by Samantha White
Southeast Asia Weekly
holiday heroine
Sarah Kuhn
DAW, 2022
The past few years have been a chaotic one for Bea Tanaka, who’s made some questionable decisions and even nearly went down the path of a supervillain. But with a new job hunting demons in Maui, she’s finally thriving.
But it’s all a lie. Bea feels lost and adrift. She and her boyfriend Sam Fujikawa are trying to make things work at a distance, and it looks like she’s got some new powers she’ll have to learn to control.
So when Christmas rolls around — Bea’s favorite time of year — her family in San Francisco plans to visit her, Bea is all excited. But they are interrupted by otherworldly monsters, and during the fight Bea is somehow teleported back to San Francisco. So, in addition to trying to figure out her life, she must find a way to come back to reality, fight demons, save the world, and have a merry Christmas.
In the final installment of Kuhn’s Asian American superhero series, we see how far the Tanaka/Jupiter team has come — and beautifully. As a longtime fan of the series, it’s been great to see how Bea, Evie, and Aveda Jupiter grow after starting to define dysfunction.
Despite their superpowers, they’re all a work in progress, and we see realistic progression in each book as they work to heal themselves and their relationships with each other.
I have a lot of relationships with Bea. While I don’t have the power to control people with my mind, as a younger sister I totally understand her pain of having a more “successful” older sister. Kuhn does a great job of illustrating all of Bea’s insecurities and her “disguising” to prove to Evie and others that she’s doing a good job (I’ve actually been there). It’s one of my favorite things about the whole series. When you remove the superhero element, these are strong Asian American women who, like the rest of us, are trying to get through.
Holly Joy for Diwali
Sonia Larry
Berkeley, 2021
Niki Randhawa, 29, always makes practical decisions. Despite her love of music and art, she became an analyst. She stays close to home for the sake of her family. She goes to guys who look good on paper but don’t do much else to her.
Then Niki got fired and realized that the practicality wasn’t as good as advertised. So, on a whim, she booked the last flight to India for her friend Dia’s wedding. When she arrived, it was just in time to celebrate Diwali. Niki also met Sameer Mukherji, a musician from London who was also in town for the wedding. She’s instantly attracted to Sam — and the attraction is mutual. As Nicky and Sam spend their honeymoon with Dia and her new husband and their friends, their relationship only grows stronger.
Spending time with Sam helps Niki get in touch with her passionate and creative side, as well as her Indian roots. But then she gets a new job at home and Nikki needs to decide what it is she really wants.
“Diwali” is an interesting romantic story with a strong protagonist. Niki is someone many readers can relate to: caught between doing what we want to do and what we think we should be doing. She’s chosen the latter for almost her whole life, and her life is, well, not bad, but not great either. all is well. So when she starts doing the things she wants to do, she sees what life can be — and it’s better than just being “good.”
Romance aside, it’s also fun to read about holiday romances that have nothing to do with Christmas. As a romance lover, I’m excited to see subgenres branch off and introduce readers to cultures and holidays they may not have known about before. I knew very little about Diwali before this and really enjoyed reading about the traditions and how people celebrate the festival.
Wang’s Holiday: The Complete Series
Liu Chenglong
Jackie Chan Books, 2020
Meet the Wong siblings: Nick, Greg, Zach and Amber. They may be doing well in their careers, but much to the chagrin of their parents and grandparents, they are both single. So when the festive season comes, the elders in the family will take the initiative to remedy the situation.
What follows is a series of holiday bashes, as each of the four siblings must deal with their nosy relatives (or try to avoid them), while falling in love in the process (the relatives’ plan has always been the case).
Nick falls in love with a former one-night stand that he actually arranged with Greg over Thanksgiving. Greg is caught in a snowstorm with his high school sweethearts on Christmas. Zach tries to defeat his parents and enlists his best friend to be his fake girlfriend during Chinese New Year. Finally, when Amber starts spending time with a new man around Valentine’s Day, she keeps her family secret so they don’t interfere.
“The Wongs” is an anthology of short romances filled with many tried-and-true romance tropes (thankfully excluding the love triangle, my least favorite). From second-chance romance and a bed, to fake relationships and friends with benefits, Liu does a great job of showing the character’s journey to happiness from here on out.
As with all romances, we as readers know that these characters will eventually come together. It will be interesting to see how they get there – with Wongs, the “how” will make you laugh out loud. Liu has always been good at writing about the nosy, intrusive (but loving!) Asian parents and grandparents who are often the punchlines of her stories, and this is no exception. It was interesting to see how the Wong siblings deal with the situation their relatives put them in and overcome it all in the name of love.
Samantha can reach info@nwasianweekly.com.
