Information:
- Author: Livia Blackburne
- Genre: Romance, Contemporary
- Page Count: 336
- Year of Publication: 2023
Read This If You Like:
- Asian American Representation
- Cute romances
- Stories of activism/social justice
- Enemies-to-lovers
- Journalism
- The dreaded miscommunication trope/hidden identities
- Dual POV
- Tea
Spoiler-Free Summary:
Clementine Chan and Danny Mok are two Asian-Americans teens living in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Clementine is an aspiring writer who is part of her school’s journalism club and runs a blog reviewing tea shops and larger issues in her community under the username of Hibiscus. Meanwhile, Danny is anti-change and is deeply hurt by the gentrification in Chinatown. To deal with his frustration, he poses online as BobaBoy888… Hibiscus’s biggest rival, who writes negative comments on all of her posts. When a massive corporation wants to purchase the local strip mall, which would shut down the beloved tea shop that Danny’s family owns, and Danny and Clementine have a chance encounter, they decide to work together to save the tea shop and the community, and along the way they fall in love. But what they don’t know is that online, they have held a bitter rivalry for years.
Review/Opinions:
This was unexpectedly one of the best contemporary romances I have read so far. I stayed up late trying to finish it, and I ended up reading the entire book in a day. It wasn’t in a “I need to know what happens, I can’t put this down” kind of way, it was more that the story was beautifully written and filled with so much connection.
Unlike most young adult romances, the romance between Clementine and Danny wasn’t the main focus. It was more on the morals in the story and on social commentary. I loved the themes of activism and gentrification in Asian communities, as this is an important real-life issue. The descriptions of culture in Chinatowns and Asian Americans were well developed and beautifully represented, especially when it comes to tea culture.
Clementine and Danny were also well thought out, multi-dimensional characters. Both care greatly about the issues in their community and their identities. I connected well with Clementine because I’m also a journalist. When it comes to their online personas (Hibiscus and BobaBoy888)… they aren’t great role models. BobaBoy888 continually makes very toxic comments toward Hibiscus as a joke, and if he was an actual influencer, I would block and report his account. Midway through the book, he does such a rude action toward Hibiscus that among the top worst things a protagonist has done in any book I’ve read. Hibiscus, unexpectedly, refuses to block him. There is a reason provided in the story for this, and it connects greatly to the themes of the novel, but he still did much more rude acts than good ones. I also wish we got more chapters from Clementine’s perspective, while the story is dual POV, Danny has a lot more chapters than Clementine.
There were also great side characters that contributed to the story. They included Adenike, who is Clementine’s best friend and partner in journalism, as well as Rui and Silas, who work for Chinatown Cares (an organization helping out Clementine and Danny’s cause.) They helped establish Clementine and Danny’s character even more, and add more representation into the story.
Overall, if you are looking for a heartwarming romance with great characters and representation, I highly recommend checking out this one. While the social media portrayals of the characters present them in a more unlikable way, it is made up for with amazing social commentary and character development.
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