided she wanted to be a writer when she was in grade two, sometime between writing “The Heart That Got Lost” and “The Land of Shapes.” She later studied engineering and worked as a geophysicist before turning to writing romance novels.

Jackie lives in Toronto with her husband, and despite living in Canada her whole life, she hates winter. When she’s not writing, she enjoys cooking, hiking, eating too much gelato, and reading on the balcony when it’s raining.

Have a beautiful day. Thanks for stopping by.