Café con Lychee y Review

Café con Lychee by Emery Lee

#MLM #Contemporary #YA #RomCom

CW: Toxic Parents (Openly Homophobic & Misogynistic), Homophobia, Microaggressions, Racism, Injury, Abuse of Power, Toxic Friendship (Manipulative & Aggressive) Sibling Rivalry, Cultural Appropriation, Bullying, Ableism (directed at ADHD, both internalized and external) Classis, Suicidal Thoughts, Underage Drinking, Gaslighting, Swearing, Xenophobia

5/5

I decided to read Café con Lychee by Emery Lee because I've read one of eir books before (Meet Cute Diary), I'm on a cultural food queer romance kick, and lychee is delicious. I absolutely treated myself to a lychee and strawberry slushie in honor of this book. The book itself was a treat! Sweet and wholesome, with a few tender parts within. I devoured it, scarfed it down!

Theo's and Gabriel's (aka Gabi) families own rival restaurants. Although Gabi's family has a Puerto Rican bakery and Theo's has an Asian-American café, cultural food is a novelty in their Vermont town. Customer traffic shows that there can only successfully be one. When a new world-fusion restaurant opens up, both families find their businesses in trouble. The boys want to team up to save both restaurants. Without the knowledge of their parents, they start selling the products at school and just claim to be making normal deliveries. Theo and Gabi will have to come to terms with what they can change and what they can't. Along the way, they might find there's another reason they like working with each other. 

I fell in love with Café con Lychee's characters right away. Theo is a soccer-loving gay teen with ADHD from a Chinese-Japanese-American family. He's seemingly the only out kid at school, but he's well-liked despite the amount of internalized berating he gives himself. He doesn't quite get along with his family, but he's also protective of them. Theo is a fully-fleshed out character that I can't help talking up. Gabi feels like a bit of a gay stereotype, yet no one realizes he's secretly gay. He likes ballet, hates playing soccer, and only hangs out with girls. He's also meddlesome in a cartoonish way. This is not to say he's poorly written, he's a great foil for Theo and dynamic all on his own, I just am not sure how no one picked up on him being gay. The side characters are written very well too, giving Lee's book a wealth of helpful and interesting lore.

Themes of Café con Lychee include overcoming differences (as I've already discussed), learning to communicate, and of course, food! Throughout the story, characters keep secrets or lie to each other. It's interesting to see the consequences of these secrets and lies. Some are small or well-intentioned, while others extremely important or completely misguided. They all affect at least one other person. The shrouding of truth is included to show that honesty, openness, and trust are important for forming bonds. Food can also bring people together. It's what helps Theo and Gabi move past their inherited rivalry. Food is important to culture and cultural expression. It's one of the biggest reasons that the world-fusion restaurant hurts the main characters, it's culturally appropriating. We also wouldn't have Lee's novel without food and it's delicious puns!

Queer representation is important to Lee and eir writing. I especially love eir messy teen characters who are all still figuring things out. The book is written in dual-pov, allowing us to see that Theo and Gabi have had very different relationships to being gay. Theo has gotten to enjoy the good parts because he's out, but there's also tension coming from his extended family and a bigger risk of facing homophobia. Gabi is terrified of being seen as gay due to how his parents raised him, but he's falling for Theo. Gabi's parents' homophobia is a large part of the story, and while it is explained how that happened, if you believe it will be hard for you to read, that's okay. Please be careful. There is one other queer character in Café con Lychee, but I'm choosing to let that character tell you about that, should you choose to read the book.

Whether you just want to read about Puerto Rican and Asian food or you're in the mood for a rivals-to-boyfriends romance, Emery Lee's Café con Lychee is an excellent choice for you! As a bonus, you'll get homecoming shenanigans, brother bonding, and dance classes. Well, the characters will! Put in your order at Café con Lychee today!