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ssejig's review
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Ufda. I wasn't sure about the premise of this book but a) this series has been really fun and b) Lau is an amazing writer, if anyone could pull off a heroine dating a billionaire at the start of the book but ending up with someone different, it would be Lau. But... well. I finished the book and Lau's writing was still good but we have a good dash of insta-love tossed with a side of the hero being creep (and acknowledging it!) with just a dash of a flat villain caricature and this book fell pretty flat.
Sierra Wu is a divorced woman who doesn't want children and her mother berates her about it every time they meet. But Sierra has a secret in her back pocket, she's dating a billionaire. And at the beginning of the book, she lets this news drop. Sierra's friends have secrets as well (which we know from previous books in the series); they don't like her billionaire. And Jake Tong doesn't like him either.
Jake worked for Colton Sanders and knows just what a bad guy he is. When he sees a woman in a restaurant one night and falls immediately in love with her, he has to let her know that Colton is bad news. And then Jake has to track her down at her workplace. Thankfully, he backs off after that but he still jumps in with both feet and railroads Sierra when she does end up calling him later because... plot reasons.
Sierra Wu is a divorced woman who doesn't want children and her mother berates her about it every time they meet. But Sierra has a secret in her back pocket, she's dating a billionaire. And at the beginning of the book, she lets this news drop. Sierra's friends have secrets as well (which we know from previous books in the series); they don't like her billionaire. And Jake Tong doesn't like him either.
Jake worked for Colton Sanders and knows just what a bad guy he is. When he sees a woman in a restaurant one night and falls immediately in love with her, he has to let her know that Colton is bad news. And then Jake has to track her down at her workplace. Thankfully, he backs off after that but he still jumps in with both feet and railroads Sierra when she does end up calling him later because... plot reasons.
the_vegan_bookworm's review
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Racism, and Sexual content
Minor: Pregnancy
nelsonseye's review
4.0
I didn’t like the romance as much as previous books in the series (it understandably took them a while to get together and then they needed to sort things out), but I really liked the complex family relationships and the strong friendships (both hallmarks of Lau’s books). I also “liked” learning more about Rose and I’m looking forward to reading her book later this year. I’ve already preordered it. :)
One last thing: given the setting of the book (March) and the timing of its release (March), its accurate reflection of this week’s weather was hilarious. Southern Ontario in March/April for the win.
One last thing: given the setting of the book (March) and the timing of its release (March), its accurate reflection of this week’s weather was hilarious. Southern Ontario in March/April for the win.
jkatiemarks's review
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.0
- asian cishet m/w, love at first sight (for him), love triangle, the billionaire is the bad guy
- so i love jackie lau, and i love jackie lau even at her three-star books — and i think this series is one of my faves
- i really loved sierra in this one — she has a lot of shit to work through and she does it while maintaining her boundaries and tbh i am in awe
- jake is a bit too all-in, but sierra needs someone pulling for her like that
faintingviolet's review
4.0
This book is all about characters working through their emotions. Sierra’s relationship with Colton isn’t good, but it is also fulfilling a need for Sierra at the time. Through much of the book we are with Sierra as she unpacks what her relationship with Colton is, what her emotions about him are, can he be trusted, and is she happy. That question about happiness also extends to her family, who are quite awful overall. But the things she never has to question are if her work makes her happy, or if she’s attracted to Jake, and if he sees her in a way others don’t. We’re also with Jake as he is struck with seemingly instant love for Sierra the moment he sees her across the restaurant. He spends time deciding if that is even possible, and can he manage to demonstrate his emotions to her by respecting her boundaries – especially when he knows he can’t trust Colton.
The other major emotional beat here is worth and family expectations. Jake is recovering from working for Colton and tarnishing his soul in the pursuit of money. He is making amends for having helped a billionaire earn more at the expense of others. But he doesn’t feel he’s a good enough person, still, to be happy and at every turn his brother confirms that back to him. Sierra is made so miserable by her family by their expectations of who she should be that she has learned to accept less, to not need much of anything at all. She must find that she is worth happiness and someone who sees her as she is and is proud of her for becoming the person she wants to be.
Between those two things Jake and Sierra are a well-matched pair and this book works through the various things that are keeping them apart, and then the things that are keeping them from truly being together once they start a physical relationship. So why not more than four stars? The pacing in the chapters felt a bit off – sometimes hardly any time passed, sometimes weeks passed. I found myself wanting more of what we didn’t have on page, and for that reason I can’t rate this one any higher. But this is a story I am glad to have read, and that I’m glad Lau tackled writing. She works through getting her characters to let go of the shoulds, and that’s something many of us need to see reflected in what we read.
I received Her Favorite Rebound as an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. It publishes March 29, 2022
full review: https://faintingviolet.wordpress.com/2022/03/09/her-favorite-rebound-and-a-very-beery-new-year-cbr14-24-25/
The other major emotional beat here is worth and family expectations. Jake is recovering from working for Colton and tarnishing his soul in the pursuit of money. He is making amends for having helped a billionaire earn more at the expense of others. But he doesn’t feel he’s a good enough person, still, to be happy and at every turn his brother confirms that back to him. Sierra is made so miserable by her family by their expectations of who she should be that she has learned to accept less, to not need much of anything at all. She must find that she is worth happiness and someone who sees her as she is and is proud of her for becoming the person she wants to be.
Between those two things Jake and Sierra are a well-matched pair and this book works through the various things that are keeping them apart, and then the things that are keeping them from truly being together once they start a physical relationship. So why not more than four stars? The pacing in the chapters felt a bit off – sometimes hardly any time passed, sometimes weeks passed. I found myself wanting more of what we didn’t have on page, and for that reason I can’t rate this one any higher. But this is a story I am glad to have read, and that I’m glad Lau tackled writing. She works through getting her characters to let go of the shoulds, and that’s something many of us need to see reflected in what we read.
I received Her Favorite Rebound as an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. It publishes March 29, 2022
full review: https://faintingviolet.wordpress.com/2022/03/09/her-favorite-rebound-and-a-very-beery-new-year-cbr14-24-25/
phoenixinthecity's review
3.0
This was a slowburn, instalove (for Jake), pseudo-love triangle romcom that was almost a DNF for me because I was kind of annoyed with Sierra for her pseudo-model Asian-ess, and I saw pseudo because while she confounds her mother's expectations about her life choices, she doesn't want to come across as too demanding with her billionarie boyfriend who turns out to be white dude with an Asian fetish - which, eww; and I was eye-rolly with Jake's love at first sight for Sierra because come on.
I'm glad I decided to give it a chance and power through though because this read spicier than Lau's books to date...maybe because Jake and Sierra have a bit of a power dynamic going and once they get together, things heat up.
I'm curious about Rose's story which is the next and final book in the series. I think that's going to be a lot angstier, and from the sounds of it, closest to Lau's life since she's talked about her own struggles with mental health and has mentioned that her own mother died of suicide, which we're told is part of Rose's own back story.
I'm glad I decided to give it a chance and power through though because this read spicier than Lau's books to date...maybe because Jake and Sierra have a bit of a power dynamic going and once they get together, things heat up.
I'm curious about Rose's story which is the next and final book in the series. I think that's going to be a lot angstier, and from the sounds of it, closest to Lau's life since she's talked about her own struggles with mental health and has mentioned that her own mother died of suicide, which we're told is part of Rose's own back story.
malin12ccf's review
challenging
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
This was an ARC given to me by the author. My views are my own.
Sierra Wu shares the name of a popular fictional monster slayer (think Buffy Summers), but she's not exactly slaying in her personal life. A complete disappointment to her family since she decided that engineering just wasn't for her, she now runs a moderately successful greeting card store in Toronto. She's also divorced.
However, now she finally has something that her mother finds impressive, a billionaire boyfriend. She's dating the Colton Sanders and if her mother had her way, she would be halfway down the isle already. Sierra doesn't really tell her family until they've been dating for nearly a year, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. She can't shake the feeling that something is missing in her relationship, even before she's surprised on a date by one of Sanders' former business partners, who approaches her and claims she should break up with Sanders, as he isn't who he seems and absolutely doesn't deserve a stunning woman like Sierra.
Jake Tong didn't really believe in love at first sight until he first lays eyes on Sierra Wu, sitting alone at a table in a restaurant. That she turns out to be the girlfriend of Jake's asshole former boss was certainly not what Jake expected, and he does what he can to warn her that her rich boyfriend is a bad guy and she should dump him.
Sierra, naturally, does not dump Colton, but she starts to question what he does in the time they don't spend together a lot more. She starts to research online and it isn't too difficult to find a number of stories that suggest Colton hasn't exactly gained his tremendous wealth through altruism and charitable works. There's a number of articles about his explotation of his workers and other shady business practices. She also seems to keep running into Jake, although the man swears he's not stalking her. She likes Jake, possibly more than a woman in a relationship should, but still refuses to listen to his suggestions that she kick Colton to the curb. That is, until Sierra goes to see Colton unnanounced, and finds him cheating on her with not one, but two women at the same time. She dumps him then and there and runs straight to Jake, who can't believe his luck.
Writing a romance where one of the protagonists is in a relationship with someone else at the start of the novel is never an easy thing to pull off, but Jackie Lau was very clear even in her promotional material of this book that Colton Sanders, billionaire, certainly wasn't anyone's HEA, and despite her attraction to Jake, Sierra is never unfaithful, something that cannot be said for her ultra wealthy boyfriend. Sierra discovers that Colton usually slept with other women on every trip away from her during their entire relationship, so she's not exactly too heartbroken after their split, or even vaguely tempted to take him back, no matter what sort of insane grand gestures Sanders tries to pull.
It also helps that while Jake is smitten with Sierra, he never crosses the line into creepy or inappropriate, and while he does come to see Sierra at her shop a couple of times (she makes him spend a ridiculous amount of money on one visit), he also stays away from her once she asks for distance. Once Sierra discovers that Colton is, in fact, scum, Jake is very happy to comfort Sierra in any way she requires, and has no intention of becoming her rebound guy, no matter what Sierra might initially think.
Sierra has a lot of emotional baggage to work through before she can get to her happy ending with Jake. She also has to figure out how to deal with the weight of her family's expectations, something Jake also struggles with. Jake has a lot of guilt for the stuff he did while working for Sanders, not to mention the things he enabled Sanders to keep doing. Jake now works to try to make amends for these things, and to prove to his family that he really has changed.
I know from following her on Facebook that Ms. Lau struggled a bit more than usual to finish this book, and it's absolutely a more thorny and messy subject than she normally has in her frequently rather fluffy romances. I think she managed the emotional complexities really well, though, and while Sierra very much ends up being emotionally unfaithful to Colton, it's quite clear that he more than emotionally cheated on her, throughout their relationship. Making Sanders such an out and out bad guy possibly simplifies the emotional fallout for Sierra and Jake, but I didn't have a problem with it.
I think the final Cider Bar Sisters novel will be out next year some time. Ms. Lau has another couple of romances coming out later this year though, which I'm very much looking forward to reading.
Judging a book by its cover: I know that Jackie Lau uses stock photos to make her covers when she self-publishes, and while a lot of them turn out really well, I think this one is one of her lesser efforts. But hey, they can't all be winners.
Sierra Wu shares the name of a popular fictional monster slayer (think Buffy Summers), but she's not exactly slaying in her personal life. A complete disappointment to her family since she decided that engineering just wasn't for her, she now runs a moderately successful greeting card store in Toronto. She's also divorced.
However, now she finally has something that her mother finds impressive, a billionaire boyfriend. She's dating the Colton Sanders and if her mother had her way, she would be halfway down the isle already. Sierra doesn't really tell her family until they've been dating for nearly a year, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. She can't shake the feeling that something is missing in her relationship, even before she's surprised on a date by one of Sanders' former business partners, who approaches her and claims she should break up with Sanders, as he isn't who he seems and absolutely doesn't deserve a stunning woman like Sierra.
Jake Tong didn't really believe in love at first sight until he first lays eyes on Sierra Wu, sitting alone at a table in a restaurant. That she turns out to be the girlfriend of Jake's asshole former boss was certainly not what Jake expected, and he does what he can to warn her that her rich boyfriend is a bad guy and she should dump him.
Sierra, naturally, does not dump Colton, but she starts to question what he does in the time they don't spend together a lot more. She starts to research online and it isn't too difficult to find a number of stories that suggest Colton hasn't exactly gained his tremendous wealth through altruism and charitable works. There's a number of articles about his explotation of his workers and other shady business practices. She also seems to keep running into Jake, although the man swears he's not stalking her. She likes Jake, possibly more than a woman in a relationship should, but still refuses to listen to his suggestions that she kick Colton to the curb. That is, until Sierra goes to see Colton unnanounced, and finds him cheating on her with not one, but two women at the same time. She dumps him then and there and runs straight to Jake, who can't believe his luck.
Writing a romance where one of the protagonists is in a relationship with someone else at the start of the novel is never an easy thing to pull off, but Jackie Lau was very clear even in her promotional material of this book that Colton Sanders, billionaire, certainly wasn't anyone's HEA, and despite her attraction to Jake, Sierra is never unfaithful, something that cannot be said for her ultra wealthy boyfriend. Sierra discovers that Colton usually slept with other women on every trip away from her during their entire relationship, so she's not exactly too heartbroken after their split, or even vaguely tempted to take him back, no matter what sort of insane grand gestures Sanders tries to pull.
It also helps that while Jake is smitten with Sierra, he never crosses the line into creepy or inappropriate, and while he does come to see Sierra at her shop a couple of times (she makes him spend a ridiculous amount of money on one visit), he also stays away from her once she asks for distance. Once Sierra discovers that Colton is, in fact, scum, Jake is very happy to comfort Sierra in any way she requires, and has no intention of becoming her rebound guy, no matter what Sierra might initially think.
Sierra has a lot of emotional baggage to work through before she can get to her happy ending with Jake. She also has to figure out how to deal with the weight of her family's expectations, something Jake also struggles with. Jake has a lot of guilt for the stuff he did while working for Sanders, not to mention the things he enabled Sanders to keep doing. Jake now works to try to make amends for these things, and to prove to his family that he really has changed.
I know from following her on Facebook that Ms. Lau struggled a bit more than usual to finish this book, and it's absolutely a more thorny and messy subject than she normally has in her frequently rather fluffy romances. I think she managed the emotional complexities really well, though, and while Sierra very much ends up being emotionally unfaithful to Colton, it's quite clear that he more than emotionally cheated on her, throughout their relationship. Making Sanders such an out and out bad guy possibly simplifies the emotional fallout for Sierra and Jake, but I didn't have a problem with it.
I think the final Cider Bar Sisters novel will be out next year some time. Ms. Lau has another couple of romances coming out later this year though, which I'm very much looking forward to reading.
Judging a book by its cover: I know that Jackie Lau uses stock photos to make her covers when she self-publishes, and while a lot of them turn out really well, I think this one is one of her lesser efforts. But hey, they can't all be winners.
emmalita's review
4.0
Her Favorite Rebound is the fourth book in Jackie Lau’s excellent Cider Bar Sisters series. It would be helpful to have read the previous books, but it isn’t necessary. You should, because they are great, but if this is your first book, you won’t be totally lost.
Despite dating a billionaire and happily running her own small stationary shop, Sierra Wu has frustrations in her life. Her family never approves of her. She shares a name with a famous fictional demon slayer character (imagine if your name were Buffy Summers or Sarah Connor). Also, she isn’t sure if she’s dating The Colton Sanders because she loves him, or because it’s the one think that impresses her family. It doesn’t help when a good looking man comes along and tells her she’s too good for Colton Sanders.
Jake Tong sees a beautiful woman sitting alone at a restaurant and feels like he’s had the ground pulled out from under him. And then he sees that the woman is with his former boss and friend/current enemy Colton Sanders. He warns her that Colton is a bad person. He starts to see her around and every time they meet, there is an attraction and tension.
Her Favorite Rebound is emotionally messy. I was ready for Sierra to break up with Colton as soon as she met Jake, but she has to work through their relationship in her own way. Sierra is working through her feelings about her family and her wish that she wasn’t constantly compared unfavorably to everyone else. Jake has been rebuilding his self respect after realizing that he was selling pieces of his soul pursing wealth and the respect of the obscenely wealthy. Emotionally, their relationship starts when Sierra is still in a committed relationship. Physically, nothing happens until after the breakup. Once her relationship with Colton is over, Sierra assumes her relationship with Jake is just a rebound. Of course we know, and Jake knows, that he is great for her as well as to her, but Sierra has a lot of baggage to unpack before she is ready to know anything.
As always, Lau gives her characters complicated families and excellent friends.
Content Notes: bad labor practices, rebuilding self-respect, unfaithfulness, fetishization of Asian women, chronic depression, a character’s mother died by suicide off page and in the past, difficult families.
I received this as an advance reader copy from the author. My opinions are my own.
Despite dating a billionaire and happily running her own small stationary shop, Sierra Wu has frustrations in her life. Her family never approves of her. She shares a name with a famous fictional demon slayer character (imagine if your name were Buffy Summers or Sarah Connor). Also, she isn’t sure if she’s dating The Colton Sanders because she loves him, or because it’s the one think that impresses her family. It doesn’t help when a good looking man comes along and tells her she’s too good for Colton Sanders.
Jake Tong sees a beautiful woman sitting alone at a restaurant and feels like he’s had the ground pulled out from under him. And then he sees that the woman is with his former boss and friend/current enemy Colton Sanders. He warns her that Colton is a bad person. He starts to see her around and every time they meet, there is an attraction and tension.
Her Favorite Rebound is emotionally messy. I was ready for Sierra to break up with Colton as soon as she met Jake, but she has to work through their relationship in her own way. Sierra is working through her feelings about her family and her wish that she wasn’t constantly compared unfavorably to everyone else. Jake has been rebuilding his self respect after realizing that he was selling pieces of his soul pursing wealth and the respect of the obscenely wealthy. Emotionally, their relationship starts when Sierra is still in a committed relationship. Physically, nothing happens until after the breakup. Once her relationship with Colton is over, Sierra assumes her relationship with Jake is just a rebound. Of course we know, and Jake knows, that he is great for her as well as to her, but Sierra has a lot of baggage to unpack before she is ready to know anything.
As always, Lau gives her characters complicated families and excellent friends.
Content Notes: bad labor practices, rebuilding self-respect, unfaithfulness, fetishization of Asian women, chronic depression, a character’s mother died by suicide off page and in the past, difficult families.
I received this as an advance reader copy from the author. My opinions are my own.