e-Audio, 08:25:13
Narrated by: Hannah Choi
Release Date: October 11, 2022
Published by: Macmillan Audio
Read from: October 14-15, 2022
Stand-alone
Source: Edelweiss (I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss and the Publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
TW: Racism, Toxic Relationship
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Realistic Fiction, Racial/Ethnic Diversity (Korean American), Acute/Chronic Illness rep, K-DramasHannah Cho had the next year all planned out—the perfect summer with her boyfriend, Nate, and then a fun senior year with their friends.
But then Nate does what everyone else in Hannah’s life seems to do—he leaves her, claiming they have nothing in common. He and all her friends are newly obsessed with K-pop and K-dramas, and Hannah is not. After years of trying to embrace the American part and shunning the Korean side of her Korean American identity to fit in, Hannah finds that’s exactly what now has her on the outs.
But someone who does know K-dramas—so well that he’s actually starring in one—is Jacob Kim, Hannah’s former best friend, whom she hasn’t seen in years. He’s desperate for a break from the fame, so a family trip back to San Diego might be just what he needs… that is, if he and Hannah can figure out what went wrong when they last parted and navigate the new feelings developing between them.
Her ex-boyfriend wants her back. Her former best friend is in town. When did Hannah’s life become a K-drama?
*MY THOUGHTS*
I never thought of myself as a K-Drama person, but only because I don’t have time to watch tv anymore. And when I do, I find that I’m always watching Bluey because of my kid. So imagine my surprise at how much I wanted to read this book because of that ONE element in the story lol Whatever, but I pushed things on my TBR down for this lol And it was completely worth it!
The number one thing I didn’t like about this story was the main character, Hannah lol Normally that would make me DNF, but I also loved Jacob lol I think it was mainly because I related so much to him. For example, my mom is a stomach cancer survivor and I myself have severe allergies. I understood a lot of what he was going through. I think that made him more real to me. I do wish we got to see more of the K-Drama, or at the very least got to see more of his acting skills tho. Especially since that’s what drew me to this book lol But even without it I still thought it was ok. Hannah just irked me because she had so much soul searching to do. She took in ALL those micro-aggressions and I was just waiting on her to snap. Because there is NO WAY I would have been ok with that. I hated that she allowed them to do that to her, and the person who accepted her for who she was, she was mean to them. I wanted to shake her lol
The plot was ok, but it did take kind of a lull in the middle. Nate became obsolete when her and Jacob finally started getting along, so that’s kind of when I felt like it got a bit slow. The scene with the driver’s lesson was when things started happening again. Well, it depends on what you mean. I know others would say that they were really excited because that’s when her and Jacob finally started getting together, but Nate added the drama. It could have done with more. I mean it DOES involve a K-Drama does it not?
Was it amazing? No, but it was still good enough for me to enjoy and go back and tell my husband about it? Yes. I didn’t have much to tell, but there was enough for him to get mad in the right spots and to “swoon” (direct quote lmao) in the right places. That’s enough of a win for me lol
Overall, I give this
