With lush descriptions, Carla de Guzman took my breath away yet again with her new work, Chasing Mindy. The carefully-detailed setting allowed me to savor the narrative and made me feel as if I was taking a leisure trip to Paris.

Summary:

Mindy and Javier are not friends, okay.

Despite their mothers’ matchmaking, they’ve managed to stay out of each other’s way. Until Mindy goes to Paris for a week, and her mother insists she meet up with Javier. He’s in Paris to study, really looking forward to see you, she says. Watch over each other.

No thanks. Javier is taciturn and boring, Mindy is dramatic and has a tendency to yell at things when her eight siblings are brought up. It’s not a great combination.

But things start to look a little different under the Paris lights, and what felt like hate feels a lot closer to love.

Sassy and snarky, Mindy is a character you'll easily love if you like your girls to come with masterful eye-rolling and biting wit. The way she took charge of things just made me root for her to succeed. Javier, on the other hand, is totally endearing. He's flawed and a little brooding, sure, but he's smart (major swoon!) and really thoughtful. These characters' banter were entertaining, with all its Shakespeare references and snappy one-liners and comebacks.

Mindy comes from a big family, which naturally makes this story feature a large cast of characters. It was difficult for me to keep track of the names at times, but the supporting characters did make the story push forward and helped with the growth and development of both Mindy and Javi.

The story follows Mindy and Javi as they figure out who they wanted to be both in life and love, making this almost a bildungsroman. The way the characters made adulting decisions while getting around the complexities of a Filipino family was well-written that the result was authentic and relatable.

Just like Carla de Guzman's two other books, If the Dress Fits and The Queen's Game, Chasing Mindy is a story featuring adorable characters, a strong sense of place, and steamy scenes. If you're into those, pick this up and you won't be disappointed.