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tammyhai 's review for:
A Pho Love Story
by Loan Le
I really wanted to like this one. The story is familiar (Viet parents who are strict and demanding only because they want the best for their children... This is the life of every child with Vietnamese refugee parents), the setting gives me warm fuzzies because it's the part of California I grew up in, and the food made me soooo hungry. Unfortunately you can't find this food in Corvallis.
The writing itself was a little weak and clunky. For example, Viet is constantly called "weird" but nothing he did seemed any less typical of a high school kid. The "mystery" felt contrived only to set us up for a Romeo and Juliet feud that would have been more believable without the poorly fleshed out background story.
I really struggled with the rating because I connected with the characters. But perhaps I only connected with them because their stories were my stories. I have the luxury of understanding this novel in full context while other readers may not. When compared to other recent Asian rom-com novels, "A Pho Love Story" falls short.
The writing itself was a little weak and clunky. For example, Viet is constantly called "weird" but nothing he did seemed any less typical of a high school kid. The "mystery" felt contrived only to set us up for a Romeo and Juliet feud that would have been more believable without the poorly fleshed out background story.
I really struggled with the rating because I connected with the characters. But perhaps I only connected with them because their stories were my stories. I have the luxury of understanding this novel in full context while other readers may not. When compared to other recent Asian rom-com novels, "A Pho Love Story" falls short.