Sushi for One?

Remember that GREAT book I was telling you about? Yep, it’s Camy Tang’s Sushi for One?

I’m going to really try not to give to much away in this post, as if you haven’t read it yet, I don’t want to spoil anything for you. However, I will say that there is a sports-related injury in the novel. Camy was kind enough to advise against my reading it until after surgery. A very nice girl, that Camy. The only reason I’m giving this much away is because knowing there was an injury brought in a whole level of foreshadowing that only added to my reading experience.

Quite often, as a must-be-published-soon-or-I’m-going-to-die-but-it’s-all-in-God’s-timing writer, I struggle with reading debut novels that contain beginner’s mistakes that I believe I’ve conquered. Notice the loophole in that sentence? That’s to cover me when my debut novel comes out and drives all the other desperate-to-publish authors crazy because it’s full of amateur mistakes!

Camy’s writing was tight and clean. It’s only the second chick lit book I’ve read and reading out of normal genre is always an experience for me. On the professional side, I could see exactly what market the book was targeted for: an active woman about my age, Asian or not. I could also see how readers outside of that target audience might not connect with the book as much. Happily, being a member of the target audience, I was able to really, really enjoy the story.

Another problem I tend to have is if I happen to know Author Soandso and she writes a book and I read it, I can only hear Author Soandso’s voice and only see Author Soandso playing the lead in my head. Camy succeeded in bringing Lex to life. In fact, I so deeply understood Lex and her battles I had to double check twice–does that make it quadruple-check?–that Sushi for One? was written in third person, not first.

Near the end of the book, there is a time when I thought another character was interacting with Lex only to continue in the scene and be surprised to find it was NOT another character, but the Lord making Himself real to Lex. A powerful moment in the story and the point where I shed tears. So many of Lex’s struggles come from financial, familial, physical, and spiritual limitations. Don’t you relate to that? Being hurt, feeling weak and unsure about my physical abilities instead of strong and confident, chiding myself for not being able to mother or spouse the way I want to, feeling like my world isn’t moving as fast as I want it to, … there were quite a few things that really struck me.

If you’re in the mood for a fun read with a deep message, pick it up!