From the Bookshelf of Addicted to YA…

A Pho Love Story

Loan Le

Start date: May 1, 2021

Finish date: May 31, 2021

Discussion: Stand Alone

Why we're reading this: Won the poll for the stand alone BOTM
[close] Won the poll for the stand alone BOTM

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Stand Alone

* Stand Alone- Maybe Meant to Be
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last updated Aug 18, 2025 12:04PM

* Stand Alone- The Summer of Broken Rules
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What Members Thought

Jun 09, 2022 aikaterine marked it as to-read

Addicted to YA Group Read for 2021.

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 13, 2022 poot rated it really liked it

very cute, but i feel like there were a lot of loose ends that i wanted to have the resolution to

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Aug 28, 2022 Nicki rated it it was amazing

Shelves: food_in_fiction, booktubers, romance

Adorable! Plus, now I want Pho!!!

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Oct 05, 2021 Anne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A cute and modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet which integrates the first-generation American experience. This book does a great job discussing parental expectations, the modern version of “the American dream”, and the cost of both. It’s a quick read with interesting characters.

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Apr 22, 2021 Colleen Scidmore rated it liked it

Shelves: audio-books, currently-on-google-drive

𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝟑.𝟐𝟓-𝟑.𝟓𝟎⁣
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First off I HAVE to try Pho...like now! As well as half the food mentioned in this book. You can’t help but be hungry while reading about all the yummy dishes being created! 😋 I’ve had very little experience with trying Vietnamese food but I now plan on trying it in the very near future.
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This is a cute but complex teenage love story in which a family feud gets in the way. Bao and Linh both come from traditional Vietnamese families that own restaurants right across from ea 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝟑.𝟐𝟓-𝟑.𝟓𝟎⁣
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First off I HAVE to try Pho...like now! As well as half the food mentioned in this book. You can’t help but be hungry while reading about all the yummy dishes being created! 😋 I’ve had very little experience with trying Vietnamese food but I now plan on trying it in the very near future.
⁣
This is a cute but complex teenage love story in which a family feud gets in the way. Bao and Linh both come from traditional Vietnamese families that own restaurants right across from each other. Every since they were small children they have been forbidden to associate with one another. Their families would spread rumors, gossip, spy and even sabotage each other’s restaurants. But as they become older and in high school Linh and Bao are thrown together for a school newspaper assignment that “forces” them to spend quite of bit of time together. They meet up in secret hoping their parents don’t find out and realize they actually enjoy being together. In hopes to try and solve their dilemma they dig into their families past I hopes to find out what is keeping them apart and they find out there is more to the story than just competing restaurants and their new love might not be able to take the fall out over their families past mistakes.⁣
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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬:⁣
This part is a bit conflicting for me because I really enjoyed some of the characters and others not so much. A lot of the time the side characters outshone the main characters. ⁣
I really enjoyed getting to know Bao and Linhs parents and their struggles of leaving their home in Vietnam and trying to make it in America. And even with all the hardships to make it Bao’s mother was genuinely behind her son when he said he might want to be a writer. She offered to clean out the basement and let him live there for free if he decides to take up writing as his career. Now that’s support! Showing your son if he loves his job it’s ok if he’s going to be broke and a free loader. 😂 ⁣
Linh’s mom on the other hand wants her daughter to keep her passion as an artist strictly as a hobby and to choose a practical career like an engineer. I wasn’t in love with this thinking, but I understood it. She wants want any mom wants, her daughter to be financially able to take care of herself.⁣
Then there was Viet, Bao’s friend who didn’t make a huge appearance but there was something likeable about him. ⁣
Now Bao and Linh the MC’s actually fell kind of flat to me and it was disappointing considering all of the other interesting characters Loan Le has created. Bao had a few shining moments when his fun sense of humor would shine through, it gave me some hope my feelings would turn around, but nope..it just didn’t happen.⁣
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𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲:⁣
The plot itself is not original but it has it’s own charm getting to know more about Vietnamese culture, struggles and the yummy cuisine!⁣
But the actual love story needed some work.⁣
I was really frustrated that the relationship between Bao and Linh. Linh spent more time pulling away because she was worried about her parents finding out and feeling like she betrayed them, more than any real time being involved with Bao. I understood her feelings but I wanted them to actually BE in the relationship more then they really were if that makes sense. Also I didn’t feel a lot of chemistry between them which defeats the purpose of the book, because this is a love story about them! I was more interested in the possibility of Viet and Ali hooking up to be honest. ⁣
And the reason (or big secret) why the families were feuding really didn’t make sense. It was tragic but could’ve and should’ve played out much differently.⁣
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I know this sounds like I’m being being super critical and that I didn’t enjoy the book. But it was actually OK, really cute at times in fact. I just feel like it had possibilities to be even better. And honestly my favorite part and what made this book enjoyable to me was getting to know the unique and quirky side characters. ...more

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