Trade Me by Courtney Milan

By

Title: Trade Me 
Author: Courtney Milan
Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult
Published: January 20, 2015
Publication: Independent
Rating:  ♨♨♨♨ 4 of 5 cups ( A great twist on the Prince and the Pauper plotline straggling both cultural and class divide.  Witty and zippy dialogues with wonderful characters)

 Synopsis:

Tina Chen just wants a degree and a job, so her parents never have to worry about making rent again. She has no time for Blake Reynolds, the sexy billionaire who stands to inherit Cyclone Technology. But when he makes an off-hand comment about what it means to be poor, she loses her cool and tells him he couldn’t last a month living her life.


To her shock, Blake offers her a trade: She’ll get his income, his house, his car. In exchange, he’ll work her hours and send money home to her family. No expectations; no future obligations.



But before long, they’re trading not just lives, but secrets, kisses, and heated nights together. No expectations might break Tina’s heart...but Blake’s secrets could ruin her life.


 Review:



Trade Me is Courtney Milan's first contemporary new adult romance and is also my first Courtney Milan book. As a whole, it has the basic tenets of new adult, characters dealing with the first basic steps into adulthood, young woman meets young man, an auspicious first encounter, a very devious twist into the prince and the pauper plot and of course the falling into love bit. What is the difference? The class and cultural divide was so simply discussed and yet so multilayered. Tina Chen was someone I can actually relate to in a whole personal level. Her background, her family, her choices in her path in life. It will definitely resonate with most Asians whether Asian American or not. Blake's situation on the other hand is again so common in today's young generation. The expectations, the weight of responsibility, not so much on the financial aspects but more so on what their purpose in life truly is. There simply nothing I didn't love or get about this book. The writing was just superb, the dialogues spot on, the simmering almost boiling attraction between Tina and Blake that was for the most part just there but not overtly displayed in anyway was sexier and hotter when it did culminate. The vivid and visceral details of the story was enough to actually get the readers to believe that they actually know this (and those tech gadgets sounds amazing). In many ways Trade Me isn't just a love story or a coming of age one, its also story of the world. Gearing myself to reading Maria's story next, now that one is definitely going to be really interesting.


Comments

Post a Comment

Have Your Say!

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Tour: Hard To Come By (Hard Ink Series) by Laura Kaye: Excerpt and Review

By
Image
About HARD TO COME BY: Caught between desire and loyalty… Derek DiMarzio would do anything for the members of his disgraced Special Forces team—sacrifice his body, help a former teammate with a covert operation to restore their honor, and even go behind enemy lines. He just never expected to want the beautiful woman he found there. When a sexy stranger asks questions about her brother, Emilie Garza is torn between loyalty to the brother she once idolized and fear of the war-changed man he's become. Derek’s easy smile and quiet strength tempt Emilie to open up, igniting the desire between them and leading Derek to crave a woman he shouldn’t trust. As the team’s investigation reveals how powerful their enemies are, Derek and Emilie must prove where their loyalties lie before hearts are broken and lives are lost. Because love is too hard to come by to let slip away… Review: ♨♨♨♨ (4 cups) a great thrill ride whose overarching plot continues to fas...
Read more

The Emerald Comb by Kathleen McGurl

By
Image
Old letters and a lost comb, a crumbling old home and family secrets; it seems The Emerald Comb is a typical recipe for a modern day English mystery. Just as anyone fond of English mysteries, I was drawn like a moth to a flame. Katie, obsessed with her lineage, spends a lot of time tracing her ancestors, the St. Clairs much to her husband's disdain. When she steps into Kingsley House, the old residence of the St. Clairs, buried secrets of the family starts to unfold and it all becomes even more muddled for Katie. Who was the owner of the emerald comb? Which part of the family history does it come in?
Read more

Blog Hop Giveaway:Switched by Cassie Mae

By
Image
Switched by Cassie Mae was a funny and often frustrating read but highly entertaining. Kayla, Wesley, Reagan and Talon were all friends. Reagan and Talon were a couple while Kayla and Wesley, well they've been pining for these two since high school. Told from Kayla's point of view, she, dragging Wesley along hatches a plan to break the happy couple apart. Because as everyone can see Talon is her soulmate while Wesley is Reagan's. Thus starts the funs and the laughs and the musical chairs between the four. Kayla as a character was frustrating initially for me, I have no idea whether its because she was being an evil bestfriend to Reagan or she really was in love with Talon. I could not really hate nor empathize with her at the start. As the story progressed and the romance part began, her sudden self awareness becomes believable. The pace, the tone and style of writing was excellent. I can see that Cassie Mae has developed her own unique voice in the ...
Read more