Hello everyone! I’m so thrilled to be featuring a wonderful debut novel today! I really loved Loveboat, Taipei and I’m so excited to be able to feature it today.
About the Book
Loveboat, Taipei (Loveboat, Taipei #1) by Abigail Hing Wen
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: January 7th 2020
Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Travel, Asian Literature
For fans of Crazy Rich Asians or Jane Austen Comedy of Manners, with a hint of La La Land
When eighteen-year-old Ever Wong’s parents send her from Ohio to Taiwan to study Mandarin for the summer, she finds herself thrust among the very over-achieving kids her parents have always wanted her to be, including Rick Woo, the Yale-bound prodigy profiled in the Chinese newspapers since they were nine—and her parents’ yardstick for her never-measuring-up life.
Unbeknownst to her parents, however, the program is actually an infamous teen meet-market nicknamed Loveboat, where the kids are more into clubbing than calligraphy and drinking snake-blood sake than touring sacred shrines.
Free for the first time, Ever sets out to break all her parents’ uber-strict rules—but how far can she go before she breaks her own heart?
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | B&N | Kobo | iTunes | Google Books
About the Author
Abigail was born in West Virginia to a family of immigrants: Her mother is from the Philippines and her father from Indonesia, and her grandparents emigrated to those countries from Fujian and Shandong provinces in China.
Abigail grew up in Ohio and graduated from Harvard University and Columbia Law School. She worked in Washington DC for the Senate, as a law clerk for a federal judge. and now in Silicon Valley in venture capital and artificial intelligence. She also earned her Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
In her spare time, she enjoys long walks with her husband and two boys, and hanging out with friends and over 100 family members in the Bay Area. She loves music and dances to it when no one is watching.
Review
I’ve heard quite a lot of good things about Loveboat, Taipei and I was super excited to read it and luckily it did not disappoint!
Ever has been dueling between her family’s expectations and her own desires for her entire high school career. After her high school graduation, her parents decide to send her to Taiwan to learn Mandarin but when she arrives, she realizes that there’s more to the trip than she originally thought. The trip is known for summer flings and some long-lasting romances and Ever finds herself in new and unexpected territory.
Ever is one of the most complicated real characters I’ve read about, in the best way possible. She felt so real and her story is one that I could see being relatable to so many people. Some may relate to her sense of not belonging or her struggle in the beginning of the book to relate to her parents. I think that this all changes throughout the book and I really appreciated the growth that Ever displayed throughout this book. To me, this book wasn’t the “fun-filled romp” that was promised but in a good way; it was really about Ever trying to balance who she wanted to be, who she is and what her parents wanted for her. She goes on a spatial journey in order to have an emotional one and I really think that emotional aspect is something readers will connect to.
In addition, the romance was messy (in a good way) but also quite compelling. I am not a huge fan of love triangles but this book genuinely had me rooting for both guys. One is your picture perfect good smart guy while the other is a misunderstood artist, I just loved it. I really did not know what Ever was going to do or what would happen which is a novel surprise in contemporary realistic fiction! This book does skew a bit long for contemporary (over 400 pages) but the lyrical writing will make it fly by.
Overall, this was an amazing book and Loveboat, Taipei is one of the best debut novels that I’ve read.
Favourite Quotes
On a piece of art: “The flow of water breaks my heart, but it also mends it again– everything art is supposed to do.”
“And as I lunge and whirl my bo staff, dancing to the ancient drum beats, I feel all the parts of myself coming together: glad that a part of me is Chinese, a part of me American, and all of me is simply me.”
“I understand now that rejecting their wishes is not the same as rejecting them.“
Check out the Rest of the Tour!
January 1st
The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club – Welcome Post
January 2nd
We Live and Breathe Books – Review
Read.Sleep.Repeat. – Review + Favourite Quotes
Kayla Reads and Reviews – Review
Young Adult Media Consumer – Review
Write, Read, Repeat – Promotional Post
January 3rd
Library of a Book Witch – Review
Bookishaestha – Review + Favourite Quotes
Jinxed Reviews – Review + Playlist
Mahkjchi’s Not-So-Secret Books – Review + Favourite Quotes
Heart’s Content – Promotional Post
January 4th
Sometimes Leelynn Reads – Review + Favourite Quotes
The Layaway Dragon – Review + Favourite Quotes
Cluttered Books – Review + Favourite Quotes
Yna the Mood Reader – Review + Favourite Quotes
My Bookish Escapades – Promotional Post
January 5th
Novelishly – Review
String of Pages – Review + Favourite Quotes
Fanna Wants The World To Read – Review
Playita reads – Review
Kait Plus Books – Promotional Post
January 6th
The Mind of a Book Dragon – Review + Playlist
Books and Blends – Review
The Baroness of Books – Review
Words of Hannah Kay – Review
Utopia State of Mind – Promotional Post
January 7th
Magical Reads – Playlist
Confessions of a YA Reader – Review
Reads and Thoughts – Review + Favourite Quotes
biblioxytocin – Review + Playlist
To All The Books I’ve Read Before – Promotional Post
