The Donut Trap audiobook

Loved this book! Such a cute romance, but the main character navigating her way through life after college was what REALLY hit home for me! So dead on. And her family was to die for. I want to live in LA and run a donut shop now (but with her family, not mine. Love you fam, but no).

3.5 stars! The romance could've been stronger but I really enjoyed reading about a 2nd-generation Chinese-American immigrant heroine, her mess of a life, and her parents' donut shop.

read on my blog rep: Chinese-Cambodian-American protagonist and side characters, Chinese-American love interest, Vietnamese-American side character; (Chinese-Cambodian-American author) Alex and I shared more than a mutual attraction. After Sunday’s revelation, I saw him as someone trying to figure out himself and his place in his family, just like me. How could I not have a soft spot for that? As soon as I heard about this book when it was announced, I knew I had to read it! That desire turned out to be worth it because I absolutely adored this book. The Donut Trap follows Jasmine as she strikes up a romance with her old college crush, tries to keep her parents’ shop afloat, and most importantly, escape the donut trap.A year after graduating from college, Jasmine Tran is back living at home, working at her parents’ donut shop. Although they continually nag her about finding a job and a boyfriend, she struggles to find something she wants to do, much as she hates working at the shop. Change comes when her friend Linh sets her up with her once college crush, Alex. Her parents disapprove of him, so she has to see him in secret while also helping keep the store afloat and trying to find another job.From the very first page of this book, I was hooked. Jasmine’s voice shines off the page, and I heavily related to so many of her worries and experiences. She’s also so funny! You can’t help but root for her. This is Tieu’s debut, and I absolutely can’t wait to read more from her!While this book is published as an adult title, I think it would benefit from also being shelved as new adult. Jasmine recently graduated from college and is struggling to find what she wants to do other than just leaving the donut shop. Also, this is a romance book and the romance is a major part of it, but it balances so many other things with the romance parts. I’ll try to expand on this in the rest of my review. read my full review here alternate review:Okay, this book doesn't come out for 7 months but I NEED to share my love for it now! I was hooked from the very first page and genuinely couldn't put it down, which is a rare feeling for me now. Jasmine was such a relatable protagonist; her voice shines off the page and I can't wait to read more from this author!While this is an adult romance, I think it would also benefit from being considered new adult. Jasmine is only a year out of college, aimless and struggling to find what she wants to do. Although the romance is a major part of this book, it also explores Jasmine's complex relationship with her refugee parents and how, even if she hates working at the donut shop, she doesn't want to let them down or leave them with so much work after they've worked so hard to provide for her and her younger brother.I will say that I mostly expected a light rom-com just from the summary, mostly because it sensationalizes some of the events in the book. I mean, everything described does happen but I feel like it plays everything up. Anyways, I got something so much more multifaceted and lovely on top of the cute romance that I expected. This is definitely one of my favorite books of the year, and we're only about three months in. I can't recommend this book enough; add it to your tbr lists now!original review:this book was everything I ever needed oh my god we need more diasporic romance stories like this!!!

This review can also be found at https://carolesrandomlife.com/I had a good time with this book! I am somewhat impressed by the fact that I was able to resist the call of donuts despite being the fact that they were mentioned frequently throughout the story. And I do like donuts! I picked this book up because I was in the mood for something fun and light and this book fit the bill. I found this one to be a very enjoyable book.Jasmine has always worked at her parent’s donut shop. She started helping out when she was young and now that she is out of college she is there all the time. Her parents are immigrants and have always worked hard and expected a lot of Jasmine and her brother. When it is announced that the rent on the donut shop is going up, Jasmine knows that they need to increase their revenue so she comes up with some new ideas with her brother’s help. When her path crosses with her college crush, Alex, sparks fly right away. But is he too good to be true?I liked Jasmine a lot. The romance in this book is cute but it is just a small part of Jasmine’s journey in this story. Jasmine grows a lot in this book. She takes a lot of initiative with the donut shop and has some really important conversations with her parents. She also is working to find a job and move on from the donut shop. I did like the romance in the book and thought that Jasmine and Alex made a great pair once they worked through a few things.Natalie Naudus did a great job with the narration of this book. I thought that she did a great job with these characters and I found her voice to be very pleasant to listen to for long hours at a time. I believe that her narration added to my overall enjoyment f the story.I would recommend this book to others. I found this to be a very well done and entertaining story with fantastic characters. I will be looking out for more books by this talented author.I received a copy of this audiobook from HarperAudio via Libro.fm.Initial ThoughtsI liked this one quite a bit. The characters were easy to like and the narration was very well done.

Warning: will make you crave donuts 🍩 IN THE BEST WAY? Check out my full review here. ✨Sweet, relatable, funny, modern romance! The Donut Trap was such a fun romcom. I was laughing right from the beginning. I completely related to Jas internal dialogue the entire time, and I was over the moon to see the small awkward moments of a young adult romance. And I totally went to the Asian owned donut shop near me while reading this, because it had me craving donuts so badly!The Donut Trap follows a 22 year old Jasmine, who has recently graduated college and is back working at her parents’ donut shop while she decides what she wants to do with her life. But getting a job or a boyfriend isn’t so easy when your parents are constantly nagging you about it. Until the universe (or her best friend Linh) seems to be putting Alex, a long lost chance encounter crush from college, back in her path.I was so happy to see the Southeast Asian representation in this book. I say that we don’t see that enough, but I’ve been reading so much of Southeast Asian rep that my soul feels more full. Jasmine’s family escaped Cambodia, lived in Vietnam for a while before finally making it to their final destination, Southern California. They opened a donut shop and have been running it for all of Jas’ life. I loved reading about the donut shop, because I’ve been in many donut shops that are exactly like the one described. I had to go to the Asian owned donut shop near me, where they had some of the same exact specialty donuts mentioned in the book. I was overwhelmed and it was so fun to feel like I was walking directly into this book. The descriptions of the shop and the family were so perfect, I knew exactly what to picture. I loved it. Read more...*I received this book for free and am leaving this review voluntarily*Bookish Brews | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr

Oof, this book did such a beautiful job at capturing the uncertainties that can come after graduating college and not knowing what to do with your life. And the family dynamics and family pressure! When you're in school, it's the pressure to do well academically. Once you're out of school it's the pressure to find a partner and marry. Julie Tieu's writing voice is lovely and I look forward to reading more from her.

The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu is a very enjoyable light, funny, multicultural romance. And with a big donut on the cover, I just couldn’t resist this book. This is more than just a romance, it’s an emotional journey for Jasmine, and a journey for her family and her relationship with her traditional hard-working family. After graduating from UCLA, Jasmine Tran is still working in her family’s donut shop in the suburbs of Los Angeles, instead of following her dreams. Except she doesn’t know what her dreams are, so her life is on a constant loop, of work, Netflix, and donuts. When an old college crush shows up in her shop, her life begins to change. Alex is everything she’s been looking for, and everything her parents want her to marry. He’s Chinese and fluent in Mandarin, the language of her parents. But, after dinner with Alex, her parents, and his mother turns disastrous, Jasmine is not sure Alex is the man for her or she the woman for him. But, he’s made her realize she has to get her life in order before she can This book has everything I like. A light sweet romance, a family that loves her daughter, but may not show always know how to show their love, and some fun friends to round out the story. I think a lot of people can identify with a woman who finds herself a bit lost after graduating college, and also feel indebted to her family. Jasmine has to find a way in life, and this is her story. I thought the pacing was good, and the characters were all well developed. I thought Jasmine’s relationship with her parents was complex, and Jasmine’s journey to understand herself and what she wants for herself involved understanding her complex relationship with her parents. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Donut Trap is deeply charming rom-com that left me hungry for some donuts ! This is perfect blend of family and romance which I find is a really hard thing to balance in a romance books.The dynamic between Alex and Jasmine had me literally grinning from ear-to-ear at points. (What can I say? I'm a sucker for good banter.) Jasmine was such a great narrator and had great humor I love. Also,their romance was adorable.Julie Tieu writing flows and shines with grace and I highly recommend this heartwarming debut filled with captivating characters and an enjoyable plot.Special thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for an honest review.

As a romcom, The Donut Trap left a lot to be desired. However, as a post-college coming-of-age story, this story is awkward (in a totally relatable way!), compelling, and utterly endearing.Final thoughts to follow.Verdict? Recommended!🌻🍃 More bookish content on Shut up, Shealea 🍃🌻instagram • pinterest • twitter • ko-fi

This book is delightful and I found myself laughing out loud multiple times. There's a great supporting cast - I adore her mother! - and a good character arc for heroine, Jasmine Tran. I felt transported back home to where I grew up and wanted to be friends with Jasmine as she found her way.Jasmine is stuck. Stuck in a shop of full of sugar. Stuck with her parents. Stuck in her ritual music or TV evenings spent on her own. Her friends have moved on and her comfort zone is so appealing. But her best friend is leaving for law school and Jasmine needs to shake it up. And she has a lot to work out.Jasmine's awkward monologues are so me and I loved them. My only disappointment, really, is that my LI choice didn't end up being "the one" and I not-so-secretly hate when I'm wrong and root for the other guy.The narration by Natalie Naudus was pretty great. I love her voice and inflections.Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the advanced copy and Harper Audio for the alc. All thoughts in this review are my own.

Do you know the book is good when you stay up late, your eyes hurt but you just got to finish the book?Yep, this was that good. It was adorable, fluffy, funny, interesting, and cute! Made me laugh aloud and grin like a fool ALOT. Even though Jasmine judged kpop (though it seems like she changed her mind later ;)). Jasmine and Alex were so adorable, I can`t even.

3.5⭐ Thank you so much to Avon and Netgalley for providing an e-arc copy of this. All thoughts and opinions are still my own.This sweet contemporary wasn't at all what I was expecting but it still managed to steal my heart in the end. I went into this expecting a fun rom-com, and while this had a really sweet romance in it, I hesitate to call this a romance because the focus is really on the main characters personal journey. In here we're following Jasmine, a messy and lost Gen Z'er, who is trying to navigate her early 20s and find her place in her world and family. She has a strained relationship not only with herself but with her parents and their unfair expectations of her life. She feels trapped working and living with them but has no idea where to take her life after college.This book is heartfelt and raw and difficult to read at times because the things Jasmine is going through are real and frustrating. But I think it was just an accurate depiction of what it's like to be in your 20s and a little lost. I loved all the discussion of finding your place and what it's like to be the child of immigrant parents. There were so many poignant and heartfelt themes that pulled me into this story.But in the end I wanted more romance. Based on this synopsis and marketing of this book, I thought there would be so much more focus on the romance. When in fact, the date the synopsis mentions doesn't even happen until the 60% mark. And I found that somewhat frustrating. The bits of the romance we got were sweet and wonderful, but they were sporadic and infrequent. And while I liked how it ended and where the couple ended up, I was left a little disappointed by the romantic element of this book.Overall, I really loved what this book did and discussed, it just wasn't quite the book I intended when I picked it up. I would say go into this one as a familial contemporary with a hint of romance, rather than a fun, cutesy rom-com. Julie Tieu is a wonderful writer and definitely and definitely an author I will have my eye on in the future. Side note - if you're an audiobook listener, this is narrated by Natalie Naudus who is an absolutely fantastic narrator. She did such an amazing job of bringing each character to life and pulling me into this story. Definitely worth checking out if you enjoy audiobooks!

I know I may be on the minority of romance readers who LOVE a story that gives us so much more than just the rainbows and sunshine happily ever after relationship, but for me, books like THE DONUT TRAP give me hope. Life is messy, and while I love reading for the escape, to me the best part is being able to feel like the characters are like dear friends, with character growth and troubles that I can relate to much like our main character Jasmine. Maybe it's where I'm at in my own world, but having protagonists who struggle, not just in love but in life, and seeing how they overcome the obstacles put in their way makes the book so much more meaningful to me. While all of the things happening all at once could have seemed overwhelming - a love triangle, her relationship with her family, looking for a new job - to me Tieu wrote this heartwarming debut in a way that had me rooting for her and appreciating how each of us are so much more than just one part of our lives. Thank you to Avon Books for the advance reader copy, and for Julie + @ilashreads for organizing our loveARCtually buddy read and Zoom. I really enjoyed this one, and the glimpse at the variety of Chinese cultures and family dynamics included in this title and hearing Julie talk about her own experience made me love the book even more.

This should be labeled Fiction instead of Romance...so go into it with that in mind. The romance isn't the main plot point or at least not as much as the coming-of-age storyline for the main character Jas. The book does end with a BTS concert so....I'll give it 4 stars

3.5 StarsReview to come!

The story revolves around Jasmine who has worked in her family's donut shop every since she was a kid. Being a child of immigrant parents, the responsibilities and expectations for her to succeed was immense. After graduating from college though, Jasmine finds herself right back working in the donut shop with no sense of what she should do with her life and feeling like she has failed not only herself but her family as well.After a chance encounter with a college crush, Jasmine soon realizes that her dreams of happiness and living her own life may just be around the corner! Jasmine I feel was like a lot of early 20 year olds who are just trying to find their own place in this world. With finding out who they are, their dreams, how they will be able to provide for themselves without relying solely on their parents, and possibly finding love in the process as well! One can say Jasmine's parents were pretty harsh on her with constantly prodding her about what she was going to do with her life and also meddling in her love life. But in retrospect, all of their concerns were coming from a place of love. They just wanted her to be safe, happy, and be able to live her life without suffering and challenges like they did. Now the romance in this one was pretty tame. But I did like how Jasmine and Alex actually had a more relatable type of relationship. As they seemed to have gotten to know each other more on a deeper level. But I definitely feel like this one reads more like a contemporary women's ficton than romance and I didn't even mind it at all!