Last Tang Standing ⭐⭐.25

The frustrating writing style… the cast of unlikable characters… how quickly characters just change their minds… this was unfortunately not for me. 2.25/5 stars.

Andrea Tang is the last in her family’s generation to get engaged. Desperate to live up to her family, and especially her mother’s, expectations, she finds herself going on multiple dates to find the man of her relatives’ dreams all while trying to make partner at a job she despises.

Last Tang Standing is… interesting… More often than not, I found myself incredibly bored with Andrea’s escapades. The story is told through what seems to be Andrea’s diary entries and we, the reader, are reading her innermost thoughts. It’s a really odd writing choice because although it’s in this diary format, we’re getting actual dialogue that characters say to Andrea as if it’s happening in real time. It never really clicked for me and as such, took away from my enjoyment of the book.

It would have been easy to ignore the writing choice if Andrea was an interesting character to read about. However, for a good majority of the book, I was utterly annoyed/frustrated/bored with Andrea’s life. Some of that is intentional. She isn’t vapid per se, but she does put a lot of time and energy into maintaining a certain reputation/status. She has to play into the filial daughter role that has been drilled into her since she was young. The thing is, if it was such a large part of her personality, I wish we got more scenes of her rebelling at first and then getting it stamped out of her. It would make us feel more for the character as she struggles between what she wants and what she thinks she wants. Instead, we’re merely thrown into this wealthy (but not too wealthy) woman’s life and it’s just so…. meh.

Then, when she finally decides to change, it feels so abrupt because we don’t get that natural character progression/growth. It was like whiplash how quickly Andrea changed her mind and decided to pursue her dreams. It came so late in the book with no build up and I wish we got more character work.

Also, the romance was all right. There were moments here and there, but nothing that really stuck with me as wow, yes, I can see them together for the long haul.

I also didn’t love any character in this story, which usually bumps down my enjoyment even further.

At the end of the day, this book simply isn’t my cup of tea.