Presenting Author - Ilana Tan

[Silvana Mandeville]

Name of the author: Ilana Tan
Main genre: Romance, Teen Fiction
Main audience: Teenager, Adult
Books: Summer In Seoul, Autumn In Paris, Winter In Tokyo, Spring In London, Sunshine Becomes You, Autumn Once More, Seasons To Remember, In A Blue Moon, The Star and I.
Short summary of the author: Ilana Tan is an Indonesian novelist. A mysterious writer who became popular with her Tetralogy Four Seasons. Her books are unique because most of the characters from her books are related to each other.
Good points / bad points: Romance has never been my favorite genre, I often get bored with romance books. But what Ilana does with her works caught my attention. Even though I can guess the ending of the stories, they are never boring. It's like she poured her heart into her writing and the readers can feel what the characters feel, we can feel all of the emotions in the books. Her writing style is like what I often found in a translation novel. She does a really good job in describing her characters, setting, and plot.

Thanks for book bingo because I can read these books again!

[Silvana Mandeville]

Title: Summer In Seoul
Author: Ilana Tan
Genre: Romance & Teen Fiction
Language: Indonesian

Short Summary: Sandy or Han Soo Hee who is meeting a Korean Idol by accident and becomes his fake girlfriend.

Good and Bad Points: After reading her second bookㅡwhich I never know it was actually a seriesㅡlater I found myself bought her first novel. And for the first book, it was fairly good. The idea for this story was rather common, an ordinary girl meets an idol, then because of something they pretend to be a couple and later they would fall in love with each other. We can find stories like this in fanfiction. And they are a lot there. I first read them when I was still a teenager and it was really good to stir up my emotions, though.

[Silvana Mandeville]

Title: Autumn in Paris
Author: Ilana Tan
Genre: Romance & Teen Fiction
Language: Indonesian

Short Summary: Tara Dupont likes Autumn, she thinks she already has everything until she meets Fujisawa Tatsuya who is too elusive and makes her curious about him.

Good and Bad Points: This is the very first book of Ilana Tan that I read, and poor me because I ended up crying after reading this, lol. The book has a sad ending, the author did a good job to make us feel emotions from every characters. Since I mentioned it before, her characters are related. Yeah, right. Actually, Tara is Sandy's cousin (Sandy is the main character from Summer in Seoul). She met Tatsuya in the airport, but later her best friend introduced Tatsuya as his friend from the office. It's a story about a girl who fall in love but experiences a heartbreak in the end because the man she fall in love with is her step brother. Well, I will recommend this book for those who love a sad ending. And the book is good because she introduced Paris to the readers.

[Silvana Mandeville]

Title: Winter in Tokyo
Author: Ilana Tan
Genre: Romance & Teen Fiction
Language: Indonesian

Short Summary: Keiko and Kazuto are neighbors. They met in the first week of winter. In a month, a new feeling grows between them.

Good and Bad Points: The third book of four seasons tetralogy. The main character is Tatsuya's neighbors! The story is set in Tokyo, though we don't get to see many places in the book like we did with Autumn in Paris, but Ilana introduced us to many things about Japan. Keiko, a librarian who fall in love with someone named Akira because in the past he helped her look for her missing necklace. Later she meets a street photographer who just moved to Tokyo (to move on from his first love). After knowing each other for a month, they slowly fall in love but I think Keiko never realizes that until one day Kazuto is missing. Turns out he has amnesia and forgot about her. It's like a love story in general though, but the way Ilana writes everything makes the story become more alive and never boring. The book also has its own movie.

[Silvana Mandeville]

Title: Spring In London
Author: Ilana Tan
Genre: Romance & Teen Fiction
Language: Indonesian

Short Summary: Danny Jo, an actor who wants to be a movie director, does a collaboration with a model named Ishida Naomi. Their meeting doesn't go well because Naomi always avoids Danny for something he doesn't know.

Good and Bad Points: The fourth book of four seasons tetralogy. The main character is Keiko's twin sister. The first thing I think about this book is, "Oh, it's for adults not teenagers." Even though the characters maybe have the same age but this one does give out older vibes, lol. At first, I was kinda bored when reading it, but along the way I found it really good. I enjoy the way they are jealous of each other, also pissed because of a character who is so active to catch a man's attention but passive when working. And one thing that I don't really enjoy from this book is the author likes to be mysterious with everything and have to keep it a secret. Well, I am just a curious person, tho. Overall, it's a good book.

[Silvana Mandeville]

Title: Autumn Once More
Author: Ilana Tan
Genre: Romance & Teen Fiction
Language: Indonesian

Short Summary: An anthology book, which is full of stories from many good authors.

Good and Bad Points: I read this book just because it is an anthology book and also because it does have Ilana's story inside. Her story is a side story for Autumn in Paris. Reading this book after I read Autumn in Paris was kinda overwhelming. I know about the tragic love Tara has been through and this one has happy memories of the couple. When Tara took Tatsuya to explore Paris. It was like I was reminiscing about the old times and it was sad.

[Silvana Mandeville]

Title: In a Blue Moon
Author: Ilana Tan
Genre: Romance & Teen Fiction
Language: Indonesian

Short Summary: Lucas Ford found himself engaged with a girl his grandfather chose for him. Turns out, the girl hates him because of their past.

Good and Bad Points: Meeting a man from the past, getting engaged, hate each other, but later fall in love with each other. Really common love story. Many authors use this idea for their books. But once again, Ilana works are never boring even though it's romance and too common. I really enjoy this book, it's light and easy to read compared to the rest of her books. Though, I was kinda pissed off because of the girls who are kinda easy. But, overall it's a good book. Lucas Ford is an ideal man. Handsome man indeed, not only his face. The good quote from this book is, "You may not be perfect, but for me, you are." Well, this was said by Lucas, to Shopie~