I was reading a review of a different book and was struck by the reviewer’s complaint about the characters. They felt like the characters were shaped for the plot, rather than the plot shaped by the characters. In contrast, Carla de Guzman drives the action of her story by what her characters would do. In Manila Takes Manhattan, she throws Mon and Olivia into a month of close proximity and the love story feels like it grows organically from there. Mon Mendoza has flown from […]