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.

Only Uni

Only Uni by Camy Tang

Senior biologist Trish Sakai is ready for a change from her wild, flirtatious behavior. So Trish creates three simple rules from First and Second Corinthians and plans to follow them to the letter. No more looking at men as possible dates, especially non-Christians. Second, tell others about Christ. And third, she will persevere in hardship by relying on God. And just to make sure she behaves, she enlists the help of her three cousins—Lex, Venus and Jennifer—the only Christians in their large extended family.

But Trish’s dangerously tempting ex-boyfriend, Kazuo the artist, keeps popping up at all the wrong moments, and her grandmother, who has her eye on his family money, keeps trying to push the two of them back together again. Then there’s Spencer, the hunky colleague at work who keeps turning Trish’s thoughts in the wrong direction.

It just isn’t fair! She’s trying so hard, but instead of being God’s virtuous woman, she’s going nuts trying to stand firm against two hunky guys. Trish thought following her three rules would be a cinch, but suddenly those simply rules don’t seem so simple at all.

--Only Uni 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 and picks up shortly after Sushi for One? left off. Trish Sakai is in a world of trouble. She’s broken up with her obsession/boyfriend Kazuo (only she forgot to tell him), her grandmother—who lovesKazuo—is pushing to keep them together, she catches her father kissing another woman, who just happens to be her mother’s best friend from college and when she tells her mother what she saw, her mother collapses from a heart attack.

Out of control, she turns to God and finds the answers she needs in First and Second Corinthians. She draws up a short, three-item list to help her stay in control of her life: stop obsessing about men, tell others about Christ, and rely in God in all things. She even decides to pursue a Master’s degree in Divinity.

Perfect, right?

Yes, until God throws Trish a curve ball and her boss partners her with Spenser Wong, one of the cutest guys at work. Too bad he’s not a Christian. Oh, and her roommate sets fire to their apartment, causing her to be evicted right when there seems to be a shortage of available housing in the area. And that darn Kazuo keeps showing up everywhere she goes.

In spite of the huge obstacles, Trish perseveres in her commitment to her rules and continues to seek God’s guidance, even when nothing seems to be going right. Slowly, her luck starts to turn. She finds a place to live, her parents are working out their issues, she holds fast to her “no Kazuo” rule and—wonders of wonders—she discovers Spencer is a member of her new church. And they’re starting to fall in love.

Then the worst possible thing happens. Will Spencer, not to mention the rest of her family members and her new-found church family, still stand by her when she breaks the news?

No, I’m not going to tell you. You’ll have to read the book for yourself.

Camy Tang is a wonderful author with several titles under Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense line as well as the Sushi Series. I’ve already reviewed Sushi for One? and I’m looking forward to reading the last of the Sushi series, Single Sashimi.

I give this story THREE STARS.

    

Sushi for One?

Sushi for One? by Camy Tang

Lex Sakai’s family is big, nosy and marriage-minded. When her cousin Mariko gets married, Lex will become the oldest single female cousin in the clan.

Lex has used her Bible study class on Ephesians to compile a huge list of traits for the perfect man. But the one man she keeps running into doesn’t seem to have a single quality on her list. It’s only when the always-in-control Lex starts to let God take over that all the pieces of this hilarious romance finally fall into place.

--Sushi for One? by Camy Tang, Copyright ©2007 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. Lex is smart, athletic and desperate to keep her grandmother from controlling her life. But Grandma knows just what strings to pull and insists Lex have a steady boyfriend by the time of her cousin Mariko’s wedding, or she’ll cut off funding for the junior high girl’s volleyball league that Lex coaches.

With four months to find a boyfriend—or possibly her own independent funding—Lex sets out on her quest. Along the way, she has to deal with her man-stealing cousin Mimi, job troubles, car problems, housing difficulties and always Grandma hovering in the background, her volleyball funding kept in her tight fist. Not to mention this guy Aiden, a friend of a friend, who keeps popping up on her radar.

When Lex tears her ACL, everyone recommends she go to Golden Creek Fitness and Physical Therapy. Great idea, except Aiden is a physical therapist there and he insists on taking over her case. Lex agrees to let Aiden be her therapist, but steels herself against her growing attraction to him. He’s all wrong for her, mainly because he’s not a Christian, and he lacks most of the traits on her Ephesians list.

Lex forgets to put her trust in God while she fights her attraction to Aiden. She tries to keep her distance, all the while God is working on Aiden’s heart, trying to bridge the gap Lex has placed between them. At a crisis moment in her life, Lex finally lets go of her control, giving her all to God, and He seamlessly closes all the gaps in her life.

Camy Tang is a wonderful author with several titles under Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense line as well as the Sushi Series. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the Sushi series, Single Sashimi and Only Uni, but I can take only one Chick-Lit book at a time, so I’ll be reading something else in between each one. I hope to have the series finished by mid-September.

I give this story THREE STARS.