Review| Once Upon a K-Prom

 

Once Upon A K-Prom

AUTHOR:  Kat Cho
SERIES:Standalone
PAGES:338 Pages
PUBLISHER: Disney 
RELEASE DATE: May 17th,2022

*Recieved a copy via netgalley for review* Thank you so much for allowing me to read this! 

SUMMARY:

What would you do if the world's biggest K-pop star asked you to prom? Perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sandhya Menon, this hilarious and heartfelt novel brings the glamour and drama of the K-pop world straight to high school.

Elena Soo has always felt overshadowed. Whether by her more successful older sisters, her more popular twin brother, or her more outgoing best friend, everyone except Elena seems to know exactly who they are and what they want. But she is certain about one thing - she has no interest in going to prom. While the rest of the school is giddy over corsages and dresses, Elena would rather spend her time working to save the local community center, the one place that's always made her feel like she belonged.

So when international K-pop superstar Robbie Choi shows up at her house to ask her to prom, Elena is more confused than ever. Because the one person who always accepted Elena as she is? Her childhood best friend, Robbie Choi. And the one thing she maybe, possibly, secretly wants more than anything? For the two of them to keep the promise they made each other as kids: to go to prom together. But that was seven year ago, and with this new K-pop persona, pink hair, and stylish clothes, Robbie is nothing like the sweet, goofy boy she remembers. The boy she shared all her secrets with. The boy she used to love.

Besides, prom with a guy who comes with hordes of screaming fans, online haters, and relentless paparazzi is the last thing Elena wants - even if she can't stop thinking about Robbie's smile...right?

"Was this what seven years did to someone? Just took all their sweetest features and sharpened them just enough to make them dangerous. Because that dimple was a serious weapon."

For fans of Axie Oh's XOXO and Kristen Burnham's Heart & Seoul comes Once Upon a K-prom, a refreshing meet cute with a twist. 

Let's be honest, if you are looking for a young adult story with that k-drama twist, I am your girl to give you the truth as I absolutely devour everything in this sub genre of YA. I absolutely love watching k-dramas so reading instead of watching these types of stories is literally my guilty pleasure. 

Elena has practically felt invisible her entire life. Not only has she been overshadowed by her older sisters, she is constantly overshadowed by her own twin Ethan. Everyone constantly leaves Elena -- they are always moving, leaving her feeling even more alone.  The one person in the world Elena misses the most was her best friend Robbie who moved when they were 10 years old to Seoul, South Korea. Now Robbie has found his passion and is a part of a famous k-pop group. Elena's world is suddenly turned upside down when Robbie shows up on her door step 7 years later to uphold his promise to her -- They would go to prom together. However, is Robbie still the person she fell in love with when she was 10 or is has he changed with fame?

When I begin reading I felt like the story I was sold in the synopsis wasn't the story I was getting, but as the story progressed it got a lot better and I really started to enjoy it. I personally think this is defiantly aimed more towards the younger audience of YA as there isn't a whole lot of spice to it, but doesn't mean I didn't think it was a cute story! So let's dive into my overall experience! The beginning of this novel was incredibly slow. We see Robbie show up within the first few chapters, however, it feels like it's dragged on and we have filler chapters where nothing really significant happens. I understand the playing hard to get and Robbie going all out to prove himself, I just think it was missing that special emph to get it to the five stars I would really love to give it.  

One of my biggest take aways and suggestions before this book is published is maybe a guide for some of the Hangul words that are included in the novel to be included. I Found myself reading and noticing there were Hangul words mixed into the sentences without any real translation or indication of what the words meant. For example, " I remembered the story about how harabeoji had come to the us to work for a few years without halmeoni." I of course know that Harabeoji is grandfather and halmeoni is grandmother, finally my years of watch k-dramas has finally paid off haha, but to the average reader of YA they might not have that basic knowledge of Hangul to understand the context of the sentence. Especially with there being no clarification or context to indication that she is talking about her grandfather and grandmother. I think that just a guide at the beginning to the words word be an amazing feature that would help the reader understand a little better.  

Overall, this was a light read for me and I did enjoy the overall theme of the novel! I think this was a really cute fun read and those who are also into kdrama style books or books in a high school setting will really enjoy this read! I also found out that this was the author's first contemporary novel, but she's written  a fantasy romance series. Needless to say, I am intrigued and ready to read it as I did overall like the writing style of this author! 

My Rating:

                             

Review| Seoul Series by Jen Fredrick

HEART & SEOUL

SEOULMATES 

Author: Jen Fredrick

Series: Seoul series 1 & 2

Release Date: January 25th,2022

SUMMARY:

One woman learns that the price of belonging is often steeper than expected in this heart-wrenching yet hopeful romantic novel and first in the Seoul duology by USA Today bestselling author Jen Frederick.

As a Korean adoptee, Hara Wilson doesn’t need anyone telling her she looks different from her white parents. She knows. Every time Hara looks in the mirror, she’s reminded that she doesn’t look like anyone else in her family—not her loving mother, Ellen; not her jerk of a father, Pat; and certainly not like Pat’s new wife and new “real” son.

At the age of twenty-five, she thought she had come to terms with it all, but when her father suddenly dies, an offhand comment at his funeral triggers an identity crisis that has her running off to Seoul in search of her roots.

What Hara finds there has all the makings of a classic K-drama: a tall, mysterious stranger who greets her at the airport, spontaneous adventures across the city, and a mess of familial ties, along with a red string of destiny that winds its way around her, heart and soul. Hara goes to Korea looking for answers, but what she gets instead is love—a forbidden love that will either welcome Hara home…or destroy her chance of finding one.

I couldn’t help myself, another book that plays out like a k-drama? Sign me up! Since I read both together back to back, I’m just going to do a review of the series as a whole, but it’s going to be spoiler free :)  So let’s dive in!

Hara Wilson, has always felt like the outsider in her small community in Iowa. She was adopted as in infant by the Wilsons after being abandoned by her birth mother outside of a police station in Seoul, South Korea. Now Hara is 25 years old and has lead a pretty uneventful life. She has no real ties holding her to Iowa and she is desperate to find belonging. After a data breech occurs and her birth father suddenly reaches out Hara decides to take the trip of her life to Seoul, South Korea. Here she hops to find her sense of belonging. However, staying on track of her mission, proves to be quite difficult when suddenly Hara mistakes a very handsome chaebol as her driver. From there, Hara and Choi Yujun start to go on adventures and become more and more involved with each other. The only problem is what happens when Hara has to go home to Iowa?  Is this just a vacation fling or is it real?

First of all, I feel so giddy after completing this series. For starters this is 100% new adult and not YA. I honestly, do not read smut and some of these scenes defiantly had me blushing haha, but I can’t say i hated it. I will say, this story read like a k-drama for me. For someone who doesn’t watch k-drama, this story might not read as easily. I’ve read a few reviews where the overall flow was criticized and I have to say I whole heartedly disagree. I think this story was a fantastic burn and build up. Now, did this story necessarily need two novels? Ehhh… debatable, BUT I cannot say I didn’t love spending more time with Hara as she grew into the fantastic character she was. I loved the connection Hara and Yujun had and I loved the journey i went through with them.

Overall, if you like books that read like k-dramas, you will 100% love this novel. I sped through both of these books in a matter of 3 days. It’s a very fun light hearted read. The first book defiantly was a slow burn and does leave off on a cliff hanger, which defiantly sucks! If I did not have the second book already, I probably would’ve lost my mind. So be prepared when you start this to just read both in one go! I also loved that unlike a lot of novels that are k-drama/kpop themed, this had so much explanation of Hangul words. For someone who knows basic vocabulary already, I still loved the overall explanation of words and there were a few in there that I actually didn’t know so that was defiantly a refreshing addition to the story.

 

My Rating: