ARC Review: Bingsu for Two by Sujin Witherspoon

Posted January 15, 2025 by Lisa Mandina in Review / 8 Comments

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

ARC Review:  Bingsu for Two by Sujin WitherspoonBingsu for Two by Sujin Witherspoon
Published by Union Square and Co on January 14, 2025
Genres: YA Contemporary Romance
Pages: 320
Source: the publisher
Format: ARC
My Rating: five-stars
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Blurb:

This outrageously charming and infuriatingly adorable enemies-to-lovers coffee shop romance is perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Better Than the Movies.

Meet River Langston-Lee. In the past 24 hours, he’s dumped his girlfriend, walked out of his SATs, and quit his job at his parents’ cafe in spectacularly disastrous fashion—even for him.

Somehow, he manages to talk his way into a gig at a failing Korean cafe, Bingsu for Two, which is his lucky break until he meets short, grumpy, and goth: Sarang Cho. She’s his new no-BS co-worker who’s as determined to make River’s life hell as she is to save her family’s cafe.

After River accidentally uploads a video of his chaotic co-workers to his popular fandom account, they strike viral fame. The kicker? Their new fans ship River and Sarang big-time. In order to keep the Internet’s attention—and the cafe’s new paying customers—River and Sarang must pretend that the tension between them is definitely of the romantic variety, not the considering the best way to kill you and hide your body variety.

But when Bingsu for Two’s newfound success catches the attention of River’s ex and his parents’ cafe around the corner, he faces a choice: keep letting others control his life or stand up for the place that’s become home. And a green-haired girl who’s not as heartless as he originally thought . . .

Wow, three YA contemporary romances in a row! Fortunately I think, while the last two kind of had a theme about figuring out how to be a better girlfriend/boyfriend, this one might have more to do with just a teen trying to figure things out, and more of a funny enemies to lovers trope to it. This book had me literally laughing out loud once again. The snarkiness and sarcasm between all the characters was perfect. I know some people might not think that is a good way to be, but it is my family and my friends, so I loved it.

I also was cracking up constantly over the little things River would think about Sarang because she was short (I am also very short, only 5 feet tall, so loved this!). When he thought to himself, “Why are short people so scary?” All of the characters were so interesting and full of color and jumped off the page for me. It was totally clear what was going to really come back and bite River in the butt at the end, what would cause the big blowup, but that didn’t matter. Because there were so many other things happening, and with all these wonderful characters, in the end he wasn’t the only one who had to apologize or make up for something.

His family, especially his father, wow, it was easy to see why he was so scared to tell them, even as I kept wanting him to just come clean earlier in the book about his new job. His ex-girlfriend, wow, I wanted to punch her so many times. And then the betrayal by one member of the group at the end hit hard. I couldn’t believe how far she went, even with the way she felt about what drove her to that point.

This story had so many good parts, so much humor, and lots of emotional bits as well. I once again enjoyed reading about all the different foods. And while I really kind of want to try bingsu, I also just can’t picture beans, even supposedly “sweet” beans, mixed with shaved ice and fruit. Beans, other than jelly beans, are not sweet to me. It’s kind of like the whole beans on toast thing, it just seems weird to me! But maybe some day I’ll try bingsu!

Sujin Witherspoon is a Korean-American author, artist, and lover of words she can’t pronounce. She gravitates towards stories that will either plague her nightmares or make her stomach hurt from laughter–no in between. Having earned her degree in English from the University of Washington, she spends her time writing, thinking about writing, or exploring Seattle. You can find her online at sujinwitherspoon.com

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8 responses to “ARC Review: Bingsu for Two by Sujin Witherspoon

  1. Sounds like this was a fun read with all the humor it has. And I like the sound of how they try different foods in the book, I like a food theme in books and the Korean cafe setting sounds interesting.

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