Three Reasons to Run by Jackie Lau

This guest review comes from Lisa! A longtime romance aficionado and frequent commenter to SBTB, Lisa is a queer Latine critic with a sharp tongue and lots of opinions. She frequently reviews at All About Romance and Women Write About Comics, where she’s on staff, and you can catch her at @thatbouviergirl on Twitter. There, she shares good reviews, bracing industry opinions and thoughtful commentary when she’s not on her grind looking for the next good freelance job.

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I deeply love me some Jackie Lau, so I’ve been happily following her new Weddings with the Moks series. Three Reasons to Run isn’t my absolute favorite book by the author, but it’s charming, romantic and spirited – a story about two messy, imperfect individuals finding love together that generally sings. I had some quibbles, enough to keep this from being a squee, but I definitely enjoyed the ride.

Toronto-based professional illustrator and draftsman Leo Mok is unfashionably late to his not-so-beloved cousin Carl’s wedding. Carl is marrying the lovely Yvonne Siu, and Leo doesn’t expect that his first glimpse of his almost-cousin-in-law that day will be of the normally cool, collected Yvonne running across the church parking lot, panicking that she can’t go through with the wedding and falling on her bottom.

Office worker Yvonne has been freaking out over her nuptials for days before the ceremony. She tried to use melatonin to cool herself down; she tried to convince herself she ought to knuckle down and just marry the lug But she’s come to realize that she and her husband-to-be are total opposites, that he doesn’t value what she holds dear and that he has been a philanderer over the course of their two-year engagement. The fact that he keeps pressuring her into making a choice about having kids that she doesn’t want to birth is only worsening her anxiety. When Carl insults her favorite houseplant at a crucial moment in its life cycle, that’s the last straw. Leo’s mom, Lynne, catches her mid-panic and hands her the keys to her car and tells Yvonne to run, and she’s off like a shot.

Leo’s got a secret — he’s been harboring a crush on Yvonne since he first saw her at the couple’s engagement party two years before. He’d hoped his feelings would dim before the wedding, but no — that crush now borders dangerously on being love at first sight, in spite of the fact that Yvonne is off-limits. When she hops into his car and begs him to start driving, it’s his best dream and worst nightmare come true.

Now that Yvonne’s divested herself of the wedding, she’s begun to realize that her entire life has been one lived to impress her impossible-to-please parents instead of one lived to her own tastes and expectations. She vows to be single and independent for once, get her own solo apartment for the first time, plan a childfree life – and discover orgasmic sex, also for the first time.

Yvonne lacks any family support: her father is distant and judgemental, her domineering mother basically runs her life, and her sister Tracey has fled the nest, cut off all contact with their family, and is completely absent from the ceremony. When Leo’s folks open their arms up to Yvonne, offering her a place to stay while she disentangles her life from Carl’s, how can she refuse, even though it means sleeping in Leo’s old room? She uses the space and time to figure out what she really wants and who she is. Leo finds himself hanging out with Yvonne more and more, and soon she finds herself attracted to him as well. They agree to be friends with benefits, and even repurpose her honeymoon into a sex vacation. But when love comes knocking, are they ready for romance?

Jackie Lau always brings complicated family dynamics and generational conflict to her romances — and the Weddings with the Moks series has added a new layer of kink and sex to her usual brew. There’s also wonderful food porn and people who are the right kind of quirky. Three Reasons to Run is no exception to the rule, with complex people changing together – but also figuring out what they would rather not change about themselves.

I also got a delicious dose of imperfect people. Leo’s always felt ‘lesser than’ his brothers, all of whom are intellectual white collar professionals. This isn’t the fault of their loving parents, but Leo considers himself the ‘dumb’ Mok. He is a very talented creative type but he doesn’t consider his drawing skills to be a big deal.This has left him with major self-esteem issues. And you know what?

That’s such a refreshing notion. He’s just the right man for Yvonne, and in time she’s deeply attracted to him, and all of this feels real and is beautiful.

Yvonne has subsumed so much of herself in pleasing others that she has no idea who she is as an adult – she just knows she has a deep emotional bond with her plants and a buried desire to misbehave. Leo helps her with that search for her inner bad girl, allowing her to figure out her exhibition streak, but much of her work is interior and about divesting herself from her mother’s point of view on her way of living. Getting out means making time for her friends, whom she’s been neglecting, and forging a true best friend connection with ex-bridesmaid Shauna. She also struggles to bond with her sister, Tracey, who has shut her out of her life, in a touching way.

And she’s not perfect; in fact, she does things…

Still, the destruction of her bridal dress for a zombie Halloween costume is a delightful nod to her developing freedom. She embraces messiness with aplomb and zeal.

I found Yvonne’s fondness for her houseplants charming; Francine, her snake plant, is important to her, and the narrative doesn’t treat that attachment as silly. Leo bonds with Francine, seriously cares about her health, and even talks to her! This is all lovely and tender. Yvonne’s first gesture of tenderness toward Leo is buying him a plant of his own as a thank-you gift; a lovely choice.

The relationship feels sexy, sweet and genuine; Leo’s initial attraction to Yvonne is one of pure physical awe, but then he gets to know her. I am delighted to report that they both firmly decide kids aren’t for them and stay on the same page.

They suit each other and are critical supports for each other — Leo sees Yvonne as the sex goddess no one else does, and Yvonne gives him the confidence boost he needs regarding his art. I did find the exhibitionism element to their attraction interesting, but I admit I expected it to…

The next morning Yvonne doesn’t regret it, but is too embarrassed to meet the eyes of the woman who watched them. Hmm. Baby steps.

The supporting characters are all interesting, especially Yvonne’s mother and Tracey and Shauna. The Moks are a known quantity of wonderfulness by now, but I loved both Lynne and Howie, Leo’s dad, with their kind ways, wisdom and big hearts. Yvonne’s mother is complex, not cold-hearted, and growth does happen for and around her. For those looking for more of Max and Kim, they don’t feature heavily but do make appearances. You can easily read this one solo without reading the first book in the series, though the tail end of it includes Yvonne’s choice to bolt from her wedding.

The book does a good job building tension between Yvonne and Leo by extending Yvonne’s engagement through two years thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. But I have to take a few points off for the too-rushed, deus ex machina final quarter of the book. Leo and Yvonne’s relationship progresses realistically, I will say that, but at least two obstacles scurry out of their way far too easily and in too rushed a way. I could’ve bought one of these issues being solved so quickly, but both? Yet Three Reasons to Run does a decent job of combining Lau’s typical family-centered romance with erotica, good enough to recommend it. As is traditional for this series, we end with the beginning of Evan’s story, and I will be waiting with bated breath for it to arrive.