Crunchy Orange Chicken

by Trey Lari

Kaden, a shy fifteen-year-old baking nerd, is just trying to make it through the stormy seas of high school. Enter Hunter, the dreamy swim jock who crashes Kaden’s gaming session with his bestie, Gabby. Kaden, being the ultimate wingman, hatches a plan to get Gabby noticed by this Adonis in a swimsuit. But hold up, because Kaden’s protective bro, Jacob, is convinced that Hunter’s flirty vibes are aimed at none other than our sweet, oblivious Kaden. Cue the internal panic and heart palpitations every time Hunter so much as breathes in Kaden’s direction.

Just as Kaden is ready to dive headfirst into this pool of confusing emotions, a devastating tragedy cannonballs into his life, threatening to drown his already chaotic family.

Kaden must tread the treacherous waters of falling for the boy of his dreams while desperately trying to keep his family afloat. He’ll have to embark on a journey of self-discovery, and sacrifice, learning that sometimes, you’ve got to risk it all to find your way to happiness.

“Crunchy Orange Chicken” is perfect for fans of “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda” and “Heartstopper.”

Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult, Queer, LGBT

378 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 22, 2024

Reviews

[Олександр Грозов · Rating 5 out of 5]

Серед купи книжок, придбаних на розпродажах Амазон, я знайшов просто неймовірно приємно історію. Ця книжка однозначно є одною з найкращих прочитаних за місяць.
Ця історія розповідається з боку двох чоловіків.
Перший, п'ятнадцятирічний хлопець Кейден. Він живе з двома матерями та братом Джейкобом. Він дуже тихий та сором'язливий. Обожнює готувати, а ще таємно закоханий у найкращого друга свого брата Хантера. Але настільки невпевнений у собі, що навіть не помічає очевидний флірт з боку Хантера.
Другий чоловік, це Дункан. Біологічний батько Джейкоба та Кейдена. І мене приємно вразило, що автор зробив його напів українцем.
Також є глави від однієї з матерів хлопців. Це були дуже приємні глави про дитинство хлопців. Ці сторінки викликали у мене сльози через те, що я знаю, чим це закінчиться.
Мені дуже сподобалася книжка, особливо гумор Джейкоба.
Єдине, що зовсім трохи зіпсувало враження, це остання третина книжка. Сюжет цієї частини книжки був занадто швидким порівняно з першими 66% книги. Не сподобалося, як швидко всі проблеми вирішилися.
Але це однозначно гарна книжка, яку я рекомендую до прочитання.

[Sofia Kroeze · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars, had niet verwacht dat die zo goed zou zijn 😭 zo veel gehuild

[SaBine · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
5 ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
no 🌶

This was so good: the story had me in tears, laughing out loud (mostly because of Jacob), melting from the sweetness.

I didn’t really read the blurb, so I was a bit confused at the beginning because I couldn’t make out the main mc's: the teenage boys Kaden and Hunter, or the adult Duncan and Chip who are already together. But as I kept reading the story evolved beautifully

[Rick Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfection

This one hit all the right notes, for me. Beautiful story. Exceptional characters. This is a story of remarkable love, heartbreaking loss and soul soothing redemption. And, it's so much more, as well.

The teen brothers are absolutely incredible. The love and devotion between Jacob and Kaden is written exceptionally well. You can feel it every time they react with each other. Especially during Kadens panic episodes.

Every character was so well thought out and presented. From Roz and Angie, to Hunter and Gabby and then, Duncan and Chip. I felt so much love for all of them in this novel.

I definitely think there is so much more to read about in Kaden and Jacobs story and development. Let's head to college with Kaden and Hunter. Let's go on the exploratory journey of Jacob finding his true love. Let's even possibly go back and tell more of the beautiful love between Roz and Angie.

Thank you, Trey Lari for the noveland the feels. Please, consider writing a sequel to Crunchy Orange Chicken.

[Steve Wylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jacob and Kaden are half-brothers whose moms are a lesbian couple who decided to each bear a child fathered by the same man, their good friend Duncan, who is gay. The boys are born within days of each other, but Duncan does not have any involvement in their life. Tragedy strikes, and the boys are left without parents, forcing Duncan to confront his fears about being a parent (he only wanted to be a sperm donor) as well as the boys relationships with each other and the world around them.

This story is full of joy, sadness, grief, anxiety, but most importantly, of love and self-discovery. I enjoyed the book very much and recommend it highly.

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

a real life story.

To date Trey has published 2 books that I know of. I have read both and absolutely loved them. There were so many possibilities of this being a very dark story but instead it was filled with so much lover it became a (can’t put it down) story. Trey will be on my authors to follow list. Take my word for it, you will love this book if you choose to read it. The story is so real and feels like a real life story.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best coming of age YA books I have ever read! Five stars for this emotional, heart felt, portrayal of young love ( and mature love, too).

[Elena · Rating 2 out of 5]

aburridoooooo

[SebFox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clunky emotional drama

A book told by three characters across multiple timelines shouldn’t really work..but it kind of does.. Now the story is quite far fetched in some of its plotting, especially the second half, and so much of the drama is so forced that you really have to suspend your disbelief. But if you can manage that and just go with everything, then you might enjoy the emotional ride the author is trying to set up.

“Crunchy orange chicken” tells the story of Kaden as he starts to fall for his brothers best friend just as a tragic accident happens. And for the first half of the book the story has a nice believable quality of two mothers bringing up two teenage boys. The characters of the brothers are interesting and also very different in many ways. My favourite brother was Jacob. He lights up every scene he’s in, and his playful humour will have you chuckling as you hear all his unfiltered teenage boy banter. Kaden, on the other hand is the complete opposite. Where Jacob is confident, sociable and lighthearted, Kaden is very insular, has panic attacks and over analyses every situation. Now these may not sound like nice qualities, particularly given he’s the main narrator throughout this book, but there’s something quite endearing about him especially as he tries to make his way through life. However when the book takes its big dramatic turn the plot becomes so unbelievable that I found myself groaning out loud. Don’t get me wrong there are some great scenes with the two boys and with Duncan, but the melodrama and the forced move just felt so clunky. I really wish the author had not tried to do all the custody stuff with the grandparents and all the fake breakups and forced moves, as this could’ve ended up being a really excellent book. By trying to add too much drama, too much overly forced drama, he took away from the subtle emotional threads that he’d been weaving during the first half of the book. If only he had focused on the boys relationship with their Dad and made that the main focus, this book would’ve been so much the better for it. But as I said, if you can get past some of the heavy handed plotting, this was quite the tearjerker.

However for me, a lot of the plotting that made up the second half of this book made this a 3 stars book. However, given the great character dialogue from Jacob, and the cute flirty scenes between Kaden and Hunter, I found myself nudging this up an extra a star. The flashback scenes, and in particular the epilogue, really added some emotional weight and I truly applaud the author for what he was trying to do. I hope that in future books we see the same emotional drama grounded in a slightly more believable plot as this author definitely knows how to pluck at your heart strings

[Ulysses Dietz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crunchy Orange Chicken
By Trey Lari
Published by Oclari Publishing, 2024
Five stars

I loved this book because the author gives the reader a lot more than the title and cover might suggest. Essentially, this is the story of two distinct romances that become intertwined by circumstances, and end up transforming each other.

The “cover story” is about two young men living in a Florida suburb. Indeed, it’s a classic trope in YA romance: nerd and jock. Jacob and Kaden Rivera-Watson are brothers. Jacob is a jock (swim team), and his brother Kaden is a nerd with (no surprise) anxiety issues. The brothers are very close—something I really loved. They share a passion for a particular online fantasy game with two close friends, Gabriella Ruiz and Hunter Gan. Hunter is Jacob’s best friend and is on the swim team with him. Gabby is Kaden’s best friend, and they both have a crush on Hunter.

This teen romance gets added texture from the fact that Jacob and Kaden have two moms, Angie (who is Filipina) and Roz (who is Irish). Hunter is Korean. Jacob and Kaden speak both Filipino and Spanish.

The next twist is that the boys share a father—who is unknown to them. That father, who has been friends with Roz Watson since childhood, is Duncan Valentyn. Duncan lives in North Carolina, and is just beginning a serious relationship with a younger man named Chip Masterson. Duncan has never been involved with the lives of the two boys he sired—which was their mothers’ intention. The fact that the author introduces us to this adult male romance is, of course, no accident.

The actual plot of the book is neither about the teen romance or the adult one; it is about a tragedy that brings the two story-lines together and changes everyone’s life. The driving force of the book is love in all its powerful variety: parents’ love for their children; siblings love for each other; gay men of two generations trying to find love for themselves. By means of carefully calibrated flashbacks, each with a specific purpose, the reader experiences the tragedy as a catalyst. We see love in all its variations. We share in the joy and sorrow, the pain and healing, that love brings.

Trey Lari’s story resonated deeply with me, giving laughter and tears in equal parts. Lari’s characters are marvelous, especially Jacob and Kaden. “Crunchy Orange Chicken” is not just a teen love story, but a family saga, rich and complicated as only family can be.

[Courtney Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really cute book. I struggled with it at the beginning because I was expecting a cute YA queer romance. Instead I was met with a book full of heart, love and loss. The synopsis of the book really does a disservice to the book in my opinion.

This story follows 2 main characters with flashbacks of a third.

The first main character is Kaden, a queer boy, raised by his lesbian moms with a brother (Jacob) who is a few days older than him. He’s riddled with anxiety, trying to figure out what labels he wants to use, and desperate to win a cake baking competition he has lost 3 years in a row to his archnemesis.

The second character is Duncan, both of the boys biological father, who is trying to navigate a new relationship, post covid.

The flashbacks occur via Roz, Kaden and Jacob’s mom and Duncan’s childhood friend.

All of that together is already a lot, but add to that tragedy of the moms dying 15% into the book and you’ve got a whole mess of stuff.

Do not read past this point if you haven’t read the spoiler text above!!!

Not only is Duncan now having to meet his kids for the first time, he is also having to navigate a newish relationship, the guilt of only one of the boys being accepted by one set of grandparents, and the potential custody battle that he never thought he would have to face. All of that on top of and because of his best friend since kindergarten dying in a car accident.

Look, this book could have gotten messy real quick. There was a lot going on with family drama, homophobic grandparents, custody battles, self worth issues, coming out, and more. But it really wasn’t messy at all.

Part of this is due to the way it was written. It was a bit ‘childish’ and could have used some more editing. There was also a crazy amount of ‘pet names’ that felt so out of place. But the heart and the characters felt (mostly) real and made me really root for them.

This was a really good book but lacked some things in execution, but it more than made up for it in heart.

[Robert Fontenot · Rating 2 out of 5]

In some ways, this feels like a bait and switch. All the characters in the cover do exist. They hardly feel like the focus of the novel. I don’t need quite so much backstory on the parents, I don’t really need the flashbacks, indeed, this book suffers with severe lack of editing. The dual POV leads to multiple instances of the exact same scene playing out from two different characters’ perspectives. This has a way of stopping narrative momentum and dragging everything out. Dual POV can be done well and often adds a huge amount to the narrative but here each switch in POV often means rewinding the clock hours or days in a way that is needlessly disorienting. In addition, the dialogue is very rough and I cringed almost any time any character tried to make a joke.

Ultimately, I’m not sure who this book is for. I’m not sure that many young gay teens are going to connect that well with a 40 year-old gay man’s body issues or the lingering trauma from his failed relationship with an alcoholic. Nor is this particularly the place for a discussion about a women’s proactive double mastectomy. It’s interesting texture, but not necessarily relevant to the story. This book has no right to be 370 pages long and it’s bits like this that help get it there.

There’s also the pandemic of it all. This book came out in 2024 and the narrative is constantly referring back to the pandemic and the lockdown in a way that instantly dates it. Pandemic literature started coming out pretty much immediately after the lockdown hit, but the further you get away from it, the harder it becomes to fit it into a narrative in a useful way. This can be particularly hard with children’s literature, where the specificity of the timeframe can really cramp the story. If this had come out two years earlier, it might’ve still felt vital or had come out 10 years from now it might’ve felt like an intriguing period piece but right now it just feels irrelevant.

[PaperMoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a rare YA novel that gets a 5 star rating from me but these days, any read that can make me tear up repeated gets the 5 star treatment. The characters were all wonderfully crafted and the plot kept me fully engaged throughout a single reading.

[Rosina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so lovely! I loved it so much, I loved the epilogue! It was so cute.
I went into it thinking it was more focused on the romance but it wasn't, and that was a surprise, but not in a bad way!!
It was a wonderful, heartwarming story!!

[Urban Andenius Skeppstedt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartwarmingly good!

This is such a cute, altogether nice, and feel good story. If you’re looking for that. Look no further. But if gloom and doom is more to your liking, this one’s not for you. :)

[Chris Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feel Good Coming of Age

This was a fun read about gay coming of age. Focused more on relationships and feelings. The book explored some heavy themes but did a good job or keeping the comedic relief to balance it out.

[Dawn Evans Editions Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coming of age, young summer queer romance