“A sweet love story of self-discovery and mutual support”
(Kirkus Reviews), this slice-of-life companion to A Pho Love
Story follows two Vietnamese American students who find themselves at
a crossroads—between family expectations, personal identity, and relationships.
To his friends back home, Viet Ho is calm and collected and a lovable oddball
who nurses an obsession with forensic science. He’s relieved to escape to UC
Davis and escape from being caught between his feuding bickering immigrant
parents. But with the whirlwind of campus life and the weight of his depression
pressing in, Viet begins to wonder if he can truly outrun the version of
himself he left behind.
Evie Mai is the classic overachiever: a junior biology major, model eldest
daughter, and girlfriend to a charming, well-connected future doctor. But while
her résumé is flawless, her relationship is fraying—and she’s starting to
question whether the future she’s worked so hard for is one she actually wants.
Hoping to reconnect, she and her boyfriend both join a student-run clinic, but
the experience reveals just how out of sync they’ve become.
When an awkward accident throws Viet and Evie together, a friendship sparks
over shared memories, late-night conversations, and quiet support neither of
them knew they needed. As their bond deepens, so does the pull between
them—challenging everything they thought they knew about love, family, and what
it means to belong.
A slow-burn romance that is tender and quietly powerful, Solving for
the Unknown is about stepping off the path you were told to follow—and
finding something unexpectedly beautiful in the process.
About the Author
Loan Le is the author of Solving for the
Unknown and A Pho Love Story, a YA rom-com that earned
praise from NPR, PopSugar, Bustle, Bon Appetit, USA
TODAY, and BuzzFeed. She published her YA speculative short
story in the anthology Firsts & Lasts.
Loan is also a senior editor at Atria Books, where she
acquires genre-bending adult fiction.
When she isn’t writing young adult novels, she’s making
sourdough bread, trying to keep her plants alive, watching true crime
documentaries, and working on her adult novel.
