I can tell that Ruiyan Xu has a knack for words. Her prose creates a pleasurable read. While I can appreciate the message she is trying to create with the storyline (isolation created by language barriers, inter-personal relationships, communicating without the right words,
…more etc.), the plot was predictable and often cheesey. It didn't read as believable when Li Jing loses his fluency in Chinese. It read as a bad sitcom. I look forward to more of Ruiyan Xu's books, but I hope that she doesn't try so hard the next time. I hope she lets the story develop and doesn't try so hard to shape it in a way that doesn't read smoothly. (less)