Pearl Wong knows who she is, aspiring pianist who has already played on stages around the world, and knows where she’s going, the Apollo Summer Program, a guarantee acceptance to the wider classical music community. Until she gets into a tiktok scandal where her hat, remiscent of old Asian stereotypes, draws fire and her spot is rescinded.

Devasted, Pearl takes advice to lie low and take time for herself, and she chooses to go to Loveboat. What’s more low-profile than the other side of the world? Besides, Loveboat gave Ever a transformation when she went seven years ago, confidence to follow her dreams, stand up to their parents, and get a swoon-worthy boyfriend in Rick Woo. What will be in store for Pearl?

Readers may remember Ever’s precocious, spunky little sister in Loveboat, Taipei, but now she’s seventeen and driven to succeed. This drive is heightened by the fact that there are few people who look like her in the classical world. She knows she’ll have to work twice as hard to succeed and be accepted which makes it so much worse for her when the tiktok scandal hits. She played by the rules all this time and the one ignorant mistake she makes blows all her chances.

But it does give her the opportunity to go to Taipei! Ever’s journey was more of typical coming of age story as Ever strains against her immigrant parents’ expectations vs courage to follow her own dreams, and bridging the communication gap to dance like she wishes.
Pearl is more about reconnecting and learning about her heritage, and just how much she doesn’t know about Taipei. Wen makes viewers sympathesize with Pearl and her innocent mistake, unknowing of the broader implications of the fishermen hat in Asian caricatures. But she dives into the history of these racist images, demonstrating how one needs to unpack their own biases and ignorance and work to do better.

Pearl’s reckoning with herself also puts her at odds with one grump beatboxer named Kai. You can guess from the first failed meet cute that Kai is going to be the love interest and Wen does an excellent job in depicting how their intial annoyance with one another turns into a real musical collaboration and push for the other to overcome their flaws and remove their blinders. Kai makes Pearl see how Western colonization has colored so much of her life than she doesn’t realize the beauty of Eastern instruments that have been around for just as long. Why is Mozart and Beethoven always revered as the greats?

This inspires Pearl to try a new instrument, the pipa, and sparks her interest in not only highlighting Eastern instruments but brings back her love for music in a new way. Her love in performing, sharing how music is one thing everyone has in common and inspires emotion no matter the race, age, gender, etc.

This pipa love affair detours into another important topic regarding colonization. Museums and their choice to keep stolen items when countries and individuals call for their return, and the whole bureaucracy designed to stall these efforts. It is moving as Pearl’s journey to find her great-grandmother’s pipa not only brings her closer to her roots by literally revealing a whole village of Lims; But it gives her the strength of her heritage and the memory of her ancestors that she wants to continue to honor, including her father who passed away between the first book and this. The one who always encouraged her music.

I love how Wen brings up these major topics but it feels organic to the story, set next to fun hijinks of sneaking out to Makeout in the Dark parties and bonding over pastries with her new friends. Life is made of serious and fun, and Wen balances that perfectly.

She also balances the love triangle that doesn’t feel so much like a love triangle because it is obvious from the beginning, but Ethan, the classical violinist who gets Pearl on a professional level provides a nice foil to what could happen to Pearl if she gives into the classical music world that will always seek to put her in a box and judge her more harshly compared to more privileged, white peers.

Finally there’s a reunion. A bigger reunion than Loveboat reunion which utilizes the classic “let’s save this program from being cancelled” but damn it’s just so moving to see everyone come together again and all those loose threads like Ever and Rick’s long distance woes be wrapped up nicely and Pearl celebrated for her newfound clarity and knowledge.

Now do I have any critiques? Eh, the first 1– pages are a bit slow but they’re necessary to set up Pearl’s character and the backgrounds of everyone. The love triangle is obvious but I like how Sophie and Rick point out that it doesn’t mean Pearl has to get with anyone by the end of this, she’s young, she has her whole life ahead of her and making love mistakes is part of the deal. I wish there had been more friendship bonding with Hollis and Iris. By the end of Loveboat, Taipei, I could really feel Sophie and Ever as being like family. Iris, Hollis and Pearl seem more like burgeoning newfound friendship since most of her time was spent between Ethan and Kai.

Still this was one entertaining, thought-provoking and moving book.

5 stars.