Toutes les Lumieres de Hong Kong

My first romance novel, and in French to boot. The title translates as All the Lights of Hong Kong, and I picked it up because Hong Kong seemed like a cool setting for fiction ever since a particular episode of Cracker I really liked. I would show you a picture of the cover, but despite my extensive Googling I haven't been able to come up with one under either the French title or the original English title, Divided Loyalties.

I remember reading somewhere that in the romance novel industry, there are four different categories of explicitness when it comes to sex--this novel was definitely in the most tasteful "fade to black" category. I'm starting to wonder about myself, because along with my newfound appreciation for soap operas, I found this quite readable and interesting.

Twenty-two year old Debra has lived with with her best friend Liz ever since Liz's parents died in a car crash. When Debra gets a job working for a handsome fashion designer named Vane Oliver in Hong Kong, Liz comes along for a ride. Instant love triangle? You bet! Debra is quite jealous of Vane's burgeoning friendship with Liz and is probably the mouthiest employee ever, while Vane is prone to fits of crazy rage making him the world's worst boss. A match made in heaven? Well, I couldn't spoil the ending, now could I?

The only thing I found weird was that Debra and Liz don't really seem like best friends--Liz is five years younger than Debra, and Debra treats her much more like a vulnerable kid sister than a best bud. As for the Hong Kong setting, I feel confident the author (Margaret Mayo) added authentic flavor, but much of it was lost on me because of my rudimentary French--I know there were some kite-flying festivals and scenes along the harbor with junks ("jonques") but that's about it.

Was this post longer than what I managed to write on my dissertation today? Probably.