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Vietnamese-American author!!!! YES!!!

But—Those last 100 pages were A STRUGGLE.

That’s my two opinions of A Pho Love Story: love the Vietnamese representation, didn't love the execution all together so much.

Let's start with the positives, so anyone reading this review will still want to pick it up! As a Vietnamese-American myself, I especially loved the little Vietnamese things in here: Garden Grove/Little Saigon setting, savage Vietnamese moms, the food, mannerisms/way of speaking, language, exploration of being a first gen, respecting where your parents have come from but then also living a life for yourself.

Now let's move on to the bits that I didn't enjoy as much and made me feel lukewarm about the entire book.

The book is written in dual first-person present-tense—Linh and Bao—whose families are rival restaurants from across the street. So, you see, they actually have a lot in common. In fact, they really don't care about this whole rivalry and have always been curious about each other.

Therefore, both Linh and Bao sounded way too similar for me. It felt like I was reading the same person, x2, and different genders. They were boring, Bao especially. (Why does literature have such boring Asian male characters?) There would be specific sentences written in Linh's POV that were repeated in Bao's POV. It would've been more interesting to have different Vietnamese experiences…and to better differentiate between the two characters. Considering this may be someone’s first encounter with Vietnamese culture, it’s a loss to make it seem like ALL our families are the same. Sure we have similar quirks, but people have various personalities.

The whole LOVE STORY, as seen in the title, was...ALL RIGHT? This read way too cheesy. Okay, I admit, if I saw a Vietnamese boy I would usually associate him as a cousin rather than as "boyfriend material." BUT they liked each other way too fast. There wasn't chemistry. All the side characters seem to see more of their chemistry and love for each other than I did.

Because they are both so indifferent to the rivalry between their families (specifically their moms) it didn't feel fully fleshed out. It plays a huge part in the last 100 pages of it (when all the DRAMA gets dumped onto you for shits and giggles). I didn't feel the tension between the two family because there was a stronger highlight on the romance, stronger even then the individual characters' storylines. The romance just overtook the entire book; and it wasn't even cute!

All in all, however, Loan Le has produced a solid debut novel. One with a lot of heart and I'm sure it meant a lot to her. It's a win in my heart for Vietnamese-Americans to be represented anywhere. But I just wanted a little more from it all.