Book No. 28 of 2021
I generally stay away from the full-on romance novel genre (romance-adjacent is the furthest I usually go) because I find a lot of romance writing and tropes very tiresome, but this made the NYT Notable 100 Books list and I HAD to know what was in this book that made it worthy of the list. (I am fully aware that there is a lot of internalized literary snobbery here, don’t @ me.)
Milan’s story is really delightful—there are a lot of elements that I truly, genuinely appreciated and enjoyed and would love to see more of in fiction. I adored the setting of a racially diverse village in 1890s England owned by a half-Chinese duke (with believable and historically plausible backstories for both that were better done that Netflix’s Bridgerton, imho), with characters discussing imperialism and racism in ways that were nuanced and not heavy-handed. The loving descriptions of Chinese cooking and the presence of a gruff but affectionate Asian Dad (Milan nailed it) really got me, and I was very into the revenge plot to take down an appropriative and exploitive British sauce empire. (Also, the author notes at the end are a fascinating primer on the Hakka/South Chinese diaspora and the history of soy sauce in England.)
There are definitely certain hallmarks of romance genre writing that I didn’t love, but imho they weren’t annoying enough to ruin the reading experience, given all the other elements I enjoyed, and I did really enjoy the delightful banter.
Similar Reads
The aspects of being Chinese in Western high society reminded me of Kevin Kwan’s Sex and Vanity.
The chemistry and banter also reminded me of Eva Ibbotson’s A Company of Swans.