hey guys my name is Iasmina and
welcome back to my channel in today's
video I'm going to do a review of one of
the books I've read recently and that is
Loveboat,Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen so
I usually do sort of recent reads wrap
ups where I talk about a bunch of books
in one video to keep it short but I did
say that I wanted to sometimes do sort
of full one video reviews for single books
if I feel like I have enough to say and
I definitely want to do more of that so
this will be the first video in this
kind of series talking about books in
more detail of course I'll try to keep
everything spoiler free so just for your
information there's not gonna be
spoilers but I will talk a bit more in
depth about what I thought about this
new YA contemporary release it is quite
a fairly new release I think it came out
last month if I'm not mistaken if you're
interested in my thoughts on this book
please stay tuned otherwise I have
plenty other videos about book
recommendations and videos about writing
as well so do check those out if you're
interested but let's go into the review
of this book first of all that cover is
gorgeous don't you think I really really
like this cover it's really cool I'll
this put it here so like I said Loveboat
Taipei is a recent YA
contemporary release and it's kind of a
coming-of-age story it's a very diverse
coming-of-age story and it was a lot of
fun like I didn't expect this book to be
as fun as it was and I really really
enjoyed reading it I think I gave it 
on Goodreads like four point five out of
five stars just to give you an idea of
the rating and I'll go into the story
and what I liked about it and things and
what I didn't like about it there were a
couple of things I didn't like but for
the most part I really enjoyed this book
and I would highly recommend it but
let's get into the story so Loveboat Taipei
follows the character of Ever who
is a second generation Asian American so
her parents moved to America and then
they had her so I think that makes her
second generation and I'm pretty sure
and so she grew up in a pretty strict
household her parents kind of decided
early on that she should be a doctor and
so they kind of planted the seed in her
head and have helped her since she was
young to sort of pursue that dream and
so at the beginning of the book Ever is
looking at all of the letters all her
applications that she applied to all of
these colleges because she's 18 now so
she's gonna go to college next year but
really Ever doesn't want to be a doctor
that's not what she wants Ever is a
dancer she's really really good at
dancing and she's very good at coming up
with choreographies for dancing as well
but obviously that's not something that
her parents approve of but she secretly
applied to a arts academy that is called
Tisch I think that's how you pronounce
it and from what I remember I think it
was just a general sort of Arts Academy
I'm not sure if it was specifically
focused on dancing but she would have
gone there to to study dancing and she
got in so she's looking at all of these
letters and she didn't think that she
would get accepted at this College but
she did so now Ever it doesn't know what
to do she is scared to of course tell
her parents that she wants to go to
become a dancer when they've kind of
been pushing her to become a doctor all
this time and they would never approve
of her being anything but a doctor and
so she's struggling with what to do and
then she goes out with her best friend
and they practice dancing and then her
mother shows up and her father they show
up where they were practicing and they
had found the acceptance letter to the
dance academy and they are furious they
ripped the letter apart and they tell
her there's no way there's no way that
she's going to that and she should tell
write them back saying that she can't
accept and then they tell her that
they've already enrolled her into a
summer program in Taipei Taiwan and that
she will be going there to spend her
entire summer before College they make a
big deal out of it saying that you know
her mother sold her precious pearl
necklace in order to get her into this
program that it's a very elite program
and she would be going there to study
Mandarin calligraphy and biology to help
with getting into medical college so she
is shipped off to Taipei in order to
participate in the summer
program but as soon as she gets there
she realizes that there is much more to
this summer program than she expected of
course she expected it to be this strict
sort of almost nunnery
you know summer school basically however
it is definitely definitely not that so
as soon as she gets a roommate her and
her roommate are going to find her their
rooms and one of the supervisors um
busts these two people like in the
middle of doing the deed and Ever gets a
full view I'll just say that she gets a
full view of what's happening well
that's the moment when she realizes hold
on this is this is more than what I
thought this was so this is kind of the
setup of the book and the whole idea is
that you know they're there for the
summer program but there is more to it
than it looks like there is in the
beginning and the roommate that she's
assigned sort of becomes her friend and
you know they're gonna go partying
clubbing almost every night and this
roommate is already making a list of who
she thinks is hot based on with the guys
that they've already seen so it's that
sort of scene it's a very sort of
partying kind of thing right and now I'm
gonna say I don't think I don't I'm not
sure if this is considered a spoiler but
part of this book is a romance and it is
there is a love triangle and if you guys
know me you know I'm not a fan of love
triangles I don't think that they're
believable at least most of the ones
I've read and I am not a fan however I
think this one actually worked much much
better than all the ones I've read
before because of the set up because
this is meant to be this sort of hookup
you know party place it sets it up from
the beginning that that's kind of what
it is and so it kind of makes sense not
gonna spoil more than that obviously but
I just want to let you know that there
is a love triangle involved it's a lot
of fun I honestly the writing is really
beautiful as well all of the rich
sceneries and descriptions I really
really fell in love with just all the
descriptions of Taipei and things like
that I thought it was really well done
and it pulled
the character of Ever is really cool as
well as she she has a deep personality
and she cares deeply about her family
and even though she's kind of using the
summer to rebel against all of the rules
that they have set for her her entire
life she still loves them deeply and
does not want to disappoint them and
does not want to make them sad there's a
lot of talk about family and friendship
and things like that it also talks about
mental health although that was kind of
one of the points where I subtracted
from my rating because I feel like it
was brushed off I wish it would have
gone a bit more in-depth into those
topics because of course they're very
important topics and it's not okay to
just brush them off just sort of mention
them fleetingly without really
explaining much there was also another
thing that I didn't like regarding the
friendship between her and her roommate
that I don't want to get into because
that would be a spoiler but there was
something there that I wasn't a huge fan
of how it played out I'll be honest
everything else I really really liked
and it was steamy like it was steamy it
actually felt the chemistry between all
of the people and not just the love
triangle but between Ever and every
single other person whether it was a
friendship or more you could really feel
chemistry you could feel that these
characters were real and I really
enjoyed that but yes it is very steamy
for a YA romance and this is something
that you know I I don't read a lot of
romance but I read a lot of YA
contemporary and it's it's one of these
things that just gets brushed off and
whenever there is something like that
involved it just kind of fades to black
and it still does that in this book but
it's there is more I'll just say there
is it shows more happening before it
fades to black and just in general it
has this whole sort of you know flirty
sort of steamy aspect to it with all of
the relations and all the things that
happen in this book and so I really
enjoyed that aspect of it and I think it
was well done and also there is a scene
in this book I really should I don't
know if I should mention it it's not
like a it's not an important scene at
all it's just something that I still
it's still stuck in my my memory
They go clubbing one night and at this
club there's this
random snake whisperer who makes shots
out of snake blood and so he has a bunch
of snakes and then they pay they pay him
for the shot and Ever drinks it and it's
like oh gosh I I still can see that
scene in my head and like I felt a bit
sick honestly reading that but it was so
strange and unexpected and vivid that I
kind of I like that about it
obviously I don't like the content that
don't agree with the content but
obviously that's part of that culture
and that's you know that's it just how
it is yeah it was a bit intense I'm not
gonna lie it was a bit intense but I
think that's all I'll say without going
into too much spoiler I want to keep
this video relatively short but I just
want to give you guys a recommendation
if you enjoy YA contemporary and
especially YA contemporary romance I
highly highly recommend this book of
course I will leave a link to the book
in the description if you're interested
but that was it for my review of Loveboat
Taipei I hope you guys enjoyed this
video and I hope you enjoy this idea of
me doing more single in-depth reviews on
books I'll of course do more in the
future if I have if I feel like I have
enough to say about a particular book
and also if you guys want I can go back
through my catalog of books that I've
already read and makes separate reviews
so if you're interested in something
like that and you have an idea for a book or a
series that you think I have read or you
know I have read and you want my more
in-depth take on it
leave that in comments below and I will
make sure to film that video for you
guys otherwise please like and subscribe
if you enjoyed this video and I will
leave links to some more videos at the
end so you can watch some more reviews
of mine yeah I hope you have a great day
and I'll see you next time bye
