Pulsing with romance, danger, and excitement, PEARL MOON is the ravishing tale of two gifted sister, strangers to each other who were raised half a world apart. Hurled together by circumstances into a fateful conflict, Allison Whitaker and Maylene Kwan must confront each other and their pasts--and the men they will love with passionate intensity in exotic and turbulent Hong Kong, a city on the brink of metamorphosis from British Crown Colony to Chinese possession.
Pressure builds for completion of the luxury hotel they're involved in developing. Both will know the deadly menace of a force as elusive as the morning fog swirling over Victoria Peak...and as deadly as the typhoons that strike the island with such fury. The love of British aristocrat James Drake for the beautiful Allison and of rugged Texan Sam Coulter for the exquisite Maylene will be tested in an unforgettable life and death struggle.
Katherine Stone is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-two novels, including her new Christmas novel, SLEIGH BELLS RING.
Katherine's books have been translated into twenty languages and are sold worldwide. A physician who now writes full-time, she lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, physician and novelist Jack Chase (Fatal Analysis, Mortality Rate, The Magruder Transplant.
Two sisters, separated at birth, bound by fate, connected after decades of isolation. East meets West in this powerful novel masterfully written and told by Katherine Stone. The story started a little slow, but the intensity of the plot thickens as the pages run by. By the end of the book, I had been crying my heart out. Quite a rollercoaster of a story indeed!
Don't know if it's fair to say I read this, since I did a lot of skimming and skipping around, but I read enough to know that this wasn't worth a thorough read. The prose was very purple, the drama was very minimal, and though I liked some of the more troubled characters, they weren't interesting enough to make me like them. I couldn't develop an interest.
🐉13 tahun hidupnya, Juliana tinggal di dalam perahu Jung, di kawasan perairan Aberdeen Hongkong, berharap suatu saat nanti bisa menginjakkan kaki ke daratan yang penuh cahaya gemerlap. Siapa sangka, impiannya terwujud dalam bentuk malapetaka. Badai besar memporak-porandakan perahu-perahu dan menewaskan seluruh keluarganya. Juliana selamat karena berpegangan pada suatu kayu, dan terdampar ke daratan. Nasib baik mempertemukannya dengan Vivian Kwan, seorang designer baju, yang mengangkatnya sebagai anak. Berdua mereka punya cita-cita, membentuk suatu merk dagang sendiri dengan nama Pearl Moon. . 🐉Salahkan takdir saat Juliana jatuh cinta dengan seorang pilot Amerika, Garret Whitaker, mereka berhubungan singkat, tapi keduanya sadar tidak akan bisa menyatu, karena di zaman itu seorang gadis Asia yang menikah dengan warga kulit putih, hanya dicap sebagai simpanan. Garret kembali ke Amerika, patah hati, dan dinikahkan dengan wanita pilihan orangtuanya. Hidup mereka cukup bahagia, tapi tidak lama. Istrinya meninggal saat secara prematur melahirkan bayi mereka, Allison Whitaker. . 🐉Garret seolah kembali hancur, saat menerima telepon dari Juliana, mengabarkan kalau anak dari hubungan mereka yang lalu sudah lahir, di hari yang sama dengan kelahiran Allison, hanya berbeda 5 menit lebih awal. Juliana memberinya nama Maylene Kwan, tapi meminta dengan sangat supaya Garret tidak mencari mereka, melupakan saja, karena Juliana masih yakin kalau dewa-dewa tidak merestui hubungan itu, dan takut akan lebih banyak musibah yang terjadi. . 🐉Siapa sangka, kedua kakak beradik beda ibu ini bertemu 28 tahun kemudian, dalam suatu proyek besar, pembangunan mahakarya hotel termegah di HongKong. Maylene terpilih sebagai arsitek, perancang bangunan Jade Palace, yang merupakan bentuk persatuan timur dan barat. Sementara Allison bertindak sebagai fotografer yang akan menangkap seribu wajah Hongkong dari jepretannya, untuk dipajang di galeri hotel saat sudah rampung. . 🐉Buku romantis dan dramatis, yang mengisahkan cinta berbeda ras, antara timur dan barat, yang di zaman itu tidak mungkin bersatu. Namun saat takdir mempertemukan kedua anak mereka, di suatu kota gemerlap seperti Hongkong, keduanya sadar, sudah saatnya melebur segala perbedaan etnis yang dulu jadi penyebab utama mereka berpisah.
A little bit different from the common romance book. The focus wasn't so much on one couple. There were 3, and an extra one thrown in there. Add in a crazy murderer guy, building a big hotel, half-sisters (one who doesn't know she's got a sister). Not a bad read. Less formula written than most of the romances. Still predictable.
This was a cover buy. I actually liked the story and its drama and the culture embedded in it but there were just parts wherein I just wanted to stop reading because some character's decisions are just plain stupid.
I don’t usually review books, but after reading those left for this one I felt that very few hit the mark- they were either “hated it, needs to be racy” or “perfect I loved it,” and my personal opinion is somewhere in between. The bad: it was really corny in spots. Like really really corny. People immediately getting engaged after confessing their love, every couple’s romance is earth-moving and timeless and once-in-a-lifetime even though there are so many couples the relationships seem flimsy, and very shallow. Also, everything worked out a little too perfectly; if happy endings are a thing, this one was the eternal bliss ending of all time. I found myself rolling my eyes deeply in the last few chapters. The good: having said all that, the writing style was quite lovely, which is great for a romance novel, which this is totally. And I enjoyed the story, and the setting with the descriptions of Hong Kong. Now, I get that some people really look forward to the erotic aspects present in most romance novels, but they are (to me) usually so preposterous and unreal or overly flowery and cringey that I honestly could take them or leave them, so their absence in this book did not bother me. All in all, it was a decent story. I wasn’t excited to get back to it, but it wasn’t the worst. Just a little hokey for my taste.
I enjoyed reading this book and I’m glad I finished it. I had thought about putting it down because the first part of the book was difficult for me to enjoy. I found that the story of the first couple was a bit contrived and rushed. It was difficult for me to go from point A where they met to point B where they were head over heels in love and completely devoted to each other forever. I think this part of the novel was just setting the premise for the rest of the story, but it needed to have been treated with more time and detail for me to find it plausible, therefore enjoyable. Other than that, the three different couples were intricately involved and I found that story well-written. I learned a little bit about a different culture and a different time in history, which is always a good thing. The author mixed in a little bit of intrigue, which made it even better. I would recommend this book to any of my reader friends.
I read this on the plane on my way back from Rome and it kept my attention, mainly because of the Hong Kong setting and the side story about Eve. The ending was almost too happy. Our various star-crossed lovers all have their HEA and only the evil bad guy dies via a deux ex machina twist.
synopsis: allison is a photographer who has been asked to take pictures of hong kong and a hotel that is going up there by james, who wants to leave a monument in the city that he loves. allison has a very rare blood disease that has caused her to be thought of as frail by her family. maylene left hong kong a long time ago and this is her first time back. it's also the first time her designs are being used and she is the head architect. she butts heads with sam, the builder. secrets and intrigue abound in hong kong. maylene knows that she is allison's sister, but allison doesn't have a clue.
what i liked: the exotic setting. honk kong felt authentic, though. i enjoyed seeing hong kong through allison's eyes, as someone who had never been there, and through maylene's who had rejected everything about the place that she grew up.
what i didn't like: the story seemed a little busy, with viewpoints from at least 7 different characters.
This is a book I thought I would really enjoy, but in the end I just felt really let down. Because the stories were split between several couples, the romances were thin and didn't have any backbone behind them at all. Why any of the characters became so in love with each other I don't know. Also, don't look for any eroticism in this book just in case that is what you are looking for, this is PG-13.
Baca novel ini, benar-benar lumayan membosankan. Saya tidak mendapati adanya emosi pada tulisannya. Jadi, kaya datar-datar aja, cuma nilai plusnya itu bagian cerita Julia saat masih tinggal di perahu dan gimana kehidupan di perahu walaupun cuma sedikit banget. Akhirnya bisa selesai juga, lumayan ketunda terus karena kurang menarik.