A review by bandherbooks
Return to Cherry Blossom Way by Jeannie Chin

3.0

absolutely enchanted with Chin's prose, and I was gliding along famously with this slow-burn romance (with pay off! ! !) but the character choices at the end made me so frustrated! I will definitely read more from this author, as the small-town setting that doesn't turn away from the small minded racism and economic woe problems that can come with them.

Do also want to note there is a lot of grief in this book, both main characters have at least one deceased parent (one from cancer) and it also took me a minute to settle into all of that. I wish I had finished before fathers' day. these plot points are all alluded to in the back matter and i just ran out of time to read for my book club.


Spoilery details about ending:

Spoiler

i wish that we had a better take down of the racist white girl who ended up sleeping with the hero and bragging about it to the heroine (after bullying the heroine in the past). I especially wish the hero had not sort of apologized away the white woman's horrible behavior as part of her own "complex grief emotions." that should have been on the part of the woman herself. I dunno, complicated all around.

Also, for the heroine to pack in her entire career to move back home, i guess i expected it, but it still felt not quite the right choice as well as her rapid pivot to defending her small hometown after so much anger and ire at it (and her high school boyfriend who destroyed her heart).

All in all, this is a ME thing, and i otherwise really enjoyed reading.

thank you to the publisher for the ARC