This book is advertised as a romantic comedy, but I think that's doing it a disservice. Don't go into this book expecting a romance. Instead, approach it as coming-of-age story with a romantic arc.

Jasmine is a recent college grad, but she has no job prospects and no idea what she wants to do with her life, so she's working at her parents' donut shop.

I don't know what the year after college was like for anyone else, but I did a lot of second-guessing myself during that time. I didn't have a job lined up immediately after graduation, so I moved back into my parents' house and worked multiple jobs in an attempt to save money to get my own place, while looking for a "real job" and trying to have a social life. Reading this book brought me back to that time... in an enjoyable way.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to read The Donut Trap. While I really loved the premise of the story, I wasnt super compelled by the romance aspect of the book. Alex and Jasmine just didnt make me feel the swoon butterflies I was hoping for.

What I did love was the way that Julie Tieu depicted the wild wild west of life after college and not meeting expectations. That hit me straight in the heart and so many of us can relate.

I also think she does a great job of blending in the relationship of kids with their immigrant parents. Overall, Id love to read another of Julie's books but this one wasnt quite what I thought it would be (and hey, maybe thats just me and my romantic expectations😂)

At its heart, this is a portrayal of a Cambodian-American family living in Los Angeles and generational clashes over duty, loyalty, expectations, love, respect, and guilt. Jasmine is a recent UCLA graduate who is aimlessly working at her immigrant refugee parents’ donut shop with no idea what she wants to do with her life. All her parents want is for her either to get married or find a real job, but being trapped in the shop nearly prevents the possibility of either, at least until fate intervenes and a couple of faces from the past offer the chance at both romance and a job. Will she have the courage to stand up to her parents, shed the guilt from the mistakes she made in college, and find the confidence to see in herself what others do?

For those who haven’t been raised in patriarchal societies where adult children are subservient to their elders and males are are held in higher regard than females, it’s frustrating and difficult to accept a scenario in which a grown woman accepts a mother imposing an early curfew or a cruel lecture where she calls her daughter both stupid and fat, but it’s a testament to Tieu’s storytelling that we are given a window to see into this family’s world and find a degree of empathy and understanding for all of them. The romance between Jas and Alex is far from smooth but it’s real and very sweet, and, aside from the donut shop, Jas’s struggle to find work in LA and having to live with her parents in the meantime is all too familiar.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Avon through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

This was a great Adult Romance, that I would definitely recommend trying!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

The Donut Trap was a really good book!

Jasmine Tran has been living at home and working at her parents store ever since she graduated from college. She's stuck living this life she didn't want, but she's struggling to figure what she truly wants to do. Her days are an endless routine of waking up at the crack of dawn and spending all day at her family's donut shop, before doing it all over again the next day. Until one day, she sees someone she never thought she'd see again on her best friends Instagram. After a late night social media stalking session, and a meddling best friend, she finds herself face to face with her old college crush, Alex Lai.

Add in the return of her secret ex, an overinvolved family and the stress of the expectations placed on her, Jasmine's days start to take on a life of it's own. The more things happen, the more she feels stuck, until she finally starts to take a chance on herself.

This book is classified as a romance and while the romance aspect of it is still a huge part of it, to me, this was Jasmine's book. It was about her life and her growth and her finding her place in life. It's a book that captures the realities of life after college when you find yourself stuck somewhere you never wanted to be in. It's about stumbling, and making mistakes, but catching yourself and moving forward anyway.

Alex was a great romantic interest too! He was sweet and a little insecure, but at the end of the day, all he wanted was to be by Jasmine's side. Her best friend, Linh was also a wonderful addition to the story. She was supportive and believed in Jasmine even when she didn't believe in herself.

This was a really good book that touched on a lot of serious topics like immigrant life in the US and mental health issues. It maintained it's light nature with pop culture references and Jasmine's awkward sarcasm. I'd definitely recommend this book if you're looking for a sweet rom-com, with good character growth and a journey on finding your place in life!

The Donut Trap was an OKAY book. It wasn't my favorite, but also not my least favorite. It was a nice, lighthearted coming of age type book. A good read if you're looking for an easy, lighthearted read with just a touch of romantic tones.

✨a story with kim’s convenience vibes and a sprinkle of romancelandia’s wonderful twist ✨

If you are looking for a sweet coming of age story with a wholesome romance I think you should read this.

Do beware: this book is definitely a women’s fiction marketed as a romance. But I am not too mad at it because this one isn’t as depressing as some women’s fiction tend to be.

Tropes:
- awkward, sarcastic heroine
- Chinese representation
- super healthy, realistic portrayal of Asian immigrant culture
- great secondary characters
- cute romance
- flirty banter
- ex-fling comes back

I am filled with so much joy to be able to tell you guys how real the representation was in this book. I cannot speak for Chinese representation, but the tensions and issues a 2nd generation, Asian immigrant child faces were so brilliantly painted out in this book. You guys know I am so tired of seeing toxic communities and relationships. And while that is a reality for many of us, I am beyond tired of that being the only thing that these sort of books emphasize on. Julie Tieu did not disappoint me, I loved how she wrote all the struggles of the family and the culture; it depicted the flaws in the culture while being refreshingly realistic.

I really enjoyed Jasmine’s character. She was such a joy to read. I loved watching her figuring out her life and learning to love herself.

I do wish that companies stop marketing women’s fiction as romance because that could lead to the wrong audience picking up the book and being disappointed. So I will say again, the romance is definitely not the main focus of this book. It focuses on Jasmine and her personal growth.

I enjoyed this book and recommend this to someone looking for a wholesome women’s fiction with great characters.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/ 5 stars

Thank you to Avon, Netgalley, and Julie Tieu for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion ❤️

Own voices readers will enjoy this close look at family dynamics in different cultures. It always reminds me of our similarities and that is one of the reasons why I enjoy this type of book. I would've loved to see more romance and more adult romance dynamics in this book, and for that, I deducted one star. Can't really add the romance tag if there's barely any romance.

I can't believe I didn't write this review yet. I read this story obsessively for three nights in a row. All of those nights I craved doughnuts- but that's not the point. This fun quirky romance is a perfect vacation read.

Thank you for the early copy! Anything with a bakery in it, I’m here for it! This was such a lovely story and I’m so excited for what the author has in store in the future!

This was a cute read! It felt more to me like a YA though. There were some parts that I remember being like back in high school with my strict Vietnamese parents. I liked how Jasmine’s relationship with her parents grew with more open communication by the end of the book. And of course I was craving donuts while reading this. 😆

Thanks NetGalley for the copy!

This was a really great book about how families don't always see eye to eye with your plan for your life. I really loved this because they find who they are even though there are expectations of them.

Included as a top pick in bimonthly November New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached)

2021 Spring Bingo (#SpringIntoLoveBingo🌷): Flowers

Content Notes: [references to Khmer Rouge and alcoholism (heroine once fainted due to alcohol poisoning during college). (hide spoiler)]

Not recapping the premise or plot, but here are my main takeaways:

I went into THE DONUT TRAP with completely wrong expectations, realized my mistake halfway through, recalibrated, and ended up enjoying it. The story excels at two things, which are so good that it makes up for my main critique/frustration with the book.

1) The tension between first gen immigrant parents and Americanized 2nd gen children who can barely speak their parents' language. Jasmine's parents have Chinese ancestry but grew up in Cambodia, fleeing the Khmer Rouge to stay with relatives in Vietnam before moving to the USA as refugees. I've often thought that balancing this tension without villainizing the parents is a hard, hard task for writers. Julie Tieu executes it perfectly. Despite every resentful aside that crosses Jasmine's mind, she genuinely adores her parents. She chafes under their expectations while appreciating their sacrifices. There are no villains or heroes here: both Jasmine and her parents mess up and (understandably, if wrongly) say cruel things. There is a huge experiential/communication gap as both parties struggle to be honest with each other and voice their feelings in a way that the other party can understand in their non-fluent language.

I never felt that the dynamic was toxic or unfixable. Families are hard, immigrant families doubly so. I don't want to spoil all the parts I loved, but this was the best part of the book and I was so impressed by the nuances. I can't perfectly grasp Jasmine's specific diasporic narrative as it's not my cultural background, but there were enough "yep, this part is familiar " twinges to affect me emotionally.

I understood the subtext. I should have been able to keep up and toughen up. To her, it was a simple observation, a matter of fact. To me, it was yet another unnecessary reminder that my life, my work will always pale in comparison to those of my parents. I knew this very well. It didn’t bear repeating. Wasn’t that the point, though? Wasn’t that the narrative for every immigrant and refugee who had come to the United States? To come and build a better, safer life for yourself and your family? If the measure of success was that I was living a more comfortable, easier life than they had, then why was I simultaneously penalized for it? These questions rang in my head, but they were better left unspoken unless I wanted to add inconsiderate and ungrateful to my list of shortcomings.

2) Jasmine as a 22 year old mess, both in college and post-graduation. The feeling of helplessness, of lacking skills, of wondering why all your high school friends are moving on to exciting careers while you're despairing what the point of college even was... yeah. Julie Tieu really nailed it, lolsob. Maybe you won't relate if you haven't gone through this specific post-graduate languishing, but I sure as hell did.

“It's hard to talk positively about something that I had to do, you know? Am I happy that I helped bring more business to the shop? Yeah, but it’s a means to an end. Even this job—which I’m not qualified for—is just a way to get out of the shop, but I know I can’t say that when they ask me why I’m interested in working there or what my passion is. What is my fucking passion, anyway? Breaking out of the shop without my parents questioning all my life choices? Which is fucking ironic considering all my life choices have revolved around the things they wanted. It’s all bullshit.”

The weakest part of THE DONUT TRAP is... and it feels weird to say this... the romance. Don't get me wrong. It is cute. I like Alex! I like Alex and Jasmine together! I like reading about their dates! I like their flirty texts and teasing! But the romance just wasn't AS good as my first two points. Alex, in particular, feels like an opaque character. It feels like Jasmine's parents are on page longer (or at least equivalent) compared to the love interest. Alex is literally in another continent for the last third of the book.

This is all fine, but not exactly what I expected. Then I recalibrated THE DONUT TRAP as a new adult, post-graduation coming-of-age story with a cute romantic arc. There are a few kissing scenes and a closed-door sex scene in the end. It's much more enjoyable if you consume the book via this lens.

Notes re: minor frustrations that didn't affect my rating:

- casual use of the ableist word "spaz" (heroine uses it to call herself clumsy). I really hope the word can be edited out in the next six months because most people I talked to agreed that the usage is offensive/unacceptable (similar to ret*ard, imo). Maybe people use it casually, but they really shouldn’t.

- spoilery complaint: [I don't understand how Jasmine can get a job without ANY interview, especially in a media/magazine company... Like, I don't care how good your references are or if you know the person who currently has the job you applied for. Not a single interview to personally make a good impression on the hiring manager/boss of the magazine! As someone who is in her early twenties and has ample experience in applying to jobs/internships, I maintain this setup is impossible. I will happily argue with anyone who says otherwise. I get that there's no time to put an interview on-page, so make it off-page then! (hide spoiler)]

- There is a very weird, off-the-cuff remark where the hero says that he accessed the heroine's laptop (without permission and when she wasn't in her room) to enable her FaceTime settings. Um. WTF? This is a very odd and upsetting sentence that has zero relevance to the plot. I would be incredibly angry if someone changed a laptop setting without my knowledge! Just... edit this out, please.

- There are a lot of pop culture references (which didn't personally bother me because I am ambivalent) but I wonder if THE DONUT TRAP was first written 3ish years ago because some of it felt... casually dated. Just a sense that I got (you might disagree with me! I’m no expert). There are a few basic errors I caught — not a big deal, but the details have to make sense if you're going to include a pop culture reference. For example, the narrator says that one day she listened to a "Taylor Swift album that dropped out of nowhere."

Look, I don't know if this is a no-pandemic AU universe or set in summer 2019 (I suspect it is, because there's a reference to the song Despacito being popular two years ago). But Taylor Swift's only surprise albums are folklore and evermore in 2020, two albums that would not exist without a pandemic. Unless I wildly misread the book, there is no pandemic in THE DONUT TRAP! I swear I'm trying not to be nitpicky, but there are enough strange references/errors where I was like... huh, how does this work with the timeline, then? I'm not going to list them all in this review, but this aspect can benefit another edit. If you're going to use pop culture to flesh out your worldbuilding, the details have to make sense! Otherwise it's just going to irk readers who are familiar with that specific piece of pop culture. I also think some clarity wrt the year can be helpful. Is it summer 2019? Why not just say so, instead of vaguely alluding to songs being relevant two years ago (presumably in 2017, as that's when the song came out)?

***

I know my annoyances seem like a lot, but the voice and strengths of THE DONUT TRAP make it a four-star read for me. Certainly not devoid of flaws, but I had a lot of fun reading this debut. Excited to see what Julie Tieu writes next!

Disclaimer: I received a free e-ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Meh. I didn’t really enjoy this. Jasmine seemed immature - and rightfully so since she was fresh out of college. I just wanted her to have a conversation with her parents! Talk to them! I didn’t really buy/believe the love story between her and Alex. It seemed too perfect and quick for me.

Thanks to @NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for my ARC!

I know I may be on the minority of romance readers who LOVE a story that gives us so much more than just the rainbows and sunshine happily ever after relationship, but for me, books like THE DONUT TRAP give me hope.

Life is messy, and while I love reading for the escape, to me the best part is being able to feel like the characters are like dear friends, with character growth and troubles that I can relate to much like our main character Jasmine. Maybe it's where I'm at in my own world, but having protagonists who struggle, not just in love but in life, and seeing how they overcome the obstacles put in their way makes the book so much more meaningful to me.

While all of the things happening all at once could have seemed overwhelming - a love triangle, her relationship with her family, looking for a new job - to me Tieu wrote this heartwarming debut in a way that had me rooting for her and appreciating how each of us are so much more than just one part of our lives.

Thank you to Avon Books for the advance reader copy, and for Julie + @ilashreads for organizing our loveARCtually buddy read and Zoom. I really enjoyed this one, and the glimpse at the variety of Chinese cultures and family dynamics included in this title and hearing Julie talk about her own experience made me love the book even more.

🍩 I absolutely loved the premise for this book - I mean who doesn’t love donuts right..? I loved the family relationships this story gave and felt a connection with being a child of immigrants. There were some parts in this story that just felt too absurd for me. The romance just felt meh to me, I couldn’t really the connection between these characters.

☕️ This book is described as a rom-com and I personally don’t see it that way.. to me it’s more of a coming of age story with a splash of romance. I will say that the audiobook was really well done. I love listening to audiobooks while following along with the physical copy, I was fortunate enough to have been gifted both so of course I took that route. I definitely flew through this one because it was a quick read.

🍩 Overall, The Donut Trap wasn’t anything too amazing. There were some great moments with these characters, but overall it just wasn’t the greatest. I wish the romance played a bigger role as it’s labeled as a rom-com. I still think it was a good debut, I definitely would read more from this author. I’m also realizing I love when books talk about food 🤣 now I’m craving some donuts.

✨Thank you @avonbooks for sending me a gifted copy! Also, thank you @librofm for the complimentary ALC!✨

I truly bonded with The Donut Trap. I have experience with immigrant parents' expectations for you, so I understand how frustrated Jasmine is. It's hard to live up to your immigrant parents expectations because they sacrifice so much to live the dreams that they could not have. But sometimes their dreams are different from your own dreams. And that's going to be challenging for Jasmine because she is going to realize how much she is willing to take.

🍩 The Donut Trap 🍩

Jasmine works at her family’s donut shop. She’s the first generation Chinese American of her family and given far more opportunities that her parents once had. This is a LIGHT HEARTED romance read with the perfect amount of Chinese culture and parental expectations in a relationship.

I can’t believe this is a debut novel, I will definitely be picking up more from this author. I felt particularly connected to the main character because her life feels too similar to mine. Her parents beliefs and communication mirrors my own family. I loved Jasmines self confidence and growth over the novel. Her younger brother and her relationship made my heart melt.

I wish there was more relationship development! I loved the romance between Jasmine and Alex. I wanted more depth from him and his history- why was he such a perfect boyfriend.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ !

I decided to read this book because if I'm going to get stuck in any kind of trap, I'd love for it to be a donut trap!

After graduation, Jasmine returns to work in her parents' donut shop as she decides what she wants to do with her life and quickly falls into the cycle of donuts, Netflix, and sleep.

Her immigrant parents want so much more for her, and when Jasmine's college crush walks back into her life, it looks like her parents might get exactly what they want. Alex is Chinese, fluent in Mandarin, and easy on the eyes. But when her parents meet his mom, things go downhill-- fast.

I love Jasmine's awkwardness (relatable), the complexity of the characters' familial relationships, and the sweet romance between Jasmine and Alex.

This was a good story about the parent-child relationship, especially immigrant parents. I think the love story fell a little on the side with the parent-child relationship story falling as the main theme.

I would recommend this book to those who enjoy coming-of-age stories.