Review: Yin Yang Love Song

I’ve been reading Lauren Kung Jessen’s books since her debut novel, Lunar Love, was published in 2023. Yin Yang Love Song, just out last month, is her latest and was just what I expected from her books. It was full of Chinese American characters, a swoony romance, and delicious food.

Here’s the book’s description:

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.

It’s like Chryssy’s whole cursed love life has been leading up to this moment. But all it takes is one kiss—and a whole lot of unexpected chemistry—to land both of them in hot water . . .

I love a good fake dating trope and this one was delightful. Chryssy and Vin got off on the wrong foot, too, so they had to work to get used to each other (while living in the same cottage!) while also pretending to date. Which is totally a chill thing when one of them is a superstar cellist. I liked the twist on the trope in that the people closest to them Chryssy’s aunties and Vin’s brother) knew the truth so they had a safe space to be themselves without trying to be fake all the time. I think that really allowed their relationship to flourish and become real. (And we all love that moment when the fake becomes real!)

Some of the promotions and marketing of the tea in the book seemed a bit…weird? It sometimes seemed like Chryssy and her aunts knew exactly what they were doing and other times they were throwing money at strange marketing expenses. This is an odd thing to focus on, I know. But I work in communications and for some reason my brain decided to hyperfixate. It’s hard to show a plan in a novel, I know, but when some details were included, I just wondered why others were being excluded.

Random aside: I don’t know what kind of rabbit Gogi was but I was very happy to have a bunny rep in this romance! (And also happy that it didn’t make me sad after losing my own rabbit in late 2024!) I do have to wonder why, in this age of putting all the pets on all the covers, he wasn’t represented but I suppose I’ll get over it! Ha! But seriously. It’s always nice to have a pet that’s not a cat or dog mentioned in a novel, even when they’re not present for much of the story.

Now, I’m not one to believe in curses (or believe in much of anything, tbh), so it was tough to get over the idea that the whole family was convinced the curse was real and they (mostly) all blamed their relationship problems on that (instead of, you know, taking agency and owning their lives and choices). I did, however, enjoy how the women came together to try to get to the bottom of the curse and were able to learn more about their (true) family history. It was a really nice family moment and I appreciated seeing a family different from my own on the pages and getting to know them.

All in all, I’m happy to have read Yin Yang Love Song. Lauren Kung Jessen’s latest novel was sweet and full of characters I loved getting to know. I look forward to reading whatever she writes next.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Forever, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*