People are actually enjoying it!
(Some reviews and one-liner praise for our book 🙏)
“All I can say is that I’m sooooo impressed. So good! Like for real! I found it immensely entertaining, honest, catchy, well researched, well written with great quotes and honestly just what I need to be reminded that small choices make a big difference. Thanks for sharing so openly, it is really truly you and also universally approachable. Great work.” —Lucas E.
“Still processing the hard fact that someone who I thought to be most unlikely to write a book wrote a book. And it’s actually really good! Witty one-liners, great personal stories, and mega practical advice make this book a solid read. You bet your ass we’ll be trying out those recipes tonight!” —Samantha S.
“The best part is your breakdown of containers. I never thought to consider the various types of bottles and infusion chambers for different fruits and stuff. Helpful to know.” —Charles W.
“I’ve known you [Joey] since college when you used to write poems and song lyrics on napkins. Your editor must be superhuman. Love the book and respect you and your wife for making a real life change. When’s the next one coming out?” —Kyle M.
”I really enjoyed this book-it’s quick, easy, and engaging. It feels like I’m chatting with a girlfriend and suddenly I get some easy recs on how to just feel a little bit better by doing nothing out of the ordinary!” —@itsWriteNow
“Good read, super quick. Recipes are good. Funny that you had the music suggestions—I was actually going to ask if you had music in mind to read to.” —Nate C.
“I think listeners will think the book is funny and be intrigued because the style is just not the way audiobooks are typically read. It’s also a genre-defying book.” —Joyce Y.
“Did that 4th of July shit really happen to you at the airport? And that Bible teacher story. Fuck. Wow.” —Ryan C.
“The preview of the book is 100% true to what’s inside. Amazing!!” —May S.
“I love the voice. I laughed out loud in the preface.” —Elisabeth K.
“I think your combined writing style is smart and sassy. It’s fun. I was psyched to hear an f-bomb too. That’s a glaring omission from a lot of books these days.” —Jason M.
“I'm still in the process of reading this book (actually, listening on Audible). But I just had to write a review now! This is such a fun book with tons of raw personality, practical help, and thoughtful research. Btw, the audiobook version is so good! The narrator really brings it to life and adds a deep layer of personality. Highly recommended!” —Philip C.
“5.0 out of 5 stars. Fascinating riveting book that I could not put down. It’s a book about changing habits.” —@itsWriteNow
“While it looks like a recipe book, it's actually the authors' humerous journey of overcoming sugar addiction and the concrete steps they took to do it. This is a great book for people who want to build good habits and improve their health.” —Anthony Y.
“Okay lifestyle change coming for me inspired by this book. Going to kick my soda habit and take my health into my own hands, so excited about it after reading this book. Great find on a book blog that I use to find crazy good new books.” —Book Lover
“Lemon-aid was filled with tons of personality which made reading easy and fun. Tons of information and passion about infusing your water. We all know the benefits of hydration, but most of us are terrible about what we’re putting in our body and how much water we’re drinking each day. It definitely inspires the reader to choose healthier beverage choices and limit sugar intake, if not eliminating completely. Overall it’s a must read!“ —Rob
“This is a really funky book about a really mundane topic! A wild, humorously zany stream-of-consciousness about the all-too human experience of weaning ourselves off addictions and self-sabotage, in this case: sugar. Filled with insider stories, odes to friendship, and beautiful illustrations, this parental confession is not your typical read. Get lost in relatable personal struggles, fun facts about water and the gift of tried-and-tested fruit and herbal recipes at the end to boot. Like snorting up healthy hilarity!” —Amena S.
“Really enjoyed this book. Not only was it informative and helpful, it was fun to read the journey of the authors and how they got to where they did that inspired them to write Lemon-aid. Their personal stories are very relatable. Humorous and real!” —Lucy Y.
“Fascinating riveting book that I could not put down. Society as a whole has been moving towards organic, healthy, and natural sugars. Join us in navigating through a couple's journey towards improving health and wellness through breaking down bad habits and overcoming sweetened beverages and soda addiction. This awe-inspiring true tale definitely made me think twice about picking up another soda. I used to drink about 8 cokes a day. While they are mighty delicious, I knew that I had to do something about my sugar levels. It was not sustainable, but I struggled with building a system of behaviors that I could follow. Stepping into the authors' lives made me feel like I was not alone in the journey. Worth the read!” —Kevin H.
“An Easy Informative Look into our daily choices: health & h2o. I really enjoyed this book-it's quick, easy, and engaging. It feels like I'm chatting with a gf and suddenly I get some easy recs on how to just feel a little bit better by doing nothing out of the ordinary- drink an extra glass of water when you feel tired or hungry! I mean what?! But it works! With the health craze and the sheer volume of ridiculous things (diets promises pitches) that can be found on the internet this quotes studies from universities and it's not asking you to do or attempt anything all that hard- drink a little bit more water and slowly increase that amount with tips on how to make it more palatable and a focus on achieving goals or building habits. there are links and names of studies so you can easily access it. It teases you with information so that if you are so inclined you can go look it up ! It doesn't bore you with tables or inundate with scary facts. I'm happy with the book and look forward to any others that they come out with in the near future!” —Barbara S.
“This is such a fun book with tons of raw personality, practical help, and thoughtful research. Btw, the audiobook version is so good! The narrator really brings it to life and adds a deep layer of personality.” —@itsWriteNow
“So I found Lemon-aid to be an inspirational book for making changes in your life… I actually don’t drink soda so I didn’t think it would pertain to me, but I like how you applied motivation principles to a basic life situation. I’ve been trying to get my life a bit more together and get some good habits going but I keep losing it. So I just try again but it is a frustrating process. Your book reminded me of taking those baby steps to gradually make the changes I want to make. And I love the quotes!” —Tony Y.
“Water. It's crucial to our health yet so boring. Somehow the authors of Lemon-aid managed to draw me in right from the beginning of this book. As someone who has been inconsistently drinking infused water for years, I knew it's healthy but I didn't bother to learn more about the benefits, practical and efficient ways of making it, let alone how to incorporate it into my daily life. This book not only opened my eyes to science-backed information and numbers (if you are a little nerdy like me) but also full of interesting pointers on practically every single ingredient that can potentially be a good candidate for infused water. Along with the authors' tried and true recipes, this is by far the most interesting publication I have ever read on the topic of water or, as some would say, how to quit soda cold turkey! In addition, I really appreciate that the author Simona and Joey openly shared their life-long sugar addiction before having their second son. As young parents navigating their way through life, work, a multi-cultural marriage, and raising two boys together, their story is a good reminder to us parents, especially new parents, that it's totally normal to be imperfect and flawed. It's what we decide to do with our self-awareness that matters. And our children can surprisingly bring the best out of us!
”PS: Prepare to have some good laughs as you read the authors' life stories and learn a thing or two about Chinese culture with their wicked sense of humor.“ —Sharon C.
“I absolutely love this book, something that starts as a kind of life instruction on how to overcome your sugar addiction turns into a really profound novel when you sometimes lose the thread what are you really reading about, well written with a fair dash of humor this book doesn't let you go till the end, authors really put their souls and hearts into this book, share pieces of their lives and sometimes even pain but in a good way. Will I recommend this book to my friends? already did and keep doing? I really want to say, authors thank you for this book, for being sincere and humorous at the same time, I'm really proud that I know you personally, all the luck, you did amazingly great.“ —Anonymous
“We listened to this, having first purchased it as an audiobook. The reader spoke clearly and animatedly, and her cadence flowed with the often-colloquial language employed by the authors. If you enjoy audiobooks, you've likely realized that content delivery is a game-changer; in other words, the way a person reads can invite or repel. In this case, my wife and I felt invited. But it's not just the voice of the reader. The authors' writing style is inviting. For instance, the authors write:
"Tea is decocted, coffee is percolated, but the endgame is the same for our purposes, at least. So, congratulations for unlocking this achievement! If you've ever made tea or coffee, you're an infuser."
Having not previously infused fruits and vegetables, the authors' observation helped bridge the gap between what my wife and I already do (brew a lot of coffee) and beginning a new habit (making fruit and vegetable water). Also, the gamer reference--like a lot of contemporary references in the book--adds a stylistic edge to give that dormant part of your brain something to nibble on while the rest is considering their recipes for "The Initiator" and "Apple Punch (In the Face)."
Of course, delivery of content is one thing. What about the content itself? We loved it. It's part new- information, part begin-a-new-habit, part self-help, and overall, really interesting. Once we reached the chapter (toward the end of the audiobook) that introduces time-and-tasted recipes by the authors and their children, we decided to buy the Kindle book. The illustrations in the book are nice, but what really caught our eye were the copious annotations. When writing about adding cilantro to infusions, annotation #98 links to a little more information about why cilantro is controversial, as only people with a certain gene can taste it.
The authors have created an experience for readers, one that has the potential to create new meaning in a person's life. The writing is informed, well-attributed, and a refreshing blend of sassy and fun.” —Jason M.
“This book was not what I expected. I hoped it would help me create more varieties of lemonades, my favorite drink. This book turned out to be primarily a humor book. There are mentions of fruit and vegetable infusions, but more of a list of fruits and vegetables to consider. At 70% of the book, there are a few recipes that end at 78%. The recipes are for celery, basil, and cucumber infused water. Unfortunately, I did not like any of them. What did I like about the book? Nice original illustrations.” —Hopper
Some reviews and one-liner praise for our book Lemon-aid: Our love-and-not-love story with fruit and vegetable water—and how we’re better at managing sugar addiction because of it 🙏