Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co
Pages: 224
Genre: YA romance
Food Blogging, Finding Family & Falling In Love in Vietnam
For such a quick, effortless read, A Banh Mi for Two is able to do so much, like transport the reader to Sai Gon and allow us to revel in its vivid, gorgeous chaos, all while packing so many strong emotional punches. Lan and Vivi’s relationships with their mothers are complicated but there is such genuine love there. Struggling to be a good daughter is oh so relatable, especially when mixed with grief of losing one parent, and it’s been awhile since a book had me tearing up, but this one did.
A Banh Mi for Two evoked a hunger in me: a hunger for more stories set in Southeast Asia, a hunger for people who root for you the way Vivi does for her favorite food blogger, a hunger to write again/recover from writer’s block like Lan, a hunger to read more from Trinity Nguyen (@thetrinitytran), and most obviously, a hunger for Vietnamese food that had me seriously craving and eventually eating a banh mi in between chapters. And yet for all the hunger it brought about, I can say I felt full at the end: more than satisfied from reading this lovely book, and heart overflowing from the family storyline and the cute sapphic romance.
