{"id":26416,"date":"2026-03-26T16:36:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=26416"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:39:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:39:21","slug":"not-your-valentine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/26416","title":{"rendered":"Not Your Valentine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not Your Valentine<\/em><\/a> (2023) Jackie Lau<\/a><\/p>\n

\"NotHelen is done with romance. And not unreasonably so.<\/p>\n

Charlie Kung broke up with me at a restaurant last Valentine\u2019s Day, a break-up that practically everyone in the world witnessed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But everyone keeps asking her if she’s moved on, and it’s annoying, so the obvious solution is to create a fake boyfriend.<\/p>\n

I know they want me to find a life partner one day, but not because it\u2019s a thing you\u2019re supposed to do, a sign you\u2019re a real adult. Rather, as far as I can tell, my parents are genuinely happy together and want their daughters to have that, too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because this is a romance, you know exactly what is going to happen, even if Helen doesn’t.<\/p>\n

I reach for his hand, for practical reasons: I don\u2019t want us to get separated in the crowd.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or at least isn’t willing to admit it.<\/p>\n

This is a novella with boinking, so there were (of course) portions of the book I skimmed, but there were bits I liked. First, Helen is likely neurodiverse.<\/p>\n

…but you should look like you\u2019re fond of me, rather than pissed about taking a selfie. Maybe try kissing me on the cheek.\u201d<\/p>\n

I glare at him. \u201cKissing for the camera? That would be suspicious. I don\u2019t want people to think I\u2019ve been kidnapped.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It doesn’t explicitly say so, but I related to a LOT of her characteristics.<\/p>\n

If my parents and sister were away for the holidays, I\u2019d be content to spend the time alone in my apartment, eating good food in peace. However, I recognize that not everyone is like me, which is probably for the best.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And although I skipped the boinking bits, there were boinking adjacent bits that I found hilarious.<\/p>\n

Last night\u2019s dream, for example, was wrong on so many levels.<\/p>\n

First of all, Taylor was wearing bowling shoes and nothing else. Not even socks. Gross.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s also single Point-of-View, which I like and I think works particularly well for neurodiverse characters, as we may miss signals that are obvious to others.<\/p>\n

So I enjoyed much if it, and I really like Jackie Lau’s characters, but there was a lot of boinking for me to skim.<\/p>\n

Characters<\/strong>: Helen Tsang, Taylor Li, Shirley Tsang, Bec, Esther Zhang, Whitney McPherson, Jasmeet Gill, Mrs. Tsang, Mr. Tsang, Vin, Auntie Lisa<\/p>\n

Cover by Alissandra Seelaus<\/p>\n

Publisher: Kobo Originals<\/p>\n

Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not Your Valentine (2023) Jackie Lau Helen is done with romance. And not unreasonably so. Charlie Kung broke up with me at a restaurant last Valentine\u2019s Day, a break-up that practically everyone in the world witnessed. But everyone keeps asking her if she’s moved on, and it’s annoying, so the obvious solution is to create […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[193,897,292,608,196,26,56,936],"tags":[50,688],"class_list":["post-26416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-10","category-contemporary","category-ebook","category-neurodiversity","category-novella","category-romance","category-sexual-content","category-single-point-of-view","tag-boinking","tag-jackie-lau"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-6S4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13414,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13414","url_meta":{"origin":26416,"position":0},"title":"Ice Cream Lover","author":"Michelle","date":"September 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Ice Cream Lover (2019) Jackie Lau (Baldwin Village) Drew Lum has sworn off dating. His fiancee left him standing at the alter, and then wrote a book about \"your inner ice cream sandwich\" that accuses Drew (under a pseudonym) of stifling her, being a terrible boyfriend, and someone who would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "eBook"","block_context":{"text":"eBook","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/ebook"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ice Cream Lover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Ice-Cream-Lover.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17671,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/17671","url_meta":{"origin":26416,"position":1},"title":"One Bed for Christmas","author":"Michelle","date":"August 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"One Bed for Christmas (2018) Jackie Lau (Baldwin Village) Wes Chang has been in love with Caitlin Ng since she almost knocked him unconscious with a door their freshman year in college. But Caitlin is a successful CEO and Wes... Wes is now living a life that makes him happy,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "eBook"","block_context":{"text":"eBook","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/ebook"},"img":{"alt_text":"One Bed for Christmas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/One-Bed-for-Christmas.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22220,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22220","url_meta":{"origin":26416,"position":2},"title":"Donut Fall in Love","author":"Michelle","date":"September 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Donut Fall in Love (2021) Jackie Lau Ryan Kwok is worried that his latest movie is a flop. This movie could be a major setback. Movies about guys like him weren\u2019t allowed to flop. People would point at this single movie as proof that no more like it should be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donut Fall in Love","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Donut-Fall-in-Love.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Donut-Fall-in-Love.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Donut-Fall-in-Love.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17668,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/17668","url_meta":{"origin":26416,"position":3},"title":"The Ultimate Pi Day Party","author":"Michelle","date":"August 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Ultimate Pi Day Party (2019) Jackie Lau (Baldwin Village) Josh Yu is a successful CEO and on the list of the \u201c35 Most Eligible Bachelors Under 35 in Toronto. But he doesn't have love. Of a partner or his father. Despite the fact that everything he has done is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "eBook"","block_context":{"text":"eBook","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/ebook"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Ultimate Pi Day Party","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/The-Ultimate-Pi-Day-Party.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24094,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24094","url_meta":{"origin":26416,"position":4},"title":"Bidding for the Bachelor","author":"Michelle","date":"November 23, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Bidding for the Bachelor (2021) Jackie Lau (Fong Brothers #2) Cedric Fong was a success with his first book, but hasn't been able to get further than chapter 5 on anything he's started since. Brian Poon is a party boy whose father cut him the previous year after learning he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Bidding-for-the-Bachelor.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19725,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19725","url_meta":{"origin":26416,"position":5},"title":"Something Fabulous","author":"Michelle","date":"January 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Something Fabulous (2022) Alexis Hall (Something Fabulous) Set in Historical England. To be honest, I don't think this is historical England as much as fantasy historical England. Which is fine, since as he says in the author's note, almost everyone in the story is queer. Valentine Layton, the Duke of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Something Fabulous","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Something-Fabulous.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Something-Fabulous.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Something-Fabulous.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Something-Fabulous.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Something-Fabulous.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Something-Fabulous.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}