An exciting and moving tale of family, friendship, and love. Fans of When Dimple Met Rishi will adore this lively story. YA readers will relate to Linh and Bao and will keep turning the page the uncover the mystery of their families’ feud. Highly recommended.

You need to read this book!!! Between the rivalry of families, forbidden love, amazing food, and the love of two high schoolers, this book has it all! I devoured this book and want more! I could read about Bao and Linh forever and never get enough. These are two teens who are trying to figure out who they are and happened to find love along the way. They both have pressure from their families and are trying to help in their families rival restaurants! They are two incredible main characters that you will fall in love with. This book is amazing Vietnamese representation and you get to feel so much love that they have for their culture and their family. I loved learning about their history. Also the food!! I am hungry after reading this!!

If you liked Tweet Cute, I think you will LOVE this one!

Thank you NetGalley & publisher for the eARC of this novel to review. A Pho Love Story is modern update of Romeo & Juliet. The characters are well-defined & the plot is engaging. Linh & Bao’s families have competing Pho restaurants across the street from each other & have a long-lasting hatred for one another. Everything is complicated once Linh & Bai begin to get to know each other & find something special. Will they be able to end the feud & be together, or will their families’ hatred keep them apart? The novel was very sweet & the plot had twists to keep the reader engaged. I recommend this a fun, YA romance.

Linh and Bao grow up among the delicious scents and smells of their families’ Vietnamese restaurants— but also their parents’ high expectations and intense rivalry. As the kids juggle their familial duties, they also tempt fate by spending more time together and secretly pursuing their passions for art and writing. When xenophobia hits Little Saigon, how can this unlikely pair fight back against prejudice?

From the powerful emotions, sweeping artistic moments, and restaurant tours throughout the book, I highly recommend this read! I can see many teens enjoying this book. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

Here, Linh and Bao are both Vietnamese American teens who'll fall in love amidst their families longstanding feud and competing pho restaurants. Bao is described as a quite average, yet handsome teen, whilst Linh, well, she's quite the firecracker and an aspiring artist. To me, this already feels quite 'When Dimple Met Rishi'-esque. The teens both work part-time in the parents' neighboring pho restaurants, who are age-old competitors of one another. So much so, in fact, that these two are barred from speaking ever since the age of 5 or so. A chance encounter, aka a moment of chivalry, brings these two together and despite their and their families' best efforts, there are sparks amuck. It sounded like such an engaging premise and a fun YA read based on the summary, plus it is always lovely to see diversity in the genre more. It's told in back-and-forth dual viewpoints as their slow-burn love story develops. It was a fine read, just fine, especially after its lengthy exposition. In my opinion, Bao's sides were far more captivating and engaging to follow. He seemed to be a more fully formed character with more quippy, witty lines. It was definitely more of a challenge for me to get interested and invested in, but once further details about a family secret and history develop, there's such a compelling storytelling aspect that I just demanded to know what was to happen next.

I enjoyed this romeo-juliet type retelling that centers around an intense restaurant rivalry. The final reveal definitely threw me for a loop; I was not expecting that! The way that he families eventually resolve their bitterness was really inspiring and gave the story an optimistic note even though it focuses on the struggles of the respective families. This book gives a great insight into the lives of second-generation immigrants, and the unique push and pull between the modern and traditional lifestyles. I think that there could have been some translations within the text about what the Vietnamese words meant; it was a little tough to find the meanings using context clues.
I also felt like the two main characters lacked depth. Bao and Linh felt like hazy caricatures and nothing more. I genuinely found their respective best friends, Viet and Ali, to be a lot more fleshed out.
Overall, though, this was a sweet story!

This was a lovely book! I enjoyed it so much. But it made me very hungry for pho! It’s such a sweet and beautiful book!

I will pretty much jump at any chance to read a book written with and for the Vietnamese American experience and A Pho Love Story is no exception. This romantic comedy is a cute twist on the Romeo & Juliet trope - if Romeo and Juliet were Vietnamese American young adults whose parents own rival restaurants. The story is really sweet, with a solid combination of heart, humor, and serious issues.

This is the exact story that I would have loved to have growing up, especially during my middle and high school years. The representation of the Vietnamese family experience and community is on point. I know so many 'Bao's and 'Linh's and Loan Le's portrayal of filial piety was fairly accurate - especially from the perspective of a teenager. As I'm older now, I'm also able to empathize with the Nguyen and Mai parents at the same time. Bao and LInh's romance was sweet and the conflict was just angsty enough for what I'd expect from young adult fiction.

Living more than a 10 hour drive from my parents now, Le's descriptions of the food made me miss my mother's cooking so much. This was another book to inspire me to head out to my Asian grocery.

A cute YA romance story that incorporates Vietnamese culture. As someone who lived in Vietnam (but is not Vietnamese), I loved the references and the frequent phrases and sentences in Vietnamese. This own voices book is important for Vietnamese-American teens representation. The story was predictable and the writing a bit simplistic, but it was still enjoyable!

If my teens want a cute romance I would be sure to hand them a diverse one. If your library purchases simple teen romances for your collection then there's no reason not to include this one.

*I received a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

A Pho Love Story is a great contemporary romance that has a new take on the Romeo and Juliet storyline. I will say that this book was difficult for me to get through. I think that's a little more personal preference than anything. I liked Linh and Bao and how they dealt with their family's dislike of each other. They were easy characters to relate to in the idea of being a teenager who hasn't figured out their future. I also enjoyed their parents! I could see where they were coming from and why a feud had begun between the two families. The multilingual aspects of the book sang beautifully and I was able to grasp the meaning behind what was being said.

One of the things that didn't quite work for me personally was the length. While I'm sure everything was necessary to tell the story, I felt myself falling in and out of what was happening and I felt like I could already see the outcome. That's mere personal preference though. I know that I have students who would like the familiarity of knowing what comes next. It's a well written love story that is bound to get fans for it's love of food, culture, and storyline.

I loved this love story. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book. I highly recommend reading it.

I was torn between three and four stars for this novel. I was really happy with the characterization, the Vietnamese-American representation, and the love story at the heart of the text, but I often found myself thinking that this book may be a touch too long. I have nothing against “long” stories, but this one feels just a bit padded in the middle, which lessens the impact. Still, I couldn’t help but be drawn in to this novel, and what it does well it does really well. If you do pick this one up, just be warned that it is a bit of a slog in the middle.

I enjoyed this immersion into another culture. The story's alternating viewpoints add a nice dimension to the exploration of the romance and the families' feud. A very enjoyable read!

I really enjoyed this book and not just for the representation. I would have liked maybe some footnotes that explained how to pronounce some of the phrases and what they mean (I'm imagining it a bit like how it's done in Crazy Rich Asians). I love the opportunity for deeper understanding.

Realistic fiction. Young adults and adults will be drawn to this story of young love, bildungsroman, family rivalry and history, and finding the right path. Growing up as a worker in your family's restaurant is already complicated but living a hidden life with hidden dreams makes it ever more difficult. Hopefully, Bao and Linh will be able to convince their families that putting aside their rivalry is best for all!

such a warm, sweet YA.

i’d you liked Tweet Cute then i’m sure you’ll like a pho love story. two families own their own restaurants...across the streets from each other, and the rivalry is SERIOUS. but is the rivalry entirely detached and revolving only on their recipes and sales? or does it go deeper than that?

bao and linh are sweet, they gave me the loveliest of feels & the descriptions of Vietnamese food made me hungry, and wee perfect descriptors on the chilly nights i read by the the christmas tree.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I’ve been screaming about this book for literal years. I’ve been so hyped for it for so long, and when I finally got the chance to read an ARC, I dropped everything for it! A Pho Love Story was the Vietnamese-American contemporary that I’ve been waiting for, with a cute romance and complex family histories.

Linh is an aspiring artist who knows her parents would be disappointed by her choice of career. Meanwhile, Bao doesn’t yet know what he wants to do despite college being on the horizon. Their families own rival pho restaurants; however, there seems to be a darker history underlying their rivalry. Thus, Linh and Bao haven’t really interacted despite having met and going to the same school, but one day, they’re partnered up to write pieces for their newspaper on restaurants that would be good date spots.

Overall, the story was very cute. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a romantic comedy, though, because it deals with some fairly heavy trauma (which I’ll touch on later).

I liked the characters; Linh and Bao are such well-written protagonists, and you really understand their dreams and desires. The side characters were great too. Linh’s best friend, Allison, is ambitious and meddling and essentially the reason why they start to like each other. Bao’s best friend, Viet, is also dependable and supportive and loves crime shows. We also see a lot of Linh’s and Bao’s parents, which is fairly abnormal for YA novels.

The romance was cute! I do want to clarify that this book isn’t a hate-to-love story; instead, Linh and Bao click from the very beginning. Rather, their relationship lies more on the forbidden side because their families hate each other so much.

My favorite aspect of this book, however, is the Vietnamese-American representation. I loved seeing Vietnamese culture sprinkled throughout the book, even just the little things like the food and mentions of Paris by Night blaring in the background at all times (if you know, you know).

Also, it was nice seeing the Vietnamese phrases throughout the book! Honestly, I laughed a bit when I read “trời ơi” written.

I will be honest and say that this book was fairly similar to other typical Asian-American stories with protagonists who want to pursue an arts career despite their parents’ disapproval, so that aspect of the story wasn’t necessarily new…and honestly, I’m a little over it simply because I never had to go through that but that’s just me.

However, I really liked how this book made this situation more specific to a Vietnamese-American experience in that many people of Vietnamese descent and of my generation (speaking broadly) have parents who are refugees from the Vietnam War. There’s a lot of trauma there, obviously, and has led them to want stable lives for their children, especially financially. Obviously, this is applicable for many other Asian Americans, but it was just so fascinating for me to read it from a singularly Vietnamese-American lens, which again, I haven’t really seen in a YA contemporary.

Also, this trauma from the war is very up-front and is the reason why I said this book isn’t a romantic comedy. Linh’s and Bao’s parents’ stories of their life in Vietnam are an integral part of the book. I won’t say it’s super heavy; it’s just that this book wasn’t as light as I was expecting, not that that’s a bad thing; I just want to clarify this for other people.

So again, a lot of people of Vietnamese descent in my generation have parents who are refugees, who fled from their homeland and have had to build up their life in other countries. This was something that is so specific to Vietnamese diaspora (again, speaking broadly and not only for Vietnam) that I didn’t even know it was something I wanted to see in a book until I read it. I just related to this so much more than when I’ve been reading East-Asian-American stories over the past ten years, so I really appreciated being able to read this book.

A Pho Love Story had some adorable moments but also explored heavier issues, such as familial trauma. It intertwined so many great aspects of Vietnamese culture throughout the story, and I also really enjoyed the characters and their dynamics. I definitely recommend A Pho Love Story if you like Gloria Chao’s books!

Very cute Romeo and Juliet inspired romcom based upon two rival pho restaurants. First off, yes I was compelled to eat pho, but due to the pandemic had to make do with my hubby’s home made ramen (not suffering!) I was drawn to the two protagonists and the mysterious storyline of why the two families disliked each other so much; however, the supporting cast fell flat and was stereotypical. The feud seemed unrealistic. The book suffered from poor editing coming in at a whopping 400+ pages which was too much for not enough development. There was some good stuff here and I think some of my students will enjoy the book. Personally, I think there is so much more potential.

This was a really cute (happy) Romeo and Juliet romance. The two main characters, Linh and Bao, have parents who own rival Pho restaurants. Each has been told how terrible the other family is, so Linh and Bao have never really talked to each despite their parents' restaurants literally being across the street from each other. One day, all that changes. Will their friendship (and romance) overcome their parents' rivalry? What started the rivalry in the first place? This is a really sweet story, and although I've never had Pho, it made me hungry as I read it because there is a lot of food in it!