352 pages
English language
Published Oct. 14, 2021 by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers.
It took a bit longer for me to be invested in the story than I was expecting but I started to enjoy it much more as I continued reading. One thing I liked a lot was that Vietnamese expressions and food names weren't given translation notes or explained in-text, they were just integrated into the story and could be understood with surrounding context.
Dnf at p.95, I know I will not get really excited for the story as im not into YA contemporary in the first place, shaking my head at myself
I knew I had to read this book as soon as I heard about it. A foodie YA contemporary love story? Yes, please.Bao and Linh have been kept apart ever since they were children even though they spend most of their time across the street from each other at competing pho restaurants. Each family knows that the other are terrible cooks as well as being sneaky and underhanded too. Neither Bao or Linh have any idea how their parents know this about each other. It is just understood. When Bao and Linh meet again, they bond over their shared experiences growing up with immigrant families in the restaurant business. While comparing stories they realize that there may be something more between their families than just being rival business owners. This book looks into the results of the trauma of the Vietnam War on families who had to flee the fighting. …
I knew I had to read this book as soon as I heard about it. A foodie YA contemporary love story? Yes, please.Bao and Linh have been kept apart ever since they were children even though they spend most of their time across the street from each other at competing pho restaurants. Each family knows that the other are terrible cooks as well as being sneaky and underhanded too. Neither Bao or Linh have any idea how their parents know this about each other. It is just understood. When Bao and Linh meet again, they bond over their shared experiences growing up with immigrant families in the restaurant business. While comparing stories they realize that there may be something more between their families than just being rival business owners. This book looks into the results of the trauma of the Vietnam War on families who had to flee the fighting. How did this affect their relationships with the people they left in Vietnam? Linh's mother has a low opinion of her sister's art career because at the time she left Vietnam her sister couldn't make a living. In modern day Vietnam she has a thriving career and that doesn't fit into the vision of Vietnam that Linh's mother has. Both sets of parents are determined to keep their previous experiences during the war in the past while the children want to understand their family history.One thing that really annoys me in books is when non-English words are italicized. This book has a lot of the dialogue in Vietnamese and everything is italicized. However, the Vietnamese is not always translated. I do like that in a story. Let the reader get the meaning from the context instead of laboriously explaining everything that is said. Overall, this is a cute Romeo and Juliet-type story in a setting that I haven't seen often in books. This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story
