Solving for the Unknown

“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.

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. Visit her website at WriterLoanLe.me and find her on X @LoanLoan and Instagram @LoanLoanLe.