Hi, Lyn! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

I have had many careers including professional ballet and modern dancer in NYC, personal trainer, yoga and fitness instructor, owner of a gym and fitness studio in NYC for ten years, owner of an Etsy shop, and now an author as well as writing instructor and freelance editor. I also have fostered 45 dogs and kittens since the pandemic started.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I’ve always been an avid reader and used to read 5 – 7 books a week. But I’ve never even considered writing since I have never taken a writing class except what was necessary for school. In 2013, I moved out of New York City into the suburbs and all my friends wanted to know what I was doing in the “country.” So I started a blob and then people kept telling me they loved my writing. I decided to try writing on Jan 1, 2015 and that was it!

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading:I have no idea – I’ve read so many!
• The one that made you want to become an author: Liane Moriarity’s The Husband’s Secret
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Your latest novel, The Deadly Book Club, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Bad people doing bad things. (and Bonkers if you’ll let me slip in a 6^th word!)

What can readers expect?

A bonkers of a book – don’t expect it to be completely realistic. It’s what happens when people can do whatever they want without regard to consequences.

Where did the inspiration for The Deadly Book Club come from?

I was on a virtual book club when someone asked me where I get my ideas from. I said, from real life and what I read or hear about in the world. For example, what if our videos all of a sudden cut out but our audio stays on and we hear one of us getting killed but have no idea who it is or where they are. And they said, OH we’d read that! And I said, OH! I’d write that!

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

The whole book is so different from anything I’d ever written. I keep saying the word bonkers and it really is to me. Yes, all 5 main characters are unlikeable which I really enjoyed writing since I usually write sympathetic characters that readers can connect with.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

I’ve never written a 5 POV book before so nailing each voice was important. But I did that by doing a character sketch of each character – their personality, where they’re from, any accents, pattern of speech, etc. On top of that, since they are book influencers, I gave them each a genre that they loved the most so that it made it easier for readers to identify which character is which (this was my editor’s suggestion!).

What’s next for you?

My 8^th book, tentatively titled Under the Ghost Moon, comes out next August. I’m also working on a paranormal contemporary rom-com.

Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?

I read so much that my list is long but here are some I read and loved recently:

• Home of the American Circus by Allison Larkin
• You Must Be New Here by Katie Sise
• The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
• If Tomorrow Never Comes by Allison Ashley
• Up Close and Personal by Ana Holguin

And I’m looking forward to:

• The Devil in Oxford by Jess Armstrong, coming in Nov
• Far From the A-List by Stephanie Burns, coming in Dec

Will you be picking up The Deadly Book Club? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Lyn Liao Butler, Author of ‘The Deadly Book Club’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Lyn Liao Butler’s What Is Mine, which is out now.

Hope Chen and her husband are raising her nine-year-old nephew, Luca, in the wake of his troubled mother’s death. Luca finally has a safe home in a neighborhood where kids play in the streets and nobody locks their doors. Then one day, Luca and his dog disappear without a trace. Guilt-ridden, fearing the worst but praying for the best, Hope finds her imagination running wild.

Meanwhile, a woman with dangerous secrets to keep buried will do anything to protect her marriage. In one fleeting instant, it’s all within her reach. She can finally give her husband the one thing that will make him love her again.

Hope will do anything to get Luca back. The other woman will do anything to stop Hope. As Hope’s search grows more desperate and the other woman’s plans more twisted, their lives collide in an explosive battle of wits. With a boy caught in the middle, nothing on this deadly path of love and revenge is what it seems.

EXCERPT

“Now don’t you look pretty in the sunlight?” His voice was light, and his tone sounded as if talking to an animal or a small child.

Who was he talking to? Placing a hand on the fence, she looked for breaks in the wood so she could peer into her neighbor’s yard. A part of her couldn’t believe she was skulking around like this, as if she was playing Nancy Drew, girl detective. She was a grown woman, for heaven’s sake. What was she doing, frolicking in here, being eaten alive by bugs? Yellow jackets buzzed around her and then she saw a spot where the wood had separated. Putting an eye to the space, she stared into Mr. Alden’s yard.

It took her a moment to figure out what she was looking at. But then she saw Mr. Alden’s form hunched over something on the ground of the small concrete patio. His back was to her and she strained forward trying to see what it was. She lost her balance and fell against the fence heavily, causing a thump.

Shit.

Hope froze, sure that Mr. Alden had heard and was now on his way to investigate. But when she pressed her eye to the opening again, she saw that he was still talking to whatever was on the ground and didn’t appear to have heard anything. For once, she was thankful for the fact that he was slightly deaf and hadn’t realized she was lurking on the other side of his privacy fence.

It was almost enough to make her turn around and go back to her house. But she couldn’t. She had to make sure Mr. Alden didn’t have Luca. Once she saw with her own eyes, then she could apologize to him for suspecting him. Better to eat humble pie than to ignore her instincts and be sorry later.

Peering through the small opening, she watched as Mr. Alden picked up whatever it was. His back was still to her, so she couldn’t see what he was doing, but whatever he was holding wasn’t very big. Too small to be a child. Just when Hope was admonishing herself for being suspicious of their kindly neighbor, Mr. Alden suddenly lifted his head and froze, one ear cocked as if he’d heard something.

Hope’s cell phone was ringing in the back pocket of her shorts. The ringer was on low, so the chiming notes of the ring tone she’d assigned to Shaun was no more than the tinkle from a music box. But in that instant, it seemed like every creature in the woods had gone silent and every living thing was focused on the ringing coming out of Hope’s rear end. Mr. Alden turned his head in her direction and her breath caught in her chest.

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Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Lyn Liao Butler‘s Someone Else’s Life, which is out February 1st 2023.

Blow by blow, Annie Lin’s life crumbles. Her dance studio goes bankrupt. Her mother and beloved dog are gone the same year. Then a terrible accident leaves her young son traumatized.

It’s time for a change.

Palm trees, mai tais, peace and quiet―Annie should be at ease, safe in her new Kauai home with her husband and son. She hopes proximity to her family can provide them all with a sense of belonging and calm. But soon items from her past start turning up―her dog’s collar, a bracelet that disappeared years ago―and she has the unnerving sensation she’s being watched. Reality begins to fracture, and Annie’s panic attacks return. When, during a brewing storm, a woman appears on her doorstep looking for shelter, Annie is relieved to have the company and feels an unexplainable bond with her visitor.

As the night progresses, Annie realizes the woman is no stranger. Their lives are inextricably intertwined―and Annie might just lose everything.

The moment Annie Lin opened the door of the ohana, she wanted to slam it shut again. Their neighbor Kalani Pang waved at her from across the street with as much enthusiasm as a teenage cheerleader.

“Annie! Aloha!” Kalani’s booming voice wafted across the warm air toward Annie, along with the fragrance of the plumeria flowers that dotted Annie’s father’s property. He’d been letting Annie and her family stay in the guest cottage behind the main house since they’d moved to Kauai from New York after the new year.

Annie closed her eyes briefly, taking a breath to brace herself. It wasn’t even ten in the morning yet, and she was still groggy from a restless night. She opened her eyes and turned to run back inside (manners be damned), only to slam into her son and husband on their way out.

“Mommy, what’re you doing?” Finn asked, squinting up at her in the bright sunlight. He hugged his bear, Hot Chocolate, close to him. He never went anywhere without it, not since that August day almost six months ago.

Annie didn’t answer and glanced over her shoulder. She stifled a groan when she saw Kalani crossing the street toward them. Their neighbor’s chipper energy was soul-sucking, and Annie’s soul was already as hollow as a GI tract after a colonoscopy. (Thank goodness she still had a few years at forty-two for one of those.) Add a hangover and she’d much rather have opened the door to find a serial killer, to be honest.

“You want to go grab a coffee?” Kalani asked when she’d made it to their side. She pouted her full lips into a smile. “You’ve been living here for over a month and we still haven’t gotten together.” The sunlight bounced off Kalani’s shiny black hair so that the waves flowing to her low back rippled like lava down an active volcano.

“I can’t. I’m on my way to volunteer at the shelter.” Glad for a legitimate excuse, Annie raised her hands to her own dull black hair, which she’d wound up into a messy bun.

“Your wife’s too busy for me,” Kalani said to Brody, who was watching their exchange with an amused smile.

“Oh, I’m . . .” Annie started to say but stopped when Kalani burst into laughter.

“I’m just kidding.” Kalani’s hair swayed as she laughed. “But seriously, we need to get together soon. Our kids might get married one day.” She beamed at Finn. “Want to come over when Leila gets home from preschool?”

Finn had gone over to play with Kalani’s three-year-old daughter a few times without Annie. In another life, she would have enjoyed getting to know Kalani while their kids played. But now there was no way she could handle the social niceties needed to engage with the woman during a playdate. She would rather go an entire year without alcohol. Wait, no, she wouldn’t. She’d need the wine.

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Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Lyn Liao Butler’s Red Thread of Fate, which releases on February 8th 2022.

SYNOPSIS
Two days before Tam and Tony Kwan receive their letter of acceptance for the son they are adopting from China, Tony and his estranged cousin Mia are killed unexpectedly in an accident. A shell-shocked Tam learns she is named the guardian to Mia’s five-year-old daughter, Angela. With no other family around, Tam has no choice but to agree to take in the girl she hasn’t seen since the child was an infant.

Overwhelmed by her life suddenly being upended, Tam must also decide if she will complete the adoption on her own and bring home the son waiting for her in a Chinese orphanage. But when a long-concealed secret comes to light just as she and Angela start to bond, their fragile family is threatened. As Tam begins to unravel the events of Tony and Mia’s past in China, she discovers the true meaning of love and the threads that bind her to the family she is fated to have.

CHAPTER ONE

She was on the phone with her husband when he died.

Tamlei Kwan leaned against a wall outside the elementary school during her lunch break, phone tucked between her ear and shoulder. She balanced on one foot and slipped her other foot out of her taupe pumps. Ah, much better. The shoes felt like prisons after a summer of flip-flops.

“Did we get it?” Tony’s brusque voice greeted her. They were anxiously awaiting their letter of acceptance for the little boy they were adopting from China. But still. He couldn’t bother to say hello first?

Tam stuck her tongue out at the phone. “No, I haven’t heard anything. Will you be home for dinner?” Two days back at school and she was already acting like her young charges. “I could cook.” But seriously, why was she even offering? He sounded so distant, as if he had better things to do than take her call.

“Sure, that sounds good. I shouldn’t be home late. Thanks, Tam.” Tony’s voice softened on her name, and just like that, she was glad she had made the effort. She knew she wasn’t being fair. He had been doing a lot lately and she shouldn’t be so prickly.

A sudden cacophony of traffic noises made her hold the phone away from her ear.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing . . . a lot of traffic.” She could barely hear his voice.

“You going to the deli on Amsterdam?” she yelled.

“Yes . . . hang on a sec.” She could hear Tony’s muffled voice before he came back on the line. “I’m grabbing lunch before my afternoon class. Let me know if you hear from Sandra, okay?” Their caseworker, Sandra, had told them their dossier had gone through review and was in match mode, which meant they should be getting that letter any day now.

“Okay.” Tam chewed on her bottom lip. “Um, what should I make?” She wished she didn’t sound so wishy-washy. Why was she so confident in her mind, but the moment she opened her mouth, she sounded like a meek mouse?

“I don’t care, whatever you . . . HOLY SHIT!” Tony’s voice was cut off in the midst of a loud roaring sound that made Tam think of the old wooden roller coaster at Coney Island, which Tony had dragged her on once. Then, nothing. Silence.

“Tony? Tony! Hello?” Tam shouted. What the heck? She straightened off the wall, jamming her foot back in her shoe, all thoughts of her aching feet and wishy-washiness forgotten. She immediately redialed him, only to get his voicemail. His phone didn’t even ring. She dialed again and again, her heart jumping into her throat. She finally decided to try his department at Columbia University, hoping someone could find him.

Her hands were shaking and she touched the wrong contact, dialing Tony’s Pizzeria instead of Tony’s office. “Darn it,” she muttered, stabbing her finger at the phone. “I don’t want a freaking pizza.” This time, she hit the right number and a colleague of Tony’s in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures picked up, telling Tam that Tony had left for the day.

“What do you mean he left for the day?” Tam’s voice rose with each word. “I just spoke to him and he said he was going to the deli on Amsterdam.”

The woman on the phone was silent for a moment. “Uh, I saw Tony an hour ago and he was definitely leaving. He has a half day on Thursdays.”

A half day? What was the daft woman talking about? Tony taught an afternoon class on Thursdays at Columbia this semester and then had office hours to meet with students, which was why he was sometimes late coming home. She started to explain but realized she was wasting her time. She hung up after making the woman promise to have Tony call her if she saw him.

Looking at the time, Tam knew she had to get back to her own class of first graders. She tried Tony one more time but still couldn’t get through. She returned to her classroom, tamping down the panic that threatened to erupt.

Where was Tony? What had happened? Should she call the police? But if he had only dropped his phone and broken it, he wouldn’t appreciate a police hunt for him. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach and left her phone on her desk.

“Mrs. Kwan. Mrs. Kwan! I have a question about hot and cold.” Tam looked up to see Steven Abrams waving his arm frantically. It was only the second day of school and already she knew this precocious little boy with the floppy brown hair would be a handful.

“Yes, Steven. What is it?”

“I heard my daddy talking to his friends about you. He said if you got rid of your glasses and unbuttoned your shirt, you’d be hot. But if you took off your shirt, wouldn’t you be cold, not hot?” Steven tilted his head and looked up at her. His father was a single dad and so good-looking he had all the female teachers and some of the male ones fluttering about him.

“Oh, my.” Tam knew she sounded like an eighteenth-century schoolmarm, but she was at a loss. Normally, she was quick on her feet with the children and could come up with a clever answer to the questions her students asked. But now she could only stare, her mouth open “like a nincompoop,” as Steven had so blithely called a fellow student yesterday, while the six-year-olds debated her hot- and coldness.

She tugged at the white shirtwaist dress she wore. When she’d pulled the dress out this morning, she’d debated against wearing it since it was a few days after Labor Day. But it was such a warm, sunny day, and she wanted to wear the dress one more time, despite the fact that it would probably get dirty from the children. It was buttoned to the top and a size too big. She hated clothes that dug into her skin. She dressed that way for school, but if she had to be honest, she dressed that way outside school too. She’d much rather be comfortable, even if it made her look like a shapeless blob.

When the bell finally rang and she saw her charges safely to the bus and pickup area, she huffed out a breath and rushed to her car. Tony hadn’t called and she still couldn’t get through. She threw her phone on the passenger seat in frustration. Driving the short distance to their home in Dobbs Ferry, she decided she would call the police when she got home. Maybe they could trace his cell.

But as she pulled into the dead-end street that led to their town house at the bottom of the hill, her heart sank. Sitting in front of their unit was a Dobbs Ferry police car. She knew then—something bad had happened.

She pulled into her parking spot and gripped the steering wheel hard to stop the tingling in her fingers. When her vision blackened, she squeezed her eyes shut and rested her head on the cool leather between her hands. She forced herself to breathe slower to stop the panic from taking over her body, not wanting to leave the safety of her car. She knew that the minute she got out, her life would change forever, and she wanted to hold on to her old life for as long as she could.

What happened next passed in a blur. Facing the sympathetic-looking officers as her legs turned to jelly, she heard only bits and pieces of what they said.

“Flushing police . . . accident . . .”

The officers’ radios buzzed to life in a burst of static, and Tam turned toward the noise, her eyes glazed.

“Your husband . . . terrible . . .”

She turned back to the officers and they swam in front of her eyes. She swayed and would have fallen if one of them hadn’t reached out to steady her, helping her inside and onto a chair. They continued to speak, but they might as well have been speaking Russian for all that she understood.

She looked down at her lap to avoid their gaze, grabbing fistfuls of her dress in her hands to keep from screaming. Then her eyes widened as she realized with dawning horror that she was wearing the symbolic color of death in China. Tony was more traditionally Chinese than she was and had commented this morning that she was dressed for a funeral. Had she killed her husband by wearing white today?

“. . . call your family to come?”

She looked up, eyes wide with shock, and shook her head. The officers kept talking and she scrambled to understand, but her body refused to cooperate. She was frozen in her chair. Suddenly, something they said penetrated the fog that had descended over her brain.

“Flushing police? What do you mean? He was in Manhattan, at Columbia University, where he teaches.”

The officers looked at each other and then at her. “Uh, no, ma’am. He was on the corner of Main and Roosevelt in Flushing, Queens.”

Ma’am? She was a ma’am now? How’d that happen? She had an absurd urge to laugh and had to choke it down. “You’re wrong. I was on the phone with him. He said he was going to the deli on Amsterdam Avenue.” Tam pulled her phone out to show the officers, as if that would prove he was in Manhattan at the time of the accident. Maybe they had the wrong man, since her Tony was at Columbia where he belonged, and not miles away in Flushing, Queens.

The officers exchanged another look. The younger one asked if they could call a friend for her. Tam closed her eyes. She put her hands over her ears, knowing she was being childish, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t want to hear any more. They were mistaken. They had the wrong man. She needed to make them stop, stop trying to ruin her life when she knew Tony was fine.

“His cousin was with him.”

Her eyes flew open. She’d heard, even through her hands. Tony only had one cousin. “Mia? He was with Mia?”

One of the officers looked at his pad and said, “Mei Guo. She didn’t survive either.”

“Oh, no. That’s her. She goes by Mia.” Her head began to ache and she could feel every heartbeat in a vein in her temple. What was going on? Mia was dead too? Why would Tony tell her he was at work if he’d been with Mia? Hysterical laughter bubbled out of her and she was suddenly laughing even as tears streamed down her face and soaked her dress.

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We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz
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An annual backpacking trip has deadly consequences in a chilling new novel from the bestselling author of The Lost Night and The Herd.

Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung
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Buoyant, heartbreaking, and unexpectedly funny, Ghost Forest is a slim novel that envelops the reader in joy and sorrow. Fung writes with a poetic and haunting voice, layering detail and abstraction, weaving memory and oral history to paint a moving portrait of a Chinese-Canadian astronaut family.

Just One Look by Lindsay Cameron
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A young woman’s escalating obsession with a seemingly perfect man leads her down a dangerous path in this novel of suspense brimming with envy, desire, and deception.

The Tiger Mom’s Tale by Lyn Liao Butler
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When an American woman inherits the wealth of her Taiwanese family, she travels to confront them about their betrayals of the past in this stunning debut by Lyn Liao Butler.

The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel
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The New York Times bestselling author of the The Book of Lost Names returns with an evocative coming-of-age World War II story about a young woman who uses her knowledge of the wilderness to help Jewish refugees escape the Nazis—until a secret from her past threatens everything.

Kill All Your Darlings by David Bell
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When a student disappears and is presumed dead, her professor passes off her manuscript as his own–only to find out it implicates him in an unsolved murder in this new thriller from the USA Today bestselling author of The Request.

The View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta
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The View Was Exhausting is a funny, wickedly observant modern love story set against the backdrop of exotic locales and the realities of being a woman of colour in a world run by men.

The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
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A family returns to their hometown—and to the dark past that haunts them still—in this masterpiece of literary horror by the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers.

Her Last Breath by Hilary Davidson
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From the bestselling author of One Small Sacrifice comes a suspenseful thriller about a dead woman who predicted her own murder—and the sister who won’t let the truth be buried.

Radar Girls by Sara Ackerman
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An extraordinary story inspired by the real Women’s Air Raid Defense, where an unlikely recruit and her sisters-in-arms forge their place in WWII history.

Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena
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The new domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door and and Someone We Know who has sold more than 7 million copies of her books worldwide.

No More Words by Kerry Lonsdale
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From the Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author comes the first book in a trilogy about love, betrayal, and the secrets families keep.

The post July 2021 Fiction Book Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

With a title and book cover like this one, it was hard not to be tempted to want to read it, and so, read it I did. At first, judging from its title, I was expecting a story that was going to be told from a tiger mom’s point of view, but I soon found out, right from the start, that it was a story about Alexa Thomas, or fondly known as Lexa, a personal trainer living in New York City who led a busy life catering to the demands of her health-conscious clients.

The book opened with Lexa being told by her mother that she was leaving him for another woman, Phoenix. Despite being shocked by the news, Lexa was more willing to accept her mother’s new relationship as compared to Maddie, who was mad at her for leaving her father. As the story progressed, we’d come to learn that Maddie was having some marital problems too and was overwhelmed by everything that was thrown at her at once.

While learning to accept her mother’s relationship, Lexa soon found out that there was more in store for her. Her Taiwanese sister, Hsu-Ling had just informed her that her biological father whom she had not met for more than 20 years, had passed away in a tragic accident. Hsu-Ling was coming to meet her in NYC because, according to her, Lexa was part of the father’s will. On top of that, Lexa found out that her Taiwanese family was going to lose their home and she was the only one who could save them from having nowhere to live.

As much as she was shocked to learn that she was part of her father’s will and was given such a big responsibility to save her Taiwanese family, Lexa was in a dilemma—should she help a family who had once betrayed her and her trust more than two decades ago? Do they deserve to be forgiven? Despite all these, she was also juggling a long-distance relationship with a man whom she had fallen head over heels with. But she couldn’t see a future with him, not only because they lived so far away, but also because he wanted children and she didn’t. What would and should Lexa do?

The story flowed seamlessly, kudos to the author’s storytelling skills. She kept this reader at bay as to what the family secret was, at the same time, introducing other characters into the story. While going back and forth between the present and the past when Lexa visited Taiwan with her mother, you could feel how conflicted Lexa was in being caught up between her two families, one in America and the other in Taiwan. And not only was she learning about her new family, but at the same time, she was also discovering the other part of her by learning the language, absorbing the culture, tasting new food, and most of all, trying to reaffirm her identity as part Chinese. Was she Chinese enough to be Chinese? Fortunately, besides the weather, she adapted easily and the Changs were very welcoming; the father doted on her, spoiling her with gifts and good food, and Hsu-Ling, her sister, whom I thought, would be jealous of her with the attention she was getting from her father, instead loved Lexa just as much as her father, even grandma and Uncle Pong grew fond of Lexa. All of them, except for one, which you’ll find out in the story.

On the other hand, her American family was trying to adjust to some changes too. Maddie was trying to work out on her marriage while trying to care for her kids, while Susan was reprioritising her life now that she was in a new relationship, and Greg, Lexa’s stepdad, seemed to be mysteriously occupied too. Will the Thomas family be able to cope with all that was going on? Will Lexa be able to find a right balance between her two families and her love life?

My favourite parts were definitely Lexa’s first visit to Taiwan, when she was introduced to all the popular hangouts and the local delicacies. Just reading about the sesame balls got me all craving for them. I love red bean sesame balls and didn’t know they were sold in Taiwan too. And not to mention stinky tofu! I had always thought it was a Hong Kong thing. And of course, who doesn’t love bubble tea. Have I mentioned the floating fish balls? They are so popular in Taiwan that they are sold in Malaysia too, and the Malaysians love them. When traveling is safe again, Taiwan will be one of my destinations to visit.

I also enjoyed reading about the chemistry Lexa shared with her sisters, Maddie and Hsu-Ling. Although their differences in personalities got on to Lexa’s nerves in the beginning, always having to walk on eggshells when being in their company, she eventually learned how to navigate between her sisters and allowed nature to take its course.

There was nothing I didn’t like about the novel, although I did wish the characters were more developed, as I felt they were slightly compromised because of the many other side characters that were introduced, which I felt weren’t integral to the story, like her crush, Yung; the bartender Rob; some of her clients like Christy and Kiley, her shi-fu and a few others. And I also felt the kung-fu parts and towards the ending when she met a stranger at the Confucius statue, were a little forced. That aside, I appreciated the author’s intention of including the other characters to bring discuss other themes besides family, identity, and love, such as racism, Asian women fetishism, and body image. Yes, there were a lot that the author tried to achieve in one novel; an attempt I respect, this being her first novel.

If you’re looking for a quick story to devour, give this a gander, especially if you love a good family drama, and one that includes learning something about our Asian culture and Taiwanese food!

The Tiger Mom’s Tale is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of July 6th 2021.

Will you be picking up The Tiger Mom’s Tale? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

When an American woman inherits the wealth of her Taiwanese family, she travels to confront them about their betrayals of the past in this stunning debut by Lyn Liao Butler.

Lexa Thomas has never quite fit in. Having grown up in a family of blondes while more closely resembling Constance Wu, she’s neither white enough nor Asian enough. Visiting her father in Taiwan as a child, Lexa thought she’d finally found a place where she belonged. But that was years ago, and even there, some never truly considered her to be Taiwanese.

When her estranged father dies unexpectedly, leaving the fate of his Taiwanese family in Lexa’s hands, her safe life in New York City is no longer enough. She is faced with the choice to return to Taiwan and claim her place in her heritage . . . or leave her Taiwanese family to lose their home for good.

Armed with the advice of two half sisters (one American and the other Taiwanese, who can’t stand each other), a mother who has rediscovered her sexuality, and a man whose kisses make her walk into walls, Lexa finally confronts the person who drove her away from Taiwan all those decades ago. As the truth of the last fateful summer in Taiwan slowly unfolds, Lexa must stand up for herself and open her heart to family and love, or allow the repercussions of her family’s choices to forever dictate the path of her life.

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