e-Audio, 08:13:09
Narrated by: Katharine Chin
Release Date: March 4, 2025
Published by: Books on Tape
Read from: March 25-26, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio (I received a free e-ALC from PRH Audio App and the publisher. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Death of a Parent, Biphobia, Cancer, Emotional Abust
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, YAA swoony romance between driven, practical Lynda Fan and her rich, arrogant classmate, Angela Wu. When Angela offers Lynda the chance to design characters for her otome game, Lynda discovers things she never knew about herself…or her heart.
Love is an art.
Sixteen-year-old Lynda Fan has the skills and the drive to get into the Rhode Island School of Design—but not the money. Her parents are too busy paying for her stepsister’s violin lessons to help Lynda get into art school.
So when her rich and arrogant classmate, Angela Wu, offers to hire Lynda as a character designer for an otome game—a love story-based video game—she jumps at the opportunity.
Lynda isn’t exactly a romantic, but in pursuit of her dreams, she discovers things she never knew about herself while also finding love with every heart she draws.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I hate that I was so excited for this and it just disappointed me. Not only did I dislike everyone in this book, but I just thought it didn’t make any sense. And the romance couldn’t have felt less real if it tried. However I still finished it so here we are…..
OK so when I say I hated everyone in this book it’s because I did. From the dad who was oblivious, to the stepmom who seemed to be doing this on purpose, to the unsufferable main character, to the aunt who let her talk to her all mean even though she was being terrible, to the love interest who was just weird in general. And can’t forget the freaking new music teacher! Literally all of them were terrible and as a character driven reader, this annoyed the crap out of me. And yes I know there was a deeper meaning, but by the time we get there I was out of effs to give and I didn’t like them anyways.
Now the romance was also bad. Literally the only reason I still kept reading it was because it was a sapphic relationship. But the way they were together it was like no chemistry whatsoever. Every transaction was like a business deal. And it made it even more weird because that’s what it started as. It was very weird.
The other reason I kept reading was the representation. Even food wise it felt authentic and real. I remember trying to get the same food they made at home because it sounded so good. And the way Lin described the otome game was cool too. I looked it up trying to figure out what it was like, but the way she wrote it helped me never have to pull out my phone.
Needless to say, those were the only things I liked. It wasn’t exactly interesting besides that. Without the romance it just felt like a normal coming of age story and it was boring otherwise. This isn’t the author’s first novel, so maybe I’ll try that one because this one just wasn’t for me.
Overall, I give this
