Book Review: A Pho Love Story by Loan Le

If you enjoyed The Christmas Clash by Suzanne Park, you’re going to love this novel. In similar fashion to Park’s book, this story mixes rival restaurant families with teens who fall for each other à la Romeo and Juliet style (but without the bloodshed). Read the full review below! As a reminder, my star ranking works like this:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: I LOVED this book. This was so good I could not put it down. I would absolutely read this again and highly, highly recommend this title.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: I really enjoyed this book. I loved a lot of it, but I wasn’t obsessed with it. I’d recommend this to specific people based on their tastes.

⭐️⭐️⭐️: I liked this book. I enjoyed reading it, but it wasn’t something I couldn’t put down. There were parts I really liked and parts I didn’t like. May or may not recommend.

⭐️⭐️: I didn’t really like this book. It was either just not for me or it was not crafted well. I may have liked a few pieces of the text, but it’s not something I would recommend.

⭐️: I hated this book. There wasn’t anything I really liked about it and couldn’t wait to finish it. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

This week’s title is A Pho Love Story by Loan Le

Bao seems himself as steady but unremarkable, working at his parents’ pho restaurant where he’s hardly the favorite, while Linh, a firecracker with dreams of becoming an artist, feels trapped by unspoken family expectations. Their families, long-time rivals with neighboring pho restaurants, have kept them apart—until a chance encounter sparks an unexpected connection. As old tensions resurface, Bao and Linh must decide if love can bloom amid family feuds and unspoken truths.

Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another five-star read for the books! I’m a huge sucker for rival-to-lovers, enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers (okay, anything to-lovers), but what drew me to this book was the rival Vietnamese restaurants. My husband and I love having pho on a cold, winter night and recently started trying more types of Vietnamese dishes. When I tell you my mouth was watering during some of the food descriptions scenes, I mean it was gushing. I definitely had to satisfy a noodles craving while reading this book because Le’s writing makes you feel like you’re right in the kitchen with each family. I really enjoyed The Christmas Clash, which was warring food court restaurant families, so I knew I had to give this book a go!

Spoiler-free Review

The best part of the book was that both Bao and Linh grew in unexpected ways, which makes the novel immediately stand out to me. Bao’s personality never wavered, but he came into his own in a timeline that felt fitting for his character. Linh’s growth was more of a rollercoaster, but I liked that it wasn’t linear like Bao’s and instead felt very realistic and true to battling family expectations. The side characters like Viet and Allison were a lot of fun and I appreciated that Linh had some positive adults to confide in and look up to as the story progressed. I also really enjoyed the dual perspective to show the parallels between each family.

The rivals-to-lovers trope was toned down a bit as Linh and Bao were never truly rivals—their parents were. I loved that they questioned the animosity from the get-go and that there wasn’t much hesitation when it came down to helping each other out. If anything, this was a slow-burn, friends-to-lovers, hidden relationship book, but hey, I’m not complaining! I really enjoyed seeing how Linh and Bao worked together and didn’t let too much get in the way of their projects.

While A Pho Love Story is cute and fun, it also has layers of darker themes in it like discussing Bao and Linh’s parents’ experience with the Vietnam War. Between the small insights into each of the parents’ journeys to get to the U.S., Linh’s discussion with family friends at a wedding, and some hostility they receive in their restaurant, this book is more timely than one would realize.

I highly recommend this book if you like clean romance, a couple you can’t help but root for, and some great food descriptions. For a spoiler review, keep on reading!

Spoilers! Be warned!

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Okay, I warned you!

Linh’s journey as an artist made me both happy and sad for her. I was happy that she got more recognition for her art with the showcase and the commissioned column painting, but was sad that she couldn’t share it with her parents. I’ve mentioned this in book reviews on previous platforms, but one of my pet peeves when it comes to YA books is when the parents are not supportive or act-first ask questions later kind of parents. Most of the time they don’t redeem themselves enough by the time the book ends and I felt that way about Linh’s parents. Her parents were so mad that she lied to them about her art that they didn’t stop to ask themselves why Linh felt like she had to lie to them in the first place. They were completely in the wrong, especially with her mother giving her the cold shoulder for days on end, and I didn’t think their reunion at Linh’s art show was enough to forgive them.

I loved that Bao turned to writing and that his mother was supportive of his desire to be a writer. The newspaper seemed like a great outlet for him and standing up to the nasty reviewer the way he did was awesome. As a reader you could tell how passionate both Bao and Linh are and that made them a great couple together. I would’ve liked some more scenes of them being on a date or two instead of just at events for the newspaper or sneaking in some chats during their restaurant breaks, but otherwise I absolutely loved them together.

While I really liked that the family feud went deeper than just another pho restaurant opening across the street, it seemed to me that so much could’ve been avoided if Linh’s aunt explained what happened to Bao’s uncle well before the families left Vietnam. All of the rivalry was over a misunderstanding that could’ve been solved with one phone call. I still gave the book five stars, but that was almost a sticking point for a four-star read.

I really enjoyed this novel and I will most likely want to re-read it the next time I have a nice steaming bowl of pho!