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Feb. 28th, 2015 01:41 pmI had never read a billionaire romance before reading Courtney Milan's Trade Me, so while I have lots of respect for Courtney Milan as a romance writer and a human trying to write progressively, I had a sort of vague expectation that this probably wasn't going to be my favorite of her books.
But weirdly, it turned out I was wrong and actually this might be my literal favorite of Courtney Milan's books?
(Well, maybe with the exception of Unraveled, which I have a very deep fondness for, for reasons that I can't entirely explain. -- OK, socially awkward protagonists and plucky urchins and found family and DEDICATION TO JUSTICE!!!, I actually totally can explain it. Unraveled was a really enjoyable book for my id.)
Anyway! Trade Me is set at Berkeley; our heroine, Tina Chen, who is working herself through college as well as financially assisting her family. Also attending Berkeley is Blake, the super-rich and super-famous son of the super-rich and super-famous guy who founded a start-up that is TOTALLY not Apple. They clash one day in class when Blake says something privileged and condescending in a discussion about food stamps; Tina, possibly the only one in the class whose family has ever been on food stamps, finally snaps and calls him on it, and Blake is smitten.
This leads to an elaborate deception plot in which Blake attempts to flee the pressures of his responsibilities at Totally Not Apple and his dad's expectations by convincing Tina to trade lives with him: she gets his house! his car! the income from his truly enormous portfolio! the responsibility of taking charge on the launch of his company's newest super-snazzy tech device! Meanwhile, he gets her crappy apartment! and a crappy job that has equivalent crappy income to her crappy job! and the absolute minimum level of contact with Totally Not Apple!
This seems like the setup for a lot of HIJINKS!! but actually it's mostly just the opportunity for a.) a lot of exploration of class and privilege and b.) for each of them to get involved with each other's families, which, it turns out, is the reason I liked this book so much: Blake and Tina's families, but Tina's especially, are both so interesting. Milan does a really amazing job writing parental relationships that feel complicated, genuinely loving, and genuinely problematic. Tina's mother is a brilliant, funny, dedicated woman who throws herself into volunteer legal work for her community, but the financial needs of her own family -- including stuff like her younger daughter's ADHD medication -- come terrifyingly low on her priorities list; Blake's affectionate asshole of a father takes enormous amounts of time to incorporate his son into his life and makes sure he knows he's a priority to him, but he also puts the same kind of enormous and unhealthy amounts of pressure on him as he does on himself. The great thing about these family portraits is also how they deftly avoid the usual stereotypes about "overbearing Chinese immigrant mother!" and "work-obsessed billionaire father!" The cultural expectations and pressures of Chinese-American communities and Silicon Valley start-up land do play major roles in the family dynamics, but in a way that (to me at least) feels very real and not at all paint-by-numbers.
Also, personally speaking, I love metafiction and explorations of staged 'real life,' so I was really into the whole "Blake's life has been turned into commercials and product launches since he was an adorable child!" thing. I also love gallant, unstoppable fighters for JUSTICE, see above, and TINA'S MOM IS SUCH A GOOD CHARACTER, would happily read a whole book about her.
But instead we're getting a whole book about Tina's awesome trans roommate Maria, which, ALSO DOWN FOR THAT.
But weirdly, it turned out I was wrong and actually this might be my literal favorite of Courtney Milan's books?
(Well, maybe with the exception of Unraveled, which I have a very deep fondness for, for reasons that I can't entirely explain. -- OK, socially awkward protagonists and plucky urchins and found family and DEDICATION TO JUSTICE!!!, I actually totally can explain it. Unraveled was a really enjoyable book for my id.)
Anyway! Trade Me is set at Berkeley; our heroine, Tina Chen, who is working herself through college as well as financially assisting her family. Also attending Berkeley is Blake, the super-rich and super-famous son of the super-rich and super-famous guy who founded a start-up that is TOTALLY not Apple. They clash one day in class when Blake says something privileged and condescending in a discussion about food stamps; Tina, possibly the only one in the class whose family has ever been on food stamps, finally snaps and calls him on it, and Blake is smitten.
This leads to an elaborate deception plot in which Blake attempts to flee the pressures of his responsibilities at Totally Not Apple and his dad's expectations by convincing Tina to trade lives with him: she gets his house! his car! the income from his truly enormous portfolio! the responsibility of taking charge on the launch of his company's newest super-snazzy tech device! Meanwhile, he gets her crappy apartment! and a crappy job that has equivalent crappy income to her crappy job! and the absolute minimum level of contact with Totally Not Apple!
This seems like the setup for a lot of HIJINKS!! but actually it's mostly just the opportunity for a.) a lot of exploration of class and privilege and b.) for each of them to get involved with each other's families, which, it turns out, is the reason I liked this book so much: Blake and Tina's families, but Tina's especially, are both so interesting. Milan does a really amazing job writing parental relationships that feel complicated, genuinely loving, and genuinely problematic. Tina's mother is a brilliant, funny, dedicated woman who throws herself into volunteer legal work for her community, but the financial needs of her own family -- including stuff like her younger daughter's ADHD medication -- come terrifyingly low on her priorities list; Blake's affectionate asshole of a father takes enormous amounts of time to incorporate his son into his life and makes sure he knows he's a priority to him, but he also puts the same kind of enormous and unhealthy amounts of pressure on him as he does on himself. The great thing about these family portraits is also how they deftly avoid the usual stereotypes about "overbearing Chinese immigrant mother!" and "work-obsessed billionaire father!" The cultural expectations and pressures of Chinese-American communities and Silicon Valley start-up land do play major roles in the family dynamics, but in a way that (to me at least) feels very real and not at all paint-by-numbers.
Also, personally speaking, I love metafiction and explorations of staged 'real life,' so I was really into the whole "Blake's life has been turned into commercials and product launches since he was an adorable child!" thing. I also love gallant, unstoppable fighters for JUSTICE, see above, and TINA'S MOM IS SUCH A GOOD CHARACTER, would happily read a whole book about her.
But instead we're getting a whole book about Tina's awesome trans roommate Maria, which, ALSO DOWN FOR THAT.
