Angelica and the Bear Prince coming October 7th, 2025 from Penguin Random House; 224 pages
Content Warning: Loss of a family member (off page), burnout
About the Author: “Trung Le Capecchi-Nguyen (Trung Le Nguyen, professionally) is an award-winning Vietnamese American cartoonist, artist, and writer from Minnesota. Trung’s first original graphic novel, The Magic Fish, was published in 2020 through Random House Graphic, an imprint of Penguin Random House. He has also contributed work both as an author and as an artist for a variety of comics publishers, including DC Comics, Oni Press, Boom! Studios, Image Comics, and Marvel” (Bio from Trung Le Nguyen’s website).
Find Trung Le Nguyen on the following platforms:
Having suffered from severe burnout last year, overachiever Angelica is ready to find herself and her interests again. When Angelica gets an internship with her favorite local theater, she’s thrilled to have something to focus on after a year of complete isolation. To deal with her feelings about her slow return to extracurriculars, she begins messaging the theater’s mascot, Per the Bear, for some anonymous comfort and conversation, whom she slowly develops a crush on. With the support of her friends, family, and Per, Angelica learns to embrace change in its many forms. She navigates her need to please everyone all the time and learns to prioritize herself while trying to uncover the identity of who her crush—Per—really is.
I could tell by the art style alone that I was going to enjoy Angelica and the Bear Prince. Angelica is such a warm character, and it was very sweet to see the progression in her attitude from the previous year when her burnout began to where she was when the story concluded. I enjoyed the theater setting and wish it was explored a bit more, but given how much the story was trying to achieve in relation to growing up and the self discovery that comes with that, I don’t think the lack of exploration there takes anything away from the characters or the plot. My favorite part, aside from the friendship and romance, was the exploration of familial relationships. One of my favorite sequences in the entire story was a series of pages showing Angelica’s routine after school and how that mimics her mother’s routine when she gets home from work. It was such a heartwarming detail to see, especially when she’s seen kissing a picture of her grandmother and then her mom later does the exact same action in the exact same way. Coming to the illustration, the art was very eye-catching and wholesome. The best way I can describe it is childlike and simplistic but in the best ways. When I think “childlike,” I think imaginative, creative, and limitless—and this book certainly hit all of those marks with both the art and the story.
Angelica and the Bear Prince releases on October 7th, 2025.
Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House for sending us an
ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be
subject to change before final publication.
Vanshikha Vij, Pine Reads Review Writer