Review:
A year ago, Dylan had hoped to enter a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making contest with his mother. Then she got sick. Now that she's gone, Dylan lives with his aunt and cousin and helps out at his aunt's Chinese takeout place, Wok Warriors. He still wants to enter the mooncake-making contest in his mother's memory, but another benefit of the contest would be the possibility of getting Wok Warriors some desperately needed publicity. His aunt does her best to hide it, but Dylan's painfully aware she can barely make ends meet.
One evening, Dylan fills in for their delivery guy and gets yelled at by a customer for bringing an incorrect order. The one bright spot was that he got an eyeful of the guy's rich and hot boyfriend, Theo. It surprises Dylan when Theo stops by to apologize for his friend Adrian's behavior. The two of them get to talking, and Dylan happens to mention Wok Warriors' money issues...only for Dylan's aunt to later get a surprise "small business grant" for exactly the amount Dylan mentioned. Dylan doesn't feel comfortable accepting the money, so Theo tells him he can be his fake date to an upcoming family wedding if that will make him feel better about it.
The first part of this, with the wedding, reminded me strongly of Crazy Rich Asians, and if I remember right there were even a couple references to it. Theo's family had lots of underlying drama that he didn't bother to inform Dylan about beforehand. It seemed like every guy in Theo's family sucked in some way.
The part with the mooncake-making contest had some really predictable elements (I knew how things were going to go with that one special ingredient the instant it was mentioned), but I still enjoyed it and wished I could try one of Dylan's mooncakes.
All in all, this was a sweet and enjoyable read despite a few irksome minor characters. Dylan was a sweetie, and I liked seeing how things worked out between him and Theo.
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