I expected The Donut Trap to be a romantic and fun novel but the novel focuses more on other aspects, and the romance has a smaller role. The relationship between Jasmine and her parents (first generation immigrants) is a bigger part of the plot. I love the dialogue between the family members and the descriptions of the Donut shop business. The parent-child conflicts and interactions seemed realistic and were interesting. Julie Tieu also addresses parental expectations and disappointments - both for one's children and for prospective spouses of children. I thought The Donut Trap was well executed and a sweet story (no pun intended :)).

Thank you @avonbooks for a copy of this book. This was such a cute own voice YA romance. I adored Jasmine and related to her relationship with her parents. Alex and Jasmine were cute together and I love their interactions. The donut stop was a great setting and now I need to find a black sesame donut.

This book is delightful and I found myself laughing out loud multiple times. There's a great supporting cast and a good character arc for heroine, Jasmine Tran. I felt transported back home to where I grew up and wanted to be friends with Jasmine as she found her way.
Jasmine is stuck. Stuck in a shop of full of sugar. Stuck with her parents. Stuck in her ritual music or TV evenings spent on her own. Her friends have moved on and her comfort zone is so appealing. But her best friend is leaving for law school and Jasmine needs to shake it up. And she has a lot to work out.
Jasmine's awkward monologues are so me and I loved them. My only disappointment, really, is that my LI choice didn't end up being "the one" and I not-so-secretly hate when I'm wrong and root for the other guy.
The narration by Natalie Naudus was pretty great. I love her voice and inflections.
Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the advanced copy and Harper Audio for the alc. All thoughts in this review are my own.

Jasmine is totally trapped. After graduation, with no job prospects or boyfriend, she moves back home to work in her partners donut shop. What a rut and routine she is in. Her parents want her to get married, it who is there? Through her college roommate she is reunited with a college. Rush, Alex Lai, good looking and successful , is he her way out of the trap she is in? Or does there appearance of an old high school flame mean her way out. A sweet story with nothing unexpected.

I wanted to love The Donut Trap, my grandparents owned a donut shop that my mom worked in as a teenager and I had high hopes to see the a diverse romance with this. Unfortunately the characters felt a little too young for me. This leans YA/new adult vs romance in my option. I will try it again when I'm more in the mood for a younger set romance.

This book hit life right on the nail. Jasmine returns home to work in her parent's donut shop. As one does when they return home for any amount of time you fall into a routine, for Jasmine it's work, sleep, and Netflix. And of course like most of life right now the rent for the shop is hiked up, making everyone rely on Jasmine. I think that right there got me the most because as a manimal child there's a lot more responsibility than we take on not just for ourselves but for our family as well. Trying to figure out your own issues just to have more urgent issues kind of dumped in your lap at the same time, that was the "yea I get that." point in the book. This wouldn't be a romance without a relationship, so let's add in a college crush and a high school fling. If you love the TV show Kim's Convenience then you'll love this book!

This was a cute new adult romance featuring Jasmine Tran, a young woman caught in a rut of working at her parents' Donut Shop with no prospects. Her final year of college was hard with family pressure to excel and marry pushing her to the edge. Now she’s finding it hard to make anyone happy. Enter Alex Lai--successful, Chinese, and a little too perfect to be true. This is a romance where both parts of the couple have some growing up to do and figure out their boundaries--especially with their parents. It’s a cute, fun romantic comedy.

I went into this one expecting a love triangle and was pleased to be wrong. Jasmine’s struggle to find herself and talk to her parents was super relatable, and I loved the glimpse into the life of a first-generation child of immigrants, and all the pressures she faced. It did feel like there were one or two sub-plots too many, but the main plots of Jasmine’s journey and the romance with Alex were delightful. I loved to see Jasmine stand up for herself to those around her, and communicate honestly with Alex, even after he screws up. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

After college, Jasmine went back to work at her parents’ donut shop where her days are monotonous and boring. Then her old college crush, Alex, comes back into her life and starts to spice things up. Only a disastrous dinner ends in both of their parents disapproving of the relationship leaving Jasmine to not only figure out what to do about her job but what to do about her relationship.

First of all, I NEEDED a donut while reading this book. The donut flavor descriptions were everything. I loved that this one focused so much on that awkward stage of life when you aren’t quite sure where you are going and what you are doing. I felt this was such a realistic description of a transitional stage of life that can be pretty challenging. I loved seeing Jasmine come into her own and really start to find herself and her passions. I wish the romance had gone a little deeper. I loved Jasmine and Alex’s history and meet cute, and while they were a sweet couple, the romance part of the story left me wanting a bit more. Overall I would describe this as more of a sweet coming of age story than a romance, but it was a cute story about a girl finding herself and I really enjoyed it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for the advanced copy.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the gifted copy.

Jasmine is a little lost in life. With no boyfriend or job prospects, Jasmine is fresh out of college and back living at home and working at her parent's donut shop. When the shop is threatened with raised rent, Jasmine is tasked to help boost sales to save her parent's shop. Enter college crush Alex and high school ex boyfriend Michael to not only help Jasmine, but also throw her heart for a loop.

I predominately listened to The Donut Trap and it was a fun audiobook. I enjoyed Jasmine's character, because she was so relatable. It's incredibly hard balancing family expectations with trying to figure out your life, even after graduating from college. The drive for perfectionism can be crippling at times. I enjoyed Jasmine's journey throughout the book and how she navigated life, family, mental health, and love.

My only complaint about the book was the amount of plot lines going on. Not only did you have Jasmine's strained family relationship, but there was also a love triangle, a business in trouble, a job hunt, friendship dynamics and mental health. Listening to the book helped me see past the amount going on, but I'm not sure how I would have felt about it had I read the print version.

If you are looking for a story with heart and an understanding of the Asian American immigrant experience, pick up Julie Tieu's The Donut Trap!

Jasmine Tran has graduated from college but she's back pulling long days and nights helping out at her parents' donut shop in LA. The family charges the bare minimum for their product partly because their regulars are used to paying roughly $1/donut. Plus, they don't see themselves competing with the fancy bakeries and donut stores. Although, Jasmine believes that if they update their flavors and donuts and publicize their products, they might win over a new group of clients.

Jasmine comes across her college crush Justin Lai. Everything was going well until Jasmine's family meets Justin and his family. The conflict and disappointment sets them back significantly. Will they be able to recover? Is it worth taking the risk?

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Jasmine and Justin and watching their story develop!

The Donut Trap did as the title suggested - it trapped me with promises of love in a donut shop. I’ll start by saying that while the book as a whole was enjoyable, it wasn’t for me. I found that there seemed to be too many “issues” that needed to be resolved or focused on, and I wasn’t sure what was the overall main plot of the story. Jas’ love life with Alex, Jas’ love life with Michael, her career, her relationship with her parents, her relationship with her best friend. It became too much, and made all of the rest of the plot lines less enjoyable.

If you like a slow burn, second chance romance that doesn’t get too deep this would be the book for you!

The Donut Trap is a story about Jasmine who is a college graduate struggling to find her true-self while working at her parents’ donut shop as cashier. It has romance, drama, and soul searching, and, of course, donuts!! Yum! It was one of those books that I didn't want to read too fast because I didn’t want the story to end! By page 100, I was totally hooked and when chapter 4 was over, I was screaming in my head because I was feeling exactly how Jas was feeling!!!! (Remember how chapter 4 ended?)

The romance part was so sweet and heart breaking too, and I was cheering for Jas and Alex! They were so cute together, and I liked the dating scene when they went to the ballpark. Though while I was reading, I was constantly wondering what kind of consulting job Alex had.

I also really loved all the asian cultural references throughout the story. It felt authentic without overwhelming. It brought back the fun memories of my college years, watching college sports games and cheering for my school. On the other hand, it also reminded me what it was like to live in the US as a part of a Korean immigrant family. The relationship between Jas and the parents was totally relatable.

Overall, I would recommend this book if you are hungry for a cute romance novel with soul searching and asian cultural reference with of course donut!

I want to thank NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for approving my request for ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I struggled with this one, to be honest, and end up Not finishing when I realized it was less romantic comedy and more women’s fiction. This one just wasn’t for me!

Thank you harper audio for the gifted audiobook and Avon for the ARC.

The Donut Trap is a debut novel by Julie Tieu.

I thought this was a cute book.
It’s not at all what I expected but I still enjoyed it.
The marketing for this book makes you think it’s a light romance. It’s honestly much more than that. I found the romance to not be the main focus of the story.

The Donut Trap touches on the struggle of being a child of immigrants. I always find this topic super interesting as I can relate.
I loved the Asian American representation

Our MC Jasmine is a lovable character who is struggling to find balance after college.
We see all the things she faces when it comes to family, love and her professional life.
I loved the fact that the majority of this book is set in a donut shop. The descriptions of the donuts made me want to run out and get some.

This is a strong debut and I really enjoyed the writing. The author did such a good job with all the hard topics.

Overall this is a cute story about finding yourself and I recommend this if you enjoy contemporary novels.

I really love the narrator Natalie Naudus. She did a fantastic job with the audiobook.

This was just an okay read. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong (and it was among my most anticipated reads of 2021!), but it won't be in my favorite romances of the year. I would class this more as an #ownvoices women's fiction story with the focus more on parental relationships and self-realization than romantic love.

Our main character, Jasmine Tran is feeling a lot of parental pressure to help with the family Donut shop business but she's looking for a job that's all her own and that she can be passionate about. When an opportunity arises to work as a social media expert at an outside company she risks parental approval to go after her own happiness.

Additionally Jasmine is also balancing romantic advances from an old crush and an ex, trying to figure out which man will make her most happy. Great on audio narrated by Natalie Naudus - one of my favorite narrators, this book is most recommended for fans of So we meet again or Happy endings - stories with Asian American daughters trying to balance parental acceptance with personal happiness.

Much thanks to NetGalley and Libro.fm for my advance review copies! I very much enjoyed all the donut references and the diverse characters!

One year out of college, Jasmine Tran finds herself stuck in a routine of working at her parent’s donut shop. Every. Single. Day. She wants to find a way to break the cycle so she can concentrate on starting her career and pursue a love life while making sure she’s not leaving her parents high and dry.

I have to admit, the title and the front cover of The Donut Trap sucked me right in because of my love of donuts, and thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. I loved this book!

I felt like the characters were very relatable, especially Jasmine (Jas). At times, she tended to be a little on the awkward side, but she tried her best to be herself. She went through a tough time, but she pushed herself to try new things and take chances.

The familial obligations and expectations that put a strain on Jas’ relationship with her parents felt all too familiar to me. It’s so easy to fall into a routine of trying to please and help others, especially when it comes to family, that you forget what you want and need to be happy.

I particularly liked that Jas kept Alex, her old college crush, on his toes. This girl had boundaries; she just needed to make them known. Total kick ass.

This story was a friendly reminder that family and friends are there to help you even when times get tough as long as you make yourself accessible to their help.

I loved Julie Tieu’s writing style, pop culture references, and relatable characters - I look forward to more from her!

Two Favorite Quotes: “This was a delightful cherry on top of this trash-fire evening.” and “If I had needed a sign about how anyone was feeling, my dad left me a Post-it Note on my bedroom door with an angry face drawn on top, flared nostrils and all.”

Also, a special thank you out to Netgalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and Julie Tieu for the advanced copy of The Donut Trap!

I've decided that my favorite way to learn about other cultures is through sweet romance titles such as this. The relationship between Jasmine and her parents is complicated and rings very true on the page. The romance was sweet and the donut shop setting was fun,

I think this would fall into the "new adult" category, and I think it's a category that's not for me?

It wasn't a bad book, but I just felt like nothing really happened. There was nothing really at stake, it was just every day life of a girl navigating her first year out of college.

I'm also slowly realizing that first person books aren't my favorite. The characters come off as super whiny and while I'm sure all those thoughts were in my brain in my 20s, and even now, having to read them is... exhausting and annoying.

Anyway, I think there were some cute parts but it fell flat overall for me. There was not driving force or action or even real climax.

This was a cute book, but sadly I didn't love it as much as I hoped. I went into it expecting a fun and sweet romance and it actually ended up being more of a coming of age novel with a side of romance. I really related to and identified with Jasmine's struggle with her family and familial expectations. That aspect of the novel was written so well and many of the situations depicted in the novel mirrored my own personal experiences. As a Southern California native and UCLA alum, I loved seeing familiar landmarks pop up in the story, especially the ones related to UCLA.

Unfortunately, the romance aspect of the story fell flat for me and I never felt the connection between Alex and Jasmine. Jasmine is 22 years old, but her thoughts and actions often made her seem much younger. I found myself frustrated a lot by her behavior and I also wasn't a fan of the unnecessary drama caused by her ex. There is one closed door scene, but readers should know that The Donut Trap is more about Jasmine's journey to find herself and that romance is not the focus.

Audiobook Review
Overall 3.5 stars
Performance 5 stars
Story 2.5-3 stars

Natalie Naudus gave a fantastic performance. It was easy to distinguish between all of the different characters and I was especially impressed by how Jasmine's parents were voiced. Accents were handled with ease and I'm looking forward to listening to more audiobooks narrated by Natalie Naudus in the future.

CW: mentions of escaping the Khmer Rouge and being refugees, alcohol and drug use (resulting in hospitalization), mention of fat shaming

*I voluntarily read and listened to an advance review copy of this book*