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Lily Chu

Auteur de The Stand-In

5 oeuvres 508 utilisateurs 17 critiques

Œuvres de Lily Chu

The Stand-In (2021) 384 exemplaires
The Comeback (2022) 111 exemplaires
The Takedown (2024) 11 exemplaires
Bottled Up 1 exemplaire

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Critiques

Romance which includes but lightly traverses issues of mental health, multi-racial identity and self-worth, the last being the one bearing the most weight. Fun and well paced with some satisfactory glam wardrobe moments.
½
1 voter
Signalé
quondame | 8 autres critiques | Mar 19, 2024 |
Loved it. Well written and cute story. I figured it out part way through but written so well that I kept reading. Where is the planner app? I need that planner in my life!
 
Signalé
mybookloveobsession | 8 autres critiques | Mar 12, 2024 |
Gracie is trying to get her mother, who has Alzheimer's, into a better nursing home, but the one she wants for her is more expensive and has a huge waiting list. Gracie's job is a nightmare - she's being subtly harassed by her boss but doesn't feel she can do anything about it because 1) no evidence and 2) she really needs the money. Then she receives a nerve-wracking offer she can't really refuse: get paid handsomely to act as the double of famous Chinese actress Wei Fangli. This puts Gracie in frequent contact with Fangli's best friend, the gorgeous and equally famous actor Sam Yao, who disapproves of this plan but will do whatever is necessary to help Fangli.

The scenes with Fangli and Gracie were wonderful - I loved reading about those two becoming friends. Unfortunately, the romance between Gracie and Sam wasn't as good. In the midst of everything else, it didn't have enough room to breathe. Sam was pretty emotionally walled off - he took on the bulk of teaching Gracie to be Fangli, and one of the most important lessons he had to teach was that everyone watched literally everything he and Fangli did when they were out in public, and every word, gesture, and action had to take that into account.

Gracie learning to be Fangli was great, if anxiety-inducing. That said, the author went a bit easy on her, so situations that should have blown up in her face and ruined the whole plan ended up being much less disastrous than I expected. The story's internal logic occasionally had some issues, as well. For example, Gracie was acting as Fangli's double so that Fangli could rest while still projecting "Fangli is fine" to the world, but at one point Gracie used laryngitis as an excuse to avoid having to talk and there were no real consequences.

The cross-cultural mental health aspects were interesting. Also, I loved that each chapter started with an illustration of Gracie's latest stab at her productivity app (which, by the end of the book, I really wished I could try). I wish the romance storyline had been stronger, although I appreciated that this was a bit of a romance unicorn, with off-page sex (on-page was limited to kissing and hand-holding).

While I had some issues with this book, I still enjoyed it a lot and plan to try more of the author's works.

Extras:

Reading group guide, interview with the author, and blank templates of some of Gracie's various To Do list ideas.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
… (plus d'informations)
½
 
Signalé
Familiar_Diversions | 8 autres critiques | Feb 25, 2024 |
Audible

This was a fun diversion but maybe a little bit too long and some sections were awkward on audible - like when they were texting and emailing.

It’s a sweet romance between a famous person and a normal one with some elements of family drama woven in.

 
Signalé
hmonkeyreads | 7 autres critiques | Jan 25, 2024 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
5
Membres
508
Popularité
#48,806
Évaluation
3.8
Critiques
17
ISBN
10

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