Review: Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee*

 *I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.

Title: Fake Dates And Mooncakes
Author: Sher Lee
Genre: LGBTQIA+ Young Adult
Trigger warnings:  Death Of A Parent
Rating: ★★★★★ 

Fake-dates, mooncakes and rich people problems. But love wasn't meant to be on the menu . . .

Meet Dylan Tang: he juggles school and delivery runs for his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn. Winning a mooncake competition could bring the publicity they need to stay afloat.

Enter Theo Somers: a charming, wealthy customer who convinces Dylan to be his fake date to a family wedding full of crazy rich drama. Their romance is supposed to be just for show . . . but soon Dylan’s falling for Theo. For real.

With the mooncake contest looming, Dylan can’t risk being distracted by rich-people problems. Can he save his family’s business and follow his heart – or will he fail to do both?

Fake Dates and Mooncakes is a fantastic queer romance debut from Sher Lee. As the title suggests, it is the fake-dating story of our two male protagonists Dylan and Theo and the narrative utilises other well-loved romance tropes such as only one bed, instant connection and the couple coming from different worlds. Through this, Sher Lee has created a charming and wholesome queer romance which was so easy to read in a single sitting and had me smiling from ear to ear.

Dylan and Theo were both fantastic protagonists who were beautifully written as realistic teenagers. I loved their instant connection and Theo’s charm and flirtatious nature will make you swoon. The supporting characters were all wonderful too. I fell in love with Dylan’s family and it was fantastic to have a diverse family type represented within YA fiction as Dylan lives with his aunt and cousins following the death of his mother.

The book is also a love letter to Chinese culture, particularly Chinese street food as Dylan is an aspiring chef working for the family takeout business and taking part in a local mooncake competition. The impact of grief was also beautifully explored through Dylan and Theo connecting over having both lost their mothers.

This book has been marketed as ‘Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians’ and that couldn’t be more spot on. If you are looking for a cute and easy to read queer romance packed full of your favourite tropes, look no further than Fake Dates and Mooncakes. This was an incredible debut from Sher Lee and I’m so looking forward to reading more from them. 

Review: A Mother's War by Helen Parusel*

  *I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.

Title: A Mother's War
Author: Helen Parusel
Genre: Historical Fiction

Trigger warnings:  War, Antisemitism, Sexual Harassment, Suicide Attempt

Rating: ★★★★★

A forbidden romance in occupied Norway…

Narvik, 1940. After Laila awakens to the sight of warships in the fjord, it isn't long before she turns resistor to the brutal Nazi regime. She is horrified when local girls begin affairs with enemy soldiers, yet against her own principles, she finds herself falling in love with German soldier, Josef.

Josef is not like the others. He becomes involved in helping her and the locals with resistance activities, risking his life on more than one occasion.

But then Laila finds out she is pregnant. With Josef sent to the Russian front, and Laila cast out by her family, she turns to a home for women which promises to care for her and her unborn child. But instead, she finds herself caught in a system of evil far beyond what she thought possible…

A Mother’s War is the debut historical fiction work from author Helen Parusel. It is a forbidden romance set against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied Norway and focusing on the experiences of Norwegian women within the Nazi Lebensborn homes.

Helen Parusel has a wonderfully engaging writing style which truly made the setting of northern Norway truly come alive on the page. I was completely enthralled by the story and read it in a single sitting over the course of an evening. The narrative is well-paced and full of action, from vivid descriptions of the Nazi invasion of Norway to the experiences of women in the Lebensborn homes to the work of the resistance in helping people escape out of Nazi-occupied territory.

The story was clearly impeccably researched, particularly surrounding the history of the Lebensborn program which is a dark and little-known aspect of Second World War history that I’m glad is being covered within historical fiction.

Laila is a wonderful protagonist with such depth to her character. Her strength and courageous nature was fantastically written and it was so easy to become completely emotionally invested in her story. Seeing her completely ostracised by her family and community was heartbreaking but a painful reality for many women in Nazi-occupied countries. Josef was another fantastically written character and I really enjoyed seeing their relationship develop over the course of the story.

Overall, A Mother’s War is a standout debut historical fiction novel and I look forward to seeing what Helen Parusel brings to the literary world next. I did find myself craving more when the book finished so would welcome the opportunity to return to Laila and Josef’s story again in a possible sequel. 

Review: The Girl From Venice by Siobhan Daiko*

  *I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.

Title: The Girl From Venice
Author: Siobhan Daiko
Genre: Historical Fiction

Trigger warnings:  Rape, Sexual Assault, Miscarriage, War, Antisemitism, Guns

Rating: ★★★★★

1943

Lidia De Angelis has kept a low profile since Mussolini’s laws wrenched her from her childhood sweetheart. But when the Germans occupy Venice, she must flee the city to save her life.

Lidia joins the partisans in the Venetian mountains, where she meets David, an English soldier fighting for the same cause. As she grows closer to him, harsh German reprisals and Lidia’s own ardent patriotic activities threaten to tear them apart.

Decades later

While sorting through her grandmother’s belongings after her death, Charlotte discovers a Jewish prayer book, unopened letters written in Italian, and a fading photograph of a group of young people in front of the Doge’s Palace.

Intrigued by her grandmother’s refusal to talk about her life in Italy before and during the war, Charlotte travels to Venice in search of her roots. There, she learns not only the devastating truth about her grandmother’s past, but also some surprising truths about herself.

The Girl From Venice is the latest captivating work from historical fiction author Siobhan Daiko and the first in her ‘Girls from the Italian Resistance’ series. From the second I read the synopsis I was hooked and the story itself only exceeded my expectations. Siobhan Daiko’s knowledge of the subject matter is evidently incredible and the story is clearly meticulously researched as history just seeped through the pages. This has created an emotive and utterly gripping story of the Italian partisans operating around Venice and I devoured the book in a single sitting.

The story is told through a split narrative, flitting between Lidia’s story during the war and her granddaughter Charlotte’s story in 2010, and the two narratives work beautifully together in progressing the story. Both Lidia and Charlotte are wonderful protagonists with such depth to their characters and I was in absolute awe of the strength and courage Lidia demonstrated throughout the story.

I also really enjoyed the romances we see blossoming in both time periods and Siobhan Daiko absolutely nailed the way she sprinkled sensual and sexy moments amongst the emotional and at times hard-hitting scenes in the rest of the book. It would have been easy for the more sensual scenes to be used as merely light-relief from the darker aspects of the plot but Siobhan Daiko made them so much more than that and they were so important in the character development we saw in both Lidia and Charlotte.

As I take my responsibility for highlighting potentially triggering content within the books I am reviewing very seriously, I do want to take a moment to discuss some content warnings for The Girl From Venice. This will involve giving some spoilers but I do think it’s important to give warning of the feature of these particular topics so that readers can make an informed decision about whether or not they should read the book. In the 24^th chapter there is a description of a gang rape and torture scene which is pretty hard-hitting and the chapter closes with the description of a miscarriage. The chapters following this through to the end of the story feature occasional references to the rape, including descriptions of nightmares the character has which force her to relive her assault. Whilst this is potentially triggering content for some readers, I do think Siobhan Daiko features these events and the character’s gradual recovery from them in a really powerful way.

My only criticism is that I would have liked to have seen Lidia’s chapters marked with the date and month they were taking place in alongside the year to allow the reader to follow the progression of the war but that is a minor detail.

Overall, The Girl From Venice is a really powerful piece of historical fiction and has been one of my standout historical fiction books of 2023 so far. It is a truly enchanting story which is going to really stay with me and has encouraged me to read further about Italian experiences of the war, particularly around the work of the partisans.

The Girl From Venice can be purchased here.

This review was published as part of a Blog Tour for The Girl From Venice, hosted by Rachel's Random Resources.