Bảo Nguyen and Linh Mei basically grow up in the restaurants of their parents, which are across of the street from each other. But despite this little distance, they don‘t really know each other because their parents kind of feud against each other.
Getting brought together by a school project they learn that they have pretty much in common. Both are children of Vietnamese immigrants. All their parents want is for them to have a safe and stable life. But it also puts a lot of pressure on the children, especially on Linh who dreams of becoming an artist instead of an engineer. Because she can‘t tell her parents about her dream she soon finds herself in a web of lies.
Bảo, on the other hand, begins to see his own potential because of Linh. Encouraged by his Journalism class he finds the confidence to explore his passion and the ability to believe in himself.
While both struggle in their respective lives they find a save heaven with each other. But how save can it be, if their parents would very very much disapprove if they knew of this blossoming friendship?
The detail the author put into the portrayal of Vietnamese culture was palpable on each and every page. It shows in the details she provides while talking about Vietnamese food and the history behind Vietnamese immigrant families. Further, you could just feel the passion of the two families that they put into their restaurants but also the necessity of the restaurants because they provide their income. To the parents, their business also kind of gives them a sense of belonging and validates their being in the United States. You could really feel the uneasiness of the parents when they were misunderstood because their English was perhaps not perfect. They still do fight with their history: their past in Vietnam and ‚the escape‘ that still haunts many of them and which they don‘t like to talk about often.
I absolutely loved the concept of this story - Romeo and Juliet in the restaurant business - and the love story itself which was very sweet. However this book was a bit of a slow read for me. It wasn‘t that I didn‘t get into the story, I simply wasn‘t really captured by it. I didn‘t exactly click with this story I guess, although I really wanted to and I overall enjoyed to read the book.
