REVIEW: Trade Me by Courtney Milan
Dear Courtney Milan:
It cracked me up to read the GoodReads comments of people who are waiting for this, because most of them follow exactly my own thought processes: “New Courtney Milan, yay! Billionaire hero New Adult novel…. err…” I don’t think most of those readers will be sorry they followed a favorite author into a new genre, because this is definitely billionaire hero Milan style.
You might think from the set-up — a wealthy student switches lives with a struggling one — that this will be a story filled with adversarial sexual tension and comic misadventures, but it defies expectations at almost every turn. Blake Reynold’s reasons for offering the trade have nothing to do with teaching Tina Chen a lesson about how hard his privileged life really is: he is trying to escape that life as literally as he can. And although the book is often very funny, only a little of the humor comes from watching the two adjust to their new lives, which we actually barely see. The real focus of the story is on relationships: Blake’s fear of disappointing his much loved, exceptionally successful father, Tina’s feeling of responsibility towards her family, and Blake and Tina’s growing feelings for each other — which Tina is sure could only end in disaster for her.
“I don’t know why anyone thinks that looking at the stars is so romantic,” she says. “Have they ever read Greek mythology? It’s all the same story–God sees mortal, God desires mortal, mortal suffers gruesome fate and is rewarded with an eternity of pain in the cosmos.”
Both characters have unexpected backstories. Tina’s family immigrated from China when she was young, because her father was tortured for practicing Falun Gong. Now her mother devotes herself to helping other immigrants — even if the electricity bill doesn’t get paid, or Tina’s younger sister doesn’t get her ADHD meds.
I hate trying to explain Falun Gong to Westerners. Sometimes, I wish my parents had been caught up in something comprehensible, like tax reform or Tiananmen Square. I’ve tried telling people before and it rarely goes well… No, it’s not a freedom of speech issue. No, it’s not a religion, not like you understand it. It’s never going to make sense to you, which is why immigration judges don’t always get it. It’s like free exercise of… exercise, and my mother spends all her spare time beating her head against that wall.
Blake’s issue is also a rare and intriguing one for a hero in New Adult. I’m putting it in spoiler space since it’s revealed slowly, but since it’s not that hard to guess, it’s really only a mild spoiler:
Spoiler (spoiler): Show
And though Blake may be a billionaire — his father runs a company much like Apple, and he’s been appearing in commercials for it since he was a toddler — he’s also a Courtney Milan hero, i.e., the opposite of an alpha jerk. He genuinely cares about Tina, and he hears and supports her feelings rather than trying to persuade her or “rescue” her.
Part of what I enjoyed about the book were little details that just feel right. In one funny scene, Blake and his father find their experimental technologies believably clashing. The depiction of Tina’s poverty is spot on, as is her experience as an older student in a class full of freshmen, heatedly discussing issues they have no practical knowledge of. I don’t know how accurate the depiction of life for Blake and his father, Adam, is, but it never struck a false chord. I really enjoyed their interactions, and Blake’s fond understanding of his seemingly difficult dad:
What new fucking rancid bullshit is this? If you are blowing me off for some new-wave meditative retreat shit, I swear to God there will be a nuclear explosion down here.
People think that my dad is an asshole because he says shit like this all the time and they think he means it. He doesn’t. He’s not really an asshole. He’s just fluent in the language of asshole and likes using it.
If I had to choose one word for the story, it would be loving. Both Blake and Tina are very loving people, though her caring nature has been somewhat warped by bitterness and fear. What she and Blake give each other isn’t about money, but about moving past their fears.
The story was working great for me until the last quarter, in which suddenly a lot of unexpected and melodramatic events gave me a “meanwhile, in another movie” feeling. Although the plot turns do fit the overall themes, I found them so jarring that they inevitably affected my feeling about the book, and my grade.
The romance ends with a somewhat in-the-air happy for now. The next book will follow Tina’s best friend Maria Lopez (a trans heroine in New Adult, how exciting is that?!) and the third promises to catch up with Tina and Blake again, as well as with the foul-mouthed and opinionated Adam. I’ll definitely be reading the rest of this innovative series. B-
Sincerely,
Willaful
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this sounds so good! I always enjoy seeing Asian heroines in novels and not have them be historicals
I loved this book. Loved it, loved it, loved it, and I want to give it to everyone I know. I read it all in one sitting — I haven’t done that with a book in AGES, but I wanted to keep reading, keep enjoying. The text conversations and occasional conversational derail are probably the most adorable things EVER, too.
Seeing Maria was getting her own book at the end made me cry, I won’t lie. I’d cried several times before regarding Maria, but these were happy, happy tears.
@Tae: I thought it gave a really good sense of someone who’s part of two cultures.
Just a note that I worked as an editor on this one.
Since I’m not reading much historial these days, I was so excited to hear Milan was writing a contemp. Then bummed to learn it was going to be New Adult and in the first person. So glad I didn’t let that stop me from buying it. And the alternating first person worked better for me here than in other books I’ve read with the format.
I agree the last quarter felt other-bookish in some ways, but I still gave it an A as I just enjoyed reading it. I guessed the hero’s issue and figured what would happen with the heroine toward the end as soon as that plot element was mentioned (trying not to be spoilerish). I had bigger issues with the way that subplot was resolved and the letter (which technically isn’t part of the book) even if the resolution was probably true to life.
I hadn’t seen the Goodreads, but that pretty much nails my initial reaction too. New Milan! Billion…what??
I can’t entirely tell from the review how well the romance worked for you- it sounds like the characters had interested backstories and journeys as individuals, but did you enjoy their interactions and chemistry as a couple, and did you find the ending satisfying?
Gah! Still not up on Kindle for my instant gratification!
I was already going to buy and read this book tonight but now I’m even more excited about it. I read the excerpt on Milan’s site so I’m super stoked about it. Thanks for the review!
I’m really interested to see how book #2 turns out. Is there a release date? I’ll have to look for that ..
@Donna Thorland: From Milan’s tweets, I think Amazon is being difficult. Hopefully it will be cleared up soon.
@Lozza: I enjoyed them as a couple without being madly in love with them together. The ending goes a lot on faith, which is not entirely satisfactory, but thematically appropriate.
@Sandra: It’s only listed as late 2015, alas: http://www.courtneymilan.com/holdme.php
From the hero’s last name, it sound like he might be Thai-American. Even more diversity in this series!
Oh no, wait — Thalang is a district in Thailand, so maybe not.
I really enjoyed this as well. I was just as unsure because of the billionaire thing – I’m definitely over that. But Milan managed to not make me hate that there was a billionaire here so that’s new for me! I loved the differences that I don’t see much of in other contemporaries – the hero’s issue, an Asian heroine and the trans friend. I cannot wait for the 2nd book to see what Milan does with these characters there. I also loved the non-alphahole. Pretty sick of those types in every single book. I was happy with the diversity shown and really liked how the book ended.
It appears to be up as an Amazon’s Kindle purchase now, as of 1 pm CDT. One clickable and all!
BTW — is it only me who hates the cover? Not only is his expression far from Blake’s character, but there’s a touch of uncanny valley about it that makes my skin crawl.
Definitely going to try and see what I think :). Thanks Willaful.
@Willaful: I agree, and I’ll add that I’m not a huge fans of the covers Milan uses in general (all those bridal catalog dresses that take over the cover). But looking at it from a business perspective, Milan clearly has a very good understanding of how to position her books to attract readers. I can hardly fault her for choosing covers that will help her work sell.
@Donna Thorland: OMG! I want this book too! I must have it!!!!
I’ve never before read anything by Courtney Milan but after this review I’m very tempted. *eyes sub and sighes deeply: “Oh well.”*
I so feel you’re first statement. It’s all the things that generally don’t work for me. NA, 1st person, billionaire hero. But it’s Courtney Milan, who is generally all my cat nip. So torn right now.
@Maria:
*your
(Oh self, what have you done?)
mmph. “Courtney Milan” vs “first person NA.” Tough call. Beta-ish hero? Yum. Billionaire? Yawn.
I guess what tips it is the ambiguous HFN ending. I think I’ll wait until all three books are out, so I can have a complete story.
@hapax: I wasn’t trying to say it’s ambiguous. I believe they’re happy. They just haven’t worked all the details out.
I don’t mind the cover so much but don’t connect it with Blake at all. The look on his face seems completely not in his character.
@Rose: Ditto on all counts.
This is going to be my first Courtney Milan book. It sounds great! I really like stories that have the man’s point of view too. I really loved that about the Ivy Years series by Sarina Bowen.
There was a romance author on the Self Publishing Podcast this past summer who said (to the best of my recollection) something to the effect that writing dirty-talking billionaires was like hitting the easy button on her career after she had been banging her head against the wall. I’m glad that at least this book sounds like it subverts some of the usual billionaire tropes. I like Courtney Milan’s work, and I am definitely considering buying this one. It’s not so much that I mind each individual billionaire or mc book or whatever is trending. It’s more that I mind when something like “billionaires” becomes popular, suddenly there’s a surfeit of them, and authors lose their unique voices in pursuit of the trend.
@Melissa: Yes, good point. It does make a difference if you can bring something new to the trope, like the beta billionaire. :-)
This was my first book by Courtney Milan. I never read historicals. I’m not big in to NA, but people were raving on Twitter. I was pleased with it. But I agree the last quarter made me think, wait, what happened?!?! It seemed to come out of nowhere. Slightly off putting. I did think she handled Blake’s problem well. I loved the interaction between Adam and Blake.
I finished this one last night. Like many here, I was a bit hesitant when I read the blurb for this one (NA, billionaires), but it is Courtney Milan and I trust her to do something interesting. I am so glad I picked this one up. Blake is not the typical a$$hole bad-boy billionaire that is so prevalent now and, unlike so many NAs out now, these characters had problems which seemed very real given the context of their lives. Her exploration of the class and social issues was really, really well done. I did not find the ending rushed or too melodramatic in the circumstances, and I thought that Milan did telegraph it pretty well throughout the book (I can’t say more without spoilers). As I often see in real life, when shit starts happening, it usually comes all at once and starts rolling at an incredible pace. Given the nature of these characters, they weren’t going to go down. I also liked that everything was not wrapped up in sunshine and rainbows at the end. Both Blake and Tina still have a lot of issues to deal with personally and relationship-wise and I was happy to see that “love didn’t cure all” as is so often the case. I am really looking forward to the rest of the books in this series, and I hope that Milan does write Adam’s book one day. This book was in the B+/A- category for me until the “mango” scene – that moved it up to an A for me.
I’m not a fan of any of her covers either and a smarmy blond guy is like the last thing that would get me to buy a book…but having to source some pictures for a project where I needed something non-stereotypical I can tell you it takes f*cking hours of combing through stock photo sites to find something. Seriously spent about 40 hrs for one part of the project. I’m not at all surprised she’s doing photoshoots for the next book, I ended up having to do that. Stock photos show the worst of any gender or racial sterotypes…so bad it made me hate humans.
Here’s what I wrote at SBTB about the book:
I stayed up too late last night reading this. NA isn’t my favorite, hate books about billionaires, but I’m all for contemporaries with smart women and fbombs. It did get a little crazy at the end but, you know, fantasy. I’d give it a solid B+. I remember finding out CM had a Chinese mother a few years ago and being kind of pissed off that she spent all her time writing about white people in the Victorian era (not that I don’t love those books). I have a vested interest in books with ethnic Chinese characters as part of a mixed race couple, so I was super excited to see her step out a little and go exploring.
I grew up as poor as the heroine (with a mum who had untreated mental health issues) and I support my mum financially now, so I really appreciated the keeping it real part when it came to poverty and what it means. I also appreciated that the heroine and her family’s race was part of the story but didn’t come across as “look at these crazy Chinese people” if that makes sense. This felt different than another book I looked forward to reading and then was pretty disappointed in (Back to the Good Fortune Diner).
…
I would love to see some contemporaries where the male is the Asian in a mixed pairing, I have only read one, and it was erotica and not my favorite (mostly because I enjoy the feels more then the action not that the book was bad).
@Lynnd:
This, all of this.