The Disability Book Archive

[ID: A book cover. A young Asian man, stands on the left, with black hair and wearing a blue and yellow striped shirt. A young Latino man stands on the right, with curly brown hair, wearing a black t-shirt and with his arms folded across his chest. They are facing each other. The background is a pastel shade of blue, and art of different foods stretches from the top of the cover to the bottom.
White text, from the top of the cover to the bottom, reads:
“Author of Meet Cute Diary” in small capitals,
The author’s name “Emery Lee” in larger capitals,
The title “Café Con Lychee” in larger capitals. “con” is written in lowercase capitals. /end]

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Content Warning:

• Outing- TBC
• Racism
• Toxic Friendship
• Bullying

Warnings from the author’s website:

• Homophobia (internal/external)
• Toxic Masculinity
• Food
• Emotional Abuse
• Mentions of cultural appropriation
• Coming out

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Summary:

Sometimes bitter rivalries can brew something sweet

Theo Mori wants to escape. Leaving Vermont for college means getting away from working at his parents’ Asian American café and dealing with their archrivals’ hopeless son Gabi who’s lost the soccer team more games than Theo can count.

Gabi Moreno is miserably stuck in the closet. Forced to play soccer to hide his love for dance and iced out by Theo, the only openly gay guy at school, Gabi’s only reprieve is his parents’ Puerto Rican bakery and his plans to take over after graduation.

But the town’s new fusion café changes everything. Between the Mori’s struggling shop and the Moreno’s plan to sell their bakery in the face of the competition, both boys find their dreams in jeopardy. Then Theo has an idea—sell photo-worthy food covertly at school to offset their losses. When he sprains his wrist and Gabi gets roped in to help, they realize they need to work together to save their parents’ shops but will the new feelings rising between them be enough to send their future plans up in smoke?

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Notes:

This link will take you to the entry on the author’s website about this book.

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Archivist Comments:

On the spreadsheet I use to keep track of all the books, I like to write little notes to myself about each one. This one said “It reads like a fanfiction /pos”. Specifically those “tattooist/florist” fics of old. Good times. /lh

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