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palmsygal's reviews
91 reviews
Café Con Lychee by Emery Lee
3.0
After seeing so many reviews and booktokers/instagrammers raving about how adorable this is, I really wanted to love this book.
Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy it, but there were so many things that irked me, unfortunately. The potential for this book is there, the plot was cute and the characters were likeable. However, it was so, so, so rushed. Without giving any spoilers, the midway tension and ‘omg they messed up’ that inevitably happens in every romcom was ridiculous and if someone told me it was only two pages long before it was resolved, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Lee truly missed out on providing many layers of emotion and back-and-forths with Gabi’s character and, instead, chose to use the same lines over and over again, which gave the character a dulled feeling (which HURT me as Gabi deserved to be known as a sweet, innocent and he deserves more boyo).
The repetition and “I-I…” in this book as well…
I fear I am raving on and on about the negatives for this book (maybe I should give it a 2.5…) but I did still enjoy it. As I said before, the plot was cute and was a fresh take on the ‘enemies-to-lovers’ trope. It was a relatively easy read and wasn’t super long either, so it cleansed my reading palette, especially after reading Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin prior to this.
Overall, if you want a cutesy MM read, go for it. It’s not bad, but it’s also not amazing.
Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy it, but there were so many things that irked me, unfortunately. The potential for this book is there, the plot was cute and the characters were likeable. However, it was so, so, so rushed. Without giving any spoilers, the midway tension and ‘omg they messed up’ that inevitably happens in every romcom was ridiculous and if someone told me it was only two pages long before it was resolved, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Lee truly missed out on providing many layers of emotion and back-and-forths with Gabi’s character and, instead, chose to use the same lines over and over again, which gave the character a dulled feeling (which HURT me as Gabi deserved to be known as a sweet, innocent and he deserves more boyo).
The repetition and “I-I…” in this book as well…
I fear I am raving on and on about the negatives for this book (maybe I should give it a 2.5…) but I did still enjoy it. As I said before, the plot was cute and was a fresh take on the ‘enemies-to-lovers’ trope. It was a relatively easy read and wasn’t super long either, so it cleansed my reading palette, especially after reading Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin prior to this.
Overall, if you want a cutesy MM read, go for it. It’s not bad, but it’s also not amazing.