This is at least 75% me and the mood I was in when I was reading this, but this one didn't do it for me. I think the other 25% of it not hitting the way I hoped it would is because I think it's a bit mischaracterized as a romance/romcom, and I think many readers are likely to feel the same disappointment.

Jas is a recent college grad, trying to navigate post-school life when her pre-med plans went out the window a few years into college. While she's working to figure it out, she is working in her parents' donut shop. By a remarkable coincidence, her best friend's boyfriend has a new roommate, who just happens to be the guy she sold tickets to once to a college game and has had in the back of her mind ever since. Around the same time, her high school ex (who was a secret from her parents because she was sure they wouldn't approve) also stumbles back into her life. And she is also thinking about stepping away from the donut shop, but doesn't feel like she can leave her parents hanging, even though they've encouraged her to pursue a career.

There were things I thought were really well done here. I think the representation of the tension and unintended conflict between immigrant parents and their first generation American-born kids feels spot on. Having friends who have experiences similar tension, the expectations and language barriers and even culture shock were portrayed pretty accurately. It's awesome to see a book written by an east Asian author writing about east Asian characters. The directionlessness and feeling of being unskilled was spot-on for my experience post-college.

That said, I personally would label this more literary fiction. (To be fair, the first category listed on Netgalley is general fiction, with romance listed third, so that's probably my bad for not paying more attention to that.) The focus is really not on the romance; it is on Jas and her family and her growth as a new adult. I wouldn't consider the endpoint an HEA, which is like the one hallmark of romances. Even if it could be considered a romance, I did not feel any sort of chemistry of relationship development between Jasmine and Alex. Additionally, I don't think this book passed the Bechdel test. Jas's best friend is one-dimensional and serves as a plot device to connect Jas to Alex and to encourage Jas to pursue him. Even though I didn't feel the chemistry between Jasmine and Alex, I did feel the jealousy, in a way that made me feel uncomfortable considering they weren't even calling each other boyfriend/girlfriend yet. Especially given Jasmine's reveal that the one time that Alex bought tickets from her in college, she was so smitten by that one interaction, that she looked up his phone number in the system so she could call him. The fact that she never did doesn't negate that's a total invasion of privacy, and while I think it's realistic that a college-age person would have a lack of critical reasoning to realize that, I wish it had been less glossed over and seen as a cute anecdote.

This book felt disjointed and like it couldn't figure out exactly what it wanted to be. Which, to be fair, is also how recent college grads feel so maybe that was the intention. But it's not one that I'll be thinking about after finishing, and it's not one that I would really feel confident handselling to readers.