The Quick Cut: A teen girl feels her mother's pressure to date the right kind of guy when she uses an annual baking competition to find her daughter the appropriate boy. Emotions and chaos ensue.
A Real Review:
For some, the pressure to date and marry the right kind of person can be intense. Whether that pressure comes from family needs, traditional values, or your peers - finding the right person can go from finding your match to feeling like you're trying to find a needle in a needle stack. Do you give in to the pressure and let other people dictate who you will date? Or do you stand your ground and only pursue who you want? This is the struggle for graduating senior Liza Yang.
To her friends, Liza is perfect. She has straight As, is kind, and absolutely beautiful. However, her mother appears to feel the opposite in the way she dictates Liza's dating life and attempts to control her daughter's choice of boyfriends. Liza has spent years doing as little as she has to in order to appease her mom, but it has only seemingly increased the pressure on her. It almost becomes too much to handle when Liza agrees to help on a greater level with this year's baking competition in order to be taken more seriously by her folks. It seemed like such an innocuous idea at the time... but Liza shows up day one of the baking competition and realizes her mom has set it up as a dating opportunity for Liza, with all the competitors being potential boys to date. Can she get through the baking competition without losing her mind over her mother's insistent meddling? Or will she find that the pressure actually worked and find a perfect date?
For the record, I cannot relate on any level to the dating pressure that Liza goes through. My parents always made it clear to me that I'm allowed to date who I want as long as they prove themselves to be of good values. However, dating these days can feel like a minefield nonetheless - so I can at least relate to the ridiculous prospects a girl can run into when she puts herself out there. Seeing Liza not only graduating from high school, but also trying to choose her own path and dating prospects gets chaotic at best. Between her mom's need to insist on following certain date restrictions and her overall parent's dictation of Liza getting a college degree - it can feel like her life is being chosen for her. Liza not only manages to navigate these complex situations, but learns how to best pick her battles for the things that matter most. It's a skill far too undervalued nowadays and to see her navigate that expertly put a smile on my face.
To put it simply Liza is a nerd. Between the shirts that she loves to wear and the baking that she loves to do, Liza knows exactly who she is and is unafraid to be that person. In fact, most of the trauma that comes out of her choices is due to her need to be true to herself and not to what anyone else is trying to make her do. I couldn't help but appreciate how much she defied her mom without letting her know about it. If you feel like a rebel, Liza is going to be someone you relate to a lot.
There are a multitude of side stories in this book that I won't even begin to recount. Many of them involve the dating drama of Liza's sister and her friends. It does highlight how difficult dating can be, no matter how pretty or perfect you appear to be on the outside. It's best to just be who you really are and let the rest work itself out accordingly. Being single isn't nearly as horrifying a status as many make it out to be. There's also plenty of family rivalry drama going on as well, so if you like to enjoy warring families and the subtlety of words being used against one another - you'll love this book too.
The only complaint I do have about this one is how quickly all the storylines get wrapped up in the end. It feels almost too rushed, especially after how much it slows down in the second half of the book. Better pacing would have made this a knock-out.
A fun contemporary romance about the complexities of dating. My rating: 4.75 out of 5