Words can’t really express my thoughts on this book, so let’s talk feelings.

Happy. Every page I turned I just felt happy, smiling ear to ear.

Healthy. Chryssy & Vin’s relationship was healthy. Yes, they were fake dating but they were up front & straightforward about everything. They talked. They discussed. There was no miscommunication & it was beautiful.

Strong. All the talk of TCM and flowers and Qi and listening to your body, it made me feel strong. And also made me want spring to get here faster so I could be outside & tending to my flowers again.

Love. At every corner of this book was love. Not only Chryssy & Vin’s but the brotherly love between Vin & Leo, familial between Chryssy & her aunts & her parents & the rest of her family. Vin’s love of music. Chryssy’s love of cooking and TCM. It was everywhere and so woven throughout that you couldn’t help but feel it too.

I already know that this book is going to stay with me and that it’s going to be in my favorites for 2025.

Another sweet and thoughtful read from Kung Jessen, its love story braided with running themes about the importance of family, connecting with nature, one’s agency in writing one’s own story, finding balance and making space for rest when work pressures mount, and both the destructive and healing powers of belief. With two main threads that link these themes—one about music and one about Traditional Chinese Medicine—the story provides so much for a reader to engage with. I loved learning about various flowers and herbs, and how they affect the body, and I could feel the author’s genuine love of music throughout the work. Perhaps, most of all, I loved the celebration of generations of women, united in both struggle and hope, coming together to make something beautiful. In short, it’s a book about healing that in itself is just that.

3.5 rounded up

This author continues to bring such a fresh take into romance from what I have read in regards to the emphasis she continues to put on the inclusion of ancestry and heritage in the current generation's life. This one having to do with a curse was a little hard for me to fully get into but I liked how it ended up resolving itself at the end of the book. Chryssy was a down-to-earth character that I connected to in terms of needing to guard her heart and opening giving away pieces of herself if it meant everyone was meeting their goals. Vin was hard for me to completely understand at times and it felt less mysterious at times and more unclear personality. The beginning hooked me, the middle was muddled a bit but the end did bring it back. I enjoyed the epilogue, a very cute ending to a real relationship.

I truly adore Lauren Kung Jessen's writing style, characters, stories and overall vibe.
She allows you to truly escape your world for her world and I love when an author can do that - its truly a gift. You won't want to miss LKJs recent release!

A really cute fake-dating story between a Chinese herbalist whose family believes their chance at love is cursed and needs to promote a new business and a bad boy cellist who needs to increase ticket sales. Of course they end up having insane chemistry. I love a good fake dating story and this was fascinating with it's aspects of acupuncture and herbs woven in. If you like her other books, you'll like this one!

Thank you to Forever via Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Charming, endearing, healing and sweet. I typically love fake dating but this one didn’t quite hit for me. I wanted more depth and more tension from the romance. I did really enjoy the TCM aspect and the familial plot line.

4.5⭐️ rounded down.
I have enjoyed all of Lauren Kung Jessen books! I would highly recommend this one. I love how her books mix her Chinese culture with romance!
Chinese herbalist Chyrssy has been cursed by her families history of break-ups. She always thought the curse was made up until she realized she had had 8+ breakups and it never gets serious. She meets famous cellist Vin Chao at a friends kid birthday party and after photos were taken with them the rumors stared flying that Vin has a new girlfriend. Vin already has the reputation of being a heartbreaker and his agent is pushing his next relationship. He sells a fake relationship to Chrssy to benefit his label and her business. He ends up staying at her families Inn while they are take a hiatus and his brother recharges. While they are spending time together they plan public outings so people believe in their relationship. They slowly start to catch feelings. What will happen with this unlikely pair?

A great read, the story of Chryssy and Vin. I liked how it was told from both points of view and the information on flowers was really interesting.

If you haven’t picked up an LKJ book yet, you’re missing out. Each charming romance features the cutest meet-cute (i.e: two strangers, 24 hrs, NYC) and are peppered with the best tropes and have Asian-American rep/characters. And did you SEE the book covers? Take another look because every cover is mesmerizing and captures the storylines perfectly.

I picked up Lunar Love when it first came out and have grabbed every book since! The moment Red String Theory was announced with a pub date, I immediately added it to my Goodreads and started a countdown. I screamed when I got my hands on a digital copy of YYLS from @foreverpub because it meant I got to continue on the journey of LKJ romance. I love that they’re not overly cheesy and cover bigger issues like family drama and heartbreak without taking away from a wholesome love story. Each book has been very different but they’re all rooted in Chinese traditions and just make you happy inside.

Lunar Love: Chinese zodiac matchmaking
Red String Theory: red string fate (SWOOOOOON)
Yin Yang Love Song: heartbreak herbalist

“You may be named after the chrysanthemum but you don't have to let yourself always bloom last.”

Yin Yang Love Song transports readers to the beautiful PNW (which is honestly a great start for any romance) and follows a heartbreak healer herbalist and a heartbreaker musician. If brother-duo musicians, holistic health and forced proximity are of interest, then you’ll devour this one! There’s a steamy acupuncture scene (!) fake dating for the plot and family curses. But there’s also a sweet story about healing and growth, self-discovery and a reminder to take time for yourself when life gets crazy.

Fall in love with Chryssy & Vin in Yin Yang Love Song, available 1/28. Thanks so much @readforever and @laurenkungjessen for the opportunity to enjoy this gem of a story early.

I have loved this authors previous works but unfortunately this one did not work for me.

Chinese herbalist Chryssy Hua Williams never actually believed in the Hua family curse. But after Break-Up #9, Chryssy stopped laughing. Now she and her aunties run a special healing retreat center for the broken-hearted. After all, there’s nothing a proper cup of herbal tea can’t fix...but Chryssy’s innocent run-in with celebrity cellist and bad boy Vin Chao has everyone brewing about a different kind of tea. So he offers her a deal: they’ll fake-date, he’ll “break” her heart (and increase ticket sales), and in return, he’ll promote her business.

To me, someone who doesn’t use herbal medicine or anything like that, I felt like I had to really suspend my belief in order to follow the storyline. I loved the cultural aspects but something was still missing and the writing style made this one feel “silly”. The fake dating was also over the top and could have been executed better.

Overall, glad I read it but not my fav

Yin Yang Love Song is a sweet, wholesome, and charming read. This book is a story of love and family. And the love story is beautiful and pure, chef’s kiss! Chryssy and Vin’s chemistry jumps off the pages. Bonus points that it has my fav trope: fake dating. My favorite thing about LKJ’s books is they are so effortless. They are not overly wordy and the stories always flow so beautifully. At the same time there is much wisdom on these pages! If you liked her other books, you will undoubtedly love this one too.

Oh my stars, I LOVED this book!

It was so refreshing to see how much the art of slowing down can actually help us heal and changing your mindset can help you grow.

Both Chryssy and Vin needed each other to further themselves, which is how they land in a fake dating scheme, but that quickly transforms into a relationship with very real feelings. I enjoyed the pacing of their love story because sometimes, love blooms when you’re not even looking for it. Our two MCs were holding onto small details of each other and committing bits and pieces of themselves to each other before they realized what they were even doing.

As someone who has lived life very similarly to Vin, someone who is always on the go-go-go, someone who doesn’t know how to sit still or with discomfort, this book was everything I needed to remind myself that it’s okay to slow down, to dig my heels in and ground myself, and to place roots either somewhere or with someone.

Lauren Kung Jessen reminds us that heartbreak isn’t always romantic - it can happen from anything and then be healed in any way.

Thank you for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tropes:
☕️Opposites attract
☕️Grumpy X sunshine
☕️Mixed race
☕️Fake dating
☕️Found family
☕️Slow burn

🎻My favorite thing about Lauren’s books is how she brings in the Chinese cultural elements to the story effortlessly. This story is the same.

☕️Chryssy runs a healing center for the brokenhearted while Vin, a celebrity cellist is a heartbreaker. They start fake dating to make Chryssy’s business bloom and to solidify Vin’s reputation. We all know how fake dating ends up 👀but the character reputation of Vin being a heartbreaker plus a generations old family curse in Chryssy’s family makes them question their relationship. Will it end up being another heartbreak?

🌸This story is full of life lessons, growth and self discovery. The leads become more vulnerable and rely on each other to disover themselves in ways that they haven’t done before. The romance is effortlessly blooming but to me the center of the story lies in believing in oneself and being open to love no matter what. It’s also a lot about being who you are and loving yourself for who you are.

☕️The retreat that Chryssy runs sound amazing. Wish that was real 🥹.

🎻If you love a slow burn romance with lots of self discovery, this would be a great read for you.

The reason I gave this a 4 ⭐️ is the pace is slower than I expected. And I wouldn’t say romance is the main theme. It’s more centered around personal growth.

Thank you Read Forever for an advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

I always love how Lauren beautifully showcases Chinese traditions in the romance space and this book was no different. Chryssy, a Chinese herbalist who runs a heartbreak healing retreat with her aunties, believes the Hua family curse to be true and has accepted that she will likely grow old alone with her aunties as her companions. An innocent encounter with Vin has her world turned upside down after they are spotted at an event and conspire to fake date to promote her business and maintain his reputation as a heartbreaker. I was hooked from the first encounter and could not put down the book. Her meddling aunties and the circumstances that force them together was like fate guiding them together. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the free eARC. All opinions are my own.

Instagram review will be live 27Jan25.

With her third novel, Lauren Kung Jessen shows her versatility and talent for writing original and charming contemporary romances. Yin Yang Love Song is such a sweet and heartwarming romance as well as a tribute to the bonds of family and friendship. Chryssy and Vin seem to be opposites on paper, but they essentially want the same thing and find it in each other in the most unusual way!

This was a tame but enjoyable love story that embraces and celebrates culture and traditional customs. I appreciate the way Lauren Kung Jessen incorporates her background into every layer of her stories. I enjoyed reading this and found the characters to be dynamic and likeable - I was rooting for their love the whole way through. Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this ebook! 3.5 stars

This novel intertwines music and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) through the captivating story of Chryssy and Vin. Vin, a talented cello player and star, and Chryssy, a TCM practitioner specializing in healing heartbreak, embark on a fake relationship that gradually transforms into something deeply genuine. I loved watching Chryssy and Vin bond over their respective passions and how this added an intimate layer to their relationship as they each learned more about each other's practice. Their journey was just really heartwarming and fun. This was a fake-dating love story done right.

Ratings
Story Concept 5/5
Quality of Writing 5/5
Pacing 4/5
Plot Development 4/5
Character Development 5/5
Overall Enjoyability 4.5/5

This is such a great romance. I really liked the premise of Chryssy being the heartbreak healer and Vin being the heartbreaker, although they are both more complex than those labels would suggest. I loved all the characters in this book. The aunties felt like larger than life personalities, but still like they were rooted in something real. I thought the scene with Chryssy connecting with her mother about the curse was really sweet. And I liked the dynamic between Leo and Vin. There are themes of self-discovery and intergenerational trauma, and I thought those came together very nicely, like the idea of finding oneself within the tangled web of one's family history. Love and relationships are portrayed as something that are beautiful moment to moment, not just if they last forever, which is a sentiment I very much appreciate and agree with. Such a great book.

I have mixed feels about this book.

I loved the musical references, the MMC being a rocker cellist, the flower info, and how the relationship developed. The curse threw some interesting ideas out there and I did like some of the exploration of that. I didn't love the conflict at the end - especially with some side characters - and the "happy for now" idea.

I liked how there were some recipes in the back. I thought that was cool since a lot of the time I was wondering the food was really as good as they made it seem. Lol.

Overall: 3.5 stars for me
Content: vague-ish open door

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
Yin Yang Love Song is another Lauren Kung Jessen “romcom” that I enjoyed conceptually, but the ideas got a little lost in the sauce. Its standout moments come from its cultural references, especially the heavy presence of Chinese practices, especially Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which collectively encompasses various practices, including acupuncture, herbal medicine and nutrition, mindful movement, and immersion in nature. I also loved how it all factored into the central premise of healing heartbreak and tying it to Chryssy’s backstory.
I generally liked Chryssy and Vin, although I can’t say either lead was particularly remarkable. I did like that both had solid, nuanced family relationships that also cross over with professional obligations, with Chryssy’s being her aunties who she runs the shop with, and Vin’s brother also being his bandmate.
The romance is also rather tepid. They’re cute together, but I can’t say I was blown away by them together. And I struggled to follow the logic as the story went on. Like, Chryssy’s love life is cursed, so they’re fake dating to help their respective careers? How does one tie to the other logically? The stakes just weren’t there for me to care, either about their respective careers or whether this arrangement would become the real deal, at least in part because the concept was unclear.
This is the second book in a row by Lauren Kung Jessen that has fallen short of expectations for me, and looking back, I had somewhat similar complaints about the previous one. However, there are some positives here, especially in the cultural touchstones, and I’d recommend this to readers interested in a low-heat contemporary romance with a focus on Traditional Chinese