Jackie Lau

A Thanksgiving rom-com with lots of food and interfering family! Advertising executive Nick Wong enjoys living in Toronto. He loves late nights partying and taking women back to his penthouse. And so it is with great reluctance that he returns to his boring hometown of Mosquito Bay for Thanksgiving. This year, however, is even worse than usual. His parents and grandparents, frustrated with the lack of weddings in the family, have invited blind dates for him and his three siblings. Nick's brother Greg has been set up with Lily Tseng, who just so happens to be Nick's latest one-night stand, the one he can't get out of his mind. Although Nick has never been interested in settling down, Lily has him reconsidering. Perhaps he's good for more than a single night of sex, dumplings, and bubble tea after all. But first, he has to get through this painful weekend with his family and convince her that she should be with him, not Greg… * * * KEYWORDS: rom-com, one-night stand, Canadian Thanksgiving, holiday romance, contemporary romance, romantic comedy, playboy, Asian hero, Asian heroine, steamy romance, novella, happy ending, bubble tea, soup dumplings, Nanaimo bars

A Match Made for Thanksgiving

Petaco

So I didn't read the synopsis but checked it out based on the cover. I thought it was a cozy mystery! LOL, it wasn't. Not my kind of thing but I will probably read more by this author.

Connor 

3.5--love me some Jackie Lau characters, and Nick and Lily are no exception. Unfortunately, if you'll excuse me, I have to look into this sudden craving for soup dumplings that I will happily blame entirely on the ending of this story.

Nikki

Lauren Sullivan

Content warnings: (view spoiler)[grief over parent’s death (hide spoiler)]

I’m a pretty big fan of Jackie Lau’s books. They’re funny, intrinsically Canadian, and usually feature lots of delicious food (Nanaimo bars are the standout here). This novella feels a little fluffier than usual, but I still loved it.

Nick was glad to escape his small hometown of Mosquito Bay, and the only thing that keeps him coming back is holidays with his family. This (Canadian) Thanksgiving, however, they’ve taken meddling to a whole new level by inviting dates for Nick and his brothers. An awkward situation that’s made even worse when he discovers his brother’s “date” is the one night stand that he can’t quite get out of his head. In the wake of her dad’s death, Lily has been trying to be more spontaneous – she even made a list to help her! Part of that is having a one night stand, and when she meets Nick at a bar, she thinks he fits the bill perfectly. But seeing him again at Thanksgiving ends up with them falling into something that she’s not sure is a relationship – or if she even wants one with him.

“No one had ever said her name the way he did. Like there were so many subtle flavors in it—in her—that she’d never been aware of before.”

Despite it being a novella, the characters are thoughtfully written. I sympathized so much with Lily’s self-doubts about being boring and stuck in a rut. On the other hand, Nick’s the consummate rich playboy who compares being in a relationship to the suffocating feeling he felt growing up in a small town. Despite – because of? – their differences, their chemistry is amazing. Where this book really stands out is the side characters (especially Nick’s mom). Ms. Lau writes the most amazing families, loving and messy and pushy in equal measures.

As for cons, the pacing is a bit uneven. Everything flows smoothly until after the actual Thanksgiving trip is complete. Most of the conflict afterwards consists of Lily’s worries about their relationship – or lack of one – but it’s all wrapped up quickly when she shares her feelings with Nick. I appreciated the great communication, but at the same time, it lacked the punch of the usual romance big final dark moment, so the story felt like it fizzled out.

Overall, while I enjoyed the book, I wanted a bit more from it, and would rate it around 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 (because yummy food!). If you’re looking for a fun, light holiday read, this fits the bill!

I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

b.andherbooks

What if your meddling family set you and your siblings up with blind dates for Thanksgiving dinner...and your brother's date just happens to be the gorgeous woman you just had a glorious one-night stand with?

Steamy, cute, and full of edible descriptions of food and sex that will leave you wishing for an invite to the Wong's!

Available now!

CW for parental death (in the past). Thank you to the author for the ARC!

Jo H

What a fantastic rom-com novella series! 

It's both steamy and heartwarming, something that I had not experienced before this year. Although not set entirely in the small town of Mosquito Bay, it is similar in feel, albeit entirely hetero, to Katrina Jackson's Welcome To Sea Port which is also a series of four novellas, albeit not rom-com although it has its moments.

The rock-solid family dynamic in this is just my cup of coffee, as was the small-town vibe. But the characters are QUEEN here. This is a Chinese-Canadian (interracial as the mother is white) family with four biracial kids, three sons and one daughter all of whom have distinctly different personalities, where the grandparents live very close to the parents and are always popping in and out of their house. The entire series premise of the family matchmaking (or at least trying to!) for all four of the kids/grandkids is even more hilarious when you find out some of the basis of it... “Alright.” Zach put his fork down with a clink. “Mom and Dad, why on earth did you set me up with Diana, and Amber with her ex-boyfriend? Why do you feel the need to interfere in our dating lives?”

“We already told you!” Ah Ma said. “Four grandchildren, all single. Clearly you need help.”

“No,” Zach said, “we don’t.”

“And Diana is your best friend’s little sister.”

“Sebastian isn’t my best friend. I rarely see him anymore.”

“But he was your best friend when you were children, yes?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“We did our research.” Ah Ma stuffed a bite of cheesecake in her mouth. “Well, mainly Rosemary, because she is the one who reads all the romance novels, but I read a few, too. And this best friend’s little sister? We see it in a few books. It always results in a happy ending. So we think, maybe it will work for you!”

Mom turned to Amber. “Sometimes second chance romances turn out well, too, so we figured we’d invite Darren.”

“What about Greg and me?” Nick asked. “How did you pick our dates?”

“You and Janice are opposites,” Ah Ma said. “Opposites attract, no? And Lily...well, from all I’ve heard, she sounds like a wonderful woman”—she looked at Lily, who blushed—“and I thought she’d be best with Greg. Though there was that runaway bride...”

“Runaway bride?”

“A new woman in town,” Mom said. “Left a guy at the altar. She was supposed to get married again last week, and I thought for sure she’d leave this guy, too, and then maybe she could fall into the arms of one of my sons. But she went through with the wedding. You know Mrs. Meyer? She lost thirty dollars in a bet!”

“Mom,” Zach said, “why would you want to set one of us up with a woman who’d left two men at the altar? Seems like a bad bet.”

“Aiyah!” Ah Ma said. “Clearly you don’t understand these things.”

“Clearly not,” Greg muttered. this whole thing really tickled me. 

In terms of this series starter, I will say that the one negative in this book for me is the use of the 'I'm so insecure I'm not sure if I'm good enough for you' trope (she feels she is too boring and the difference in their wealth levels), especially as it is Lily, the FMC's POV... but the book is just so damn cute and funny with some great sex scenes with such strong family connections that I can't be too mad about it. 

The author has a penchant for using very short punchy sentences too, and this is something else that I think works really well with the style of the story being told considering that the events take place over a really short period of time.

There's also this which I really likedWhen Nick came downstairs the following morning, he was greeted to a horrifying sight.

Well, “horrifying” might be a bit strong, but it was a sight he didn’t really need to see.

His mother was sitting on the counter, her legs wrapped around his father’s waist, and they were kissing. A pot of oatmeal was cooking on the stove.

This happened nearly every time he went back to Mosquito Bay. He and Greg would usually stay over for a night or two, and his parents would forget that they no longer had the house to themselves.

“Oh, Smoochie-boo-kins,” his mother murmured.

At least, that’s what it sounded like, but Nick could have heard incorrectly.

“Ahem,” he said. “You’re not alone in the house this morning.”

Dad stepped back. “Oh, hi, Nick.”

“Don’t look so scandalized,” Mom said. “Old people kiss, too.”

“I’m very much aware of that.”

I love scenes like this because even though it's used for comedic effect as it often is in most books and on-screen, seeing older couples still very much 'hands on' in their love should be normalised more. I'd much prefer to see that than the horrors of what I witnessed growing up and into my early adult years.

All in all, this a really funny look at a romance within a multi-generational family setting which is bordering on insta-love (which is not normally my jam) that is both sweet and sexy at the same time. And it's Canadian!

A Match Made for Thanksgiving

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