Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour

You know just from the title that Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour (#1,276) is going to be a "meet cute" romance and author Nora Nguyen delivers nicely.  It's also so quite steamy, so be warned if that's not your thing.

Evie Lang's dad was from Vietnam, but he died when she was quite young, leaving her mother so grief-stricken that she resists efforts to talk about him or his culture.  She does, however, permit Evie to spend her summers with her beloved Auntie Hao in her fabulous San Fransico waterfront mansion surrounded by a bohemian group of writers, artists, socialites and musicians.  Evie loves to hear her aunt talk about her life in Vietnam before the war.  Auntie Hao promises that she will make sure Evie has a chance to visit Vietnam one day herself.

Evie has put that dream on hold as she has won some literary success with her first published book of poetry, but when the initial publicity fades, so does her secret boyfriend's interest in her.  Since he's head of the English Department at the Ohio college where she teaches, this is unfortunate.  She loses her boyfriend, her job and her Auntie Hao all at the same time.  But there's a bright side: Auntie Hao has left her San Franciso mansion to Evie.  All she has to do to claim it is to take the matchmaking luxury tour to Vietnam that her aunt has purchased for her and provide the estate attorneys with photographic proof she's gone there.  You'd think it would be simple, wouldn't you?  You'd be wrong!

I'm not a fan of streamy romances, but the quirky characters and gorgeous Vietnamese sites Evie encounters on her tour kept me hooked.  Even though I'm not familiar with most of the places described as the background for Evie and Adam's tour group, they sound so amazing I'll be looking twice at options to tour Vietnam myself.  Nora Nguyen can sure paint a vivid word picture!  Recommended.

Just as an interesting aside, Nora Nguyen writes literary novels under the name Thao Thai.  I've put her recent Banyan Moon on hold at my local library.  If steamy romance isn't your thing, maybe this will appeal.