I enjoy seeing new books out there in the atmosphere and latching onto them quickly. I am always glad to read about characters from different walks of life. There is nothing better to me than reading a book for pleasure and learning something new. So to that note…. Amazon recommended (based on my other purchases) The Doughnut Trap by Julie Tieu. I knew this was going to be an interesting read because it started off with a TW. (Trigger Warning.) Full disclosure: The Donut Trap is less a pure romance, and more so a coming-of-age story with romantic elements.

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. We all know the stories in which a 22 year old graduates and knows exactly where they want their lives to go. Those who have always known what they want to do, I envied those people. It was nice to see a story about a person coming home from college and does not have a plan. I felt I understood Jas, her overbearing parents being judgmental every chance they get… and not understanding that it made life hard on her.

Her parents, on the other hand, have a reason to be overprotective and sometimes overbearing… 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. Jasmine’s parents sacrificed and suffered so that their children would have better lives, but at times, Jasmine feels like she and her brother are the sacrifices. They feel bowed down under a weight of expectation and obligation, and the result is that they both resort to hiding important parts of their lives from their parents.

I doubt that after college Jasmine thought that she would end up working at her parents donut shop again but she is not only working there from 6 am -10pm but she is also moved back in with them. She is supposed to be hunting for a ‘real’ job, and maybe even a boyfriend… but with the constraints on her time… this list is only being worked on in theory. However, her hours also form a handy excuse to avoid thinking about difficult things, or socializing with her friends from school and college, who are moving on with their lives and careers in a way that Jasmine feels she is not. Comparison is the thief of joy but as a young person that is hard to remember.

Things become complicated when her old boyfriend Michael resurfaces and her college crush, Alex Lai, comes back into her life. Jas reconnects with Alex Lai, who turns out to be hot, successful, and sweeter than she’d imagined. He introduces her to hiking, she introduces him to Dodgers baseball, and their chemistry is off the charts. There is a reason that she hides things from her parents. They are already talking about marriage while Jas is still trying to figure out if she and Alex are actually exclusive. They were doing too much and I know the feeling. Michael, on the other hand, shows up wanting to at least be friends. While their relationship was great, Michael was annoyed that Jas never let him all the way in. She didn’t want her family to see her with him… So he always felt as though she was keeping him at arms length or embarrassed to be seen with him. He didn’t her family dynamic. What I also found interesting was that while Jas lied about Michael, she was offended when Alex did the same thing to his mom about her. Eventually Jasmine does realize how much her actions hurt her ex, because she’s hurting. Unlike her, Alex immediately acknowledges he’s at fault and explains his complicated relationship with his mom, and while I appreciated Jasmine’s fierce demand for respect, I didn’t appreciate that she couldn’t see Alex’s point of view—since she did maybe worse than Alex by simply refusing to acknowledge the existence of her ex at all.

After the dinner that her parents forced her to invite Alex and mom to come to… Things don’t go as well as she had hoped. Jas feels less than adequate since she doesn’t speak Madarin all that fluently and Alex is perturbed because he wasn’t raised by his mother… And let’s face it… She’s uppity and looking down on Jas’s family. Alex is mad at his mom, Jas is mad at Alex, Jas’s parents are mad at Alex and his mom…. Her mother tells her that she needs to end the relationship… and that she is not allowed to marry Alex. That statement took me out because they had only been out on a few dates and were still feeling each other out.

When the rent rises on Sunshine Donuts, Jas’s overworked parents are stubbornly unwilling to shake things up and make the business more profitable. They don’t even want to raise prices. That would make me want to jump out of a window. If I had been younger, I would’ve thought that her parents were just out to be annoying and overbearing… now that I am older, I understand that her parents were worried about Jas… and they have a serious generational gap that needs work to be bridged. As Chinese-Cambodian immigrants, Jas’s parents came to the US as refugees and worked their entire lives to give her and her younger brother a future. Jas isn’t happy with their plan for her life and their constant observations about her life, but she struggles “to find the right words to explain how I was feeling without coming across as ungrateful.” You can feel her frustration and helplessness as she repeatedly tries and fails to connect with her parents particularly her mother. 

In the end, I enjoyed that book touched on the struggles people have with transitioning into adulthood. There is this notion that everyone just knows what to do and that everyone can just get a job after graduating. Sometimes it is not that easy. The other thing is many young people do not know… it is not always what you know but who you know. When Jas starts seeing past the embarrassment, and meeting with old friends… They help her look over her resume and find an in at another job. It is something we need to talk about more often.

I realize into the book that this book isn’t necessarily centered on romance. I felt like we could have gotten more fleshed out information on him and his family. Alex disappears for a good portion of the book. And the book definitely centers Jasmine’s personal growth and relationship with her parents more than the romantic arc. But I will also say… I am not sure that Jasmine actually experiences personal growth. Her lies are all just found out. I would give it a 3 out 5 stars.