A true joy! In addition to the story's pacing, I also enjoyed how it was told. I was given an adventure from beginning to end! First love, family, and friendship are the main themes of this short and simple young adult novel. I'm eager to read more of the author's books, so I sincerely hope she continues to write!

*Hangry Hearts* by Jennifer Chen is a delightful exploration of love, identity, and food. The story Julie and Randall navigating the complexities of relationships, cultural expectations, and their own desires. Chen beautifully captures the intersection of food and emotion, making every meal a metaphor for the characters' deeper struggles. The book is rich with humor, heart, and relatable dilemmas, all while highlighting the significance of self-discovery and finding balance between personal and family expectations. With its witty prose and charming characters, *Hangry Hearts* is a fun, heartfelt read that will leave readers reflecting on both their relationships and their plates.

An absolute delight! I loved not only the pacing of the story, but the telling of it as well. From start to end, I was given an adventure!

Love, family, and food collide in this sparkling Romeo and Juliet-inspired romance. This explores the main theme of friendship and make it complicated.

I wanted to love this YA Romeo and Juliet retelling so, so much - but it unfortunately fell flat for me. There were several pieces that just felt a bit underdeveloped and rushed to me - particularly the family conflict and the romance. The family conflict at its core just seemed really underdeveloped - it was a mystery for half of the book and when it was finally revealed it was a bit underwhelming - which ultimately made the climax and resolution seem a bit too simple.

As for the romance - it was all a bit too instant for me; the two were clearly friends prior to the "incident" and when they reconnected it felt like it went from hate based on family loyalty to love, real real quick. There didn't seem to be too much natural progression of feelings and readers were just expected to buy in.

On the positive - the descriptions of all the cultural foods had me salivating! I loved their project related to a community garden and showing people how to use ingredients in specific dishes - it was truly a highlight and made me hungry to try everything mentioned! And, I did appreciate the trans representation and the conversations the characters had around the trans identity, transitioning and how that can often be viewed in specific cultures.

*warning: don’t read this on an empty stomach or you will in fact be hangry!

Thank you to Net Galley and Wednesday Books for the ARC!

This dual POV romcom was the perfect read for Lunar New Year weekend! Loved seeing all the Taiwanese and Korean dishes mentioned and learning more about the culture.

It was a quick and easy YA read that focuses on first love, family and friendship. As an Asian American, some aspects did come across a little bit cliche and I also would have loved to see more character development especially with the main characters. However, I am still interested to see Jennifer Chen’s future projects!

First off, this book made me so hungry with all the mentions of such delicious foods. Second, I LOVED it! What a sweet story. Did the grandma's drive me a little crazy with this feud? Yes, absolutely. But that's what grandma's do. Julie and Randall were such great, believable characters. Randall was my favourite character. I really think that the representation in the story was great and really well written. I really hope the author writes more and more because I look forward to reading more books by her.

Two families go from best friends to enemies. The young family members are part of the fall out. They go from best friends to not allowed to associate. The story has lots of mouth watering food, family drama and food trucks. So much to like about the book. A good ending too. I feel the book is geared to a young audience but this old gal enjoyed it anyway..

Hangry Hearts by Jennifer Chen is a delectable collection of interconnected stories exploring love, food, and the deep emotional connections they inspire. Each tale is a flavorful blend of humor, tenderness, and heartfelt moments, showcasing Chen’s talent for weaving rich characters and evocative descriptions of culinary delights. From sweet to savory, the stories serve up a buffet of emotions, leaving readers both satisfied and hungry for more. Perfect for fans of food-centered fiction with a romantic twist.

I fear I may be too old to be the target audience for this book but the plot seemed interesting and I typically love YA, so I happily picked this up. Unfortunately, I did not like this book. However, I don’t fully blame my age (23) on the reason I didn’t enjoy this. It was quick paced so I tried to stick with it, but I felt like nothing was happening. Nothing motivated me to keep reading. There was not really a plot, the characters were surface level and boring, and there’s only so much action an unnamed family plot can provide. I’ve enjoyed books similar to this so I’m sad this was a miss for me.

Food, rivals, a weird love triangle and new beginnings.

Hangry Hearts by Jennifer Chen is a standalone novel and is a fun take on Romeo and Juliet.

I love that there is so much Asian representation within this story. Rather than having just one Asian group, there’s a few. By using the Romeo and Juliet concept to tell the story, it opens the doors to a fun perspective.

The sneaking around and essentially friends to ex-friends to reunited friends is different and interesting. I wish that things could move a bit quicker in some areas because it slows down for me, but it’s good overall.

If you are into the competitive romance trope with food involved and a dash of Romeo and Julietesque, then this is definitely for you! There’s fun and chaos throughout this story and it’s one that can be enjoyed over a weekend.

Other books to check out are The Rival, Give Me Butterflies, and Into the Woods

*This was an honest review for a complimentary copy of Hangry Hearts from Jennifer Chen via NetGalley

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I had really high hopes for this book and to be honest, I do love all the moments surrounding the food and Asian-cooked meals. Being Asian myself, I really wish it had leaned even more into that.

The romance and the plot were very promising at first! The banter made me laugh a few times and I ate that up. But towards the middle, it started to feel like the plot dragged a bit. And I found myself feeling like the pacing was a little all over the place. Sometimes very dragged out, sometimes felt too rushed and jarring.

But altogether, I did love the forced proximity and modern-esque take on a Romeo and Juliet trope. Especially one that involved food haha.

I received an ARC of a YA book and found the plot underwhelming, with the main storyline resolving too quickly and lacking continuity due to confusing time jumps. The romance between the characters Julie and Randall is poorly developed, occurring off-screen, which is disappointing for a romance book. Despite these issues, the book is a fast read with good representation and a light writing style but falls short in storytelling and character chemistry.

I wasn’t a fan of the author’s last book but I wanted to give this one another chance. Unfortunately I think I may need to steer clear in the future. This book is well-written and has an easy style to read, but it just feels like nothing is fleshed out well with the characters. The families were at war for five years and yet it also felt like the characters never really lost touch with each other. I mean, five years is a long time especially when you’re a teenager. And Julie and Randall’s relationship went from hatred to love insanely fast with no real or interesting development. Ugh sorry, but I just wasn’t a fan.

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday books for the ARC!

this had so much potential but unfortunately just wasn't great... i know i'm not the target audience for YA contemporary but still. i try to go in with an open mind but the weird time skips and lack of development on-page was meh. it felt like so much of the romance developed off page and therefore it didn't feel super believable.

things i did like: the lgbtq rep was a nice surprise especially given it's pure trans joy with a nice romance and family support (we absolutely need more of this!); conversations around traditional Korean/Taiwanese foods and culture was really great

tldr; this was a pretty fast read and the representation was great but the actual storytelling and development of plot/characters was lacking for sure

The cover sucked me in but the story did me dirty.
I am a former chef so any book that deals food I am all in on and want to read. The food descriptions were fantastic. I could taste the shrimp shu mai and fan tuan.
I loved the asian culture and LGTBQ+ rep the author wove thru the story. Learning about some of the asian traditions was great!
I am not a stranger to YA books. Maybe I get lucky and find ones that border YA/NA, but this book I think was a true YA story (leaning more toward the lower age range) and so it just didn't do it for me. It was very Romeo and Juliet on a lower high school level.
The author does have a nice light good pace to her writing so it made for a very quick read.

I love the LGBTQIA representation. I wish it had been more present in the the way the book was presented! Julie and Randall are definitely a love story of the ages and I loved reading about them.

(Actual: 3.25⭐) I added a quarter star to my final review after deciding the AAPI representation found within it to be fairly solid, but I really do wish I liked this book more than I actually did. HANGRY HEARTS is a cute, quick little RomCom read (easily passable if you're just looking for something more on the simple side— and I say this meaning no shade whatsoever), but ultimately felt a bit too formulaic for my tastes. I've grown to expect more from my Romances over the years I think, so this may truly be just a ~Me~ problem, but I found myself discovering and stumbling over way too many writing pet peeves of mine here: the overuse of the Miscommunication trope (despite these characters living in the gd digital age where texting exists lol;) the way information was sometimes spoon-fed to us *jussstttt* before it needs to become relevant to the plot as opposed to having it be revealed or utilized in a more organic way; all the corny/cringy scenes, like ahhh (I just— I can't okay, I'm sorry); the resolution* to the overarching family drama plot (*a solution which was rather contrived and felt like a cop-out)..... I could probably go on. Julie and Randall are cute MCs, respectively..... but, again, "cute" is as far as I am willing (and able) to go to describe them, because in the end they do feel rather underdeveloped, falling flat particularly when it comes to the more emotional scenes/beats throughout the story. Also— and this is just a silly thing on my end, but how tf are you going to tell me that Julie is suddenly an MMA guru* (*I'm being hyperbolic) after ONE self-defense class??? lmao I just.... anyway. Like I said, this was overall an easy read and I'm certain it'll still find its audience come pub day.... but, for me, personally, it was firmly just "OK," though I will still look out for Chen's future works and give them a shot!

This was a cute young adult romance. I liked the overall storyline of this book and how it was a Romeo and Juliet retelling, especially since I haven’t read many. I appreciated the dual povs between Julie and Randall as I followed them throughout the story. The pacing of this book felt a bit rushed at times but overall this was a good read. Heads up that this book had a lot of food references and descriptions that will leave you hungry.

Read this if you like:

📖 Romeo and Juliet
📖 Rivals to lovers
📖 Ex-best friends
📖 Forced proximity
📖 Lgbt reps

Thank you to @wednesdaybooks for the gifted arc.

3.5 starts. Super cute and quick read. I've never read this author before, but we'll continue in the future