About the Book
-
Author:
- Livia Blackburne
- Genres:
- Boy-Girl Romance
- Contemporary
- Voices:
- Chinese Diaspora
- Cis Boy
- Cis Girl
- Straight
Cover Story: Rooftop Cuties
BFF Charm: Yay!
Talky Talk: Blogger Babble
Bonus Factor: You’ve Got Mail
Relationship Status: Romantic to a Teae
Cover Story: Rooftop Cuties
An Asian girl with a long black braid and an Asian boy with an open shirt collar (hello, Danny!) sit on a rooftop during a sunset looking out at the buildings around them. This scene never happened in the book, but they’re cute, they’re enjoying Chinatown, and it’s reminiscent of San Francisco, so I guess it’s working.
The Deal:
Clementine, aka Hibiscus on her online blog Babble Tea, loves to write reviews of tea shops in her Chinatown. Danny, aka Bobaboy888, is a commenter who always gives her grief. Hibiscus loves to innovate, modernize, and try new things like cream in her oolong. Bobaboy is a traditionalist who leaves sarcastic comments on Babble Tea. But there’s a little spice in their banter!
When Clementine learns that an evil corporation is trying to take over a strip mall in Chinatown, she joins a community outreach initiative to save the auntie and uncles’ shops. In the strip center is Danny’s parents’ tea shop, Fragrant Leaves. The two teens team up to try to stop Kale Corp from moving in. Along the way, they fall in love… without knowing that Clem is Hibiscus and Danny is Bobaboy, her sworn enemy. Can these two lovebirds make it work?
BFF Charm: Yay!
I absolutely loved Clementine and her type-A, go-getter ways. She’s a journalist for her school newspaper, and also host of an online community where she discusses tea. She’s enthusiastic, smart, and full of energy. Likewise, Danny is a devoted son who lives, studies, and works at his parents’ tea shop, but he has dreams of his own. He wants to move to New York City for college and do more than just pour tea and wipe down tables. Both of these senior-year students are motivated and kind, the type of kid you want to be friends with. And they surround themselves with good people, too (although Danny’s friend Bryan is a little bit of a troublemaker).
Swoonworthy Scale: 5
You know how Kathleen Kelly sighed about bouquets of pencils in You’ve Got Mail? Yeah, Danny will have you sighing about cakes of Pu’er (that’s a type of tea, if you didn’t know!). Clementine is beautiful and wears strawberry lip gloss; Danny is handsome with broad shoulders that fill out a shirt nicely. But more than just their outside attractions are their pleasant personalities. Even when they bicker as Hibiscus and Bobaboy, they’re not malicious. And with a healthy dose of community activism, their first kiss is swoonworthy!
Talky Talk: Blogger Babble
I’m a recent devotee of milk tea, and this book made me want to drink buckets of it. (So thirsty…) I loved the discussion of community in this book. Like, is community a place online where people come and drop comments then leave? Or is it a tea shop where regulars stay and play mah jongg for hours and hours? Or can it be both? Can a blog help change the world — or, if not the entire planet, a small chunk of Chinatown?
I also loved that I could barely tell when Danny’s parents switched to Mandarin to speak to their son, but it was kind of obvious that they were not having discussions in English. The author didn’t italicize or state that they were switching languages, which was refreshing. Dialogue was just dialogue, you know?
Bonus Factor: You’ve Got Mail
I meannnnnn, yeah, it’s a You’ve Got Mail type story, and yeah, it’s REALLY cute. What I enjoyed about this book was that, unlike Joe Fox who gaslights Kathleen into falling for him without telling him that he’s NYC152 until the very end, Danny doesn’t do that. The two have trust issues from figuring out that they are each other’s rivals, but they work it out like adults. Gen Z, you will save us from ourselves!
Relationship Status: Romantic to a Teae
Book, you were delicious and wonderful and I enjoyed reading you. Let’s go out for a boba date sometime soon.
Literary Matchmaking
Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett is another story in the vein of You’ve Got Mail, with the swoon cranked up to 9.
Emma Lord’s Tweet Cute is a similar story, but with warring grilled cheese shops.
Yet another YGM retelling, Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven takes place in a comic book shop.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received a free copy from the publisher for review. I received neither compensation nor kittens in exchange for this review. Clementine and Danny Save the World (and Each Other) is available now.
