Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Zoe Tran designs sexy, plus size lingerie at her own award winning lingerie boutique, but she’s looking to branch out and design her own clothing line. When her college best friend shows up with an opportunity to design costumes for his upcoming Vietnamese production of the Cinderella rock musical they dreamed up in college, she finds it’s the opportunity she’s been waiting for.

Derek Bui is a theater director who’s been in love with Zoe Tran since freshman year of college. Now he’s directing the musical they conceived together with an all Vietnamese cast and creative team that has the potential to go to Broadway. He offers Zoe the opportunity to work on their dream production together, while also hoping he can finally confess his true feelings for her. But with the pressure from the theater’s artistic director to make the musical “less Asian”, he and Zoe butt heads on whether to stay true to their vision or succumb to the pressure. Can their love last past tech week?

I was really excited when I received this arc. A bad-ass plus sized lingerie designer and a musical theater director working together on an original concept - sign me up please!

While Derek asks Zoe to join him on the production team to see out their vision of the musical, he also has ulterior motives. He’s decided to be up front and honest with Zoe about his feelings… after he’s given her time to get comfortable being around him again of course. Meanwhile, Zoe is also starting to notice the butterflies in her stomach the more they work together.

There’s so much depth to the story. I’m an actor and a WOC, and I really related to the struggles Derek and Zoe faced. Underrepresented groups still have a difficult time producing and acting in theatrical productions. Sadly, make things “less ethnic” is a common reality behind closed doors. In fact, according to current data, the percentage of Asian actors in theater, particularly on Broadway, is significantly lower than the overall population, with estimates between 5 and 10% of roles. Representation matters and kudos to Ms. Lam for bringing awareness to these issues.

Now on to the love story. Typically, friends to lovers is not my favorite trope. Oftentimes, I want to smack the two characters together because of the frustrating excuses they give themselves in order to not be together. But Ms. Lam turned this trope upside down in a positive way. Zoe cut off all her friends including Derek, after a horrible professor caused her to switch gears away from her dream of being a costume designer in her final year at university. While she felt the need to reach out to Derek throughout the years, the fact that so much time continued to pass, made her shy away from it. And that’s totally understandable. The two communicate about this fairly early in the story, and they pick up the relationship where they left off which is quite refreshing. Ms. Lam also gives us a thought provoking reason as to why the two never get together in college. Being the only two Vietnamese American students in their drama program, Zoe wanted to squash the idea that they would date simply because they were the only two Asian Americans in the program and officially friend zoned Derek.

Ms. Lam brings to light a lot of microaggressions POC experience in their day to day lives in a way that asks the reader to really engage, and not be just a bystander. Derek and Zoe constantly have to navigate spaces typically dominated by white men, and we can feel their struggle as they constantly have to stand up for their vision for the show. Which let’s face it, is something those who are privileged do not need to deal with. Ms. Lam handled this beautifully.

I really enjoyed the scenes of them working together on the show. You get a real sense of their passion and the drive to provide opportunities to underrepresented communities. Their banter was light, easy, and witty. I also loved how Derek championed Zoe when she had doubts and was a real partner to her.

“Z, I’ll trust you until you can trust in yourself,” he said quietly but with plenty of confidence.

Ms. Lam did a wonderful job of balancing very real and serious issues with the light heartedness, sexiness, and emotional arcs you expect in Rom Coms.

TW: Fatphobia (a remark made by a secondary character about a secondary character)
Racial microagressions, racial slurs, hate crime

I liked the humor and the character interactions. I also valued the portrayal of Vietnamese culture.