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:

                

           

Review| Chef’s Kiss

 Chef’s Kiss 

AUTHOR:  Jarrett Melendez
SERIES: Standalone graphic novel 
PAGES:125 pages
PUBLISHER:  Oni Press
RELEASE DATE: March 1st, 2022

*Recieved an arc via netgalley*

Thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to read this!

SUMMARY:

Watch things start to really heat up in the kitchen in this sweet, queer, new adult graphic novel! 

Now that college is over, English graduate Ben Cook is on the job hunt looking for something…anything…related to his passion for reading and writing. But interview after interview, hiring committee after hiring committee, Ben soon learns getting the dream job won’t be as easy as he thought. Proofreading? Journalism? Copywriting? Not enough experience. It turns out he doesn’t even have enough experience to be a garbage collector! But when Ben stumbles upon a “Now Hiring—No Experience Necessary” sign outside a restaurant, he jumps at the chance to land his first job. Plus, he can keep looking for a writing job in the meantime. He’s actually not so bad in the kitchen, but he will have to pass a series of cooking tests to prove he’s got the culinary skills to stay on full-time. But it’s only temporary…right? 

When Ben begins developing a crush on Liam, one of the other super dreamy chefs at the restaurant, and when he starts ditching his old college friends and his old writing job plans, his career path starts to become much less clear.

Chef’s Kiss was exactly that a *chef’s kiss. It was such a lighthearted, fast paced graphics novel that I devoured in less than two hours. It’s only 125 pages, but that does not mean the quality is less. The graphics in this novel are absolutely stunning.

 I’ll be honest, I haven’t read a graphic novel in quite some time, so at the beginning i had to really remember the basics left -> right reading and it took me a second to catch on to the flow of the dialogue, but that was defiantly all me and not the novel in the slightest. After a few pages, I was fully able to emerge myself into the plot of this story and it was absolutely just adorable. 

There was no massive problems, just a cute little story. 100% would recommend if you are looking for a super cute short story involving LGTBQ+ love and a super cute meet cute :) ALSO, how can you not love the supper cute quirkiness of the story? I mean Watson, who is a pig, is the taste tester that stands between Ben getting this job haha. I loved it!

 

My Rating:

    

Review| Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3)

 

Ignite Me 

AUTHOR:  Tahereh Mafi
SERIES: Shatter Me
PAGES: 421 pages 
PUBLISHER: HarperCollins
RELEASE DATE: Feb 4th,2012

SUMMARY:

With Omega Point destroyed, Juliette doesn’t know if the rebels, her friends, or even Adam are alive. But that won’t keep her from trying to take down The Reestablishment once and for all. Now she must rely on Warner, the handsome commander of Sector 45. The one person she never thought she could trust. The same person who saved her life. He promises to help Juliette master her powers and save their dying world . . . but that’s not all he wants with her. 

Tahereh Mafi has created an amazing series and throughout this novel she test your loyalty to your team and creates a new scenario no one could possibly have seen coming and I’m honestly going to absolutely miss this series and I’m so sad to see it finally end because Tahereh Mafi is such an amazing writer. With this being said, I’m going to keep this review short and sweet because I don’t want to spoil this for anyone who has not read it yet. Ignite me is the third and final installment in the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi. Ignite me picks up just where Unravel me has left off. Juliette has been shot and warner has saved her life. Just a little background for those readers who have not read this story yet, Juliette has been struggling all her life with the, “gift” of not being able to touch any human being. With this being said Juliette is locked up for majority of her life and hidden away until the reestablishment (the current form of government) decides to use her as a war weapon. Juliette is than brought to Warner, the very cruel and misunderstood character of this series, to be trained. Let me start off with saying that Tahereh Mafi has now become my absolute favorite author. She captures you in Shatter Me and Unravel Me and makes you believe certain things about Warner, Adam and even Juliette. I know for me I absolutely hated Warner after Shatter me and was one-hundred percent team Adam. However, Tahereh Mafi just shattered the perfect little bubble of thoughts I had on what was going to happen and what I wanted to happen as soon as I began reading. It is incredibly hard as an author to change someone’s opinion on a character once you began to dislike or love a character and this is why I absolutely applaud Tahereh Mafi. As a reader, starting to read this book, I begun to see the aftermath of everything that had just happened from Shatter me and I began to get a bit pessimistic of the outcome of Juliette’s life. She has been through so much and now she was alone with no one else, but Warner. Which, at this point, I still had hope for him as a character, however, still knew him as the antagonist in this story, but this storyline changed my opinion so rapidly it was unbelievable. Before I knew it this story had completely changed everything I had previously thought and I guarantee it will change your opinion as well. This novel keeps you in suspense till the end and if you've read you definitely know what I mean. The plot of this story is so amazing and I couldn't have pictured it ending in any other way. You guys I hardly have any words to describe how this book truly is because you will, honestly, just have to experience it yourself and I know that’s not what most people want to hear, but trust me on this, this book is just so hard to describe and put it to words because its so amazingly written and enjoyable. Book lovers if you have not read this yet go run to your local bookstore as soon as possible because you will not regret it. In fact, I’m pretty sure your only regret will have been not reading it sooner.

 

Review| Dae by Lisa Lee

Dae 

AUTHOR: Lisa Lee
SERIES: Time Series
PAGES:294
PUBLISHER:  Love & K-Pop Press
RELEASE DATE: November 12th,2019

SUMMARY:

She knew popstars. She wasn't read for idols.

When a young Canadian pop star is invited as a special guest to an awards show in Seoul, South Korea, hit songwriter Dulcie Carmichael is persuaded to go along with him. Dulcie knows nothing about K-pop, and nothing about idols, but when she meets and befriends Don Youngwon, main vocalist for worldwide sensation TiME, she is immediately drawn into his world, into his life, and soon becomes close to the other members of his popular group.

Well, close to all of them except Kyo Daesuk, their leader and visual, who does not seem to care for her at all.

But TiME's upcoming visit to LA might just change all of that...

 An amazing, heart stopping story told in multi perspective!

Dulcie had the American dream — she is a number one hit selling songwriter with all fame and fortune,but while her name is famous she has the luxury of her face not being. Dulcie is a very humble girl and she doesn’t particularly enjoy the spotlight. With only one song left in her contract for the brat,she sees her golden ticket to wrap things up and finally be free of Bryson. There is just one catch,she has to attend an award show in South Korea with him. However, good things come out of bad. When Dulcie feels overwhelmed she heads backstage to get away from everything and this is when she suddenly meets won from the famous Koop boy band time. While dulcie has been a hit song writer she knows nothing about the Koop universe. When she meets won she has no idea he’s part of such a famous group. Instantly they connect and he invites her back for drinks with the band.

Review| Emergency Contacy

  Emergency Contact

AUTHOR:  Mary H.K. Choi
SERIES: Standalone 
PAGES:394
PUBLISHER:  Simon & Schuster
RELEASE DATE:  March 27th,2018

SUMMARY:

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

Meet Penny Lee your normal not-so-normal teenager. Penny Lee has spent her entire high school career living with the motto of work hard, have fun later. She has essentially avoided making friends her entire high school career besides her one and only boyfriend Mark. Mark hardly knows anything about Penny, but Penny doesn't seem to mind. That is until Penny meets Sam. Sam has a dream, a big one at that, to become a director. However, life just keeps kicking Sam when he's down. As Sam's trying to figure out the current ins and outs of his day-to-day struggles, he is caught with his pants down when he starts to have a panic attack in the middle of the street. With no one coming to his rescue, Penny jumps in to help Sam out. From there on out, Sam and Penny agree to be each other's emergency contact.  While they exchange their deepest darkest fears and secrets, things start to heat up. Can they stay friends or is there something more between them? 

I picked this one up when I was at Barnes and Noble the other day because I was immediately drawn to the beautiful cover of this book. I loved all the pinks and gold tones this book had.  After reading the back, I knew I had to have it and I knew this one would be a nail-biter!  Going into this one with high expectations was probably setting the bar a little too high, however. As I begin to read I notice there was a huge disconnect between me and the writing style of this book.  There was so much background information being thrown to me in the early stages of the book and it just kept coming and coming the further I got into the book. I do think this made the overall first half of the book really hard of a read as the overall pace was get so slow. Nevertheless, I did still finish this book in under 24 hours with a little bit of perseverance because I still had such high hopes for the overall concept of the story. With that being siad, this book definitely had some highs and lows. 

Review| The Inheritance Games

The Inheritance Game

AUTHOR: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
SERIES: The Inheritance Games

PAGES: 376 Pages

PUBLISHER: Little Brown Books for Young Adult
RELEASE DATE: September 1st,2020

SUMMARY:

A Cinderella story with deadly stakes and thrilling twists.

Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why--or even who Tobias Hawthorne is. To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man's touch--and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes.

Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a con-woman, and he's determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather's last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.

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Can I just say WOW? This book was absolutely one for the books. No pun intended. This was the perfect escapism I was looking for after the last book I read which was a contemporary romance. I love books like this one where you don't really quite know what to expect until it smacks you in the face. 

The Inheritance Games centers around Avery Grambs. From a surface level, Avery is just a normal teenage girl that has had her fair share of hard times in life. Avery lost her mom due to an unknown illness that is never discussed and her dad is a deadbeat. However, that doesn't stop Avery from working hard and being caring and compassionate to those around her -- her half-sister Libby and Henry the local homeless man Avery plays chess in the park. Avery is just trying to make ends meet until one day she is sucked into the elite world of the Hawthorne family. Suddenly, Avery is on a plane to Texas to hear the will for a man she never even knew. Avery's head hasn't stopped spinning when it is announced she is the sole heir of Tobias Hawthorne. However, there's a catch. She must stay in the Hawthorne House for one year before she is able to access the trust. Sounds easy enough right? But there are four grandsons and two angry daughters who were just passed up for this enormous fortune. Will she make it out alive or will one of them kill her before the year is up?

#Review | Hart & Seoul

Hart & Seoul
Author:  Kristen Burnham
Series:  Hart & Seoul #1 
Pages: 256 pages
Publisher: Mascot Books
Release Date: June 4th,2019
Source: Received a copy for review via netgalley

Summary:

Girl meets boy. Boy falls for girl. Girl discovers boy is a runaway K-pop idol in hiding.

Merilee Hart has been doing her best to keep things together since her mother left, her art a welcome escape from her depressing new reality. But things seem to go even more awry the moment her next door neighbor’s enigmatic and mysterious nephew arrives from South Korea. Lee is moody, cocky, and utterly infuriating.
But when Merri’s closest friends betray her and her father crushes her dream of going to art school, Merri finds herself drawn to Lee, who seems to live within even greater shadows than her own. And just when she thought things couldn’t get crazier, Merri’s world is upended when she discovers Lee’s big and bizarre secret…he is none other than a runaway member of the K-pop mega-group Thunder.

It’s not long before Thunder’s fans, the Storm Chasers, begin to close in on Lee, ready to do whatever it takes to return their favorite idol to his rightful place in the band. Faced with the prospect of even more heartbreak and caught up in an international whirlwind that has a life of its own, Merri realizes that she must find a way to mend herself, gain control of her life, and pursue her dreams—her heart and soul depend on it.

So while I've been gone these past couple of years one thing that I really became interested in is K-Pop and k-dramas.  When I read the summary of this book I just knew I had to read it and I am so glad I did! Guys this book made me so incredibly happy! I loved the idea of the book and the actual story itself was so amazing and cute.  

Let me just say that I have yet to read a book like this -- one that really incorporates k-pop and k-dramas like this one did. I loved all the references to Korean Food and Korean words and when Lee and Merri were watching k-dramas that I have also seen, I was in heaven. Living in America I know very few people around me  who are also interested in K-pop bands, so I tend to forget how big of a deal K-pop stars are and the huge fan base they can have. With that being said, it was so interesting to get to experience how a member of a k-pop group may feel. We really got see what it's possibly like under the pressure of being such a huge star and hardly having any privacy. Granted it's fiction, but I am sure that being a K-pop star in real life is even more pressure than displayed here. Even so, I really connected with the characters in this novel.