This is the first arc that I’ve ever received, and that is very exciting for me. I was drawn in by the adorable cover art, and the buzz that I have seen about this book on instagram. As expected, it made me very hungry, and since I have no impulse control, I ordered takeout while I was reading it.
I would describe the story as a modern Romeo and Juliet involving Vietnamese food. Bao and Linh are Vietnamese-American teens who fall in love, despite the fact that their families have been feuding for years and are competing against one another in the restaurant business.
This is a YA novel, and I feel that the story is definitely geared towards that demographic. With the exception of a few f-bombs, it’s pretty wholesome and it seemed that the main characters were written appropriately for their age group. The novel focuses heavily on the parental pressure that both Bao and Linh experience in terms of being successful and having viable career paths. Contrary to many YA novels where the parental figures are absent, this one features the parents quite frequently. It was interesting to read about the different pressures and expectations that the children of immigrants may experience. I was also interested in the family history and resulting trauma that the parents endured, and the way that this shaped their attitudes.
There were some things that I would change about this book. I think that it would have been better had it been about 150 pages shorter. The middle seemed too long, and as if it didn’t really need to be there…I had difficulty pushing through this part. I also would have liked to see more of the restaurant aspect. Oddly, I was more interested in the preparations involved in running a restaurant than the love story (but maybe I’m just weird). I also would have liked more context clues around some of the Vietnamese phrases, because I wanted to understand them and couldn’t.
Overall, this was a very young, cute and unique read. I would give it 3/5 stars.
