The Rivals by Jane PekMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The second Claudia Lin mystery explores more of the sinister AI behind the dating apps of this world (which, let's face it, they're probably just as full of bots and shit in reality too.) With Claudia herself now back in the good graces of her employer (thanks to Komla being out of the picture), she actually seems to fall instead for a potential mark whom a client has asked her to track because she seemed too good to be true. Well, like Claudia, Amalia is a superfan of a popular Asian mystery series in universe - though Amalia's fave is a morally grey Cold War world with a mixed-race protagonist threading the line between English aristocracy and Cambodian sovereignty, quite different from Claudia's fave, Inspector Yuan and his pretty classic and straightforward mystery plots. But yes, I still ship Amalia and Claudia far more than Claudia and Becks, whose chemistry feels bizarrely one sided at best and nonexistent at worst. If this book has a flaw, it's that it hints at boiling family drama but doesn't really do much with it, even when a huge personal reveal or two comes along. But Claudia's unique POV (I strongly suspect she, like me, is neurodivergent) keeps my interest from start to finish, and the ending leaves me wanting so much more when Book 3 eventually comes along...
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