Solving for the Unknown

In this sweet, incredibly heartfelt companion to A Pho Love Story, Vietnamese Americans Viet and Evie juggle family expectations with their desire to forge their own path in between college classes and falling in love.

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 head off to UC Davis and escape from being in the middle of his bickering immigrant parents. Yet, on campus and with the school year unfolding at an overwhelming pace, Viet struggles to belong and to keep his depression hidden.

Evie Mai is a junior biology major and the eldest daughter who has never trod far off the beaten path. She has everything: good grades, a solid group of friends, and a smart, ambitious boyfriend, who’s the son of a well-connected university board member. But their busy schedules, as well as their interests, no longer align. Determined to close the distance, she and her boyfriend both apply to a student-run clinic for underserved communities. But will that save or expose the gaps in their relationship?

When a clumsy accident brings Viet and Evie together, they bond over their shared hometown and similar history--and their orbits grow smaller as their friends collide. The more time they spend with each other and support each other, mentally and emotionally, the more their friendship shifts into something else.

A sweet, emotional slice-of-life story, Solving for the Unknown is about characters questioning the paths they have taken and finding a new path that will lead them to their happiest selves.

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 trying to make sourdough bread, watching true crime documentaries, and working on her adult novel. Visit her website at WriterLoanLe.com and find her on X @LoanLoan and Instagram @LoanLoanLe.