A review by jwinchell
This Is My Brain in Love by I.W. Gregorio

4.0

This is a super tame romance about serious topics like mental health with real characters who are complex in their intersectionality. I know that sentence won't woo teenage readers, so let's try this. Jocelyn Wu is worried her family's Chinese restaurant is going to go under, so her dad lets her put out an ad for a part-time summer employee who can help revitalize and modernize their business approach. Will Domenici just learned that he didn't make editor on his school newspaper, so he sets out to find some real-life experience that maybe he can write about. He's used to tying himself into mental knots about this, so he decides to be decisive and call about the business job at the Chinese restaurant. Will, who is Nigerian-Italian American, and Jocelyn, who is Chinese American, quickly fall into like but their relationship gets put on lockdown by Jocelyn's dad, who wants to see the business thrive before he allows them to date. They go into serious business mode, reaching out to local universities and improving their social media presence and website with the help of Jocelyn's bff. The story and the characters get weighed down by mental health issues, both recognized and unrecognized. Gregorio has a great end note about depression, anxiety and mental health, including the stigma that even she, as a medical doctor, experienced, and that exists in the Asian community. I felt like this book was about 100 pages too long, but I appreciate it as a romance to sell to readers of Eleanor and Park and Everything, Everything.