Café Con Lychee

Café Con Lychee is a Romeo-and-Juliet queer YA romance about two boys whose families own competing cafés in the same town. Used to only having each other to vie for customers' attention, when a new competitor comes into town, Theo and Gabi take it upon themselves to do all they can to help their families' cafés stay afloat--and end up changing their minds about each other in the process.

Having read Meet Cute Diary, Lee's previous book, I started off a little concerned that Theo sounded very similar to Noah in Meet Cute--which for me was a big turn-off. However, it quickly became clear that Theo is very different from Noah and not quite all sharp edges, which I really appreciated. Gabi, likewise, is not a "perfect" love interest, show more either, which was another issue I felt I had with Meet Cute. Both Theo and Gabi are dealing with different family issues; neither has an ideal home life, and I appreciate that Lee takes a look at both these situations, as unfortunately teens are likely to be facing similar ones at home.

My only real critique is that the plot itself is a little unbelievable in certain parts. I don't really buy that no one would notice a rarely-used room at a school being used for non-school functions, and I'm honestly not really sure how the boys are able to keep their Big Plan under wraps from their parents and the school. That being said, these issues are fairly minor and aren't really at the heart of the story, anyway.

Overall, I really enjoyed this read! Fans of the genre will love it, and for this reader the characters make up for any thin parts of the plot. Theo and Gabi are fantastic, and you'll be rooting for them every step of the way.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing a copy for review. show less

teen fiction, gay rom-com, perfect summer read.

super cute MM romance, at first disastrous (Gabi is in the closet, and keeps saying the exact wrong thing that makes Theo hate him more) but then they finally become friends, and ...maybe more than friends?

I loved spending time with these two characters and their boba treats and pastries, and appreciate the complexity involved in their situations, with Theo's Chinese-Japanese American family being so different from Gabi's machismo Puerto Rican dad, and some of their friends going through things of their own. A perfect light, funny romance that will have you reaching for Emery Lee's next book.

A lighthearted queer romcom starring two poc leads. Unfortunately, didn't like the main thing: the romance. It just didn’t grab me? The book was fine, but lacked something that got me invested in any of the characters.

As much as I love people of colour written as main characters and swoon worthy love interests instead of side characters, I also want to see pairings that do not consists of one white character and a person of colour and this book had that. Both characters and their experiences in a mostly white town felt realistic and relatable. It felt slightly stereotypical that both families make a living selling traditional food, but I guess that was necessary for the plot.

I liked that both sets of parents were not exactly what they show more appeared to be in the second half. They were appropriately complex, both demanding and trying to be supportive. They still had a lot to make up for and I hoped to see more of the ‘making up for it.’

Similarly, the subplots with their friends were good, but they felt a little cut short. The homecoming, the dance teacher, the soccer…. They all had their moments but they felt like events instead of things that majorly impacted the characters. Theo and Justin’s friendship and the pressure of either of them falling in love and forgetting about each other felt very realistic, but I wished there was a bit more depth to it.

I received an ARC of this book so some things may be different in the printed version. show less

I liked: the family enemies bit, all the cooking and food tasting, the friendships, and the family relationships.

I disliked that it was an enemies to lovers kind of thing in which the characters, as enemies, didn't have any fun chemistry—instead of bickering or having a rivalry in any interesting way they just spent an awful lot of pages feeling either mad that the other didn't like them, guilty that they didn't like the other, or some combination thereof. Other than some time spent dealing with some internalized homophobia the time before realizing their mutual attraction was kind of boring!

I rlly liked the premise but this book was so unrealistic like all the adults were loosing their business and didn’t do anything to try to save it??? also it required too much suspension of disbelief, the characters were hella flat and honestly wasn’t feeling the romance. I finished it out of SPITE