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March 2020 Book Review

This month's Fiction book review is Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan.


This novel is about Family Standards, traditions and what you do reflects on the family you come from as well; at least that is what I took from the novel. And everyone has a family secret or two that they would like to keep hidden. Also if you find a love so untouchable and go through so much pain and you still fight for it, even if your family wants to ruin a perfect thing for traditional values. Even through a tight family network and having family legacy going back centuries ,a family thoughts can be changed or at least have a compromise in tradition. I am not going to hide the fact I started this read February first and I just finished it March nineteenth. It took me while to fall in love with the novel at first. And this fiction novel is broken down in three parts, sidenote I need more right after part two and of course I have the next one in my hands. I couldn't stop reading even if it was past midnight the novel kept shocking my mind! Let me just say when rachel wore that necklace in part two, My mouth dropped into the pages before me. It made me feel like I was at the wedding reception seeing the story unfolded.

I can relate to the novel about family standards,traditions and bringing someone home like most people. Just like the novel bringing someone to meet a family, especially when there's a strict traditional culture background. Outsiders are put through every trial good or bad, to get approval like Rachel. And the family tends to go through every bit of information given to them with a fine tooth comb even through beyond measures to get the real information about someone.

I also took another bit from this novel regarding blessings from the family members. Even if getting blessings from everyone is important before getting down on one knee but also having a bit grit showing everyone that maybe the person doesn't fit the mold but they are worth it all. I believe there is a particular moment in life where love is more important than pleasing the tradition around the culture. This quote kept popping in my head after I finished the novel yesterday that connects with my previous statement.

" I can't believe you did this. I can't believe you went halfway around the world and back for me in two days. What ever possessed you to do such a crazy thing?" (PAGE 525)

All I am going to say Nick Young need to do that for Rachel Chu. Traveling halfway around the world just to make a person happy and expecting nothing in return, has to be the most beautiful thing I have heard in a long time.Knowing your other half is more valuable than anything else in the universe.

I hope you have or going to read this novel, please let me know in the comments or on my other social media outlets. And I know I made this review very short for my style but I have to get started on that second novel, I have to know what happens next!

What's coming out next is my latest written piece, be on the lookout for that. It's going to be a long emotional rollercoaster ride.


All my love always,

Misread


 

She made the First move.. He made the last


Prolong: Honestly, I didn’t want to finish this story or publish it but it has been on my heart to finish it. I had it finished in my head but the words just wouldn’t come on the paper the way I wanted from my heart. And this love story is about being at the distance with someone and trying to build with someone while making mistakes that can’t be taken back. This is where it all lead to, she did make the first move and he made the last move. I originally wrote a section of this story two years ago and it was titled “You made the last move “. I couldn’t finish it then and it was a struggle to find the words on paper for it all to make sense, taking weeks to think and rewrite it out and finally letting it been seen by the world is another story all together.

They met two years ago, she made the first move and they started admiring of each other work then becoming quick friends but feeling changed during that first year for her in their relationship. She made the first move April 6th, 2018 towards him impulsively and unexpectedly and she was glad she did since that moment. He stayed through the good times, the bad times but he left once before, he disappeared for two weeks. He knew then she would have jumped on a first flight to see him back then. This time around, she made him leave forever after her birthday and with her last words, " I have been taking to another". She confessed everything to him because she said she would always be honest with him. Right or wrong of her choices, she made them, she spoke her truth. She knew if she didn’t tell him right then and there, he will find out anyway from her own mouth later, she rather tell him while she’s hurting already then to relive it all over again. She gave him the option to leave, no questions asked since everything else in her life is destroyed already and he left that moment, out the door. She knew he will never return even if she didn’t make her mistake. And two months later she regrets it all but it had to happen then in the future. Days later, she’s sitting in the Porsche dealership waiting on her car to be finished being serviced for hours and they finally call her name finally. She walks over and looks over the paperwork and the charges, she notices his name appearing as the mechanic. She couldn’t believe the odds and the coincidences of his name showing up, taking her back for a moment; she signs her name underneath his. Walking out to the parking lot that day, she decided to check her messages and saw nothing but a song called, “What could’ve been” by Gone West playing on the stereo at the same moment.

On this Leap year afternoon, she sat and reminisce about their past and happy moments in her days after he left Jan 14th, 2020. She pulled out the note, she wrote when he left the first-time dated August 2018. As she read the written page allowed in her empty studio, she ran her fingertips over the title over a few times, "You made the last move". Closing her eyes, she titles her back for a brief moment and let it all sink of her repeated reality. Thinking of the first time he called her, made her heart jump and skipped a beat or two. she was nervous as a cat but he would never know that. When she saw he was calling while she was working at her office, butterflies instantly in her stomach and she didn’t know quite know what to say at first but letting him to take the lead. She remembers saying, “It’s about time you called”. And he replied, “You know I figured it was about time we talked on the phone since we have been texting a for a long time and I wanted to hear your voice”. She was impressed but he would never know that and she always wondered why he took so long to dial her number when it has been his hands for year, his best mate must have convinced him to finally hit the call button. She remembered smiling ear to ear that day and calling her sisters right after that phone call end but he would never know that either. As she’s daydreams away a little longer, she remembers seeing him in his red plaid shirt for the first time and thinking, “He’s an amazing talented man”.

Before this continues just know she’s done with it all, the game, the idea; everything. She misses him every day and yet she knows everything had to happen for a reason. She loved him since the day she said, “Hello handsome”. Took her months to stop crying through dawn each night and accepting it all and now she’s slowly removing him from her reality, her memories of him from her phone. She knew, the second she typed the last message to him before she hit sent, he was gone. He’s done and gone just like she predicted he would after he asked, “What else is going on for you to be more upset?” Someone that she thought was a good friend to her and treated her kindly was the type of person that wanted to break her heart and teach her a lesson that she needed to learn. She never blamed him because she would have done same when he left that moment, when she confessed what she did and what she’s going through.


She remembered the day; she wrote those first two paragraphs with the fly of her blue pen and now knowing why she could never finish that story as she tries to finish it now in the exact place where it all started 1,095 days ago and 5,271 miles apart with the same page in her hands. Wondering if she even should continue it as she watches a young couple meeting for the first time at the place, where she said she would want to meet him first across from her studio. The universe tells her not to finish it but it needs a proper ending to it; she thinks with a background to it than just a reason for them meeting and just ending. Or maybe she never wants them to end, even on paper because then it comes tangible and real in her own hands.

She knows, she broke his heart for the second time in her life and the idea of her in a single moment. She’s never broken a heart before. She’s always been the one getting her heart broken and what she did broke her into a million pieces. Days before he finally admitted he wanted something more, a chance to meet, a chance to touch, a chance to see each other within breathable distance. He asked her to meet in person on her next trip out of the city where she would be in the exact place few months later. She remembered being happy reading that messaging blinking across her screen unexpectedly on her birthday. All she ever wanted from, the start and she threw it all away with her confession a week later. She didn’t want their beginning to start knowing she betrayed him in the end. She wouldn’t be able to look at him in the eye knowing that and he deserved better than what she gave him in return. Because she kept asking for more in the past and he always said, “We are at distance and in two different places”. She decided too not to hold him to that dream of them as much as she had from there on. She enjoyed his company, his character, his banter each day and his good morning notes. Every day she expected him to say, he met someone else when things kept being the same between them; she never expected herself to be that person in a million years but she was. She knows who she is and during that time frame she walked away from her own logic and messed everything up for herself but she starts putting herself together slowly each day, alone. Working herself into every project she could to not think until she physically too tired to sleep.

A week later she leaves one last message to him, knowing he will never read it and never respond anyway. She knew she was going back on her word of talking to him again but his last word of “I don’t know what to say” wouldn’t leave her heart on her quiet days, no matter how much she tried to block those words out. On her trip to another city for the most important business meeting of the year, she allows herself to think about it in the LA traffic that lasted an hour longer than expected. She starts to type every single thought of him, she ever had and how sorry she is and she hopes he finds a great woman that unconditionally loves him with every fiber of her being. “I regret everything and I can’t believe I did this to you and I see who I am now and how you see through your eyes. Hope you find a woman that loves you and never hurts you like I did, you deserve an unconditional type of love and you are amazing man. And you create beautiful moments for people that leave people speechless”. Sitting in that back seat of a ford escape, she had a few tears, explaining her life falling part to a complete stranger and she said, “ I am going to act perfectly okay because I built my own bed and I have to lay in what I have done and that’s what I deserve.” Four days later she went to delete it and move on forever but he read it. She didn’t think she could move from her chair that moment even if there was earthquake around her studio and she said out loud, “He saw my words” tears slipped from her eyes that moment without her realizing she was in tears. It took her another day later to erase that paragraph because she said exactly what she wanted to say and there was no point letting it sit there for another moment torturing herself thinking he would response or question herself on why she said something in the first place.

Looking back at the two young lovers across the street and reminisced about their discussion of their first potential meeting “Date”. Right before she starts to remove the few photos, she kept of him, three weeks later, she started to stare into those chestnut colored eyes. She said in a wispier, “You said once you will never leave and you also never said if you ever wanted me in the first place. You would say gorgeous you worry too much and you always finding problems “. Looking at his photo for a little longer, she knows he probably has someone new else by now or had someone in-between. She has to accepted it all and there is a reason behind it all.



Coming back to her reality she smiles with her eyes and heart and looks back at that soprano mug photo and looked beyond the mug to his eyes. She sent their story out to the world without giving it another look over and she removed what’s left of him from her phone. And whispered, “We are two strangers again and I hope you are truly happy and get everything you desire in this life. And if you talk to me again or you don’t it was nice to know you” Folding the white lined paper back up and slides it back into the red and white striped enveloped and puts the envelope back into her black leather writer's bag. She gathers the rest of her belongings and heads over to the coffee shop across the windy street. And purchases two brownies and their next drinks on her, for that sweet couple forming in the corner booth as she wished that was her future. She heads out the door to the train station across the street with her one-way ticket to her next adventure. She knows love does exist; people make things work together does exist. And she knows, she won’t go seeking out for love in her phone anymore. One day love will find her and that love won’t be easy but it will be the right amount of perfect.



Epilogue: You made the last move – Original note

The Original note she wrote during the time he left the first time and she could never finish it then. He told her once he wanted to see it and she should finish it someday. She told him, “It hurt too much to finish it and I know why because it was about you”.

I risked my heart for you, thinking of when I shouldn’t have gotten attached to you; barley even knowing you. Months of getting to know you and one day you were gone. Disappeared without warning I cried over you, when I shouldn’t of; but it was bound to happen in my mind, there’s no way you could enjoy my company any longer. Things moved fast unexpectedly between us and I was falling for you without knowing it from the very beginning. You knew everything about my past and I still know little about you besides your family and that cutie that I grew to love. Messaging you a few days later to see if you were doing okay at least. And I didn’t hear a sound from you. In the beginning of your silence made me think more about my own thoughts of you. All I could was stare into my phone and wonder about you and cry too many tears than I would like to admit to anyone including myself. But I couldn’t bring myself to message you again, I must have been ghosted. I felt safe with you and that’s hard to even bring myself to admit that from all the other ones, they never made me feel safe as you did.

In quiet days, the tears became less but my mind still wondered during my work hours, “What I was to you?” in your mind. Getting lost in my wandering mind can lead to endless unanswered questions. “He is okay? Did I matter just a little bit? Or did I get used for the hundred time? Did I miss the signs, he gave?”

I miss those little messages blinking on my phone during a meeting would brighten my day without reading it. The day there was silence from you was the day I wanted more and move into a different direction with you. I had to let that go and I know that is the right move in my head. Two weeks go by then you reappeared, I didn’t know what to think or what to do believe or how to feel about either. Hearing you were fine was just enough for me. Come to find out in the end, you had a phone issue for two weeks straight.

You know where am I, that's where I will be and stay. And I will always wonder if you ever told anyone about me and if all of us were suppose never really begin. I know from the beginning where I stood about you and I know the ending it all is all on me, not on you. You know where to find me, even with a parachute, checkmate.


Author Note : I hope you enjoyed this piece and I can't wait to hear your feedback.

The next piece is called , "If I was gone today " and will be coming out soon

Love, misread

 

All things Stephanie Plum

My first reads of 2020 are three Janet Evanovich novels. Hardcore Twenty- Four, Look alive Twenty-Five and Twisted Twenty- Six!


Each Janet Evanovich novel always seem to be my favorite pick me up in novels. If I am having a bad day and need a little laughter,she fixes everything with her story. I never want a single novel to end but by at the end of the novel, I am smiling at the way she completed the story-line. Once you start to read her Stephanie Plum series, you will understand.

Hardcore Twenty - Four

Is a definitely a hardcore funny action novel in my opinion. Dealing with Zombies, Morelli and Diesel, Ranger now that's a hardcore balance to juggle them all. And Grandma Mazur love life to add to her list as well. She's one hell of a bounty hunter and survived zombies and Ethel but seems to ranking her car insurance up faster than she and Lula can catch fugitives. Hopefully she learned to not make deals with Ranger for now at least.

Look Alive Twenty- Five

This novel is a world-win of mystery. A movie script written and coming to life in Trenton, missing people , no evidence besides leaving a shoe behind as a calling card. Five managers of the Red River Deli are missing and Stephanie is the new manager of the deli , what could go wrong ? A fire would be the least worst possible scenario could happen.

She has a full plate of things happening in this novel, Stealing a cat exchange for her Fugitive needing to reschedule her court date, catching the lead singer of the Rockin Armpits and a shoplifter that put his underpants on his head during a heist. And on top of that Grandma Mazur jumped on a plane with mob man and Stephanie possibly can't catch her before it's too late.


Twisted Twenty - Six

Twenty- Six is a definitely Twisted novel from Beginning to end. Stephanie is catching her Fugitives left and right but Grandma Mazur New husband passed away suddenly and she's the number one target in the Burg for a certain set of keys he had. lazy boys want the keys, ex wives want what is owned to them and sisters all want grandma in one way or other without the keys. Stephanie's mom knows how to use an iron in from of a weapon. A mishap of poisoned cookies gifted at one point. Grandma Mazur as been keeping everyone worried, stressed about her every move. The Lazy- boy group started to get smaller in process of everything happening. Morelli and Ranger do everything in their power to protect them both from everyone in the Burg.

Janet certainly has a way leaving every novel with a little cliff hanger. From Twisted Twenty- six , she left the biggest cliff hanger out of all her books ! You know I will be buying the twenty- seventh novel in this series , as soon as it is released because I NEED to know the answer to the current mystery and I am biting my lip trying not to share what the certain golden nugget she left on the last page. Trust me, it's very hard to share !

I always loved reading this series, it my kind of novel, I dreamed to write and read. I never can put her novels down, usually I finish them within a few days.

Anyway until the next book review... see ya. And grab yourself a copy of one of her novels.


 

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