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Review: Bingsu for Two by Sujin Witherspoon

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Bingsu for Two by Sujin Witherspoon

Bingsu for Two
Sujin Witherspoon
Union & Co.
Published January 7, 2025

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About Bingsu for Two

This outrageously charming and infuriatingly adorable enemies-to-lovers coffee shop romance is perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Better Than the Movies.

Meet River Langston-Lee. In the past 24 hours, he’s dumped his girlfriend, walked out of his SATs, and quit his job at his parents’ cafe in spectacularly disastrous fashion—even for him.

Somehow, he manages to talk his way into a gig at a failing Korean cafe, Bingsu for Two, which is his lucky break until he meets short, grumpy, and goth: Sarang Cho. She’s his new no-BS co-worker who’s as determined to make River’s life hell as she is to save her family’s cafe.

After River accidentally uploads a video of his chaotic co-workers to his popular fandom account, they strike viral fame. The kicker? Their new fans ship River and Sarang big-time. In order to keep the Internet’s attention—and the cafe’s new paying customers—River and Sarang must pretend that the tension between them is definitely of the romantic variety, not the considering the best way to kill you and hide your body variety.

But when Bingsu for Two’s newfound success catches the attention of River’s ex and his parents’ cafe around the corner, he faces a choice: keep letting others control his life or stand up for the place that’s become home. And a green-haired girl who’s not as heartless as he originally thought . . .

My Review

In her debut young adult contemporary romance novel, Sujin Witherspoon makes the unorthodox decision to tell the entire story from a boy’s point of view. At first, I wasn’t sure how this would feel, since the more common approach is to either alternate points of view or tell the story from the girl’s perspective, if the story is a M/F romance. In fact, for the first several pages, I wasn’t sure of the gender identity of the main character.

River is a bit of a cinnamon roll character. He reads the room, tries to anticipate problems before they arise to avoid conflict as much as possible. When we get introduced to his family, we learn why this feels like a good strategy to him. It makes sense, and it makes his jump to working at Bingsu for Two, which is the first place where he has the freedom to be himself without his parents or his girlfriend looking over his shoulder, evaluating his choices.

The narrative thoughtfully explores River’s avoidance behavior and how his new job affects him. I liked that the changes in his life happen gradually, sometimes deliberately. At other times, he shifts his behavior in response to the new environment and only realizes on reflection that he likes the new behavior patterns better.

That sounds like a very clinical analysis, but the book has a lot of fun, goofball moments, too. The cast of characters working at Bingsu for Two banter back and forth and mess around the way that friends do in several scenes. I enjoyed seeing the relationships grow and the sweet way that River and Sarang’s relationship develops.

I think readers who enjoy stories with an inclusive cast of characters with fun and a few sparks will definitely enjoy this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
River and his family and Sarang and her family are Korean American. Two girls are in a romantic relationship. Two boys were in a romantic relationship. Sarang references having crushes on boys and girls in the past.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few F-bombs and some profanity used moderately.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
River and Sarang get into a physical altercation in which she dumps a cup of coffee over his head. He retaliates by dumping a bag of coffee beans down her shirt. A boy kisses another boy without consent.

Someone spreads a rumor that a boy harassed a girl online, asking her to send nude photos of herself.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Rani Choudhury Must Die by Adiba Jaigirdar

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Rani Choudhury Must Die
Adiba Jaigirdar
Feiwel & Friends
Published November 12, 2024

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About Rani Choudhury Must Die

In this sapphic dual POV Young Adult romance by Adiba Jaigirdar, Meghna and Rani (ex-best-friends-turned-rivals) realize they’re dating the same guy, so they team up to beat and expose him at a big science competition!

Meghna Rahman is tired of constantly being compared to her infuriatingly perfect ex best friend now rival. Everyone, except, at least, her boyfriend Zak, seems to think that Rani Choudhury can do no wrong—even her own parents! It doesn’t help that Rani is always accepted into the Young Scientist Exhibition, while Meghna’s projects never make it. But this year, she finally has a chance at defeating Rani in something.

Rani Choudhury is tired of feeling like she doesn’t have much say in her life—not when it comes to how her mom wants her to look and act or how her parents encourage her to date incredibly charming close family friend Zak. She would much rather focus on her coding, especially once she places high enough at the Young Scientist Exhibition to go on to the European Young Scientist Exhibition.

When Meghna and Rani figure out that Zak has been playing them both, they decide to do something no one would see coming: they team up. They’ll compete in the EYSE as partners, creating an app that exposes cheaters and a project that exposes Zak. But with years of silence and pressure between them, working together will prove difficult. Especially once each girl starts to realize that the feelings they had for the other may have been more than platonic…

Hey, no one ever said science was easy!

My Review

So far, for me, this type of rivals-to-lovers romance is the sweet spot of Adiba Jaigirdar’s books. The tension between the characters is perfect, the cultural themes are immersive and engaging, and the romance leaves me swooning. I loved The Henna Wars and Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating, and I will gladly put this one on the shelf right next to them.

The plot of Rani Choudhury Must Die starts off slowly and winds through a bit of setup before it really gets going. We learn about Meghna’s secret dating relationship and Rani’s relationship with the boy her parents expect her to marry… the same boy secretly dating Meghna. Yikes.

We also learn that Meghna and Rani have history. It’s unclear at first what happened and who, exactly, is to blame for the rift between the girls. It’s pretty clear that Meghna’s mental image of Rani differs from her real self, though, and I found myself intrigued by the difference.

It highlights the way that unresolved conflict can leave us with a specific, hurtful image of a person that doesn’t at all match who the person truly is. Yet, while we’re still nursing that hurt and anger, we can’t see that there is a difference. This delicate mining of nuance in relationships is one of my favorite components of Jaigirdar’s books. She does this so well, and her characters are so rich because of it.

The romance between Rani and Meghna is a very slow burn. I loved that, too. It honors the history between the two girls and the complexity of the circumstances that brought them together. I think it would have been hard to tell a compelling story in which they immediately hook up after discovering they’ve been dating the same boy. This really worked and lets readers hope for and root for the romance as it begins to blossom.

All in all, I had a great time reading this book. Fans of slow-burn romance, rivals to lovers, and/or STEM girls definitely do not want to miss this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
The story is set in Ireland. Meghna and Rani are from the same Bengali community in Ireland. Both are dating a boy and are romantically interested in girls.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Kissing between two girls.

Spiritual Content
References to cultural family events, holidays, and celebrations.

Violent Content
A boy manipulates and uses words to gaslight a girl.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

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Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
Puffin Books
Published February 13, 2024 (Orig. 1813)

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Pride and Prejudice

Though her sisters are keen on finding men to marry, Elizabeth Bennet would rather wait for someone she loves – certainly not someone like Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, whom she finds to be smug and judgmental, in contrast to the charming George Wickham.

But soon Elizabeth learns that her first impressions may not have been correct, and the quiet, genteel Mr. Darcy might be her true love after all.

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!

Today (December 16) is Jane Austen’s birthday. She was born 249 years ago on this day in 1775 and was the seventh of eight children in her family. I read once, in A Most Clever Girl by Jasmine A. Stirling, that when the king asked Austen to write a fluffy romance novel for him, she refused.

Her books have inspired tons of movies and reimagined stories, including Northranger by Rey Terciero, “The Jane Austen Murder Mysteries” by Tirzah Price, and For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund.

My Review

I read this book for the first time in high school– and hated it. The next year, my sister read it and loved it. We watched the BBC version of the movie multiple times that summer, and I ultimately decided to give the book a second chance.

That second reading, I fell in love with the story and especially the wry, clever observations that Austen slips into her descriptions of various characters. Thanks to some persistent insomnia, I decided to revisit this familiar story via audiobook this year. I listened to it more than once.

I love the arc of romance between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, but I think I love the quirks and absurdities woven through the minor characters just as much. The way that both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy have to learn things about themselves, their expectations of others, and the judgments they make about others before they can truly find happiness is unforgettable.

And the banter! Haha. The sharp jabs back and forth between Elizabeth and Darcy or either of those and other characters definitely keep me coming back to this book. I also love that Jane, Elizabeth’s sweet, beautiful sister, shares deep truths with Elizabeth that challenge her ideas and values.

At this point, other than The Secret Garden, this is probably the classic book that I’ve read the most. I’m sure this won’t be the last time I read it.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
All characters are white and British.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
A man convinces a fifteen-year-old girl that she should elope with him. One young woman runs away with a man and lives with him for a time while unmarried. There’s a lot of worry about how this choice will impact not only her reputation but the reputations of the other women in her family. During the time the story was written, these were real concerns that could make life hard for a woman.

Spiritual Content
One character is a clergyman.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
References to wine.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: Thieves’ Gambit by Kayvion Lewis

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Thieves’ Gambit
Kayvion Lewis
Nancy Paulsen Books
Published September 26, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Thieves’ Gambit

The Inheritance Games meets Ocean’s Eleven in this cinematic heist thriller where a cutthroat competition brings together the world’s best thieves and one thief is playing for the highest stakes of all: her mother’s life.

At only seventeen years old, Ross Quest is already a master thief, especially adept at escape plans. Until her plan to run away from her legendary family of thieves takes an unexpected turn, leaving her mother’s life hanging in the balance.

In a desperate bid, she enters the Thieves’ Gambit, a series of dangerous, international heists where killing the competition isn’t exactly off limits, but the grand prize is a wish for anything in the world–a wish that could save her mom. When she learns two of her competitors include her childhood nemesis and a handsome, smooth-talking guy who might also want to steal her heart, winning the Gambit becomes trickier than she imagined.

Ross tries her best to stick to the family creed: trust no one whose last name isn’t Quest. But with the stakes this high, Ross will have to decide who to con and who to trust before time runs out. After all, only one of them can win.

My Review

This book deserves more buzz than it got. The beginning started a little slow, and I kept forgetting it was young adult because Ross seemed so young. Though the seventeen-year-old lives this wild, heist-filled life, she is really young because she is so secluded from others. As I got to know her more as a character, that young-sounding voice made a lot of sense.

By the time she enters the Gambit, she already sounds older than the girl in the opening pages. As she reaches the final phase of the game, she sounds older still. I’m pretty impressed with the author’s ability to seamlessly shift the writing with Ross’s maturity while the story careens around hairpin turns with the stakes climbing all the time.

I also really liked the characters, especially the team Ross works with during the middle of the book: Kyung-soon, Mylo, and Devroe. They each add something different to the team, and the experience of working with them changes Ross in ways she wasn’t prepared for. I loved that.

I think readers looking for an Inheritance Games meets Ocean’s 11 story will not be disappointed in this wild ride of a tale. I’m eager to read the sequel.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Ross is Bahamian and Black. The other players in the Gambit are a diverse, inclusive group.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Swearing scattered throughout. No F-bombs.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Ross works as a thief, stealing items for clients who’ve hired her and her mom. She enters a high-stakes game in which she must race against other players to steal things. One character gets shot. Another threatens people with a firearm. The plot involves kidnapping and ransom.

Drug Content
Some characters use a drug to make people too intoxicated to perform specific assigned tasks. A character pours a glass of champagne for another.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

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Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables #1)
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Puffin Books
Published August 28, 2014 (Orig. 1908)

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Anne of Green Gables

The cherished favorite featuring everyone’s favorite red-headed orphan, now in a deluxe hardcover edition with beautiful cover illustrations by Anna Bond, the artist behind world-renowned stationery brand Rifle Paper Co.

Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her.

Anne Gets Into a Lot of “Scrapes”

I remember reading this series to my daughter when she was in fourth grade. We both enjoyed the wild stories about Anne, Matthew, and Marilla and their neighbors at Prince Edward Island. It’s funny reading this book now, in the days when people are so quick to challenge a book, and thinking about some of the scenes and the age group we target this book toward.

For example, Anne accidentally gets her best friend drunk, which causes no small stir. At one point, her teacher shows obvious romantic interest in one of the other students. If a middle grade book published today included those scenes, would people be so quick to accept it, the way we are with Anne of Green Gables?

Perhaps because this is a book that many parents grew up reading or hearing about, it feels like a safe story and isn’t scrutinized the same way that books being published today might be.

I love this series, and I’m not a fan of book bans, so I’m not at all arguing that we should take a closer look at classics and start banning them, too. I do think it’s appropriate to consider the historical context of the work and to reflect on classic literature through the lens of equality, to note things like references to colonialism, which may be tempting to take for granted. Noting those things helps us realize how unchallenged and accepted those ideas were in the time a particular book was written.

My Review

For me, scenes like the one in which Anne accidentally gets her best friend drunk reflect information about Anne’s character and her life before coming to Green Gables. She often gets into “scrapes,” as she calls them, over information she might have known had she grown up with Matthew and Marilla or information she would not have known had she had a more sheltered upbringing with a family on Prince Edward Island.

Her behavior routinely challenges the people in her community, who think of themselves as being the most upstanding and proper. Most often, Anne eventually charms these judgmental characters with her sincerity and exuberance. I love that about her and about the people in her life (that they allow themselves to warm to her).

I love the author’s use of the omniscient point of view. Usually I prefer a close first-person narrative, but Montgomery has a keen sense of when to zoom into a particular character’s viewpoint to deliver a meaningful observation. She reveals Marilla’s surprising love for Anne and shows Matthew’s debilitating shyness.

I also love the strong characterization of the cast. Anne remains dramatic and imaginative. Diana loves Anne’s whimsical nature but remains more practical herself. Marilla grumbles and fusses, but underneath it, her soft heart is moved by her love for others. Matthew is the sweet, softhearted, quiet man who does what needs doing without making a fuss about it.

The novel also centers women as characters, from Anne and Marilla to Mrs. Rachel Lynde, the woman who knows everything going on in the neighborhood, to Miss Stacey, Anne’s teacher, to Mrs. Allen, the minister’s wife and a mentor to Anne, to Anne’s best friend Diana and the other girls she knows from school.

Conclusion

It’s such a sweet book and so full of insight into love and humanity. My older daughter was nine when we read this book together, which turned out to be the perfect age for her.

I enjoyed this reread, and I suspect it won’t be the last time I revisit Anne of Green Gables.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Characters are white. Marilla has chronic headaches and a degenerative vision problem. The text describes some characters as fat, often implying that it’s an asset.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Anne’s teacher has what appears to be a romantic relationship with one of the older students.

Spiritual Content
Anne attends church, and Marilla instructs her to say her prayers every night. There’s a bit of commentary about Christianity off and on throughout the book. For instance, Anne speaks critically of a minister’s prayers, saying it seems like he’s not interested in the words he’s saying or has forgotten their meaning. She questions why paintings of Jesus always show him looking so somber.

When she meets the new minister’s wife, she reflects that Mrs. Allen’s faith brings her joy and comfort and that she’s the kind of person who would be a Christian even if she didn’t need to in order to get into Heaven.

Violent Content
Brief reference to colonialism (people settling on Prince Edward Island). Anne witnesses the death of a person close to her and experiences profound grief after the loss.

Anne relates the plot of a story she’s written to Diana. The tale involves a woman who pushes her best friend off a bridge. The woman’s lover leaps into the river after her, but both drown. The story concludes with the murderer having a mental breakdown and being confined to an institution.

Drug Content
Anne mistakenly offers her best friend Diana currant wine instead of raspberry cordial. Diana drinks three glasses of the beverage and goes home drunk, scandalizing the neighborhood.

Other Negative Content
Brief body shaming. Early in the book, a neighbor criticizes Anne for being too skinny and ugly. Anne retaliates by calling the woman fat. Later, Anne suggests a schoolmate could not play the role of the fairy queen because she’s plus-sized and a fairy queen “should be thin.”

Marilla makes a derisive comment about Italians (not wanting them around or in her house).

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: The Other Lola by Ripley Jones

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The Other Lola (Missing Clarissa #2)
Ripley Jones
Wednesday Books
Published March 12, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Other Lola

The sequel to Ripley Jones’s unforgettable YA thriller MISSING CLARISSA, THE OTHER LOLA is about what happens when the people you love the most are the people you can trust the least.

In the months after Cam and Blair broke their small hometown’s legendary missing-girl story and catapulted to accidental fame, they vowed never to do it again. No more mysteries, no more podcasts, and no more sticking their heads where they don’t belong.

Until Mattie Brosillard, a freshman at their high school, shows up on their doorstep, begging Cam and Blair for help. Mattie’s sister Lola disappeared mysteriously five years ago. No trace of her was ever found. Now, she’s back–but Mattie is convinced the girl who returned is an impostor. Nobody believes Mattie’s wild story–not Mattie’s brother, not Mattie’s mother, and not even Cam and Blair. But something is definitely wrong in the Brosillard family. And Blair has her own reasons for wanting to know what really happened to Lola while she was gone.

With Cam and Blair still struggling with the aftermath of their first mystery—and with new secrets swirling between them—the stakes are higher than ever in this can’t-miss sequel to MISSING CLARISSA.

My Review

I really appreciated how the author acknowledges the trauma that Cam and Blair’s experiences in the first book caused for them. Cam has night terrors and panic attacks and is not sure what to do about them. Blair has her own fears and feels a lot of pressure to use those experiences for something.

When they encounter a new possible mystery, Blair is eager and excited. Cam is scared and feels like getting involved is a terrible idea. That struck me as so realistic. These are teenage girls with no special training for these situations. It makes sense that they would have really different feelings and unprocessed trauma.

The story includes both Cam and Blair’s perspectives, but it also adds some journal entries from Lola’s journal and a few scenes that follow Mattie. I liked the way that contributed to the feeling of putting the pieces of a mystery together.

The pacing of the story kept me reading. New things kept happening, and I really wanted to know what happened to Lola. I had a theory early on that turned out to be pretty close to the truth, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the ride as Cam and Blair figured out what happened and faced down the people responsible. I think it was more of a lucky guess than anything.

All in all, this was a tense, fun read. I hope there are more Cam and Blair mysteries to come.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Cam is dating another girl and is neurodivergent. Mattie is nonbinary.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few F-bombs and a sprinkling of other swear words.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex. Kissing between two girls and references to sex.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to someone pointing a gun at others.

Drug Content
References to drug use that happened off-scene.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE OTHER LOLA in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.