Book Review: Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen

Loveboat Taipei was such a thrill, the romance with the summer vaccation trope was just what I needed at the time.

Title: Loveboat, Taipei
Author: Abigail Hing Wen
Release Date: Jan 2020
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 414

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Review:

The book follows Ever Wong, as she decides to step out of her parent’s shadow and do something for herself. But as easy as it sounds Ever was punished harshly for it. And for the last summer of her school she gets to study some more.

As much as she was expecting the summer school to be only about learning Mandrin and keeping her head down, it turns out to be a surprise. On arrival Ever finds out that it 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. And among those teens was 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.

All Ever wants is to dance her way into college and through life but she knows if she does not attend med school it will crush her parents hearts.

I got emotional a couple of times while reading the book and was very taken by the protagonist. The Asian resemblense was quite something to read, even though the book wasn’t by a South Asian author or about South Asian characters so many traits hit home hard.

I enjoyed the book alot thanks to its writing style, descriptions, and the Romance. Who doesn’t like a possible triangle. Where it book two already??

Ever was perfect protagonist like clockwork she went through so many obstacles and came out victorious. I wanted to see her more with Rick and at the same time wanted to see her more with Xavier. The drama with the summer vibe and sandals on a vacation..all had me missing going out. Anywhere is fine..I just need to be out!

I was listening to this book when I went on a romance book spree. I had also read, Fix Her Up, The Kiss Quotient and Opposite Of Always at the same time. They were are great choices.