e-ALC, 10:32:44
Narrated by: Jeena Yi
Release Date: February 3, 2026
Published by: Books on Tape
Read from: February 9-10, 2026
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio App (I received this ALC free from the publisher and their app. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Grief, Infidelity, Death of a Parent, Cursing, Sexual Content, Drug Use, Fire/Fire Injury, Misogyny, Stalking
For Readers Interested In: Adult, Audio, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Racial/Ethnic Diversity (East Asian/ Korean), Realistic Fiction, Romance, Age GapIn Five Years meets a millennial The Joy Luck Club in the adult debut from the author of YA Reese Pick Throwback— a funny and fresh love story of a woman thrown a curveball by fate, and the family secret that will make her question everything.
She’s seen what her happily ever after looks like. And it’s not him.
Cassia Park believes in soul mates. Fated love stories. It’s her family business, after all—for centuries, from Korea to Los Angeles, the Park women have peered into clients’ past lives to find their one true love, their “fated”. This magical secret is why One & Only Matchmaking has a 100% guarantee … for everyone but Cassia.
Afraid of ending up like her mom, Cassia asked to be told her fated—ten years ago. Now she’s days from turning forty and she still hasn’t found him.
Enter Ellis. He’s twenty-eight, indecently handsome, and not destined to be the love of her life. But destiny has more than one curveball ready, and her surprising connection with Ellis might be the key that unlocks finding her fated—and reveals a family secret that will make her question everything she’s ever her family, her belief in love, and truth itself.
Cassia will have to decide if she’ll follow her fate … or make her own.
*MY THOUGHTS*
As soon as I heard this was written by Maurene Goo I got excited. As a mostly YA reader, this had me hype! And noe after reading it I can truthfully say this lived up to the hype for me. While there were some things I didn’t care for, I still did like this one a lot.
Ok so the one thing I didn’t like was the pacing. It felt weird. Like the beginning of the story was like about them and finding each other and I thought the second part was about her finding her one and then the last bit was about her choosing between the two. But the way she goes about it felt like a whole new story lol It was just a lot at once for me. I know I’m probably the black sheep with this, but it seemed like a whole different story to me.
The romance was really cute tho. I knew where it was going as soon as we met them. They just had all the chemistry. And for her to be the person who reads faces and has an entire family secret that does this, I was disappointed that she didn’t know either lol Ugh I have so much to say, but I don’t want to give any spoilers lol
This brings me to the family secret. LOL If you think there’s only one, you’d be wrong. When I tell you this is filled with drama from the very beginning. You just don’t know it yet. But as things start to reveal themselves, you can see it was just a hot mess. And let me just say I was riveted. I couldn’t stop listening. [But I guess this is what I mean by it felt like a different story to me. I was riveted by THIS story, not the romance if that makes sense. (Maybe it’s because I knew who she was going to end up with? Idk)] The family drama and all the secrets it revealed and the way her entire life made me sit up from lying on the couch. They DEFINITELY should have handled that differently.
I thought this was a great debut into adult for Goo. I can’t wait to see what else she comes out with for this age group. I want to see one from every one in her family that has a “family secret” and how they’re different. I hope that’s what she was setting us up for.
Overall, I give this
