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Book Summary and Reviews of Angelica and the Bear Prince by Trung Le Nguyen

Angelica and the Bear Prince by Trung Le Nguyen

Angelica and the Bear Prince

by Trung Le Nguyen

  • Critics' Consensus (9):
  • Published:
  • Oct 2025, 224 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Being a teenager is no fairy tale ... but that doesn't mean you can't find a little magic. A high schooler's journey to recover from burnout leads to a surprising romance with a twist from the bestselling author of The Magic Fish.

Angelica was the girl who could do it all—until suddenly, she couldn't. Burnout hit hard. Now, after some very low moments, she's ready to get her life back together, thanks to her friends, and one very surprising source of comfort.

A bear.

Peri is the mascot of the local theater. He's been sending Angelica supportive messages from his social. They've become friends, and Angelica might even have ... a crush?

Determined to find the human behind the bear costume, Angelica gets a summer job interning at the theater. She might never go back to being the girl who can do everything, but perhaps she is becoming the girl who can magically have it all.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Tender, sweetly romantic, and enchanting; an encouraging coming-of-age story." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"It's a gorgeously rendered, whimsical story about a community coming together to support one another during hardships both big and small." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[A] masterfully paced queer romance grounded in reality and starring the most lovable (and beautifully representative) cast." —Booklist (starred review)

"Themes of grief, friendship, and family are thoughtfully explored through various characters....Hand this to readers looking for some hope after going through a tough time." —The Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books (starred review)

"Enchanting...Nguyen elevates what made his debut a success and once more demonstrates his mastery of creat­ing complex char­acters, presenting a believably flawed yet wholly sympa­thetic cast." —BookPage (starred review)

"A lovely look at burnout, grief, and coming-of-age with just a dash of teenage romance as a treat." —School Library Journal

This information about Angelica and the Bear Prince was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Trung Le Nguyen

Trung Le Nguyen, also known as Trungles, is a comic book artist and illustrator working out of Minnesota. He received his BA from Hamline University in 2012, majoring in Studio Art with a concentration in oil painting and minoring in Art History. He has contributed work for Oni Press, BOOM! Studios, Limerence Press, and Image Comics. He is particularly fond of fairy tales, kids' cartoons, and rom-coms of all stripes.

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