Why I read it:  I received a review copy from the author via NetGalley.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads)  Tina Chen just wants a degree and a job, so her parents never have to worry about making rent again. She has no time for Blake Reynolds, the sexy billionaire who stands to inherit Cyclone Technology. But when he makes an off-hand comment about what it means to be poor, she loses her cool and tells him he couldn’t last a month living her life.

To her shock, Blake offers her a trade: She’ll get his income, his house, his car. In exchange, he’ll work her hours and send money home to her family. No expectations; no future obligations.

But before long, they’re trading not just lives, but secrets, kisses, and heated nights together. No expectations might break Tina’s heart…but Blake’s secrets could ruin her life.

What worked for me (and what didn’t):  Lots of people in my little corner of the internet have been loving this book and it’s certainly generated a lot of buzz. It took me a little while to get into and I thought the back half was stronger.  It also challenged my thinking in some areas and that’s always worthwhile.

While I hadn’t read any reviews of Trade Me before reading, I had listened to the DBSA podcast with Sarah Wendell, RedHeadedGirl and the author.  It did prompt me to queue up the book as my next read – but I also found myself getting somewhat distracted; as I was reading I was hearing the author talking about the book and, especially for the earlier part of the story, I had a case of “author interruptus“.  This isn’t the author’s fault of course. Perhaps I’d have been better off waiting a little bit before diving in.  As it was, the author’s comments were fresh in my mind, so I had a very clear picture of what the author wanted me to see and experience and I found myself reading at a more meta level than usual. Which was a little jarring.

Tina is a kind of prickly character and I found my own feathers a bit ruffled by her at first.  I got a bit annoyed about her “banging on” about her poverty.  I say that deliberately.  Because I had that thought and then I metaphorically slapped myself around and gave myself a good talking to.  She made me uncomfortable and I reacted badly (a thing that never happens anywhere else ever).  Tina’s life is hardly anything like my own.  Her experience matches very little with mine.  While I didn’t grow up rich and in fact was raised in a fairly low socio-economic area, we never had the experience of having to choose between electricity and groceries. We couldn’t buy brand name clothing and we didn’t have many holidays. We only ever rented a house (home ownership is a BFD here, I’m not sure if it’s the same culturally elsewhere).  But, we did have some holidays and we never went without. We could always afford necessary medicine and never had to put off seeing a doctor because of money. We were never poor in the way Tina is poor.  I realised that I reacted badly to her “banging on” because it made me uncomfortable, because it made me aware in a discomfitting way of my own privilege.  (And here I thought I was doing better with that too. *sigh*  What I am doing better with is recognising the knee-jerk reactions I have about some things aren’t always for good reasons and I’m learning to give myself space to think and realise this before I embrace a reaction.  I have noticed the distance in time between knee-jerk and adult reaction is getting smaller – that’s progress, right?).

Once I got over myself (which didn’t take all that long) I realised that the kinds of things Tina was saying were things I needed to listen to and think about. Obviously I can’t change my own privilege but I can say that reading this book gave me new insight and perspective and for that alone, the book was worth it.

In terms of the romance, I thought there was a bit too much mental lusting early on and I’d have liked to have seen more of the developing connection between Blake and Tina. At the beginning, Tina felt a lot of her attraction was “social programming” and tried to fight against it.  Blake had had his eye on Tina for months. By the end, I did feel they had more than just chemistry but there was a part early in the relationship which I felt was kind of skipped over.

Some of the description from Blake’s POV felt unrealistic to me.  I couldn’t really imagine a guy thinking “My nerves light up at that, sparking with desire.”

In the end, I thought it was Tina who had it more together than Blake, even with all his millions. Blake was way more fucked up than Tina.  I also found a point of connection with Tina as she recalled pivotal moments of her childhood where something was said to her which shaped her entire outlook on life.

I enjoyed Tina’s complicated relationship with her mother. Apart from some of the hilarious things Tina’s mother says (“two condoms” *snort*), I liked the explanation of the backhanded compliments which were Mrs. Chen’s way of bragging about her daughter..

It’s stupid to let myself get upset about things like this. I know that to Western ears the practice sounds a lot ruder, a lot more passive-aggressive, than it really is. This is my mother’s way of telling everyone how proud she is of me, of boasting without really boasting. But I can’t help it. I am westernized, and there’s enough truth in those backhanded compliments that it stings.
Tina works so hard; she never has time for me

It was clear that the author knew the culture she was writing about and I appreciated the exposition on how it clashes at times with western sensibilities.

The technology empire that is Cyclone felt authentic too – not that I’m really in any position to judge, but it felt to me like the company could have been a real one.

What else? For me, Adam Reynolds stole the book, hands down. He jumped off the page for me in every scene he was in.  In book three, Adam will be a POV character even though the story will be about Tina/Blake again (so I understand).  In any event, I will be reading the hell out of that book because I loved Adam’s dirty mouth and the unswerving, unstoppable devotion he has for Blake.  I loved the story Blake told Tina of when Adam came to do a presentation at his elementary school. And I loved how Adam and Tina became kinda-sorta friends in this book. He has a very unique style and it totally worked for me.  (I would totally read a book where Adam was the main character – just saying.)

I also enjoyed that there was a transgirl in Trade Me and I enjoyed that being trans was one (albeit important) facet of Maria’s character and that it was not the only one. Because of course Maria is more than a transgirl. People are more than any one thing about them.

First and foremost (in this story), she is Tina’s best friend. We know that Maria was kicked out of home when she came out as trans and was raised thereafter by her grandmother (thankfully) but (to borrow the words of a friend), her trans-ness isn’t a tragedy which has been made into the focal point of the novel. In Trade Me I appreciated that there was a trans character who clearly had a life outside of the story but who didn’t walk around with a neon “I’m trans” sign on her head, the sole purpose of which would have been to show that the author is good at diversity (but not really actually good at diversity).  While being a girl is very important to Maria’s identity and I’m sure it will be explored in her own book (yay!), she’s not there merely to represent a minority.  But she’s also not the focus of this story. It is clear that Tina and Maria are close friends and Tina relies on Maria’s advice and affection.

I guess what I’m trying to celebrate is that Maria is presented in much the same way as any other best friend in a well written book is presented. Her inclusion felt organic. And isn’t it a wonderful thing to think that trans characters will become commonplace in mainstream media? And that maybe folks will get to the point where a trans character’s genitalia isn’t the first thing that they think about when she or he appears? It hasn’t happened yet, but books like this help move things along. Maria’s book is next (her hero is a tattooed bad boy who plays with lasers. Be still my heart) and I am hoping that she not only finds acceptance and love but that she continues to be presented as a multifaceted character and that the conflict isn’t entirely about her gender identity.

Trade Me had a somewhat patchy start for me but I found the back half hard to put down. It’s a different take on New Adult and Blake is not the typical romance billionaire. I felt he avoided coming across as all “poor little rich boy” because at heart, his problems arose out of the deep love and respect he has for his father and his fear he would not be able to live up to the expectations he placed on himself.  Tina and Blake found some commonality in that too I think.  The story ends on a happy-for-now note which was believable and appropriate and which leaves plenty of room for book three.

Grade: B-

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