– by Karin Kallmaker
The wait is officially OVER! Finally, I have Karin Kallmaker‘s latest novel, “Because I Said So,” in my hands!!! Yup, thanks to Bella/NG‘s swift response, I got my ARC copy and literally dropped everything (yes, I was in the middle of reading a couple of books before I got “distracted” by this! Soz, authors X & Y!) and breezed through this story in no time at all! Yup, quick read it was but it left me….. HUNGRY! *more later* Needless to say, my excitement about delving into this story ever since Kallmaker’s blog post announcing it was definitely warranted. What a refreshing story of romance with layers of unexpected discoveries throughout the book! Not only that, but the characters, including one of the MCs, Kesa, was of mixed race and culture, different socioeconomic background and circumstances, effectively giving the whole romance perspective a fresh new spin, altogether. As if that weren’t refreshing enough, the definition of “family” and “parent” was something quite outside-the-box, tbh. I was not expecting to find out how Shannon, the other MC, and Paz were related. Fascinating! Kallmaker being the brilliant tale-spinner that she is, jumped right into describing, portraying, presenting and contrasting all the nuances of cultural, lingual, socio-economic living that entailed with such fervour that I saw them as another supporting character in this richly portrayed biracial romance. I must say, I’d never read anything depicted quite like how Kallmaker constructed it in lesfic romance!
We all know that Kallmaker’s forte is character-driven stories. This story couldn’t get any more character-driven even if she tried! With her skilful storytelling and narrative flow, I was instantly captivated by each character and their respective backstory and mindset as Kallmaker weaved every thread of their journey with aplomb. With the added element of racial, cultural, circumstantial and lifestyles, no less! So how does one bridge the unknown or unfamiliarity in order to capture the reader’s attention, interest and intrigue? Well, no better way than introducing some ethnic culinary delights, innit? Yup, FOOD. OMG! Speaking of which, I raise my hat to Kallmaker for presenting endlessly vivid, mouth-wateringly visual descriptions of every food dish from different ethnic groups she introduced, in particular, the one which closely tied to Kesa’s half-Filipino ethnicity. Blimey, the level of explicit intricacy that Kallmaker injected into her descriptions of the various Filipino dishes including the shapes, sizes, colours, aroma, taste, cooking style were so graphic, I could literally taste them! So descriptively delish!! The food porn was mercilessly spread all throughout the story, which was why I said earlier that reading this book had left me hungry! And because Kesa, her sister and their community were set up in and around LA’s Koreatown, obviously there were scenes where Kallmaker gleefully made me even hungrier with richly described Korean food delights! Thank goodness I don’t have a sweet tooth or I’d be done for, what with all the desserts and ice-cream servings she spread around as the story and characters developed. Ingenious idea for Kallmaker to use food because it’s prolly the only thing in common that could bring people together. Bear in mind that this story was set in LA, one of the most diverse, multi-cultural, multi-racial societies in the world. So all these different ethnic delights weren’t out of norm, really. OK, enough about food. It’s yet another character in and of itself, playing an essential role in the story, tbh.
Let’s talk about Kesa and Shannon, the MCs, shall we? Firstly, when I found out about Kesa’s back story along with her sister, Josie, I was livid about all the frightfully traumatic hardships that she was being put through from a young age, including having to play Josie’s mum and dad, providing for her, avoiding all the horrors that would have consumed them had Kesa not been the character that she was in the first place. So viscerally realistic was Kesa’s situation being portrayed. Yup, there are too many people like Kesa nowadays. So of course when Josie popped the shocking announcement that she’d fallen in love at first sight with a boy after only mere weeks and wanted to get married…at the age of 19 to the boy who was only 1 year her senior, Kesa went absolutely nuclear, to put it mildly! To make matters worse, Kesa was absolutely adamant against love at first sight because it was pie in the sky, fairy tale, pure fantasy, in her indignant opinion! Hmm…the lady doth protests too much, me thinks! See, with this setup, it already enriched the level of depth in Kesa and Josie’s polar opposite characters and the state of their relationship, not to mention, the developing story. Speaking of the boy, Paz, Shannon was his “parent” so when she was told the same thing, her reaction, albeit much calmer and more collected, was nothing less than dumbfounding, utter disbelief! And when you find out about Shannon and Paz, I’m sure you’ll be just as gobsmacked! All I can say is, what a creative twist! Well done, Ms. Kallmaker!
I’m so grateful for Kallmaker’s dual-POV narrative approach to this decidedly complex story because there were many skeletons in the closet (so to speak!) or secrets that she deftly crafted and revealed at various stages of the story as it progressed with each stage of Shannon and Kesa’s character development. I won’t divulge any further when it comes to these two because you’ll have to read each revelation, unexpected occurrences, more complications yourself in order to feel the impact of these revelations to the overall story. Needless to say, a lot of angst ensued all throughout their journey with the added drama about Josie and Paz’s insistence on going through with the marriage, which incidentally would, at times, act as a buffer to more pressing emotional turmoil and struggle that both Kesa and Shannon were experiencing!
I must say, Shannon and Kesa’s respective journeys were written like I took a ride down the rabbit hole of their minds, immersing in their inner turmoil, struggles, their thoughts. Very claustrophobic at times when their internal struggle with themselves got a little too mad and became a bit too irrational to me as the outsider. I felt the amount of fear, the tightening of the noose to their own true feelings slowly closing in on me! Perhaps not having had such debilitating internal struggles myself, I felt a bit trapped as I observed their experience. The crippling conditioning that Shannon experienced her whole life was eye-opening. Funny how our parents/guardians/family/elders/religious sanctimony shape how we think, feel, live when we become adults, despite having been exposed to real-life experience in the big, wide world, eh? The power of words especially negativity like fear, hate, ingrained, indoctrinated into impressionable minds of kids is strong, unwavering, and hard to shake off. Poor Shannon. She didn’t even have a chance, did she? As for Kesa’s situation, her past really did a number on her confidence, her outlook so she chose to live in a loveless, mechanical existence, purely focussing on her career rather than risk getting hurt or ruined if she were to open herself to the possibility of true love. Instead her life was riddled with a series of what ifs. Worse, preemptive strikes would be her defence mechanism!
In essence, Shannon and Kesa were two broken souls, trying to pick up the pieces, let go of their crippling fear and heal. Once again, Kallmaker’s vivid and visceral depiction of their undeniable chemistry, their magnetic pull so powerful I, as the reader, could literally feel Shannon and Kesa’s torment when they kept pushing each other away. This pair of tortured souls were a perfect example of stolen hearts. How does one reclaim a stolen heart? Is it even possible? In their case….well, love is real. Love is madness. So, one just can’t bet against love. It’s a powerful energy that is beyond our control. I’ll leave it at that.
One interesting thing that I noticed whilst observing Shannon’s journey was Kallmaker’s persistent focus on Shannon’s day job, about one case, in particular, which I got to follow through with Shannon as progressing steps were taken. What eventually happened with the case had a questionable outcome to the definition of “justice served.” Only then did I realise why Kallmaker used that approach. It was a metaphor cleverly disguised and embedded side by side with Shannon’s predicament about her true feelings, expectations, presumptions about Kesa. In essence, what she was so good at in her job, which had been her rock and respite for so many years, suddenly became her epiphany! Well, at least that’s how I interpreted the parallels! Regardless, well done, Ms. Kallmaker!
Letting go. These two words couldn’t be more relevant to Shannon and Kesa’s own journey of truth and reconciliation, about love. When destiny is bound, it always finds the connected souls, by hook or by crook, dunnit? Timing is everything. When the time is right as destiny depicts, love finds its way. When it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be, innit?
Another thing worth mentioning apart from Kallmaker’s expertise in creating a vivid picture of all the delicious foods. Tailoring. Yup, Kesa was a self-made custom tailor which she’d slaved all her life to become with a goal of owning her own tailoring business. So, most of the descriptions about the nuts and bolts of cloth, tailoring, sewing, the lot, had completely glossed over me mercilessly! All the while, I was muttering that my 3% was swimming trying to picture and understand all the intricate deets of each seam, stitch, sample, colour, what have you! But I eventually got the hang of it and I must say, Kallmaker’s rich knowledge and know-how about tailoring brought Kesa to life as a legit tailor. Speaking of tailoring, it was a welcome feat to discover Jennifer Lamont making a couple of appearances whilst her now-wife, Suzanne Mason, dropped by, too! Typical of Kallmaker, dropping characters from her previous books to her newest story (which always thrills me to no end because there’s this sense of familiarity and connection, you know). In this case, Jennifer surprisingly became Kesa’s client literally overnight for reasons you’ll find out when you read the book. Interesting crossover! Meanwhile, if you haven’t read “Captain of Industry” that featured Jennifer and Susanne’s romance, I highly recommend it simply because it was a bloody good read for me! And if you wanna know more about Lamont’s backstory, “Stepping Stone” is a must!
Oh! How could I forget to mention another refreshing element in the story, which clearly showed Kallmaker’s knowledge, either via research or personal experience – the game of mahjong! Yup, only this one was Filipino-style? I never knew there was a difference! The level of detail that Kallmaker put into how the game was played was so authentic and visual that I felt like I was there watching Kesa and her band of friends play! I could even hear the sounds of those tiles banging against each other! Reading it took me down memory lane to my school days gallivanting with a bunch of mates on the streets of Chinatown in Leicester Square where it was the first time we heard the incessant crackling sounds coming from underneath the shops as we strolled toward the tube station! We later found out that people were playing mahjong down there! I remember being mesmerised by the hypnotic sounds! Anyway, I digress!
I was gratified by just how meticulous Kallmaker was in portraying the Asian culture of food and mahjong being the all-important tool for establishing rapport and relationships and communication. It was a fascinating learning experience for me being immersed in these delicious food delicacies and cultural lifestyles and nuances, which, imo, only served to enrich the characters, the romance, family and friends in this story. In other words, Kallmaker didn’t just craft a WOC MC in Kesa just as a token. She really delved deep into everything that encompassed the life of a mixed-race person, including creating a group of characters who shared Kesa’s non-Caucasian half of her race and culture. In this case, the Filipino culture. The inclusion of these intriguing secondary characters truly enlightened and elevated the multi-dimensional depth of Kesa’s character, imo. Quite a learning curve and an enlightening experience, I must admit. Loved it!
All in all, “Because I Said So,” was an incredibly fun read with some extra helpings of angst, internal and external, to elevate it to a true romance drama. Now, one thing, though. After going through Shannon and Kesa’s ordeal plus Josie and Paz’s bonkers plan throughout the entire book, the story ended far sooner than I expected. I really wanted more time to soak in Shannon and Kesa’s life-changing decision toward the end so it would resonate even more. But that’s just my personal preference. Don’t get me wrong. Kallmaker’s ending was solid and worth waiting for! Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how I was immediately drawn to the title when I first saw it because it brought back fond childhood memories of my mum and her annoyed retorts of “Because I Said So!” after failed attempts at shutting me up from my endless “why‘s” to one single question! Sometimes, I was just taking the piss, though! Fun times! Plus, I utterly enjoyed Kallmaker’s mischievous play with irony when it came to the implications of the “love at first sight” experience! Sneaky!
Anyway, if you ask me, this book really provides a great summer, holiday read, what with all the glorious, delish culinary delights, exotic or otherwise, fun pastimes and all! California dreamin’, eh? I defo recommend it to fans who enjoy a richly portrayed, well-written, well-researched tale of romance with a slightly different, eccentric, exotic and an all-around fun, flavour to it! I, for one, had a blast with it! A fun, feel good read! Give it a go, I’ll say!
**I was given, with much thanks and appreciation, an ARC copy by Bella via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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