By Samantha Pak
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Kisses, Codes, and Conspiracies
By Abigail Hing Wen
Feiwel & Friends, 2024
After sharing a magical kiss at prom, best friends Tan Lee and Winter Woo decide to take a step back. With Tan’s parents as the landlords of Winter and her mom, there’s definitely a power dynamic that could make things weird.
But as smart as these two teens may be, that all goes out the window when their parents jet off on a joint vacation to Hawaii, leaving Tan and Winter to babysit Tan’s sister, Sana, together. To make matters worse, Tan’s ex-girlfriend, Rebecca Tseng, shows up out of the blue from Shanghai after having stolen money from her billionaire dad (as one does), with thugs on her heels.
And before Tan can say anything more than “hello,” the foursome finds themselves on the run in the San Francisco Bay Area trying to outsmart a bunch of money-hungry international hackers.
“Kisses, Codes, and Conspiracies” is a fun romantic comedy-thriller that’s heavy on the thrills—in the best way. I haven’t read many action-thrillers, but I can say the action scenes are a lot of fun. From the teens’ first encounter with thugs breaking down the door of Tan’s family’s home, to the climactic showdown between Tan and the bad guy, this was one of the most cinematic books I’ve read in a long time. Readers will find themselves immersed in the action as Tan and his friends and sister constantly escape danger. Wen does a great job of balancing the danger while keeping things age appropriate. These are, after all, a group of teenagers (and one precocious 5-year-old).
In addition to the action, this is a story filled with heart. Told from Tan’s perspective, I really enjoyed seeing his relationships with these three girls evolve and grow over the course of the book. From figuring out where his and Winter’s relationship stand, to confronting Rebecca about how she treated him, to his protectiveness of Sana, it was great to see a young man in his feelings.
Blackmail and Bibingka 
By Mia P. Manansala
Berkley, 2022
It’s Christmastime in Shady Palms, but for Lila Macapagal, things are less than merry. Sure, it looks like her business, the Brew-ha Cafe, is going to turn a profit this year. And yes, she’s got a budding romance going with her good-friend-turned-more Jae Park. But her cousin Ronnie is back in town after walking out on the family 15 years ago, and Lila knows that can only mean trouble.
While Ronnie claims his recent purchase of a local winery is proof that he’s no longer the screwup he was growing up, Lila isn’t so sure—no matter how thrilled her Tita Rosie is to have her son back in their lives.
Unfortunately, Lila is soon proven right when a potential investor for the winery dies under suspicious circumstances and Ronnie and his business partners are suspected of murder. Now, she’s got to set aside a decade and a half’s worth of resentment to clear her cousin’s name. Because as much as he’s messed up over the years, Lila knows Ronnie could never actually kill someone—at least she’s pretty sure.
In this third installment of Manansala’s Tita Rosie’s Kitchen cozy mystery series, it’s great to see Lila in a much better place than she was in the previous book. Looks like the steps she’s taken to address her mental health are working—which is always great to see. One of my favorite things about a series (and you know I love a good series) is getting to know characters over the course of multiple books. It’s no different here. From Lila and her love and protectiveness for her family, to said family and their willingness to open their home and restaurant to anyone who needs help, to Lila’s ride or die best friends, Manansala has created a cast of fun and complex characters, most of whom are women of color—which is always lovely to see.
The Friend Zone Experiment
The Friend Zone ExperimentBy Zen Cho
Bramble, 2024
Renee Goh’s life seems perfect. At 30, she runs a glamorous—and (most importantly) profitable—women’s clothing company in London. And she’s got a hot Taiwanese pop star boyfriend.
But Renee is also lonely. Estranged from her family in Singapore, her work is her life. And now her boyfriend has broken up with her. Not that they saw each other that often anyway.
Before she can get her cry on, Renee’s father calls. He’s retiring and with two screwup brothers, he’s considering her as his successor as CEO of the family business, Chahaya Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Southeast Asia. Renee has been chasing her father’s approval (consciously and unconsciously) her whole life, so she doesn’t want to waste this opportunity. But can she learn to cooperate with her brothers, who are the reason she left Singapore?
And then she runs into her first love, Yap Ket Siong, who broke her heart at the university. The two spend one great night together, but they’ve both got so much happening in their lives—including possible vengeance on Ket Siong’s side—so they decide to stay just friends. Obviously, things don’t go as planned and they find it hard to be just friends.
“Friend Zone” is a fun friends-to-lovers, second-chance romance between two people with a lot of baggage. Some of that is tied to their relationship in the past, and some of it has to do with other parts of their lives. I love romances because we know the couple will end up together, but it’s the how that makes the story. And seeing how Renee and Ket Siong handle their complicated lives—from family drama to legal drama—to fall in love and actually choose to be together was great.
I also enjoyed how Renee and Ket Siong had more going in their lives than their relationship with each other. Although their love story is central to the plot, it was nice to see they’ve got other things going on, just as most people have more than just one thing happening in their lives at any given moment.