I’ve been experiencing a lot of self-doubt so reading this book came at the right time. I love the connections you can make with people when you understand them, through language, culture, and shared experiences. All the pinyin and cultural references reminded me why I’m pursuing diplomacy as a career. I began learning Mandarin four years ago and studied abroad in China summer 2018. Throughout the book, I felt my heart expand in fondness. Ever is in for more than she expected when she realizes the program is popular for the misadventures and romances. Except her parents have another idea they’ve enrolled her in a summer program in Taiwan where she will be learning more about her Chinese heritage. Since she can’t, however, Ever prepares to spend her summer dancing her heart out (and studying, always studying). She would much rather be at Tisch School of the Arts pursuing her love of dance. Trigger warnings: alcohol, slut-shaming, domestic abuse, depressionĮverett, Ever for short, is a second-generation Taiwanese-American set to start Northwestern’s medical program in a few months. Unbeknownst to her parents, however, the program is actually an infamous teen meet-market nicknamed Loveboat, where the kids are more into clubbing than calligraphy and drinking snake-blood sake than touring sacred shrines.įree for the first time, Ever sets out to break all her parents’ uber-strict rules-but how far can she go before she breaks her own heart? When eighteen-year-old Ever Wong’s parents send her from Ohio to Taiwan to study Mandarin for the summer, she finds herself thrust among the very over-achieving kids her parents have always wanted her to be, including Rick Woo, the Yale-bound prodigy profiled in the Chinese newspapers since they were nine-and her parents’ yardstick for her never-measuring-up life. I received an eARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.įor fans of Crazy Rich Asians or Jane Austen Comedy of Manners, with a hint of La La Land Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | iTunes | Kobo | Google Books Thank you for Fantastic Flying Book Club for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour! Check out a fan-made playlist (and more surprises) for Loveboat, Taipei below. Both though-provoking and entertaining, you’ll find yourself invested before you know it.

Loveboat, Taipei manages to be a book about finding romance in unlikely places, parental and self-imposed expectations, being part of a diaspora, and being true to oneself.

Loveboat taipei review