I think I actually jumped up and down when they approved me for this book!
This was a really cute book! I loved the romance part of it all! Complicated love!
A perfect coming-of-age romance. Loved this book

This book couldn't hold my attention. The characters are likable but begin to feel immature. I was looking forward to a great read. DNF halfway through. 2.5 stars

I adored this one! Jas is lost and working in her family's donut shop. When she accidentally follows her crush on Instagram things start to change for. She is brought out of her shell and has to think about what she really wants from her life and how she can get there.
I liked the family dynamics, and the friendships. I felt this was an all around good book that touched on a lot of things that many after college grads end up facing these days.
This is a book that you can "eat" in one sitting.

Thanks NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC!

Let me say this , before you start the book, please eat. because you are going to be HUNGRY by the time you end it. There is so much food, and I am not just talking about donuts! this is one mouth-watering book!
On a serious note though, this book is so much more than just romance.
It made me homesick as I missed my parents. It made me nostalgic over my friends who at the drop of a hat would do my applications and drive me somewhere I needed. It reminded me of college time uncertainties and the struggles many of my friends faced. It also reminds me of how i felt when I came to this country, torn between two places, two worlds and cultures and as parents trying to make sense of what it means for the kids.
I related so much to this book. As a desi, I fully laughed at the auntie antics, the tough love from parents and yet staying with them and i don't mean just literally, and all in all figure out ways to have a life.
The romance angle was so sweet. Their hesitation, and awkwardness at times just made it cuter. Alex and his calves :) I would love to see a casting please!
Highly recommend for laughs, cuteness, emotions and last but not the least donuts! (and donut puns I think :) )

Another DNF for me...it was okay and maybe I would have finished it but there were more references to pop culture than I could really keep up with at my age haha. I also thought Jasmine was a little too laissez-faire at this point in her life. Her best friend was also not so great a friend with bringing Alex into the shop randomly without warning. Not cool. I stopped reading shortly after that...maybe I just wasn't feeling it that day, who knows.

Julie Tieu’s debut romance, The Donut Trap, is a beautifully written and satisfying contemporary romance centering a second-generation immigrant’s experience as she figures out the next steps in life while working in her parent’s donut shoppe.

It is also an artfully crafted coming of age story.

The two don’t need to be mutually exclusive, but oftentimes, they are. Not so with Tieu’s work. I am used to contemporary romances featuring couples in their mid-twenties. Instead, our heroine, Jasmine Tran, is only a year out of college – still not fully formed, still finding her way. Where she is going, who she might become, these questions are all left unanswered – and that’s ok. Show me someone who stuck to the plan they made at 22 and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t deserve to have book written about them.

In The Donut Trap, Tieu gives us the tale of a young woman straddling two worlds like so many families in this country today. She tries hard to live up to the expectations – or her perceptions of the expectations – of her hardworking parents and at the same time figure out who she is and what she might want. Jasmine is not put together, she’s not on top of things – she is delightfully messy and mixed up and real.

The romance itself is sweet and thoughtful. Both Jasmine and her love interest have much the same struggles with their parents, although it plays out in different ways for the hero than it does for the heroine. In the end, their parents are relatable. They are universal in their struggle to understand the younger generation and give them the best life possible while at the same time trying to instill the values they deem essential.

Overall, a Tieu gifts us a lovely debut with thoughtful moments that stay with you, and an endearing, relatable heroine who you are happy to see at the finish the book, unfinished.

This sweet, cute #ownvoices romance explores that time after college when you aren’t exactly ready to be an adult, but definitely aren’t a kid anymore. Jasmine’s family has Chinese, Cambodian, and Vietnamese roots. She works at her family’s donut shop post-college, not knowing exactly what she wants (career-wise or in life). Life gets turned upside down when she accidentally follows her college crush on instagram. This lost connection forces her out of her comfort zone - and life starts to get complicated.

Jasmine is a doting daughter, but unsure of herself. As the eldest daughter of refugees, I can relate to the struggles of communication with parents, lack of outward affection, and high expectations. Julie Tieu perfectly captures that innate ability of Asian moms to guilt their children, the ways they show love (food), and the sacrifices they make so their children can have a comfortable life. That shift from “no boyfriends ever!” to “what is wrong with you that you don’t have a boyfriend?” - that’s real and it occurs once you hit college 🤷🏻‍♀️. That’s the power of #ownvoices stories. They capture nuances in cultures that perhaps other authors wouldn’t.

Yes, there is a cute romance element. It’s funny and has its ups and downs. Very light on steam.

*Was provided a free, ARC copy of this novel, in exchange for an honest review*

So, I want to preface my thoughts before I begin. I had been hearing ALOT about this book, before I read the first page Therefore, I knew I was going to need to adjust my expectations accordingly.

This book is marketed as an "easy, breezy, romantic comedy". However, from what other readers were telling me, the plot of the story read more like a coming of age tale, rather than something sweet and simple. Once I had adjusted my expectations, I found myself falling under the spell of this book more easily.

Our book begins as our heroine Jasmine, finds herself in limbo shortly after graduation from college. She finds herself struggling with parental expectations, as well as searching for the answer to "what happens next?". Personally, I found this refreshing. I know I experienced this when I graduated from college. It is a known fact that most parents want you to attend college. However, no one ever tells you what happens next. You're young, inexperienced, and a college degree doesn't immediately begin opening all these doors like we are led to believe.

I feel like we are rarely treated to this reality in coming of age novels. We often get the 17-18 year old "going away to college" with bright eyed optimism. However, we rarely get the reality of "ok, now what?" .

Jasmine was the real shining star of this novel, as well as the dynamic that exists with her parents. The hero, as well as the romantic element that emerges was akin to adding honey to a strong cup of tea. It sweetens the flavor, but it acts as a back note.

My rating is given as I examine this story through a coming of age lens, rather than a purely romantic lens. I find it unfair to rate this novel as purely romantic, because the romance was a back burner element of this story.

Heat Level 🔥
#TheDonutTrap #NetGalley

Rating: 3.5/5

This book was a fun read! However, there was a lot of it I didn’t quite understand and that’s why it gets 3.5 stars. First, Alex and Jasmine’s relationship almost feels random. The entire thing felt like it didn’t mesh well with the whole donut shop failing storyline. Also, I never really ended up understanding Alex’s mom. She just never made sense to me and personally, I don’t feel she added much to the story. Overall, the book was cute and talking about the different donuts was fun, but it just didn’t flow very well to me.

Things I liked: The talk about the donut shop was fun! I liked that Jasmine stood up to her family and did what was best for her!

Things I didn’t like: how Jasmine’s family treated her

Synopsis:
Jasmine Tran, a former premed student, finds herself stuck after she left college and is now working full-time at her parents donut shop. The donut shop is struggling to stay afloat due to its underwhelming assortment of donuts and several competitors within the donut business! Jasmine must find a way to keep the business afloat while finding the best career path for her as well. As if this wasn’t enough, Alex, AKA “Window Guy” shows back up in her life. Alex is someone she met in college and has had a crush on ever since. Alex meets Jasmine’s family and it couldn’t go worse...will Alex and Jasmine make it through all the complications to end up together or will their relationship and the donut shop end up failing?

The Donut Trap is nothing short of delicious. From the beginning until the end, this book has captured my attention with how accurately the portrayals of this Asian American own voice are. Jasmine and Alex are equal parts quirky and frustratingly stubborn it makes you want to wring your hair out. But books that make you feel something are the best ones, hence, this really gripped me. There is just a lot to see for yourself. The entirety of the Asian culture richly embedded between the pages of this, the chemistry of the main characters is sizzling, the laugh-out-loud comedy, and just the wholesomeness of it.

If you're looking for a read that is guaranteed to be sweet and adorable, The Donut Trap is the one for you.

✍️ One Sentence Synopsis: What do you do when you donut know what to do with life?

💭 Overall Thoughts:
So here’s the thing, as an own voices story I thought this was great. It gave me a different perspective on the family dynamics between immigrant parents and their Americanized children. It made me think about a different perspective from my own and it was really well done.

As a Romance novel, it was cute but a little slow, unrealistic, and lacking chemistry. Jasmine is a bit of a hot mess and yet somehow she’s not? Difficult to explain. It read a bit YA in this regard and I wasn’t totally hooked.

Thinking about it as more of an Own Voices story, I enjoyed it. I encourage you to read it with that perspective in mind!

What I Liked:
👍 Cultural own voices representation and thought provoking perspective.
👍 Friend goals— Linh is the friend we all want to have!
👍 Mouth watering food references!

What I Didn’t Like:
👎 Lack of chemistry between Alex and Jas. I just don’t see them actual into each other?
👎 Unrealistic plot of how Jas ends up with a job...
👎 Use of the ableist word “spaz.”

⚠️ Content Warnings: Ableist reference

I liked how the reader gets to learn a lot about the American Born Chinese culture. I have a lot of friends who went through a similar situation from their Asian parents like the characters in this book did so I knew how the main character felt. I just wished that the romance could have evolved more and got to see Jas and Alex together more. Overall, nice book and I'm glad the parents of Jas and Alex finally supported them in their life decisions.

I thoroughly enjoyed this cute book! It was the perfect blend of family drama, romance, social media, and donuts! Jas, the main character, was endearingly awkward and very relatable. Alex was a dream boyfriend and their relationship was kind of adorable. I really loved Jas’ interactions with her family, capturing their love, frustration, and her struggle for independence. The author did a wonderful job of portraying the conflict between immigrant parents and their American born children.

I adore this sweet romcom by Julie Tieu! Donut hesitate to read this charming, thoughtful, and fresh low-angst HEA.

Representation in fiction is so important and I absolutely loved Julie Tieu's story. The Donut Trap portrays the importance of staying true to one's roots and respecting your heritage while navigating independence as a young adult in America. I enjoyed the inclusion of Mandarin and Vietnamese phrases and customs throughout the book. This wonderfully genuine story left me wanting more in the best way!! I cannot wait to read more books by Julie Tieu.

I loved this book! I honestly hope there are more books following up with Jas and her friends! Does her brother get a story?! Thank you for the opportunity to read The Donut Trap early.

I requested this book for the romance and the donuts.

This book was an entertaining story about family expectations, new and old love, and finding yourself. I really enjoyed the writing and the donut shop part of the plot, but could have used a little more from the romances and characterization. Throughout the novel, Jasmine was a pretty passive character and didn't have a lot of her own agency and didn't really make anything in the book happen. It was unclear to me why she seemed so hesitant to get a job or have a life of her own for most of the book, and it bothered me that she never seemed to think about her own interests or passions. She would vaguely talk about not wanting to work in the donut shop but also made no effort of her own to go out and do or try to find other things.

The romance with Alex was also a bit hard for me to ship at first because it seemed like instalove and I found it a bit hard to believe that he'd be immediately taken with someone who seemed so mediocre, even by her own admission. I don't know what Jasmine would have to talk about since her life is shown as so monotonous and she doesn't seem to have many friends or make an effort to go out and do things for most of the book. The book also focuses a lot on how she doesn't make an effort with her appearance, so I found it hard to believe Alex would be interested in her for that reason. Most of their "relationship" up to the climax was had through text, so I didn't feel they really had a connection since neither of them tried very hard to really get to know each other.

I did find the writing enjoyable and liked reading about Jasmine's relationship with her parents, so that is really what carried the book for me. I would say I enjoyed the book overall while reading, but it lacked in some significant areas in terms of craft.

I really enjoyed reading The Donut Trap and thought it was a great book, The characters were so relatable and down to earth, it combined enough drama with light hearted ness that I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. One character I was hoping to see developed a little more was the high school friend who helped Jas find her job and be able to move out from her parents donut shop. The amount of romance and humor was a great balance and no one area over powered another. I will also add that I think the cover would be better without having characters or people on top of the donut.

Diversity Representation: Southeast Asian MC, Chinese love interest, Chinese American author

Content Warnings: Refugee experience, ableist language, allusions to war (specifically escaping), racism, depression, overdose

The Donut Trap was such a fun romcom. I was laughing right from the beginning. I completely related to Jas internal dialogue the entire time, and I was over the moon to see the small awkward moments of a young adult romance. And I totally went to the Asian owned donut shop near me while reading this, because it had me craving donuts so badly!

The Donut Trap follows a 22 year old Jasmine, who has recently graduated college and is back working at her parents' donut shop while she decides what she wants to do with her life. But getting a job or a boyfriend isn't so easy when your parents are constantly nagging you about it. Until the universe (or her best friend Linh) seems to be putting Alex, a long lost chance encounter crush from college, back in her path.

I was so happy to see the Southeast Asian representation in this book. I say that we don't see that enough, but I've been reading so much of Southeast Asian rep that my soul feels more full. Jasmine's family escaped Cambodia, lived in Vietnam for a while before finally making it to their final destination, Southern California. They opened a donut shop and have been running it for all of Jas' life. I loved reading about the donut shop, because I've been in many donut shops that are exactly like the one described. I almost had to go to the Asian owned donut shop near me, where they had some of the same exact specialty donuts mentioned in the book. I was overwhelmed and it was so fun to feel like I was walking directly into this book. The descriptions of the shop and the family were so perfect, I knew exactly what to picture. I loved it.

I loved the relationship of Alex and his mother, and Jas and her parents. I think it's so important to read these relationships because we don't hear about them enough. I imagine (perhaps just hope) that if narratives like this were told more often, there would be less Asian kids resenting their parents as they are growing up more American. I can't tell you how many Asian friends I've had who feel the way Jas does about her parents. I'm so glad that this relationship is being explored here.

A small thing small thing that I absolutely adored in this book was the languages. I loved that Jas parents would speak in three different languages. It was especially SO cool that because of that we were able to see the relationship between the languages through her family. We learned that her parents insisted she learn Mandarin because it was 'proper' and to meet a good boy, rather than their native tongue. Which was incredible to read about. I couldn't believe that kind of relationship discussion was included. It was such a treat to see the intricacies of the relationship with language in this book. I was really impressed with that!

The one thing that I didn't love about this book was that it felt a bit jumpy. The narrative didn't flow between chapters as well as it could have. There was one chapter break where I was extremely confused. I understood why it was done, because the build up to what happened in between the chapters was fun to read about in the aftermath... But it just didn't flow as well as it could have, and it kind of bothered me. It didn't lose any of the cuteness, though. It was still a great read!

# Summing it all up

The Donut Trap was a funny and sweet romance book. I loved how real the donut shop was, and how relatable Jas post-graduation situation was. The modern awkwardness in a new relationship was just so perfect, and the relationship between Jas and her parents was wonderful to read.

Give me a messy main character trying to sort out her life every day of the week!

Not to mention...Donuts? Yes, please. Complicated family dynamics? Yes, please. A swoony love interest? YES PLEASE.

I loved this book and tore through it in days. A sweet escape, indeed.

I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley.

There are two parts to this book -- the first is the story of the main character, whose name I actually just forgot???????, and her family, how growing up as a first-gen immigrant shapes her life in multiple ways, and this is the story I really liked reading. It helps a lot that I identified with a lot of this -- the language barriers, the parents sacrificing everything to raise you, the parents owning a shop (restaurant), the high expectations family have for you, etc, etc -- so I was much more interested in that storyline. I thought there was a lot of potential there. I wish the author had stuck with that! There was way more depth there that could've -- and should've -- been explored, but it wasn't due to the second part of this book -- the romance. The romance is actually, I suppose, the main part of the book, because that's what this book is trying to sell. Unfortunately, I don't buy it. It's a largely flat, meaningless, not-<i>terrible</i>-but-not-great (or even good) romance between two characters, one of whom (the love interest, Alex, whose name I guess I do remember) literally just exists without any interiority, which would be fine, except then that contributes to the ways the romance falls short. There is no point during the romance where I felt compelled to read more about them. Every time there was a scene between the two of them, I wished there wasn't. It was just <i>there</i>. Alex was just <i>there</i>. The book would've been way better if there hadn't been any romance at all.

I am so grateful I had the chance to read The Donut Trap early, and I can't wait for everything else Julie Tieu writes-- I know I will read it all voraciously! What I loved most about this book (aside from how desperately it made me want to eat donuts) was how unique it felt. Jas was an incredibly relatable and often hilarious main character who I could connect with on a number of levels, but her voice also felt fresh, and her struggles are ones not often seen in mainstream romance. I loved getting to read about a twenty-two-year-old's challenges navigating that transitional time before "real adulthood" settles in, and Jas' story is so realistic. Tieu also does a great job rendering Jas' stagnation with empathy. Her character arc was one of the most rewarding parts of this overall spectacular novel.

The Donut Trap explores the multifaceted nature of identity with so much care. The romance was a crucial part of the story, but it was layered with equally important storylines involving Jas' family. Tieu weaves together the various parts of Jas' life deftly and it made me love Jas as a character even more-- and I loved her quite a bit.

Overall, this is a fantastic coming-of-age romance for anyone looking for a novel about finding yourself and your place alongside a delightful love story. Sparkling dialogue, engaging side characters, and a healthy heap of swoon make this a must-read for the fall.