Books I've Read: Rent a Boyfriend

 

I'm a huge fan of Gloria Chao.  I discovered her first book, American Panda, before it was published and she entered parts of it in a contest I was slush-reading for.  The voice and humor just leapt off the page.  I can't remember if she won the contest or not (I think she did), but it was not a huge surprise when the book was published.

Rent a Boyfriend mines similar ground in that it's about the massive divide between an American-born Chinese girl and her very traditional Chinese parents.

Chloe (or at home, Jing Jing) is at college in Chicago.  With the holidays looming, she's terrified about going home to California and facing her overbearing parents who have basically promised her to the worthless son of a wealthy family in their community.  In an attempt to put the brakes on this arranged marriage, Chloe uses a company called Rent for Your 'Rents and hires a boyfriend for the holidays - Drew, who arrives as serious, studious Andrew.

Her parents aren't entirely convinced that her relationship with Andrew is real, and are not sure he's from a good enough family to support her the way they want her to be supported.  There's friction, fighting and some hilariously bad food involved.  And somewhere in that mess, Chloe and Drew begin to have feelings for each other.

With the arranged marriage still on the table, Chloe hires Drew again for the next holiday and the lies begin piling up as she blows her entire family's lives apart.  And somewhere, within all this chaos, she and Drew fall in love.

Drew's family have basically disowned him for not following their dream for him becoming a doctor or lawyer or architect.   Instead, he dropped out of college to try and become an artist, something that is not going well because he doesn't have the confidence to show anyone his art.  If Chloe's parents find out the truth about Drew,  they will definitely not trust him with their daughter's future.

As Chloe and Drew grow closer, she gives him the confidence to try and move forward with his art while he shows her that she doesn't have to give up her Chinese side to have a happy life.

This was a deeply uncomfortable read.  Chloe's parents are so well drawn with their traditions, superstitions and neuroses.  To anyone not familiar with Chinese culture, they could be seen as borderline abusive, but if you understand, you can see it's just their way of showing their daughter they love her.  Unfortunately, Chloe has been brought up n western culture and doesn't want the things her parents want for her.

Drew's character was kind of under-written in many ways.  He lacked direction, I think.  If he dropped out of college to pursue art, he should have been pursuing it, rather than hiding it in his room, too afraid of failure here too to even make an attempt.

Yet, despite being somewhat under written in places, the book felt too long.  There were several places it could have ended and didn't.

I didn't dislike it, but there was definitely some tightening that could have been done.

But if you enjoy reading about cultural clashes and people finding the strength to defy their parents and go their own way, this is a good place to start.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets The Farewell in this incisive romantic comedy about a college student who hires a fake boyfriend to appease her traditional Taiwanese parents, to disastrous results, from the acclaimed author of American Panda.

Chloe Wang is nervous to introduce her parents to her boyfriend, because the truth is, she hasn’t met him yet either. She hired him from Rent for Your ’Rents, a company specializing in providing fake boyfriends trained to impress even the most traditional Asian parents.

Drew Chan’s passion is art, but after his parents cut him off for dropping out of college to pursue his dreams, he became a Rent for Your ’Rents employee to keep a roof over his head. Luckily, learning protocols like “Type C parents prefer quiet, kind, zero-PDA gestures” comes naturally to him.

When Chloe rents Drew, the mission is simple: convince her parents fake Drew is worthy of their approval so they’ll stop pressuring her to accept a proposal from Hongbo, the wealthiest (and slimiest) young bachelor in their tight-knit Asian American community.

But when Chloe starts to fall for the real Drew—who, unlike his fake persona, is definitely not ’rent-worthy—her carefully curated life begins to unravel. Can she figure out what she wants before she loses everything?

Weekly Goals 13-4-26

 I drafted my first story for this short story collection over the weekend.  It's not great.  I was on a real roll with it on Saturday, but when I came back to finish it on Sunday, I'd kind of lost what I was trying to do.  I guess I'm so used to writing fast flash fiction where the story just comes out in a burst, stopping in the middle was kind of a mistake.  On the plus side, I know what I need to do to fix it.

My goal this week is to write at least one, probably two more stories.  The timeframe for this contest is pretty tight, so I need to work fast.  I figure if I get rough drafts of all the stories done quickly, then I'll have some time to polish and finesse them before they're due.  

I'm working this weekend, so I plan to take a day off during the week next week and if things go well, I should be able to draft at least two, if not three stories that day.

I should find out tomorrow if I've won another contest I entered.  It's exciting (and a little nerve wracking).  I don't expect to win, but it would be nice...

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 10-4-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

I have some writing stuff to do, so I'm glad I'm not away or otherwise occupied this weekend.  I signed up for a writing challenge where you have to write a short story of up to 2500 words for each song on an album.  As someone who has been quite obsessive about music since I was young, this was a challenge I couldn't pass up!  It closes at the end of June, so I have just over 2 months to write my stories - 14, because the record I chose has 14 songs - which is both a very short time and quite a long one when you consider that I usually write a 1000 word story every day.

I have a theme for my stories, and after listening to the record again yesterday, I think I have some ideas for the stories in this loosely connected collection.  I'm setting it n a psychiatric hospital and while I initially thought I might write some horror or supernatural stories in that space, the ideas that have come to me are all characters, so I think we're probably looking at a collection of stories about different people in that space.  

But, it's early days yet, so that may change as I write.

It means the new novel I was planning to start is kind of on the back burner, but I don't think that's a bad thing because it hasn't really started coming together in my head very well yet.  Maybe by the time I finish this other project I will have a better idea.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: The Last to Let Go

I really enjoyed a previous book by Amber Smith, so when I saw this on the shelf at the library, I jumped.  And I was not disappointed.

Brooke feels like her life is about to begin for real.  She's been accepted at a great school for her last two years of high school and feels like she is finally on track to live her dream: get a college scholarship and get out of town.  She has the grades and the drive and nothing is going to stop her.

Then her mother is arrested after murdering her father.  

It's a shock.  Her dad has always been abusive, but Brooke never thought her mother would do anything but forgive him and make excuses the way she has for years.  No one knows exactly what happened, even Brooke's younger sister who saw the whole thing happen.

Suddenly, Brooke's world is in turmoil and rather than getting through her summer reading list, she's staying with her mother's best friend she never knew existed, picking her sister up from a therapist's office and meeting a grandmother she's long assumed to be dead.  Plus, dealing with her older brother who fled the house a few years earlier to move in with his girlfriend rather than face their father's continual abuse.

I thought this book was very realistic in the way it portrays the long-term effects f living in an abusive home.  Brooke has always hated her family's dynamic, yet is the most unable of her siblings to give up on keeping the family together as best she can.  When she forces her brother to move back into their apartment and act as guardian to her and her sister, I knew it was not going to work out.

Alongside the family struggles, Brooke's clumsy attempts at first love and finding friends at her new school plays out in a very realistic way.  As someone who has been keeping their home life struggles a secret her whole life, Brooke's inability to open up to the girl she likes is wholly realistic.  And as the secrets pile up, her increasingly desperate attempts at holding what's left of her family together have a devastating effect on not just her, but everyone around her.

It's not an easy read.  It's actually quite harrowing in places, but that's what makes it so strikingly realistic.  Brooke is so stubbornly a teenager, despite all the responsibility she takes, and her inability to foresee the consequences of her actions is very realistic.

So, I'd recommend this one if, like me, you enjoy gritty, realistic stories about characters going through traumatic things.

But don't just listen to me.

Here's the blurb:

How do you let go of something you’ve never had?

Junior year for Brooke Winters is supposed to be about change. She’s transferring schools, starting fresh, and making plans for college so she can finally leave her hometown, her family, and her past behind.

But all of her dreams are shattered one hot summer afternoon when her mother is arrested for killing Brooke’s abusive father. No one really knows what happened that day, if it was premeditated or self-defense, whether it was right or wrong. And now Brooke and her siblings are on their own.

In a year of firsts—the first year without parents, first love, first heartbreak, and her first taste of freedom—Brooke must confront the shadow of her family’s violence and dysfunction, as she struggles to embrace her identity, finds her true place in the world, and learns how to let go.

Weekly Goals 6-4-26

 It's a concert week this week, so it's going to be busy at work.  Especially with the short week.  Plus, I'm teaching an extra class at a different gym as well.

As a result, I'm nt going to put a lot of pressure on myself with goals.  I planted a whole bunch of new stuff out the front of my house, so my goal is to keep it alive if I can.   I haven't had a great track record in that particular part of the garden and picked plants that I think will be hardy enough to survive the winter, but they will need watering and maybe some fertilizing to keep them healthy.

I haven't started writing the new book yet.  Unusually for me, I know how it starts, but everything beyond that is a little vague and I feel like I need to know more about what happens after the start to be able to keep going.  So, I'm sitting on it.  I'll write that first part soon, but I know there's a second character who's important to the story and I'm beginning to think she may need to be a POV character too to make this story work.  I think maybe having the whole this in the MC's voice might be too much.  So, I need this other character to introduce herself more fully so I know her deal.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 3-4-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!  And it's a long one!  Four days because of Easter.

I have a few things I need to do over the long weekend.  When my house got painted, the painters wrecked my garden with their ladders so I had to pull everything out.  This weekend I'm going to get some new plants and get them in the ground.  I also have a screenplay to read for a friend and give notes on.  Plus, a monthly flash fiction challenge to write and maybe start the new book that's beginning to clamor for attention. 

I won't be bored.

I saw a new film, The Drama, which I enjoyed.  I love a good character study and this film was a great example of exploring why and how people do things in specific circumstances.

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG: April

 It's 1 April so it's time for the Insecure Writers Support Group!

The awesome co-hosts for this  posting of the IWSG are Melissa Maygrove, Cathrina Constantine, Kate Larkindale, and Rebecca Douglass!

This month's question is an interesting one:

If you have a playlist (or could put one together) that either gets you in the groove to write or fits with one of your books, what is it? What type of music or what songs?

I usually don't listen to music while I'm writing, and if I do, I listen to music without lyrics or with lyrics in a language I don't understand.  I also don't find I have a particular playlist for a specific book most of the time.  With a few very important exceptions.

The Sidewalk's Regrets had a soundtrack, but it's a book about music and falling in love with music.  The specific album I thrashed while writing that one was Teenage Snuff Film by Rowland S. Howard.

Guide Us also had a soundtrack, but a very different one.  That book was fueled by musical theater songs.

The rest of my books don't really have specific songs associated with them, although I guess you could say Standing Too Close was partially inspired by the Police song Don't Stand Too Close to Me. The title anyway.  And the fact there's an inappropriate teacher-student relationship in there.

Mostly, if I listen to music while writing, I listen to a playlist of classical music I call Classical Music for Metalheads.  It has all the really bombastic classical music moments, the ones that show the clear line between classical and metal.  It's great for amping up the energy.

Or, I listen to Arabic music which is achingly beautiful even though I can't understand the words at all.

And, I love Elgar's cello concertos.  They're amazing to write to.  So many different textures and emotions in there,

I have a new book brewing in my head right now.  I'm not sure if I'm a good enough writer to tackle it because the main character is going to be a huge challenge to write.  I need a little more time for him to settle (why do all my main characters at the moment seem to be boys?) in my brain, and there are some other characters that haven't fully revealed themselves yet.  I wonder if this book will have a playlist. and if so, what it might be...

What kind of music do you like to listen to when you write?   Do your books have playlists?