Samantha Mae Coyiuto

Where Are You Really From by Samantha Mae Coyiuto 

After her first semester in USC, Chloe takes the dreaded 12-hour flight back home to the Philippines for winter break. She gets the shock of her life when her Instagram-loving dad suddenly invites her boyfriend to her cousin’s wedding. To clarify, this is the boyfriend her dad hates because he’s Filipino and to her dad, Chinese people only date other Chinese people. But Chloe can’t celebrate her dad’s change of heart because she and her boyfriend broke up months ago.

Thanks to her meddling Auntie’s offers to matchmake Chloe, she goes on five dates with five different Chinese boys. The only problem is that they are all arranged by her dad without her consent. In other words, everything is freaking awkward.

Aside from battles in her love life, Chloe struggles with fighting for her dream to become an animator. When she draws, she feels like she can make art that actually matters. She keeps trying to make her dad understand, but all she wants is for her to take over his denim-manufacturing business.

The more she spends time back in Manila, the more she feels torn between her life in America and her past life in the Philippines. It doesn’t help that she unexpectedly starts to fall for an aspiring dentist that her dad sets her up with. The big question is: is going for her dreams worth leaving behind her family?

WHERE ARE YOU REALLY FROM is a contemporary YA novel based on my life as an Americanized Chinese-Filipina.

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