Review: Cafe con Lychee

So like I hadn't ever heard of this book before, like not even for pride month or valentine's when I was looking up pride themed books. it seriously never came up. But then I came across it through Riveted. Will not lie, Riveted is the reason I have a tremendous tbr right now.

Sometimes bitter rivalries can brew something sweet

Theo Mori wants to escape. Leaving Vermont for college means getting away from working at his parents’ Asian American café and dealing with their archrivals’ hopeless son Gabi who’s lost the soccer team more games than Theo can count.

Gabi Moreno is miserably stuck in the closet. Forced to play soccer to hide his love for dance and iced out by Theo, the only openly gay guy at school, Gabi’s only reprieve is his parents’ Puerto Rican bakery and his plans to take over after graduation.

But the town’s new fusion café changes everything. Between the Mori’s struggling shop and the Moreno’s plan to sell their bakery in the face of the competition, both boys find their dreams in jeopardy. Then Theo has an idea—sell photo-worthy food covertly at school to offset their losses. When he sprains his wrist and Gabi gets roped in to help, they realize they need to work together to save their parents’ shops but will the new feelings rising between them be enough to send their future plans up in smoke?

QUICK THOUGHTS AND REVIEW: 3.9/5, FELT GOOD TO DETOX AFTER SCARRING READS. 

Possible Trigger Tags:

1. Slight racial slurs

2. Mentions of homophobia

3. Internalized homophobia

WHAT DID I FEEL ABOUT THE  BOOK'S: 

1. Writing Quality: Dual POV with MUTUAL PINING but make it gay. YES baby, come here, I have been waiting for you all my life to be here. I love the fact that it is first person dual POV because a. Mutual pining and b. Intense gay panic. Would it be called gay panic though if they knew they were actually gay? Never mind, I really like the style because it's really fast paced and short, so I could really get through it while really enjoying it.

2. Character Development: My babies.

Theo: Theo is Asian (Chinese Japanese) American and literally, bro I just feel you.  Seriously, coming from an Asian household, I do feel like how it feels to be always looked down upon and kept away from the important affairs even though you're 18. Man you'd still be 80 and your parents would think you're a child. And it's worse if you have siblings who are always good at stuff, bro the comparison never stops. Like literally, I have become the star disappointment of the family. I literally understand from my soul how Theo feels in the household and it makes me cry when I see his parents being so accepting of how he is. Man seriously, I'll cry whenever I see a fellow person of the community having supportive parents. Like y'all up for adoption? I'm low maintenance.

Gabi: Gabi is another adorable bean. Though I don't relate to him much, the one sided enemies to lovers thing is pretty much relatable. Except for my case make that academic rivals to lovers. And I relate to Gabi in the sense that I have homophobic parents. It's literally torture to hear your parents pass comments about gay people like that and the urge to come out to them is so real. But then there's also the fear of getting kicked out of the house because some folks really can't get past the heteronormative structure which is fricking toxic. But yes, I kind of feel Gabi on that and I feel like a proud parent when he comes out to his parents, because, even though I'm out and about, I haven't been able to come out to my parents or fam [except one, but she's literally chill af].

3. Couldn't put it down- Ness: 8/10, it's pretty brief and fast paced and the storyline's pretty interesting as well.

4.  Plot: Let's just lay down the facts here, I LOVE GAY ROMANCES. Seriously, I get my hands on one and I'll devour it like I've been starved for over a thousand years. Like seriously, the gays deserve a wholesome story so damn much and it makes me so happy to see books that actually have wholesomeness in them [kind of like Heartstopper because that's close to my heart]. But yeah, I kind of am really in love with the plot because I absolutely adore enemies to lovers trope especially if it was only one sided.  LIKE ONE SIDED ENEMIES TO LOVERS WHERE ONE OF THEM IS I NEVER HATED YOU SLAPS. Like absolutely slaps harder than my mum ever did when I failed chem. That was a really bad joke, I'm sorry.

OVERALL, A NICE READ, I'll definitely recommend this.