Reviews

Café Con Lychee by Emery Lee

nightlight_reader's review

3.25

Some bits were hard to find believable. Almost all the side characters felt kind of empty, not even quite a full trope to even round them out. The only other character who felt solid was Thomas. I also had a tough time with how hands-off every adult in this story seemed to be. 

However, Theo and Gabi were incredible protagonists. Theo had so much going on in his life that was good but also just hard to stomach in various ways while Gabi was sort of constantly stressing me out because it felt like everything could collapse on him at any second.

There was a bit of this story where I thought Gabi wouldn’t come out of the closet by the end, and I think I actually would’ve liked that a little better. We see so many queer narratives of kids coming out of the closet and reactions to that but rarely do we see a character stay in the closet by the end of a solo book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia

dani_doobiedoo's review against another edition

2.0

2.5/5

The synopsis seemed good and I thought I would really enjoy this but majority of the characters were unlikable or didn't feel fully developed so it was hard to get into it. They all had like one main personality trait and ran with that. I felt like everything happened so quickly and their decisions were so abrupt. Easy read and kind of cute if you like the leads.

akeilawke's review against another edition

5.0

Absolutely loved it, OMG! I read it very quickly, and although it’s not something I’d usually pick up, it felt refreshing to have a story that wasn’t polluted with just sex. My mind felt free, and I was completely immersed in the world of these two characters, who I think I’ll remember forever. It was also very, very eye-opening, to say the least.

gocheckjesus's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

laneylane573's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I'm not the target audience for this book but it was a good read none the less. Definitely a good choice for younger readers!

izzy_from_ap_calc's review against another edition

hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

velvetyaverage's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted

4.0

cloudstrife34's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

ayylexa's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

sara11_reads's review against another edition

3.0

I thought this leaned too hard into "running a cafe out of the high school" and not hard enough into the relationship between Theo and Gabi. The cafe part seemed so obviously futile that I wasn't interested in that aspect of the novel, but I did like the two characters and how they weren't stereotypes.