I gobbled this book up in one day! I loved learning about Vivi and Lin and was gushing along with them as they fumbled their way into love. Vivi wants to know more about her heritage and lies about her study abroad plans to do so. Then we have Lin, a hard worker and foodie locale blogger, who has to regain her ambition for telling stories while also taking care of her mom.

This story and their struggles felt so real, especially with Vivi’s mother. I was a bit sad at how quickly it ended and the events transpired but I think Trinity Nguyen did very well for squeezing all of those details and emotional impact into so few pages. I loved this story and where the characters left off. I think a cute novella of Lin’s travels would be very cute as well ( or maybe that’s just me not being able to move on).

Lastly, the title and the reasoning behind Lin calling her blog the same name was so freaking cute. Can someone please make this into a movie???

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. BYR Paperbacks for the DRC! Please get this made into a cute romcom movie.

This was a very cute, low angst, sapphic romance. I really enjoyed the look at culture and food through the eyes of the main characters. I also enjoyed the queer joy found within this story.

I did feel like the characters read as a little younger than they were. This wasn't a hinderance, I just expected them to be slightly younger than they were.

Regardless, this was a fun YA book that I will definitely be recommending at my library!

This is a beautiful book about identity, founding yourself in your culture and within yourself, expectations and love and the relationships between families.
As an immigrant it is hard to find a balance between your past, your present and your future and this book showed that very well and the relationship between Vivi and Lan showed so well how we can be so different but so similar in a way even if you grew up so far away and how you can meet in the middle.

A lovely read that pairs well with Hayley Kiyoko's music. It's also filled a hole in me about wanting more Vietnamese Sapphic stories. It's also a good reminder that our parents and caregivers in general are still kids themselves learning on what to do in the world one step at time. And that the Vietnam War like any war in history was just generally messy and not as black and white as I was taught to believe. Yet out of that messiness comes a resilience, hope, and creativity to make the place you love beautiful with the people that you care about and who also cares about you.

This is a beautiful story about discovery. Discovering how to recover from grief, finding a path that you want to walk in life, reclaiming your past, healing past wounds. Lan and Vivi are such lovely characters, both lost. Yet together they challenge each other to take risks and really find out what they want. This book is healing, and beautiful. It has such lovely representation. I think readers will truly enjoy meeting Lan and Vivi.
Thank you so much to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, Henry Holt and Co. BYR Paperbacks, and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the advance electronic copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I have always known that I was half Asian, but since doing ancestry testing, I have become more interested in learning about all of the different Asian countries that appear in my genetic background. This book was of particular interest to me after I learned that I am 8% Vietnamese.

I love that Vivi travels to Vietnam to learn more about her background and to try to find her family. Although my situation is very different, I relate to both girls having complicated relationships with their mothers. My heart hurts for Lan grieving her father and trying to be everything for her mother.

This book truly gave me all the feels. The way Vivi planned much of her trip around her favorite food blog was admirable--that she made it to Saigon and found the writer of said blog was stunning. The way the two girls explore Saigon on a quest to find Vivi's family brought me so much joy that I was ready to book a ticket there myself.

This is a story about finding your roots, and about family, and finding the balance between taking care of yourself and responsibility to your family. It's about cutting yourself off from a painful past and assuming you can't go home again. It's about seeing your home through fresh eyes while you're falling in love. And it's about Viet Nam--a little bit of history, and a lot about how the country has survived and thrived, incorporating bits from other countries, especially into its cuisine.

I want to read more by this author--and I still want to visit Viet Nam.

Trinity Nguyễn, please write more!!!!!! This was so freaking precious and swoon worthy. I loved this sapphic romance and I need more. I am also hungry. How could you do this to me? lol

What a delightful queer romance! As someone who would love to visit Vietnam and really enjoys Vietnamese cuisine, I wholly enjoyed this novel. Reading it made me so hungry - the food descriptions were great! Additionally, both main protagonists Vivi and Lan were quite well-developed and interesting.

A sweet story of love, family, history, and food. The descriptions of street food in Sài Gòn and the way it connects to the history of the country were beautifully rich with detail. The author clearly cares deeply both for this place and her heritage. I was fascinated by the history of the emigrants who moved to Viet Nam and those who eventually left after the war and reconstruction.

The relationships between parent and child were also incredibly detailed and realistic. That feeling of wanting to protect them, wanting to know them, and not wanting to lose them felt so real, as was the grief and fear Lan felt after the death of her father. Vivi’s feelings of disconnect to her heritage, of never feeling like she belonged anywhere, also felt authentic. There's a generational trauma that often exists in children of immigrants, especially those who fled and haven't been able to talk about their life in "the beforetimes." Even the good memories and beloved family and friends are kept secret, because everything is connected to that which was lost.

While I loved the concept of this story and the way food, history, and the city were described, the character development and romantic interactions felt clunky and awkward. The relationship between Lan and Vivi was simplistic and unbelievable, with them coincidentally running in to each other and feeling instantly attracted to one another. Even once they figure out that Lan is Vivi’s favorite food blogger and Vivi is one of her most supportive fans, there’s an uncomfortable awkwardness that persists. I think their relationship would have felt more natural if we had been allowed to see their online interaction grow from comments to DMs to finally meeting in person. Yes, we’re told that they interact online, but it doesn’t feel like it. Vivi almost seems like a bit of a stalker, with how much she knows about Lan from her blog.

Even once the women starting seeing each other more regularly, helping one another with their projects (Lan’s writing and Vivi’s family search), there seemed to be an unevenness to the writing of their interactions. Maybe it’s just inconsistency in the writing that will be edited before publication, but some descriptions of actions didn’t make sense - how does one “kiss a forehead deeply”? Also how can there be too much smog to use the telescope but, at the same time, they can see the big and little dippers twinkling in the sky?

Overall, I enjoyed reading this one - the story was sweet and ended as happily as you could expect (with both Lan and Vivi finally communicating with their mothers, THANK YOU). Hopefully some of the writing/characters issues will be worked out before publication, but if not, I still feel it’s worth reading for the story and Vietnamese history alone. And who knows, maybe the things that bothered me won’t bother you!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I loved the Asian representation and being able to learn about a culture different than mine. The blossoming of the love story between these girls was so cute and pure. I would definitely read more from this author and commend this book to others.

Wow!!! Honestly I thought this was just gonna be a cute/light summer YA read but it was so much more. learning about Vietnam through Vivi and Lan’s perspectives was an eye opening experience—the author truly went the extra mile to provide the reader with a foundation of the history of Vietnam and background about their culture and experiences that happened during/after the war. Both Vivi and Lan's stories felt fleshed out and had me rooting for them to find their place. Really powerful coming of age story. The romance dialogue felt a little off occasionally and I would’ve loved to have had more time with her mom visiting Vietnam at the end—but it was such a beautiful story I can look past those small things! AND the food descriptions?!? perfect!!! Wonderful debut, can't wait to see what's next 🩷🇻🇳🏳️‍🌈

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Very delightful, very sweet. Made me hungry every time I went to read. It is definitely a blast how you recommend want to keep an eye out for the authors works in the fiture!

<b>thank you to netgalley for providing me with an e-arc of this!!</b>

Vivi has always wondered about her mother's family in Viet Nam. her mother never talks about them and she refuses to return to Viet Nam with Vivi, but Vivi knows they are there. given the opportunity to study abroad in Sai Gon, Vivi goes, hoping to find the remnants of her family in a country she barely knows. meanwhile, Lan has been working the banh mi stall, one of the final reminders of her father after his sudden death four years ago. Lan's passion rests with her food blog, but her pen has dried up since her father died.

when Vivi's and Lan's paths cross, the two team up to discover where they come from--and where they still have to go.

this book started out strong enough. the conflicts each girl faced really piqued my interests. as I kept reading, I couldn't help but feel that we were revisiting the same problems over and over. by the time anything was being done about it, I was 48% into the book. 48%!!! that's HALFWAY THROUGH IT!! granted, Vivi finding her family in a city of ten million people shouldn't have been easy, but in the beginning it didn't seem like much was being done about it. when they finally got a break in the case, everything fell into place <i>a little</i> too easily. someone knew someone who knew someone who knew someone else.

there was no conflict that was not immediately resolved, other than Vivi's and Lan's overarching conflicts of course. Vivi and Lan would go speak with someone about Vivi's mom, and the conversation would digress to food before the other person said, you look like you have a question you want to ask me! not to mention, the conversations that Vivi and Lan had both with each other and with the people they encountered were frank and then bordered on didactic. everything was a gentle lecture about others' lived experiences and then became overly saccharine (I know I've been using the word saccharine a lot, but I feel like this is a really common trend in YA lit in particular, at least the ones that I've read recently).

if you want to learn more about vietnamese culture and the impact of the viet nam war on refugees, this is the book for you. I would have eaten this book UP when I was like 15-20. I saw a lot of my younger self in these characters and their relationships with their family's past, legacy, and piety. there were parts toward the end that made me tear up, too. but as an almost 30 y/o who has thought about this for what feels like a hundred years, I found a lot of the observations to be trite and a lot of the thematic conversations that the characters had leaned toward monologues.

I would recommend this book to any young person still struggling with their dual identities or who want to be affirmed in their identities.

Incredibly sweet and fun, and also a super quick read which is always appreciated. Definitely don't read this one on an empty stomach!

Thanks Henry Holt and NetGalley for the gifted DRC book.

After her father passes away, Lan can’t bring herself to update the food blog they started together, A Bánh Mì for Two. She works at the family bánh mì stall in Sài Gòn and cares for her mother in her role as the perfect daughter. Lan meets Vivi, a Vietnamese American student secretly on a study abroad semester who is in Việt Nam for the first time. Vivi is looking to find information about her parents’ homeland since they won’t talk to her about living in Việt Nam. She also wants to try the foods she has read about on A Bánh Mì for Two, her favorite blog. Lan agrees to help Vivi navigate the city and find her family history. Vivi agrees to help Lan enter a food blogging contest by getting her back to writing again. As the two spend time together, love grows.

A Bánh Mì for Two was such a sweet romance, but the book was about a lot more than sapphic love. There was a strong exploration of self-identity, family obligation versus individual desires, culture, grief, and intergenerational trauma. The poignant areas were balanced well with heartfelt moments to create an emotional yet overall warm coming-of-age story. The characters were well-developed with Sài Gòn being a character of its own. Vivid imagery of the city and the food depicted made for an immersive reading experience. I found there to be enough deeper meaning to the book to outweigh any of the teenage angst that can sometimes be annoying as an adult reader of YA novels. This was altogether a great read that I’d recommend to anyone looking for YA sapphic romance, especially foodies.

I loved reading A Banh Mi For Two! Nguyen has such a way with words, and I truly felt transported into the story. A marvelous debut, and can't wait to see what's next!

In this sweet sapphic romance, A Bánh Mì for Two, readers are transported to the bustling streets of Sài Gòn, where two foodies find love amidst family histories and culinary adventures. In this sweet sapphic romance, A Bánh Mì for Two by [Author's Name], readers are transported to the bustling streets of Sài Gòn, where two foodies find love amidst family histories and culinary adventures.

The author has described this book as a love letter to Vietnam/Vietnamese street food, and it really delivers! Exploring themes of family, love, culture, and the ways we find our own path through dual-POV, this is a really tender, fun romance. I felt like I was traveling while reading it, but with much more depth than typical tourism (and some deserved critiques of it!). I'm so excited for more from Nguyen!

This book will tug at your heart strings. I grew up in southeast Louisiana, home to many Vietnamese immigrants. They brought with them their own spices and recipes and adapted them using the abundance of fresh seafood in the area. I would love to visit Vietnam to experience the culture first hand, and Trinity Nguyen’s vivid description of the setting of this book made me want to do so even more. I enjoyed this book as a mirror, looking into a culture and a love story outside of my own experiences.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me a copy of A Banh Mi For Two in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.
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This book was just a delight to read from start to finish. We're introduced to two characters, Vivi and Lan, who may be more alike than they realize. This book did a wonderful job of showcasing how food can bring so many people together through times of grief, doubt, and happiness. In Sài Gòn, Vivi hopes to find answers on why her mother never opens up about Vietnam, while Lan tries to balance being a good daughter and running a famous blog, A Bánh Mì for Two. It was clear to me that both of these characters had such love put into them by Trinity that you can't help but fall in love with them too. Nguyen did an amazing job with how moments in Vietnam's history have affected many families, like Vivi's. Although there was a mini-third act break up that I am usually not fond of, it was resolved somewhat quickly for me to enjoy this book still. This was such a delight to read and I am so excited for whatever Trinity may write next.