Books like Pho Love Story

Pho Love Story by Loan Le reads as lighthearted, hopeful. These 12 books share its genome — matched by how they actually read, not just their shelf label.

What Pho Love Story is like to read

A warm, banter-filled YA rom-com where family duty and first love collide over competing pho restaurants — light conflict, sweet payoff. Best for: readers who liked When Dimple Met Rishi and want a food-centric, family-feud romance with a guaranteed happy ending.

Love and Gelato

Jenna Evans Welch · 2016

A tender YA travelogue that pairs a grieving teen's Italian summer with the tug of first romance and the slow unraveling of her mother's secrets.

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Love from A to Z

S. K. Ali · 2019

A dual-diary romance between two Muslim teens that braids first-love sweetness with the real weight of Islamophobia and activism.

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The Kissing Booth

Beth Reekles · 2012

A frothy teen romance built around a high-school kissing-booth meet-cute and a bad-boy love interest, with the described tension of heart-vs-head pulling toward drama.

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FAKE SKATING

Lynn Painter · 2025

A cozy, banter-driven YA romcom that reunites childhood best friends and forces them into a fake-dating charade while family wounds and old feelings resurface.

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The Summer of Broken Rules

K. L. Walther · 2021

A sun-soaked Martha's Vineyard wedding week where a family game of Assassin becomes the scaffolding for grief, flirtation, and healing.

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Everything, Everything

Nicola Yoon · 2015

A quick, tender YA romance told through diary snippets, texts, charts, and doodles that make a claustrophobic premise feel airy and playful.

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Call It What You Want

Alissa DeRogatis · 2023

A nostalgic 2016-set situationship story that leans into the ache of falling for someone who won't fully let you in.

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To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Jenny Han · 2014

A warm, confiding first-person YA romance where a shy daydreamer's private love letters become embarrassingly public — sweet, funny, and full of sisterly family texture rather than high-drama angst.

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My life with the Walter boys

Ali Novak · 2014

A grieving city teen lands in a chaotic household of twelve boys, where found-family warmth cushions her grief and two brothers complicate her heart.

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If He Had Been with Me

Laura Nowlin · 2013

A quiet, diaristic slow burn of what-ifs that lulls you with ordinary teenage life before gutting you — the appeal is the ache, not the plot mechanics.

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The Princess Diaries, Volume VII

Meg Cabot · 2006

A witty, confiding coming-of-age romp through the absurd collision of teen angst and royal protocol, anchored by Mia's endearing first-person voice and her warm, often hilarious fumbling toward self-discovery and romance.

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