Thursday, October 21, 2010

Single Sashimi

Single Sashimi by Camy Tang

Venus Chau is determined to start her own game development company and launch the next Super Mario-sized phenomenon. However, she needs an investor to back her idea. When Drake Yu, an old nemesis, approaches Venus with a contracting opportunity at his sister’s startup, the offer tempts Venus to think the unthinkable.

Venus would rather throw away her PS3 than work for Drake again…but then Grandma bribes Venus to do this favor for Drake’s wealthy family. With the encouragement of her three cousins, Lex, Trish and Jennifer, Venus discovers that even a wounded heart can undergo a beautiful transformation…
--Single Sashimi by Camy Tang, Copyright ©2008 by Camy Tang, published by Zondervan Books

My Review

Some books easily land in a genre while others sit nicely on a fence between two. This book, a Chick-Lit Asian Christian Romance, manages to straddle four and does so very nicely.

The story is set in San Jose, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, about eight months after the end of Only Uni. Venus Chau is not the oldest of the four Christian Sakai cousins, but she is the most direct. She’s the programming team lead/acting game lead at a popular computer gaming company and her firm, direct style of management intimidates most people she comes in contact with. But not Drake Yu.

Venus worked for Drake once but quit after a “personal dispute.” Now, suddenly, after almost six years, Drake calls her and offers her a new job. He’d retired a few years earlier at thirty-eight due to a sudden heart attack, but now he’s come out of retirement to help his sister’s start-up. The company needs a new Chief Technology Officer, one that can get the employees under control and drive production. In Drake’s mind, Venus is the most obvious choice. To sweeten the deal, along with the promotion and higher salary, he’ll help her start her own programming company. Her immediate answer is “no,” but after she’s passed up for promotion to permanent Game Lead—by a junior programmer, no less—she decides to take Drake’s offer.

While her work life may be settled for the time being, her spiritual life is not as good as it should be. She prays every morning, reads her Bible and even volunteers to work with a church youth group, but something is missing. She just can’t figure out what.

Though she prefers her introverted lifestyle, Venus is besieged by relationships. Her relationship with God, her father, her mother, her cousins, her secret business partner, the youth group, her co-workers and most especially, her relationship with Drake—she has no idea how to control them all.

It’s only when Venus finally learns to let go of control with her relationship with God do the pieces of the other relationships start to fall into place. But will she like the picture God is drawing for her, one that leads her away from the dream she’s been working hard to create and toward a life with Drake?

Camy Tang is a wonderful author with several titles under Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense line as well as the Sushi Series (which I’m now done reading—better late than never!).

Are you wondering why she never published a book for the fourth cousin, Jennifer? If you join Camy’s YahooGroup newsletter (for details, click here), you can get Jennifer’s novella titled Weddings and Wasabi…I think she’s finished writing it…

I give this story THREE STARS.


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