By Emily Cox and Nicole Allen
Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Spice rating: 🌶️
Blurb
An emotionally raw story of first love, possibility, and rewriting our destinies, this YA romance captures the ache of Laura Nowlin with a romantic innocence reminiscent of Jenny Han.
Marcus is destined for big things. He’s a star soccer player, straight-A student, and gorgeous beyond the hopes of most girls. Especially since they’re off limits. Because of his detective dad’s painful past with women, Marcus made a bet with him to avoid girls until after high school. So far, so good.
Mei Li's world is anything but bright. She’s a pawn in a dangerous game to keep her and her family in America but dreams of a very different life. However, dreams turn to fear when she discovers the guy she’s supposed to trust with her heart is more disturbed than she could ever imagine.
Even though Mei Li and Marcus live around the corner from each other in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the only thing they have in common is a trolley stop. Until the day they step through the same shop door and into a new possibility.
What starts as secret notes and texts quickly becomes a desperate attempt to be together. But together is impossible. Opposing futures, a tangle of dark connections, and one big secret come between them, forcing them to risk their safety for love or leave the possibility of together behind forever.
Genre: Young Adult
Read if you Like:
🥠 First love
🥠 Forbidden romance
🥠 Undocumented heroine
🥠 Emotional read
🥠 Heroine in danger
My Thoughts:
I was intrigued by the premise of this book. I really enjoy stories where people with different life experiences fall in love and have to shift their perspectives because of it. While I enjoyed this story, there were some things about the message of the book and writing that didn't fully work for me.
One thing I loved about this story was how well the emotion was captured. As a teenager, I remember feeling things incredibly intensely and these authors captured that well, particularly for Marcus. I thought it was really interesting that while he was in the less precarious situation he was the one whose feelings were more overwhelming. In some ways, I really liked this because Mei is used to her situation but for Marcus, this is the first time he has to navigate more complicated adult problems.
One thing I was a little concerned about was the message this book was sending on relationships and sexuality. First, I thought what Marcus had been taught about sex and relationships was pretty problematic. While these beliefs were challenged I would have liked to see more resolution there particularly when it came to the issue of sex.
I also had some concerns about this being a YA book. I know that teenagers can handle heavy topics. However, this book includes an on-page attempted rape without content warnings. It also touches on other sensitive topics like how undocumented immigrants can be taken advantage of and sex trafficking. While the romance was sweet, these other topics are heavy and I definitely wouldn't recommend this book to someone under the age of 16 (I might even say 18 it depends on the kid).
Finally, in terms of writing, I kept feeling like this book was set in an earlier time period, even though the characters had cell phones and it was meant to be contemporary. I think it might have just been the somewhat old-fashioned values some of the characters had but it may also have been something about the references I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
Overall, if you love a forbidden love story with young adults then this book may be for you. I definitely felt some West Side Story vibes from this one! I would just caution readers to be aware of the sensitive topics.
🌶️ This book is closed door though it does include kissing and making out
Thank you to Emily Cox and Nicole Allen for providing me with an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
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