17 August 2015

Review: True to You by Liwen Y Ho


Cross-cultural romance with plenty of complications


Melanie Koo has been the perfect Chinese-American daughter—done well in school, become a doctor, and now agreeing to marry Melvin, another doctor and a member of their Chinese Church. There is the slight problem that Melanie wants the American dream of falling in love with her fiancé, and she’s not in love with Melvin. In fact, he brings her out in hives. Literally. Oops.

Then she has a chance meeting with Ben, who brings the butterflies to her stomach along with all the other falling-in-love clichés she’s read (and who doesn’t bring her out in hives). But he’s everything her mother doesn’t want in her future husband. He’s not an engineer. He’s not a doctor. And he’s not Chinese.

True to You is a romance novella with a difference, in that it features a heroine from a minority not often seen in US Christian fiction (Camy Tang is the only other author I can think of who features Chinese-American heroines with an emphasis on the cultural aspects). It’s lots of fun, with excellent characters and plenty of awkward situations (many of them caused by Melanie’s interfering and opinionated mother).

There were a few minor writing glitches, but nothing sufficient to take me out of the story, which was an excellent mix of romance and foreign culture with some more serious themes of racism and faith.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Liwen Ho at her blog.


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