Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Café con Lychee: Liebe ist wie Bubble Tea by Emery Lee

10 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

3.75

Super cute!
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robinks's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I missed Roque’s voice 🥲 This is a classic Romeo & Juliet story combined with enemies-to-lovers, both of which I am not a fan of. The cultural bits that were included resonated, but I worry about kids outside of the cultures represented using them to stereotype others.
I also did not like how Gabi’s parents rationalized their homophobia, and Theo’s emotional development was a bit unbelievable.
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mood_reading_maya's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Rivals to love interest? Young adult romance with m/m interracial leads? And with this beautiful cover? Yes, I was absolutely intrigued and excited to listen to this when my library hold came in. Sadly, I was so disappointed with this story! Cafe Con Lychee follows Gabi Moreno and Theo Mori through their Junior year as high school rivals. These two could not be more opposite. Gabi is a people pleaser, secretly drawn to ballet, generous, kind, and rather awkward... he's also closeted. Theo is grumpy, bossy, athletically talented, brash, and out. These two begin the story as rivals due to their competing family businesses. The framing of the rivalry and competition between the Morenos and the Moris felt contrived (they're the ENEMY!) and unrealistic. As a character, Theo is so incredibly mean and angry. Throughout the course of the story, Theo is shown continually taking out his frustrations (with family, school, the Moris business, and his soccer team) out on Gabi through brash, rude, belittling dialogue and actions. Even after Theo and Gabi team up on their tea and snack delivery service, the setup and logistics for which Gabi did the work, Theo's attitude towards Gabi barely changes. And for his part, Gabi is shown as a passive character. He takes the abuse over and over. That level of meanness made it nearly impossible to believe that these young men should be together! I wanted to hold Gabi close and send Theo on his merry fcking way straight to therapy. The manner in which their interactions are portrayed in the text did not feel like a model for either a healthy or positive romantic relationship. Y'ALL. They are going to homecoming and Theo doesn't hesitate to call Gabi an a-hole. That dialogue isn't banter and doesn't come across as "joking" or "playful." That's not modeling caring and empathetic relationship dynamics between teens. And isn't that what YA (especially YA romance) should be modeling given its target demographic!?

I would also note that there is a lot of internalized homophobia and very thinly veiled homophobic language in the text. It all relates to Gabi's home environment, which is why he remains closeted until the very end of the story. I had high hopes...but alas.
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foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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samcanuel's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This story was sweet and had some interesting turns. I liked the characters, although I found the relationship development between Gabi and Theo to be slightly unconvincing. The ending was also a bit underdeveloped for me. However, I thought this was a fun read!
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parasolcrafter's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.75

oh. oh this book is simply not the best </3 like its fine, dont get me wrong, but thats mostly because of the writing. i do enjoy emery lees writing, but the way e does plots and characterization...it leaves much to be desired. for instance, the plot for this book doesnt make much sense, and doesnt even play into the story all that much. why are a Puerto Rican bakery and Asian American café competing for customers in the first place??? thats never talked abt more than just mentioning that theyre both ethnic places which...is a bit of a stretch, in my opinion. and the whole competition thing is also not a strong point either because we come into these stories when BOTH places are starting to fail so the spirit of whatever competition there should be simply doesnt exist. the talk of tropes is also...well. they arent executed well at all. the biggest one is the 'enemies to lovers' trope but...theyre never really enemies. like...at all. gabi never really hates or even dislikes theo which makes it all very weak. and sure you could argue that theyre somewhat enemies because of the parents businesses, but its just not strong enough. it really isnt.

the supporting cast is also annoying. none of them are all that likeable and some are downright horrible. i dislike gabis parents the most (for obvious reasons) and most everyone else are just...there. justin is fine even if he doesnt really do anything, and vivi is alright, but meli is irritating. overall, not a lot of good characters!!!

oh, and just something that bugged me is that theo's parents didnt even know who gabi was when they went to pick theo up when he sprained his wrist. like...their families supposedly have this rivalry between each other because of the businesses, but they dont even know who their rivals son is...? that made no sense to me at all. shouldnt they have at least seen him ONCE?? very strange

i do appreciate what this book is trying to do, i do!!! and its a very good thing because we need books like this for teen readers today, but it would be so much better if this book was executed better.
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annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

i think i may be outgrowing the YA romance genre unfortunately—this was just too juvenile for me. like the climax being homecoming… stop. and lots of angst which isn't my cup of tea. but if you're looking for a great YA queer love story with football/soccer/rugby, Heartstopper!! that said, i do appreciate the diversity because i recently wrote in a review (for Chef's Kiss) that "i am tired of reading queer romances about skinny/ripped white men."
cover design is easily five stars.
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careinthelibrary's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A sweet, rich, fun read with depth of character and experience. This covers themes of self-coming out, stereotypes, cultural food, familial financial stress, rivalries, etc. I especially loved Theo's characterization as someone who deals with a lot of anger as a defense mechanism and seeing him lower those walls to let someone in was really wholesome and uplifting. 
<i>Cafe Con Lychee</i> is my first Emery Lee book but it won't be my last! I'm massively eyeing up <i>Meet Cute Diary</i> which also sounds awesome. 

<b>content warnings</b>: financial insecurity, brief mentions of divorce, racism + micro-aggressions, homophobia (from family members), toxic relationships, brief mentions of cultural appropriation, panic attacks, brief use of ableist speech 
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aromarrie's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

theo & gabi are just…absolutely incredible together. seeing their individual character growth + how their relationships with their families developed made me feel so proud and happy for them, i love that i love their story so much. 
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rey_therese07's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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