#alice lin

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Queer Book Character Tournament Round 1

Thomas Lightwood- The Last Hours series

Kit Herondale- The Shadowhunter Chronicles

Lynda Fan- Love Points to You

Dami- The Wicked Bargain

Voting ended onSep 28, 2025

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Thomas Lightwood- The Last Hours series by Cassandra Clare

Kit Herondale- The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare

Lynda Fan- Love Points to You by Alice Lin 

Dami- The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa 

[lgbtqreads]

Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: January-June 2025

Today’s post is sponsored in honor of the upcoming paperback release of Sydney Taylor Honor book Going Bicoastal, coming May 27th from Wednesday Books! *** The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold (January 7th) The world is about to end. Again. Ever since the first Storm wreaked havoc on civilization as we know it, seventeen-year-old Liz Flannery has been holed up in an abandoned…

Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: January-June 2025

[reni-reads]

Reni Reviews

Love Points to You by Alice Lin

Finished: 27th May, 2025

Genre: Romance, Romcom

May be for you if you like: Otome games, art, rivals to lovers, music, bi4bi romance, ace rep, family subplots

Synopsis

Sixteen-year-old Lynda Fan has the skills and the drive to get into the Rhode Island School of Design—but not the money. Her parents are too busy paying off her stepsister's violin lessons to help Lynda get into art school. So when her rich and arrogant classmate, Angela Wu, offers to hire Lynda as a character designer for an otome game—a love story-based video game—she jumps at the opportunity.

Lynda isn’t exactly a romantic, but in pursuit of her dreams, she discovers things she never knew about herself while also finding love with every heart she draws.

Overall Rating: 🧁🧁🧁🧁

Idea: 🧁🧁🧁🧁

Plot: 🧁🧁🧁

Characters: 🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁

Worldbuilding: 🧁🧁🧁🧁

Narration: 🧁🧁🧁🧁

Entertainment: 🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁

Full Review

This is one of the cutest romance novels I've read in a long time!

The premise had me hooked from the start, and I got even more than I expected! The story focuses a lot on art as a general topic - current art "culture" with online presence and fame, pressure to get into a good school, rivalry, the different options you have with art, and so on. It was great! While I'm myself am no artist, I do have my favorite artists, as well as several friends with an art background, so this angle was super interesting to me. The best thing was the focus on otome games though - even though the protagonist herself isn't much into otome games, her best friend Bora, her sister Josie, and (obviously) Angela are, and the way they talk about it is soooo relatable to me, as I love otome games myself lol. Especially Angela had so many great quibs about otome games, and my personal favorite was: "I play as if I'm Cupid shooting my arrow." because YES that's what I love about any romantic media (such as this book)!

The otome game storyline is a bit delegated into a background story as Lynda's relationship with Angela becomes more relevant - her complicated family dynamic becomes increasingly important too. While I didn't mind it too much, as I was very interested in Lynda's family life, it did disappoint me a little bit. I would have liked more focus on the otome game aspect of it all, since it's the hook of the novel. Overall, the story is very sweet and enjoyable though, with good pacing and developments throughout!

The characters were all well-developed and feel very authentic. Everyone has their flaws, and everyone undergoes believable development!

Lynda, the protagonist, is very practical, determined - and judgemental of anyone who isn't as driven as her. Her resulting lack of empathy annoyed me on occasion but it made sense given her backstory - and she does change a bit! Angela is a great foil for her, because she (even though she's supposed to be an arrogant type-A person) is very reflective and aware of her own faults, while also being endearingly romantic.

The side characters are all great as well - Bora, Lyn's best friend, is a spunky and fun character who tells Lyn off when needed, but she also has her own hobbies, wants and interests and didn't only exist to be a best friend character. My favorite character was Lyn's stepsister Josie - a talented violinist who struggles to find her way amidst pressure and expectations.

There are some other characters (mainly family members) who add some more depth. Overall, the cast is really great with several highlights!

So yeah, I absolutely loved this book, and I think everyone who is into romance and slightly into art or otome games will greatly enjoy this!

[campsis]

Alice Lin

[sandmandaddy69]

Alice Lin

[crossconnectmag]

Illustrations by Alice Lin

Alice Lin, a.k.a. Xu Linlin, living in Beijing, is a freelance artist as well as painter and 3D Art with a passion for new Chinese meticulous painting and 3D projection art. She first fell in love with the technique when she was a child, inspired by Chinese tradition techniques and Surrealism. Alice style is rich and full of details, harmonizes apparently discordant elements and intertwines them together by a skillful use of drawings and paintings. The resulting is unique, fanciful whimsical, undertones of wit and a good old vivid finish. This new and fascinating wonderland of possible realities combines with the human figure, plants, animals into a singular, calm, dark vision. 

Tired of searching all over for art?  Look no further than our Facebook page. 

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[lesstalkmoreillustration]

Alice Lin

Check us out on Instagram: @Lesstalkmoreillustration

[fuckyeahpainting]

Alice Lin