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A Cup of Light
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Plot Summary of A Cup of Light
"Lia Frank, 32, is an appraiser of fine Chinese porcelain. When word of a potentially big sale quietly reaches her employer, she flies to Beijing to examine what could be a multimillion dollar collection of imperial ceramics. At the same time, an up and coming "ah chan" (Chinese smuggler of real and fake art) named Bai is scheming to get the huge shipment safely over the border to Hong Kong, on its way to the ultimate buyer in Oregon. While on the job, Lia meets Michael Doyle, a divorced biochemist who has been studying the health effects of air pollution on children in Beijing. When political and airline problems prevent other experts from joining Lia on the job, she has to call on all her training and instincts to separate the real from the counterfeit, as well as decide whether Michael might be a suitable romantic gamble. In this "genteel thriller," Mones weaves in a back story about how this portion of the imperial collection wended its way from the emperor's court in the 1920s to a sale lot in the new millennium, as well as offering the reader a light primer on Chinese porcelain art and the culture of art smugglers."
David Loftus, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of A Cup of Light
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - thoughtful
Time/era of story - 1980's-1999
Romance/Romance Problems Yes
Kind of romance: - seduction (yum!)
Crime & Police story Yes
Story of - conman stealing/fraud
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - business executive
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Nationality - Chinese
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 4 ()
Asia/Pacific Yes
Asian country: - China
City? Yes
City: - dangerous

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Nicole Mones Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
David Loftus  

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