Give Love a Chai by Nanxi Wen

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Title: Give Love a Chai
Author: Nanxi Wen
Series: Common Threads #2
Published by: Smartypants Romance
Release Date: March 16, 2021
Format: eARC
Pages: 344
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »miscarriage « Hide Spoiler
Source: Smartypants Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Spring, Lenoreo's 2021 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

Tia Wang’s Wedding Planning To-Do List:
1. Find the perfect dress
2. Win her future mother-in-law's approval
3. Divorce her not-so-ex husband, Andrew Parker

When she fell in love and married her childhood best friend on a whim in Vegas, Tia innocently thought love conquered all. Turns out, that was a crushing lie. Her world shattered as she and Andrew were torn apart by secrets and mistakes.

Ten years later, Tia has left the pain behind and carved out a new life with Mr. Perfect. The only thing standing between her and happily ever after? A divorce from Andrew.

It should have been easy for Andrew to sign his name on the dotted line. Independent, prickly, and always in control, Andrew has done everything to escape his past. But seeing Tia on his doorstep after all these years? He can’t help wondering what might have been. Andrew has never forgotten Tia and vows to fight for their relationship this time around. If he has to hold those divorce papers hostage to get his second chance, he will.

Feelings resurface, stronger and more complex than ever. But Tia and Andrew have more than Mr. Perfect between them. Can they overcome past mistakes to forge a future together, or will new threats ruin their second chance at forever?

'Give Love a Chai' is a full-length contemporary romance, and can be read as a standalone.
Book #2 in the Common Threads series, Seduction in the City World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

My Review:

I received a free copy through Smartypants Romance in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

3.5 stars — Huh.  This story didn’t play out at all like I was expecting.  Which is not a bad thing necessarily, but it may not have been as good a fit for me.

Andrew and Tia’s relationship was more volatile than I was expecting.  I know there are all different types of relationships out there, just like there are all different kinds of people…but wow, big volatile emotions make me itchy.  I think it partially boils down to the fact that the biggest issue within their relationship was lack of communication, which is definitely not my favourite in romances.  Sometimes I can roll with the punches, but it seriously took Tia and especially Andrew a long time to learn and grow.  I think that last bit was too much for me.  Heck, I think a few of the middle bits were too much.  I was super excited to see Tia’s growth, and I just needed something more from Andrew.  Now, saying all that, the epilogue gave me major hope for them.

I really loved how goofy and quirky Tia was.  She said the most bizarre and hilarious things.  And while I didn’t necessarily have a lot in common with her, I did understand how much pressure she felt from other people about “the right things”.  I was so happy when she started making choices for *herself*.  I was less happy with how she could overreact to some things, but she showed steady growth in this throughout the book.

Andrew…*sigh*  Andrew had all these good qualities, and I just wanted to wrap him up so many times and hug him…but wow, did he try my patience a lot by falling into bad habits.  I think I wanted to see some more gradual growth for him, but I guess I get that not everyone works that way.

I loved the cute parts of them being together.  They made me smile and want to root for them.

One of the strong parts of this story for me was how seamlessly the other characters moved around in this story.  We got some new characters in Charlie and Pippa, and they both added tiny bits…not to mention Tia’s parents.  I even appreciated Clayton and how he was portrayed (I hate when they’re made to be a villain).  But I most especially loved how the SPRU cameos were woven in.  I still haven’t read the entire KITC series, but from the books I have read, and from the bits I’ve seen in other SPRU books, I loved seeing Dan and Kat.  And I vaguely remember Andrew now, so I kind of want to go back and figure out where he was mentioned.

All in all this was a solid debut.  It might not have been perfect for *me*, but it had a lot of good things going for it.  And damn, I love #ownvoices stories.