e-ARC, 320 pages
Release Date: March 18, 2025
Published by: Wednesday Books
Read from: March 14-25, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley(I received a free e-ARC from Netgalley and the publisher. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Transphobia, Fire/Fire Injury
For Readers Interested In: 2sLGBTQ+, Contemporary, Enemies to Lovers, Foodie Favorites, Sparkly Covers, Racial/Ethnic Diversity (Korean and Chinese), Realistic Fiction, YALove, family, and food collide in this sparkling Romeo and Juliet-inspired romance.
Julie Wu and Randall Hur used to be best friends. Now they only see each other on Saturdays at the Pasadena Farmers Market where their once close families are long-standing rivals.
When Julie and Randall are paired with ultra-rich London Kim for a community-service school project, they are forced to work together for the first time in years. It quickly becomes obvious that London has a major crush on Julie. But Julie can’t stop thinking about Randall. And Randall can’t stop thinking about how London is thinking about Julie. Soon, prompted by a little jealousy and years of missing each other, school project meetings turn into pseudo dates at their favorite Taiwanese breakfast shop and then secret kisses at the beach—far from the watchful eyes of their families.
Just as they’re finally feeling brave enough to tell their grandmas, the two matriarchs rehash their old fight and Julie and Randall get caught in the middle and Julie’s brother finds out they are dating. Their families are heartbroken.
But it’s the Year of the Dragon, an auspicious time to resolve disagreements and start anew, and Randall isn’t going down without fighting for what—and who—they love. Could the Lunar New Year provide not only a second chance for Randall and Julie, but for their families as well?
Jennifer Chen’s Hangry Hearts is a funny, big-hearted romance about friendship, family, and first love—and being brave enough to have it all.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This was ok, but it was just that. Maybe it’s my bias toward enemies to lovers, but I think all that fighting was so petty. I know that pride might be in their culture, but this was a crazy reason when it wasn’t even them.
Ok so this has feuding families because of something that happened a long time ago. And it wasn’t even something that happened with them. They were just raised to be included in not liking them as well. Which I get… But with them doing all that and ending up getting kicked out of things that might make them money? I don’t know that that was the smartest thing to do lol The romance was cute enough from there, but it was pretty basic. I was however pleasantly surprised to see that the MMC was trans tho.
The plot tho was what suffered. It was so basic. Everything that you think might happen, yeah, it did. I think I wanted to see more conflict of the one that she didn’t want, and I also wanted to see more of the garden? I get that it was just their project, but it was so cute and such a good idea. I would love to do one IRL if I could. Anyway, I think it could have used more of these things ad less predictability.
The food in this tho? My GAWD. I haven’t heard of most of these things, but let me tell you how much I’ve been wanting to eat everything they mentioned. Again, I haven’t tried anything in this book (besides the dumplings) but I want all of them now in an unhealthy way lol And the way Chen was basically describing everything, from the way it looked to some of the smells. I was craving food I haven’t ever had lol
This was cute, but I wanted more. Chen’s first book was so good! It had depth and more. This one was a bit lacking, but I still enjoyed it. I hope there’s more to come from Chen!
Overall, I give this
