"With Love from London" by Sarah Jio

With Love from London by Sarah Jio is a new family drama/romance novel releasing today. In this story, we follow a dual timeline. In present day, Valentina travels from Seattle to London after her estranged mother dies and leaves her house and bookstore to her. Not only is Valentina dealing with grief, unresolved resentment towards her mother and a looming sky high estate tax bill, she is also going through a painful divorce. The second timeline takes us to the 1960s London and 1970s Los Angeles, as we follow Valentina's mother Eloise and her troubled romantic and family life. 

Sarah Jio does a great job ending almost every chapter on a bit of cliffhanger, and because the points of view change with every chapter, the reader can't help but continue compulsively reading. In the beginning, what intrigued me the most was why Eloise left her family and completely disappeared from Valentina's life when the teenage girl needed her most. As we unravel family secrets and delve into the past, we discover that everything is not as simple as it seems to be. In Valentina's timeline, we along with the main character discover the mother she did not know, go to Eloise's favorite places and meet the people she loved.

The story is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. At the core of it all is the greatest love of all: that of a mother towards her daughter. There are of course plenty of romantic interests as well. So the release date just in time for Valentine's day is quite perfect. I really enjoyed this novel. 4 out of 5 stars.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com

"The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea" by Axie Oh

Reading this novel I couldn't help but compare it with another Chinese mythology-based fantasy that I read earlier this year: Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan. I must say right off the bat that I like The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea much more. 

In this novel, the people sacrifice a young girl to the sea god in hopes that a terrible curse will be lifted from him and prosperity will return to the land. Our main character Mina voluntarily jumps into the sea in order to save the beloved of her brother who was from childhood destined to become the sea god's bride. Thus, Mina finds herself in the world of gods, spirits and mythical creatures.

I really liked Mina as a character. She is independent-minded, strong and incredibly loving. All of her actions in the spirit world are aimed at helping her people. She never waivers from this purpose and does not get distracted even when she starts falling in love. 

And speaking of love, the romance in this book was incredible. I really liked all of the twists and turns in the story, the angst was of just the right intensity, and the connection between the characters was strong and made sense.

Going back to comparing this book to Daughter of the Moon Goddess, I think Axie Oh did a better job giving our character a purpose. It also felt more relatable because Mina is human and the connection to the human world makes sense. In Daughter of the Moon Goddess all the main characters are celestial beings and the human world is entirely removed and almost irrelevant. Axie Oh's storyline is also much more focused, whereas Sue Lynn Tan's novel felt like it was trying to go into too many directions and I really did not like the love triangle there either. 

Anyway, I will definitely be getting a finished copy of this book for my personal library. I already can't wait to re-read it. Also, even though I do feel that this book wins over Daughter of the Moon Goddess, I do plan on reading the conclusion to the Celestial Kingdoms Duology.

5 out of 5 stars. I highly recommend this retelling. And the cover of this book is absolutely gorgeous.

An audio ARC was provided by NetGalley.com.