2021, Week the Thirtieth: Cider Bar Sisters!

Hey There Bookworms,

I was in the mood for more rom-coms recently (when am I NOT in the mood for rom-coms, honestly?) and I thought I’d check out a new-to-me author. I’ve seen Jackie Lau on Twitter and she always seems lovely and smart, so I imagined her books would be similarly lovely and smart. I decided to purchase the Cider Bar Sisters series because I like cider. And sisterly camaraderie. It seemed like a good enough reason as any to choose where to begin with an author. I love it when I accidentally make good choices, don’t you?

Her Big City Neighbor by Jackie Lau- Just a small town girl… Living in a lonely woooooorld… Took the midnight train to Tor-ooooo-nto. Actually, that’s not perfectly accurate as she does not take the train, but close enough. Amy Sharpe inherits a house from her aunt and decides it’s time to make a fresh start. She enrolls in a graduate engineering program far away from the family that takes her for granted and her apathetic ex. Our Amy is working her way out of doormat status. Amy is introduced to her new friend group via her new roommate, and it’s a match made in a cider bar in Toronto. Amy is charmingly delighted by all the new culinary options available to her in the big city, nearly as delighted as she is by the ridiculously gorgeous next door neighbor who mows his lawn shirtless. He’s handsome, but brooding, though it appears he’s not entirely immune to Amy’s natural sunshine. (I love sunshine and grump tropes!) Victor Choi is inexplicably drawn to Amy, despite her penchant for unicorn mugs and polka dot dresses. Now if only her sunshine can break through his clouds… (I mean, duh, of course, but it’s fun!)

His Grumpy Childhood Friend by Jackie Lau– Once upon a time there were two little kids who lived next door to each other. They were both Asian in a very not-diverse town, and that, plus proximity, brought them together. Until the day when Mike’s family up and leaves town, giving Charlotte no warning whatsoever. True, they were only 13, but still. Besties tell each other stuff. Fast forward to the present. They’ve both grown up. Charlotte is the ultimate introvert relishing her work-from-home status and reveling in that pajama pants life. (This is very much in line with her childhood persona.) Mike has grown to be successful as well, albeit in a more extroverted sales role. One day, as fate would have it, they cross paths again. In the cider bar where Charlotte hangs out with her friends, naturally. Charlotte is the grumpy to Mike’s sunshine as they reconnect. (If there’s anything I love more than sunshine/grump, it’s when the sunshine is the dude.) The two make a deal to “practice” date, because Charlotte has recently decided she needs to get back out there after a mortifying jumbotron proposal caused her to spend like 5 years flying solo. Also, it’s not explicitly stated, but Charlotte reads to me like she’s on the autism spectrum, so the idea that she sort of needs to re-learn how to mask in order to go on traditional dates makes sense to me. Well, at least that she’d feel the need to try and re-learn the skill, anyway. Of course, Mike has had a crush on Charlotte since their childhood and is fully into Charlotte as-is. There is some baggage for the two to work through, but I really appreciated the low angst level of this book. Just enough to make a plot, not enough to rip into my soul and do permanent damage, you know? 

The Professor Next Door by Jackie Lau- OK folks, the first two books in this series were so wholesome (as wholesome as a book can be that includes sexy times, that is) that I wasn’t expecting Lau to turn up the heat so high on this one. What a fun, spicy surprise. Nicole doesn’t do serious relationships, at least not after the one that ended so badly. She does, however, very much enjoy her singlehood and has no shortage of flings. Which is the way she likes it. Until recently, anyway. These days, she finds herself tiring of the chase, and more interested in hanging out and eating takeout. Which is convenient, as her neighbor David is a quiet professor (of geology, how delightfully nerdy) who is also into takeout and low-key chit chat. The two begin to have friendly weekly dinners complete with delicious deserts and David finally works up the courage to inform Nicole that since they share a wall, he can hear her, um, amorous pursuits. In the meantime, Nicole’s elderly grandmother is going around being wonderfully quirky and going viral on TikTok for her antics, and Nicole realizes she’s got a giant lady boner for David when he wears his reading glasses and things start to get really interesting really fast. A fabulous mix of steamy and silly. You really can’t go wrong with this one.

That’s all for now, Bookworms, but I’m dying to know. Who are some of your favorite romantic comedy authors? I love discovering new-to-me authors and I’ve been tearing through backlists like crazy. I need some new authors to tackle. 

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