Review: When You Wish Upon a Lantern by Gloria Chao

Liya and Kai had been best friends since they were little kids, but all that changed when a humiliating incident sparked The Biggest Misunderstanding Of All Time—and they haven’t spoken since.

Then Liya discovers her family’s wishing lantern store is struggling, and she decides to resume a tradition she had with her beloved late grandmother: secretly fulfilling the wishes people write on the lanterns they send into the sky. It may boost sales and save the store, but she can’t do it alone . . . and Kai is the only one who cares enough to help.

While working on their covert missions, Liya and Kai rekindle their friendship—and maybe more. But when their feuding families and their changing futures threaten to tear them apart again, can they find a way to make their own wishes come true?

• Title: When You Wish Upon a Lantern
• Author:  Gloria Chao
• Publisher: Viking
• Publication Date: February 14, 2023
• Genre: Contemporary, Romance 
• Targeted Age Range: Young Adult
• Content Warnings: emet, death of a grandparent, strained relationship w family, mention of car accident + death of a loved one (Brief, to minor character), grief, death of a sibling due to cancer (mentioned)
• Rating: ★★★

I absolutely adored Gloria Chao’s Rent a Boyfriend, so you can only imagine my excitement when I got the ARC for When You Wish Upon a Lantern. With Tangled-esque vibes, a childhood friends to lovers storyline, and a storyline about finding magic in your everyday life, When You Wish Upon a Lantern was heartwarming, and simply so sweet. 

When You Wish Upon a Lantern follows Liya and Kai, two teenagers who are trying to save Liya’s family’s wishing lantern store. After finding out that the wishing lantern store is struggling, Liya secretly comes up with a plan to save it. The wishing lantern store is everything to Liya, especially now that her Nǎinai has passed away. Liya and Nǎinai would secretly fulfill the wishes people wrote on their lanterns, and Liya’s hoping to honor her Nǎinai by continuing to do so, while keeping the store afloat. Liya’s first instinct is to turn to her childhood best friend (and crush) Kai, despite the fact that things have been awkward since the bubble tea incident. With Kai’s help, the two of them decide to keep secretly helping people’s wishes come true in Nǎinai’s name, and to save Liya’s family’s store.

I found When You Wish Upon a Lantern to be cute, and it did deliver on the Tangled-esque vibes. More specifically, it reminded me of the I See the Light scene, which is one of my favorite scenes in Tangled. It also reminded me of the French film Amélie at times. As our protagonist, I really felt for Liya — it’s extremely evident how special Nǎinai was to her, and how responsible she feels to carry on Nǎinai’s legacy. Liya genuinely wants to do good for her community, and I had the best time following her journey. As much as I liked Liya, I found my heart breaking for Kai. His relationship with his father and his older brother are tumultuous at best, and I just wanted to give him the biggest hug. I wish that we’d gotten more of a resolution between Kai’s family dynamics, but I know that things aren’t always resolved so neatly or quickly.  

I’m still trying to figure out why I wasn’t completely charmed by When You Wish Upon a Lantern. I do think that it felt repetitive after a while — much of the book is Liya and Kai hanging out, ignoring their feelings, granting people’s wishes, and their families trying to break them up. Between that, and the heavy reliance on the miscommunication trope, I think it just wasn’t the story for me. Especially given how much I loved Rent a Boyfriend. I also think the characters just weren’t developed to the extent that I wanted them to be. 

All things considered, When You Wish Upon a Lantern was cute, and definitely a feel-good read that I could see many people enjoying! It just wasn’t the story for me.

Links for When You Wish Upon a Lantern: Goodreads | TheStorygraph | Bookshop.org | IndieBound