Cold Tea Reads: 15 AANHPI Books celebrating love in all forms

February is the month of love, and love exists in many forms.

Love within AANHPI storytelling is expansive. It shows up as romance, yes, but also as healing, chosen family, cultural memory, self-reclamation, and community care. These stories challenge the idea that love only looks one way, centering intimacy shaped by migration, queerness, gender, disability, friendship, and belonging.

This Cold Tea Collective Reads highlights books by AANHPI authors that explore love in its many forms, from self-acceptance to romantic desires to the bonds that sustain us.

Self-Love and healing

Stories about reclaiming identity, unlearning harm, and choosing yourself.

Book cover for Fetishized by Kaila Yu. It features a black-and-white, blurred photo of an Asian woman gazing into the camera. The title and subtitle are written in bold yellow text, conveying themes of racial fetishization, feminism, and reclaiming beauty.

Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty by Kaila Yu

Blending memoir and cultural criticism, Taiwanese American journalist Kaila Yu examines how fetishization, beauty standards, and media representation shape Asian American women’s identity, relationships, and self-worth as she retraces her journey navigating the media landscape and the import modelling days of the 90s and early 2000s.

Book cover for The Journey to Yourself by Cuong Nguyen. It shows a lone figure hiking through an expansive golden sand dune under a clear blue sky, symbolizing introspection, personal growth, and a spiritual path.

The Journey to Yourself: A Practical Path to Overcoming Illusion and Living Authentically by Cuong Nguyen

Drawing from Vietnamese cultural values, mindfulness, and Eastern philosophy, this reflective guide encourages slowing down, releasing external pressure, and reconnecting with inner authenticity.

Book cover for I Decided to Live as Me by Kim Suhyun. A cartoon-style illustration of a young woman in a yellow top and purple overalls stands confidently on a teal background. The subtitle reads: “How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others So You Can Learn to Love Yourself.”

I Decided to Live as Me: How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others So You Can Learn to Love Yourself by Kim Suhyun

Written within a South Korean cultural context shaped by comparison and performance, I Decided to Live as Me offers short reflections on redefining success, rest, and self-acceptance.

Vibrant book cover of Local by Jessica Machado. It features the silhouette of a woman’s head filled with tropical leaves and hibiscus flowers in bold red, green, yellow, and white, evoking themes of identity, Hawai‘i, and cultural roots.

Local: A Memoir by Jessica Machado

Of Hawaiian-Portuguese and white heritage, Machado reflects on growing up in Hawaiʻi with a non-Hawaiian mother while navigating her connection to Native Hawaiian roots, exploring place, ancestry, and belonging within Hawaiʻi’s diverse cultural landscape.

Ocean Mother by Arielle Taitano Lowe

Written by a Chamoru poet, Ocean Mother centers Indigenous Pacific Islander identity, matriarchal lineage, and the ocean as ancestor, exploring intergenerational healing and love as stewardship.

Romantic

Stories of desire, intimacy, vulnerability, and reconnection.

Turquoise illustrated cover featuring a couple kissing. The woman is wearing a pink top and black pencil skirt while the man wears a white shirt and blue pants. Background includes faint math equations and geometric drawings.

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

This romance centers on Stella Lane, an autistic Vietnamese American econometrician, and Michael Phan, a Vietnamese Swedish man supporting his family, as they reimagine intimacy through disability, consent, and cultural responsibility.

Cover of a man and woman in business attire standing in front of green school lockers. The woman wears a white suit and the man a black blazer with a loosened tie. The title is in bold white block letters.

The Girl Most Likely To by Julie Tieu

Once voted “Most Likely to Succeed,” Rachel Dang finds herself funemployed and reconnecting with former frenemy Danny Phan at their high school reunion, forcing her to reconsider ambition, nostalgia, and second chances.

Bright orange and purple illustrated cover with a portrait of a person wearing a teal beanie and pink shirt, surrounded by blackberry illustrations. The title “Bad Queer” is prominently displayed in bold purple lettering.

Bad Queer by Gayathiri Kamalakanthan

Bad Queer is a memoir shaped by Tamil Sri Lankan diasporic experience, exploring queer love and intimacy through race, caste, migration, and the silences surrounding desire and belonging in South Asian culture.

Illustrated cover of two figure skaters, one dressed in a black and yellow bird-inspired outfit, and the other reflected upside-down in purple and white. The background features cool blue tones with swirling ice-like patterns.

Just Between Us by Adeline Kon

Adeline Kon’s debut graphic novel follows elite figure skater Lydia Chen as she navigates rivalry and connection with fellow skater Elaine Yee as competition for the Olympics forces her to rediscover passion and intimacy.

Book cover featuring a shirtless Asian man with long black hair and a dragon tattoo embracing a Black woman in a red dress, both leaning against a dark window in an intimate pose.

Redemption by Kenya Wright

Redemption is a romantic suspense novel following Black and Asian interracial protagonists whose lives intersect through danger and survival, exploring trust and vulnerability under high-stakes pressure.

Illustrated cover of a woman with brown skin and short black hair adorned with a white flower, set against a red background with Roman numerals. The title “Love by Numbers” is written in white cursive and block lettering.

Love by Numbers by Lani Young

Inspired by Polynesian mythology and Samoan culture, this contemporary romance follows Tamarina as she navigates logic, compatibility, and emotional risk in a world shaped by achievement and expectation.

Friendship and community

Stories of chosen family, collective care, and shared becoming.

Book cover of “The Queens of New York” by E.L. Shen featuring soft, painterly portraits of three young Asian American women gazing outward. The background is a dreamy sky-blue with golden sparkles, suggesting warmth and sisterhood.

The Queens of New York: Three Asian American Best Friends Navigate One Life-Changing Summer Apart by E. L. Shen

The Queens of New York is a young adult novel about three Asian American best friends, Jia Lee, Ariel Kim, and Everett Hoang, learning to navigate distance, identity, and change during a pivotal summer shaped by family expectations and growing independence.

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum

Set in a Seoul neighborhood, this novel follows Yeongju, a woman who opens a small bookshop after leaving her former life behind, finding rest and connection through quiet community encounters.

Brotherhood Is a Constant Possibility: Asian Masculinity in a World Made for Whiteness by Ryan Cho

This book is a collection of essays that examine Asian American masculinity through friendship, vulnerability, cultural inheritance, patriarchy, and the reimagining of brotherhood beyond whiteness.

Book cover of “Shapes of Love” by L.V. Peñalba featuring a marbled, multicolored heart in swirling shades of yellow, blue, orange, and white against a lavender purple background. The tagline reads: “Not a romance. A love story.”

Shapes of Love by L. V. Pealba

Shapes of Love is an aromantic, aroace contemporary young adult novel following Sasha, an aroace-spec musician navigating fame, friendship, and identity as she challenges a world that equates happiness with romantic love.

Love in AANHPI communities is often shaped by silence, survival, and adaptation, but these stories remind us that love is also resistance, healing, and reclamation. Whether through self-acceptance, romance, or chosen family, these books offer mirrors and possibilities for how we care for ourselves and one another.

Dennis Tran

Dennis Tran (he/him) is a queer, disabled, late-identified autistic-ADHDer and partially blind Vietnamese American storyteller, speaker, and inclusion strategist based in Los Angeles. With a background in public health, media, digital health, and nonprofit leadership, Dennis bridges lived experience with systems change to advance neurodiversity, disability justice, mental health advocacy, and psychological safety, particularly the AANHPI community, building systems rooted in access and community care that is humane and inclusive. He has consulted on inclusive storytelling and representation in children’s media, including Blue’s Clues & You, introducing its first autistic character, and developed accessibility-focused curricula and national resource toolkits. His work has helped shape inclusive curricula, accessible digital platforms, and community-centered programs impacting thousands nationwide. A LEAP Impact Program 2024–2025 alumnus, Dennis has spoken at UCLA, UCSF, Sony Pictures, Autodesk, and the ADHD International Conference, leveraging storytelling as a tool for healing, advocacy, and belonging. His work and lived experience expertise have been featured in Jubilee Media, the Mighty, Business Insider, AsAM New, SHRM, and more.