Category: YA Contemporary

Book Review: A Pho Love Story by Loan Le

Dini @ dinipandareads7 Comments

A Pho Love Story
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s UK
Pub Date: 18 February 2021
Genre: YA Contemporary

Panda Rating:

(actual rating: 3.75 pandas rounded up!)

📖 SYNOPSIS

All’s fair in love, war and noodles . . .

If Bao Nguyen had to describe himself, he’d say he was a rock. Steady and strong, but not particularly interesting. His grades are average, his social status unremarkable. He works at his parents’ pho restaurant, and even there, he is his parents’ fifth favorite employee.

If Linh Mai had to describe herself, she’d say she was a firecracker. Stable when unlit, but full of potential for joy and spark and fire. She loves art, and she dreams of making a career of it one day. The only problem? Her parents rely on her in ways they’re not willing to admit, including expecting her to work practically full-time at their family’s pho restaurant.

For decades, the Mais and the Nguyens have been at odds, having owned competing, neighboring pho restaurants. Bao and Linh have resolved never to befriend each other, for fear of pushing too far and bringing on undue heartbreak. But when a chance encounter brings Linh and Bao closer, sparks fly . . .

Can Linh and Bao’s love survive in the midst of feuding families and complicated histories?

This delicious debut is perfect for fans of When Dimple Met Rishi and To All the Boys I’ve Love Before.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Racism, cultural appropriation, Vietnam War mentioned, death of family member (recounted)

TL;DR: While I can see the appeal of this book, especially for the young adult audience, but I unfortunately didn’t end up loving it as much as I thought I would. Part of that might have to do with my elevated expectations but, despite the interesting family history and the blossoming romance between Bao and Linh, it was the pacing that really did it for me. The pacing dragged the story down immensely and with the ‘slice-of-life’ style of storytelling, it made for an incredibly slow read. That said, I did enjoy the family drama, learning about Vietnamese history, the Vietnamese food, the journey to find one’s passion, and of course, all the art. If any of that sounds appealing to you, I would recommend this coming-of-age contemporary!

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Blog Tour Review: Blades of Furry, Vol. 1 by Deya Muniz & Emily Erdos

Dini @ dinipandareads15 Comments

Hi friends, I’m back for another blog tour today! I’m excited to share my thoughts as part of the blog tour hosted by TBR & Beyond Tours for Blades of Furry by Deya Muniz & Emily Erdos.

Thanks to Little, Brown Ink for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Click the banner above or here to check out the other incredible bloggers on the blog tour!

Blades of Furry, Vol. 1
Publisher: Little, Brown Ink
Publication Date: 13 May 2025
Genre: Young Adult Graphic Novel

Rating:

(5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Enter the high stakes world of battle skating in this rivals-to-lovers romance based on the spectacularly popular webcomic.

Emile is an up-and-coming rookie in battle skating, a sport that combines the grace of figure skating with the high impact sparring of martial arts. Just as he is gearing up to fight in his next duel at the championships, there’s a change in the lineup! To his horror, he’ll have to face off against reigning champion Radu, the best battle skater in the world (and Emile’s longtime skating idol). There’s no way he can win!

During a pivotal moment in their match, however, Emile discovers Radu’s most closely guarded secret…and it’s a bloody one. This could destroy Radu’s career for good, but when feelings start to develop between them both on and off the rink, will this rivalry turn into something more…?

Based on the WEBTOON hit comic with over forty million views and half a million subscribers, this irresistible story full of heart-pounding romance, breathtaking skate battles, and secrets both good and bad is now available in a gorgeous print edition that includes never-before-seen content!

📚 BUY A COPY

TL;DR: Inject this into my veins because I want to live and breathe this 24/7. Holy granola, I don’t have the words for how much I enjoyed this and I’m so glad it came on my radar. Not to exaggerate or anything, but if I could give it a million stars I would. It might even be one of my favourite reads of the year and I know that sounds wild but honestly, I had the best time reading it. I laughed, cried, squee-d and even raged in frustration. Not only did it make me feel all the things but it left me feeling so full of happy, and I can’t remember the last time a book left me feeling this satisfied. 🥹 I came to love these characters and got so invested in their arcs that I may have gone to finish what’s available of the Webtoon series because I’m not going to put myself through the torture of waiting any longer than I have to. Sorry, not sorry! 🤭 Needless to say, this has easily slotted itself into my favourite graphic novels/webcomics of all time and I would urge you to check it out asap. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, even if you don’t consider yourself to be a furry (cos neither was I)! 😉

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ARC Review: I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang

Dini @ dinipandareads9 Comments

Special thanks to HarperCollins for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I Am Not Jessica Chen
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pub Date: 28 January 2025
Genre: YA Contemporary

Panda Rating:

(4.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

After getting rejected by every single Ivy League she applied to and falling short of all her Asian immigrant parents’ expectations, seventeen-year-old Jenna Chen makes a wish to become her smarter, infinitely more successful Harvard-bound cousin, Jessica Chen—only for her wish to come true. Literally.

Now trapped inside Jessica’s body, with access to Jessica’s most private journals and secrets, Jenna soon discovers that being the top student at the elite, highly competitive Havenwood Private Academy isn’t quite what she imagined. Worse, as everyone—including her own parents—start having trouble remembering who Jenna Chen is, or if she ever even existed, Jenna must decide if playing the role of the perfect daughter and student is worth losing her true self forever.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Blackmail, academic cheating, bullying, anxiety

Okay, can we take a minute to appreciate this cover? It’s already one of my favourites this year so far!

TL;DR: This was my first YA contemporary by Ann Liang but it won’t be my last. I now understand why her books are so well-loved and always come highly recommended. This had strong characters, was packed with emotion, and had a high degree of relatability that I think will apply to all readers. In “I Am Not Jessica Chen”, Liang perfectly captures the highly competitive high school and academic experience, including the pressures teenagers face to do better and achieve more as they equate it to success. Jenna is a complex, relatable and realistic character and I enjoyed watching her journey of self-acceptance unfold. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to all readers!

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Blog Tour Review: Near Misses & Cowboy Kisses by Katrina Emmel

Dini @ dinipandareads5 Comments

Hi friends, as part of the blog tour hosted by TBR & Beyond Tours I’m excited to share my thoughts on Near Misses & Cowboy Kisses by Katrina Emmel. Thanks to the TBR team for having me on tour and to Delacorte Romance for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Click the banner above or here to check out the other incredible bloggers on the blog tour!

Near Misses & Cowboy Kisses
Publisher: Delacorte Romance
Publication Date: 23 July 2024
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Romance

Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

A swoon-worthy YA rivals-to-lovers romance between a Nebraskan cowboy and California girl, thrust together on the Oregon Trail.

Anything’s possible under a prairie sky…

Riley Thomas is feeling stuck—she’s moved from California to Nebraska, she’s on a weeklong Oregon Trail family bonding excursion, and her luggage is lost. There’s no one her age on the trip except a tall, dark and irksome cowboy who wrongly assumes she has zero ability to handle the great outdoors. She can’t wait for this misery to end—even though going “home” isn’t even possible anymore.

Lone wolf Colton Walker loves the simpler life of the plains and his family’s tourism business that helps protect them. He’s a stand-up guy—not a love ‘em and leave ‘em type like his rival, Jake. And he knows better than to take his chances with a prairie princess like Riley.

But Riley’s got more sense than Colton thinks–and he’s not nearly as inflexible as he seems. And under a wide prairie sky of puffy clouds and bright stars, everything comes into focus–including a cowboy’s heart.

Katrina Emmel’s Near Misses and Cowboy Kisses will take you on a sweeping journey across the American prairie… once you love a boy in a Stetson, you’ll never be the same.

📚 BUY A COPY

TL;DR: Near Misses and Cowboy Kisses was a fun contemporary YA featuring a sweet summer romance with relatable teenage characters who were easy to empathise with and like. It also made me want to go and experience an Oregon Trail summer experience and bask in Nebraska’s natural trails! Overall, it was a fun and easy read and an enjoyable debut!

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ARC Review: True Love and Other Impossible Odds by Christina Li

Dini @ dinipandareads4 Comments

Special thanks to Rylee at SparkPoint Studio and Quill Tree Books for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

True Love and Other Impossible Odds
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Publication Date: 14 May 2024
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Panda Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

After the destruction of her entire Talon gang, eighteen-year-old Shin Lina—the Reaper of Sunpo—is forced to become a living, breathing weapon for the kingdom’s most-feared crime lord. All that keeps her from turning on her ruthless master is the life of her beloved little sister hanging in the balance. But the order to steal a priceless tapestry from a Dokkaebi temple incites not only the wrath of a legendary immortal, but the beginning of an unwinnable game…

Suddenly Lina finds herself in the dreamlike realm of the Dokkaebi, her fate in the hands of its cruel and captivating emperor. But she can win her life—if she kills him first.

Now a terrible game of life and death has begun, and even Lina’s swift, precise blade is no match for the magnetic Haneul Rui. Lina will have to use every weapon in her arsenal if she wants to outplay this cunning king and save her sister…all before the final grain of sand leaks out of the hourglass.

Because one way or another, she’ll take Rui’s heart.

Even if it means giving up her own.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Death of parent (recounted), cancer (parent of main character), homophobia

TL;DR: True Love and Other Impossible Odds was a solid debut. I loved the concept of this story and while the writing may have suffered from too much telling and not enough showing, I think the author did a good job addressing the heavier themes and with the overall execution. It’s a relatable and down-to-earth story about discovering yourself and shedding peoples’ expectations of you, choosing your path, growing up and finding love. It’s a college story that many will probably relate to, young adults and adults alike. Although I often felt emotionally disconnected from Grace, seeing her grow and find peace with who she is and loves was a wonderful journey.

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Book Review: We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

We Are Okay
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pub Date: 14 February 2017
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Fiction

Panda Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

You go through life thinking there’s so much you need…. Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother. Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.

An intimate whisper that packs an indelible punch , We Are Okay is Nina LaCour at her finest. This gorgeously crafted and achingly honest portrayal of grief will leave you urgent to reach across any distance to reconnect with the people you love.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Death of parent, death of a grandfather from drowning, mental illness, grief

I put off reading this for years because it gave such sad read vibes that I knew I had to be emotionally prepared for it. But seeing as January 2024 seems to have me in my sad reads era, I finally picked it up and yep, we are not okay, Nina LaCour. 🥲 That is, this book was beautiful, sad, touching and healing and I’m so glad that I finally read it.

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Book Review: The Places I’ve Cried in Public by Holly Bourne

Dini @ dinipandareads11 Comments

The Places I’ve Cried in Public
Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd.
Pub Date: 3 October 2019
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Fiction

Panda Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Amelie loved Reese. And she thought he loved her. But she’s starting to realise love isn’t supposed to hurt like this. So now she’s retracing their story and untangling what happened by revisiting all the places he made her cry.

Because if she works out what went wrong, perhaps she can finally learn to get over him.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Rape, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, gaslighting, cheating

TL;DR: This was such a painful read to get through. It leaves you feeling a bit helpless as you get a front-row seat to Amelie losing herself to something toxic and retracing her steps to find herself again. This is such an important story and I’m so glad that it exists, especially for young readers, as Bourne does a great job exploring what it means to be in healthy and unhealthy relationships and how to care for yourself in the aftermath. This tackles dark and heavy events that can be triggering so please do check content warnings before reading.

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ARC Review: Northranger by Rey Terciero

Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Special thanks to SparkPoint Studio and HarperAlley for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Northranger
Publisher: HarperAlley
Publication Date: 04 July 2023
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary, Graphic Novel

Panda Rating:

(4.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

In this swoony and spooky teen summer romance graphic novel set on a Texas ranch, sixteen-year-old Cade Muñoz finds himself falling for the ranch owner’s mysterious and handsome son, only to discover that he may be harboring a dangerous secret.

Cade has always loved to escape into the world of a good horror movie. After all, horror movies are scary–but to Cade, a closeted queer Latino teen growing up in rural Texas–real life can be way scarier.

When Cade is sent to spend the summer working as a ranch hand to help earn extra money for his family, he is horrified. Cade hates everything about the ranch, from the early mornings to the mountains of horse poop he has to clean up. The only silver lining is the company of the two teens who live there–in particular, the ruggedly handsome and enigmatic Henry.

But as unexpected sparks begin to fly between Cade and Henry, things get… complicated. Henry is reluctant to share the details of his mother’s death, and Cade begins to wonder what else he might be hiding. Inspired by the gothic romance of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and perfect for fans of Heartstopper and Bloom comes a modern love story so romantic it’s scary.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Homophobia, racism, homophobic and racist slurs, death of parent (breast cancer), misogyny, alcoholism, mention of attempted suicide (past)

TL;DR: Northranger was an unexpected surprise in the best way. This was spooky and gothic and delivered a very emotional coming-of-age story featuring compelling main characters, entertaining side characters and an important story about learning to be yourself in a place where you won’t be accepted for who you are.

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ARC Review: Love & Resistance by Kara H.L. Chen

Dini @ dinipandareads7 Comments

Special thanks to Rylee from SparkPoint Studio and the publisher for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Love & Resistance
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Publication Date: 04 July 2023
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Panda Rating:

(4.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Seventeen-year-old Olivia Chang is at her fourth school in seven years. Her self-imposed solitude is lonely, but safe. At Plainstown High, however, Olivia’s usual plan of anonymity fails when the infamous Mitzi Clarke (influencer, queen bee, bully) makes a pointed racist comment in class. Olivia knows what she must do: let it go. But Olivia is tired of ignoring things just so she can survive. This time, she defends herself.

That is the end of her invisible life.

Soon, Olivia discovers, and joins forces with, the Nerd Net: a secret society who has been thwarting Mitzi’s reign of terror for months. Together, they plan to unite the masses and create true change at Plainstown High.

But in order to succeed, Olivia must do something even more terrifying than lead a movement: trust other people. She might even make true friends along the way… if Mitzi doesn’t destroy her first.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Bullying/Cyberbullying, racism (use of slurs), xenophobia, parental abandonment, divorce

TL;DR: Love & Resistance is a YA contemporary that has an intriguing premise and delivers on it too. The story covers some tough topics such as bullying, racism/xenophobia, and the toxicity of social media culture. Although it was at times heartbreaking and emotionally angsty, it was also powerfully hopeful and I appreciated the approach the author took to handling the tough situations that Olivia and her group of friends find themselves in. I’m sure many readers will be able to relate to this story and the experiences of these high schoolers. This was a great debut by Chen and I’m looking forward to seeing what the author puts out in the future.

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ARC Review: How to Win a Breakup by Farah Heron

Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

Special thanks to Skyscape for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

How to Win a Breakup
Publisher: Skyscape
Publication Date: 21 March 2023
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

An “it” couple’s breakup becomes a sporting event in a deliciously charming novel about the games people play in the name of love.

First, math genius and gamer-nerd Samaya gets dumped by her boyfriend. Then he sabotages her job and hooks up with her frenemy. What could be worse? Clearly, her golden-boy ex is winning the breakup. The only way Samaya can get some rebound cred is to find someone new. Even if she has to fake it.

At a volunteer bake sale, Samaya meets a sweet opportunity. Daniel is a handsome hockey jock and a whiz when it comes to lemon squares and brownies. And he agrees to play along. Quid pro quo. He’ll pretend to be the boyfriend of her dreams if Samaya helps him pass calculus.

This may well be the recipe for the best revenge, but Samaya has no idea how complicated it will get. As they whip up an imitation romance, and a bumbleberry pie, resisting each other’s very real charms proves impossible. Samaya finds herself on an unexpected journey of secrets, self-discovery, and the true meaning of moving on.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Bullying/Cyberbullying, Racist slurs, Harrassment, Homelessness, Catfishing, Domestic Abuse (mentioned)

TL;DR: How to Win a Breakup is a fun and fairly angsty YA contemporary romance featuring the fake-dating trope, exes out to best each other, plenty of gaming geeks and an athlete himbo who loves to bake and has a heart of gold. Samaya had a lot of learning and growing to do and although it took a while for her to get there, she does make strides in the end. I loved the friendship she forms with Daniel, who is without a doubt my favourite character in this story! There were some parts that could’ve been stronger and less scattered but overall, this was enjoyable and a perfect summer beach read.

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