The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: I Could Give You the Moon

Series: Standalone

Author: Ann Liang

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Magical Realism

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

Everyone loves Chanel Cao—except Ares Yin.

While Chanel has spent her entire life curating a picture-perfect social media personality—from her body to her hair to her camera-ready smile—Ares has spent his trying to hide in the shadows. But Ares’s brother is missing, and Chanel’s parents have secretly separated, and their only hope is each other.

Ares is willing to do whatever it takes to find his brother, and Chanel will do anything to keep her parents’ secret. When the two meet and share a vision of the future—where Ares’s brother appears, as Chanel’s house burns to the ground—they are determined to use each other. Ares believes Chanel is the key to finding his brother, but Chanel is convinced if she gets Ares to fall in love with her, she’ll save her family house—and her parents’ crumbling marriage.

But Ares isn’t interested in the fake personality that Chanel has used her entire life to get affection and adoration. If she’s going to save her reputation, she’s going to have to let Ares get to know the real her—and risk real feelings. – summary from Goodreads

*Small spoilers ahead.

I Could Give You the Moon is a phenomenal magical-realism romance with dual POV, secrets, and wonderful characters!

I absolutely loved this book! Chanel and Ares’s story was so, so good!

We did get to see Alice and Henry again. It was very brief, but I loved that small snippet. I also loved seeing Alice and Henry from Chanel’s perspective- it showed them in a new light, which I really liked.

This book was amazing, but the more I sit and think about it, one thing stands out. The romance in this book was top tier; however, a lot of other things were set up, and I don’t think there was a lot of closure on many of those topics. This isn’t the biggest deal, just something I noticed.

I loved Chanel! We got snippets of her in If You Could See the Sun, and she was interesting. In this book we got a much deeper look at her. She had so much depth. I love all of Ann Liang’s FMCs because she does such a wonderful job of making them realistic and flawed. Chanel perfectly matched that. She was so determined and strong, as well as a little conniving which I liked. Most of Liang’s characters are focused on academic excellence, which Chanel was not so much focused on. I did enjoy that aspect of the story, and she had her other strengths in being an influencer.

Ares was amazing! He was so shy and reserved but completely dedicated to Chanel. It took time to get there, but I loved the buildup. This was also the only full-length Ann Liang novel where we got both the FMC and MMC’s POV. While we didn’t get a lot of Ares’s chapters, I did love seeing his part of the story. He had such an interesting backstory, and I wish we got to dive into it a little more. Ares had a little bit of a “bad-boy” personality, but really he was incredibly sweet and caring.

The romance between these two was so cute! I will say that this is a book with no-spice, but there are a few kissing scenes that are a little more descriptive than I usually read. Chanel and Ares were adorable together! It started of really rocky, and there were a lot of secrets on both sides, but it ended wonderfully. Ares was so protective of Chanel, and similar to If You Could See the Sun, there was actually dangerous situations the characters were put in. I loved the scenes where Ares protected Chanel- it was so sweet and showed how much he cared for her. Chanel was definitely the most hesitant to have feelings for him but watching her grow into trusting him was so sweet.

The ending was everything! I loved how Chanel and Ares belong together, and I love how it was shown in the epilogue.

The magical realism was a very small part of the story. There was this lake that at the right time would give you snippets of the future. If I recall correctly, this was only used once by the characters on page.

In the lake, Chanel sees her house burning down and Ares is there. Ares is using the lake to find his missing brother. I did enjoy how both characters had their own storylines completely separate from the other. Chanel decides that to prevent her house from burning down, she is going to make Ares fall in love with her. And to find his brother, Ares enters into a criminal fighting ring. It was a really interesting story, with a lot of different facets.

I Could Give You the Moon is a wonderful book with magical realism, secrets, and romance!

Quotes:

“Mornings are for the self-disciplined, the ambitious, the hard workers with Big Plans in life, people like my best friend, Alice Sun. Nights are for secrecy and spontaneity, for cocktail dresses and covering up messes, for all the people who don’t have their shit figured out but who are desperate to put it off until dawn.”

“You could have everything. You could be a literal supermodel with perfect proportions and lips that are always glossy. You could be sweet and generous and the kind of girl who bakes banana bread on the weekends and smiles at babies in prams. You could be talented and clever and patient and wise and you could offer up all that you have without complaint. You could bring the entire world to the table and you might not even ask him to bring anything, not even leftovers, only that he sit down at the same table and stay, but he would still break your heart.”

“‘I would give you almost anything you asked for. I’d wait in line outside the bakery every morning to buy you the lychee cake you like, whether it’s your birthday or not. I’d fly to the other end of the world with you if you simply wanted a change of weather. I’d gladly be your chauffeur, your bodyguard, your confidant, your private chef, your personal photographer, your tour guide in any city. I’d plant an entire field of your favorite pink lilies and pluck the brightest ones to deliver to your door. I could build a tower in the middle of the ocean just to give you a better view of the sunset. I could claw the stars from the sky for you. I could give you the moon.’”