Loan Le’s YA romance novel A Phở Love Story is a contemporary Romeo and Juliet retelling with Vietnamese American characters: Bảo Nguyễn and Linh Mai. The chapters alternate between Bảo and Linh’s focalizations. I typically enjoy alternating perspectives; however, I did get perplexed at times because the writing for both characters was almost identical. Linh and Bảo are quite similar because of the way they were raised up: working at their parents’ Vietnamese restaurants and navigating through their own dreams and the familial expectations pressed upon them. I wonder how the book would look like if the two characters were more distinct and contrasting because then it would further differentiate…