What a lovely book. Hart & Seoul is a cute contemporary featuring all romance lovers' favourite tropes: fake dating, enemies to lovers and the one that never gets old: celebrity dating a nonfamous person. Kristen Burnham's debut book is a wonderful and heartwarming book that kept a smile on my face throughout. The characters' story was amazing to read and very well written.

I loved how social media was incorporated into the story in the form of posts by fans and the development of Meri and Lee's relationship, how she tackled the themes of abandonment and anxiety within the book.

I was instantly sold on the blurb of this YA rom-com: girl meets boy, boy happens to be a runaway k-pop star...? Sign me up!

Sadly Hart & Seoul didn’t quite live up to my expectations. It reads like fanfiction - which in itself is no bad thing. I liked the use of classic tropes, and there are some cute moments inspired by k-drama, but it ultimately makes for predictable reading. The prose is a little clumsy and the narrative is erratic in places - although this improved as the book progressed.

It's interesting to see Korean culture through the eyes of an outsider, but at times this approach sadly proves problematic. Merri's ignorance too often takes the form of painful cultural insensitivity and she never seems to learn from her mistakes. There are some dodgy romanisations, a lot of generalisations and a lack of awareness of k-pop culture (how can you have a k-pop romance without any mention of dating bans or recent career-ending scandals?).

That said, Hart & Seoul is clearly written with the best intentions, and Merri's growing love of k-drama and Korean food is infectious. I also liked the exploration of the dark side of k-pop, and how emotionally exhausting the industry can be. But despite some promising fluffy moments, this wasn't the k-pop romance I hoped it'd be.

My goodness, this book! Perfect mix of cutesy romance while also dealing with a serious topic. Thanks to Samm, a friend and fellow mod in TBR and Beyond, I've become obsessed with all things k-pop. This book is no exception.

I absolutely adored the characters and the storyline. It also deals with some heavy topics that I wasn't really expecting it to, but am so glad it did. Trigger warnings for parental abandonment, self-harm, and mental illness

Copied from my Goodreads review:
I was really excited to read this book once I saw in on NetGalley, and I was so happy when this was the first ever ARC that I was approved of by the publisher. I really wanted to love this book because I love Korean culture, I'm learning Korean and my boyfriend is Korean. However, there are so many inaccuracies in the representation of Korean culture in this book. It varies from inaccurate to insulting to racist. Now I'm not saying that the entire book is racist, there was just one scene (at least in the 53% that I pushed myself to read), that was. It's a scene when the main characters are in a Korean restaurant. Merri tries Kimchi for the first time and doesn't like it, however Lee loves it. Merri then proceeds to call Lee 'Mr. Kimchi' three times in that scene. I didn't feel comfortable when I read that scene. My Asian senses were tingling and it didn't feel right. I explained the scene to my Korean boyfriend and sent him screenshots, and he literally said that it was racist. In addition, in Korea if you were to refer to a person as a 'Kimchi girl,' it's an misogynistic insult. In my head, I thought about it like this. If the roles were reversed and Merri was in Korea, would Lee have called Merri 'Miss Mac and Cheese,' or 'Miss Cheeseburger'? My answer was no because it feels insulting to refer to someone as a food, unless it was a bullying scene. If Lee was a black character, I’m 100% sure the author would not make Merri call him ‘Mr. Fried Chicken’, ‘Mr. Curried Goat’, ‘Mr. Jollof Rice.’ That would be racist, just as calling Lee ‘Mr. Kimchi’ is. You could argue that it was just a joke, or they were teasing, but I think this is a time where people would use that as an excuse to be racist. I would be angry if anyone called me Pad Thai. Teasing or not.

Let me talk about a few other inaccuracies of Korean culture presented in this book.

1. Romanization of Korean
Unfortunately for this book, I can read Hangul, so I know how things should be pronounced (even if I pronounce them incorrectly myself). The word that is most frequently used in this book is 네. It is pronounced like "Ne" with the 'e' sound being a sharp ending. It doesn't sound like knee essentially, but more like neck. In this book, it's romanizised to "Deh." It irritated me a lot because I know that it's not pronounced like that, and even the recognised romanization systems of Korea do not use this (at least in my quick google search). In addition to 네 being written not like it's pronounced, Lee would not say it towards Merri at all. For one, he is in America and an undercover K-Pop idol. You would probably only speak English to improve it and try to hide the fact that you are Korean because you are in hiding. Two, Lee keeps on going in and out between English and Korean in conversation with Merri. Regardless of what stage you are in at learning a different language, you would not revert to your native language in conversation. I know this as someone who is learning two additional languages from English. You stick to the language you are attempting to speak. You'd only revert back if you didn't know how to say things. Lee seems very much fluent in English in this book in order to have many conversations with Merri, and I think it's suggested that he speaks Korean to Merri to annoy her.Three, Lee would not say 네 to Merri. The main reason for this is the fact that Merri is younger than Lee. Korean contains honorifics so you would be respectful to people who are older than you, and to people in a higher social position. As Lee is older, and a famous K-Pop idol, he would not be that respectful towards Merri. Even himself as a character, especially when he firsts meets Merri, is not respectful towards her and is downright rude, so in Korean he would not be that respectful towards her. Now, 네 is not the only romanization mistake, but it the word that is used the most in this book, and perfectly illustrates the inaccuracies in the author choosing to use this word to illustrate that Lee is Korean and different and not American.

There are multiple moments in this book where Merri mocks Lee for his Korean beliefs. An example of this would be when she is telling the reader that she hasn’t quite grasped Lee’s sense of humour, ‘Just a week earlier, he’d refused to walk down a street because it only had four houses on it, and had stared at me in horror as I laughed. “Four is an unlucky number!” he’s insisted, eyes huge, and my laughter had sputtered to a halt when I realized that, in this case, Lee was absolutely serious.’ Merri initially laughs at Lee and stops when she realises that he’s being serious. But the way that the author has written it, mocks Korean culture as whilst the number four is seen as an unlucky number, it would completely depend on how superstitious a person is. Four is not a forbidden number in Korea. It doesn’t jump from three to five. I am sure that most Korean people would not see four houses and see it as unlucky. Whilst the West might not have a 13th floor to a building or a 13th row in a plane, we as individuals would not notice if there were only 13 houses on a street.

Another inaccuracy is after Merri found out that Lee is in fact a K-pop star and confronts with the fact that she’s been calling him by his surname the entire time because his name is Lee Hyung-kim. (For one, I personally don’t think it’s a common Korean name. The are made up of common Korean characters but not in combination, and in discussion with my Korean boyfriend it would be an awkward sounding name). Lee says something along the lines of, ‘I wondered how long it would take you to catch on,’ but honestly it would be normal for him to be called to by his surname.

This book feels like a first draft. It doesn't feel like this book had any sensitivity or beta readers that were Korean, or even East Asian. If me, a person who is not Korean but Asian, can find all the flaws in this book, I dread to think what a Korean or someone of Korean descent would think of this book. This book feels like it's for white people, or people who know nothing of Korean culture. It makes me worry of the people who would come across this book and learning about Korean culture for the first time.

On top of all of the Korean inaccuracies that this book contains, the plot itself is not entertaining. So much of it is based on Korean culture that it takes away from the overall plot. I didn’t really even see an overall plot other than Lee and Merri maybe getting together (I can’t say if they did because I stopped reading). In addition, with Lee being a K-pop idol, they have such strict lives that I personally don’t think that he would get into a romance with anyone unless he would be willing to personally sacrifice his fame and money. K-pop idols and actors have to secretly date anyone and would only reveal their relationship if they are about to have a child, get married, or not even then, as it is considered that idols are for the fans. It’s an unhealthy system, but that is the system that K-pop idols live in.

Some of the plot conflicts make no sense. One of them is the fact that Merri’s mother left Merri and her father to pursue her art because she felt like her family was holding her back. Merri also wants to get into art and wants to study it in college, but her father refuses for her to follow the path of her mother. It makes no sense because the daughter is not like the mother. In addition, the father must be blind to teenagers because if you prohibit them from doing things that they want to do in the future, they will do it anyway and you will lose them in the process.

I honestly felt no chemistry between Lee and Merri. If anything, I felt like it was a slight fetishization of Lee being Korean. I could maybe see them as friends, but I didn’t see the appeal in either character. Because Lee is meant to be a K-pop star, I think it’s meant to be seen as he is hot and perfect, and why would anyone not find him attractive? Except from the fact he doesn’t really have a good personality. However, Merri is far more irritating than Lee, but I think it’s because we are reading from her perspective. She seemed very immature, and I didn’t see any appeal in her character. I did not relate to any of the characters at all.

This book would have been far better if Lee was Korean-American. There would have been far less focus on Lee being Korean, and the story could have just been about Merri and Lee getting together. It wouldn't haven taken away from the fact that Lee was a K-pop star because there are Korean-Americans who are K-Pop stars (E.G. Eric Nam, Wendy from Red Velvet). There would have just been a far less focus on the Korean culture aspect, which is what would be needed for this story to have been a good one. The white author, who is a fan of Korean dramas, probably didn’t want the book to be as problematic as it is, but she should have either further researched Korean culture to make this book as accurate as possible to avoid offense, or have a Korean beta reader, or avoid representing Korean culture. As much as I want East-Asian representation, I want it done right or not at all. Fantasy stories have greater flexibility because something can be Asian-influence but still be a complete fictional world. However, contemporary stories are held to a higher regard as much as a book can be labelled as fiction, it’s based on reality, and that representation needs to be accurate.

This book made me not want to read and put me into a reading slump. I hope that I get out of it soon. I would not recommend this book. It portrays an inaccurate portrayal of Korean culture which is the foundation and selling point of this book. You would only enjoy this book if you knew nothing about Korean culture, which makes it dangerous. Not only that, but the story itself is lacking, and the characters are not appealing to read.

A promising debut with lots of heart, no pun intended, honest ! Lovely relatable real characters who have flaws and issues, which I loved. A lovely YA contemporary romance, a really quick nice read, very addictive reading. Really fun and I think will be a big hit.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Merrilee's great summer comes to a crashing burn of an end when she finds out her boyfriend and best friend have been dating behind her back while she's been abroad with her dad. Oh, and now her next door neighbor's rude nephew has just arrived from Korea and it doesn't matter how handsome he is, he's a jerk. Or is he? Is there something more to Lee that meets the eye?

Oh, yeah, like the fact that he's a super famous, super popular K-Pop star with hoards of rabid fangirls.

There's that.

The positive: This is a debut with an interesting and promising plot, with a good set-up for a lot of drama to mix in with fluff. Merri is by no stretch a perfect heroine, nor is Lee the perfect hero, which makes them both more realistic. The fluffy parts are pretty good.

That being said, there's the negative: I struggled quite a bit with Merri's voice and liking her entirely as a character. And I would also like to see some thoughts from Korean readers, because there were a few things that my white American brain raised some warning flags while reading. I read another review that implied that the author did a great deal of research when writing this novel, but I didn't see anything in the acknowledgements that indicated that at any point someone who is actually Korean was consulted. Another reviewer pointed out several places where Korean words were spelled incorrectly; I'm aware that this is an ARC and uncorrected, and so I would highly recommend that the author and editors look into that particular point.

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for supplying me with an ARC*

Girl meets boy.
Boy falls for girl.
Girl discovers boy is a runaway K-pop star.

This was such a cute contemporary. It was such a quick read too, maybe a tad predictable but I felt that it read like a kdrama with the twists and turns. It was interesting to see how the book also showed what kpop stars deal with and can internally struggle with, especially with the amount of stress that they can deal with working and showing the world an essentially perfect version of themselves.
I found this to be a very nice read from this debut author and will be looking forward to anything else that they bring out.

A lot of Korean references - be it the little words we know from watching a lot of K-Drama, the Korean food, K-Pop fandom - were all so good and made the book enjoyable. The story was cheesy and super cute. The romance was adorable though the hate-to-Love trope is sort of overdone these days. Loved how Lee was unable to ‘get’ the phrases used by Merri and it was very authentic and real because it is difficult for a non-English speaking person to get them. Overall a very cute romance book perfect for summers and fans of K-Drama

Much thanks to NetGalley and Mascot Books for this complimentary copy. This review is voluntary and opinions are fully my own.

📚 Series: No.
📚 Genre: Young Adult: Romance
📚 POV: First.
📚 Cliffhanger: No.

⚠ Content Warnings: Mental Health Concerns: Anxiety. Family Drama. Betrayal.
⚠ Read if: you are a fan of: 1. K-Drama, 2. K-pop, or 3. Famous/Non-famous trope.

Oh my, what can I say? This was such a great read. I am normally a person who gets easily distracted and have concentration problems but I got through reading this in a breeze. 60% in one sitting, the rest in another.

Hart & Seoul is the debut novel of Kristen Burnham. And oh, what a fun debut it was. Merilee Grace Hart, aka Merri, is a highschool senior/artist whose world changed when her neighbor's nephew arrives fresh from South Korea. Merri and Lee had an amusing first encounter where they definitely pissed each other off. But when Merri gets broken hearted from a cheater ex and friend, Lee went in for her rescue. But thunder rocks her world when she discovers Lee's secret: he's a Korean superstar and a member of Kpop group Thunder.

Again, I looooved this so much. This book was reminiscent of my favorite fan fics (the better written ones) and the few Kdramas I have watched.

At times, Merri may be found a bit annoying and insensitive in dealing with Korean culture. I cannot react on how bad it was since I am not sure how a Korean would feel about those things and how true some representations of the culture were.

My rating is a lot on how the romance made me feel and it was really giddy and cute and made me feel butterflies.

Looking forward to more of the author's work!

I went into this book expecting a descent contemporary romance plot, with the added twist of the male lead being a K-pop star. I expected a fair amount of Korean cultural explanation to pop up because of this. I was a bit nervous, since it appears this is all coming from a white author who is probably super into K-pop/K-drama (heck, I am, too!), so my expectations for accuracy were set pretty low. Still, I managed to feel uncomfortable reading this despite all my fore-knowledge in this.

For one thing, I just didn't believe in the characters or the plot of this story. The book starts out with an immediate plot twist (cheating!) that ends up helping form a bond between the main character, Meri and the K-pop idol, Lee (yes, he's called Lee throughout the story, even after Meri learns his whole name, which I found to be extremely awkward, especially since "Lee" is very fluent in English and probably would have been accustomed to how English people address one-another). When Meri finds out her best friend is cheating with her boyfriend (which I saw coming immediately, I don't know why she didn't), she and Lee form a bond over the fact that both of them have suffered from cheating.

But the chemistry is just not there. Meri, for one, is a rather difficult MC to like. She's very brash, despite being put off by Lee's brashness throughout the story, and she definitely doesn't come across as very likable. For some reason, she really just rubbed me the wrong way, mostly because she seemed incapable of politely learning about Lee's culture. She turned many of his likes/dislikes into an issue (she even calls him Mr. Kimchi!!!) and makes a point of being blown away by almost every single thing she learns about Korean culture. I mean, I feel like at a certain point, especially if you are dating a person from another culture, you should be open and interested in learning about their culture, and be respectful of differences. Meri did none of this and almost every thing she learned about Lee became a point to mock or make fun of. I just didn't get why he ever became interested in her. Or she him - but actually, I do know why she fell for him.

This story suffers from a lot of cliches. For one thing, the book sets up the whole hat-to-love aspect. But further than that, Meri's reasons for falling for Lee seem to mostly stem from his "attractiveness" which she brings up a point of commenting on in every instant they're with each other. He almost takes on an Edward-Cullen-from-Twilight hotness, you know, the kind where literally everyone finds him attractive, which is super unrealistic because everyone has different tastes. Anywhere she and Lee go, Meri always makes sure to note how <em>women</em> around Lee are smitten with him. It happens almost constantly and it was so annoying.

This book also suffers from lack of plot. It's a very ambling book with a lot of time given to Meri waxing poetic on why her life is so crazy because her mom just left her family. This is a genuinely difficult topic, but Burnham doesn't handle it with much skill. It becomes a tell instead of show element that takes up far too much of the book's time. Most of the book ends up being Meri thinking through each problem that comes her way: her dad not wanting her to apply to art colleges because he think's she'll turn out like her mother, Meri going back and forth over weather she should upload art she's made of her and Lee's interactions, Meri ranting to herself about her cheating boyfriend and best friend - I have a particular issue with this one, since it's an important plot development. Bree, Meri's best friend from childhood, cheats with Meri's boyfriend while Meri is away on vacation. And even though they're childhood friends, Bree has absolutely no guilt for doing this. It's kind of unbelievable.

I've gone on enough, I think, but I will say one thing more: the Korean phrases added to this book annoyed me for a few reasons: <strong>one</strong>: the Romanization of some of the phrases did not seem accurate to me (as I've had a passing interest in learning Korean and have a few textbooks to back me up here). It seemed the author was trying to write out how the word or phrase sounds when heard, but this, I think, was the wrong track to take and it was irritating. <strong>Two</strong>: it didn't make sense for Lee to use random Korean phrases when talking to Meri as it's well established that Lee is super-fluent in English. From what I hear, it's pretty weird for someone who is fluent in another language to pepper their speech with their mother language for words they already know. <strong>Three</strong>: Lee's choppy language didn't seem accurate either, when he was speaking English, because, since he's fluent (again, it's mentioned multiple times that Lee got the best tutor and is very good at speaking English) that he wouldn't know how to put together English sentence. Instead, this felt, to me, like Burnham was falling back on a stereotypical speech pattern used for Asian characters. If you look at other K-pop idols who are fluent in English (I'm thinking of Taecyeon), they don't talk like that. It didn't fit and instead came off as a bit racist to me.

Cute and quick. I'm significantly older than the target demographic but I enjoy reading YA. I found it predictable, but maybe a younger audience wouldn't. Besides, the characters were cute and funny, and I liked the KPop angle. Overall an entertaining read

Ok. I admit it.

When I’m not reading and reviewing books, a lot of my time is spent keeping up with my favorite K-pop groups. It’s been almost 3 years since I fell down the rabbit hole that is the genre and I haven’t seemed to be able to get myself out since.

So, when I came upon Hart and Seoul, a book boasting a girl-meets-boy romance featuring a famous K-pop star moving in next door, I jumped at the opportunity to read it.

A story with a plot like this one could have so easily slipped into fan fiction, but Hart and Seoul does not dive into so much drama and fan service. It does however, bring to the table quite a few of the adored tropes; hate-to-love, enemies-to-lovers, and even some fake dating, that romance readers will likely love.

This book has just the right amount of twists and turns to keep it interesting, but also believable. I was happy to see that the story dipped into more difficult and sensitive topics instead of just being all-over cheesy and fluffy romance, exploring not just the happy-go-lucky side of romance and K-pop alike but the darker aspects as well.

I enjoyed the ups and downs of the story even though I expected all of them. This was helped, I think, by the narration. I didn’t think that I would like (let alone relate to) reading through the perspective of a high school senior who says ‘dang’ and ‘darn’ rather than swearing, but I actually settled into Merilee Hart’s narrative quickly and ended up really liking how it helped me sink into the story and look at what was happening from her view, bringing more believability to the story. The sense of voice in this story was really strong, and I came to feel like I really understood Merri and her motivations and thought processes. Not only that, but it was quick and easy to read. I finished this book in two sittings thanks to this writing style and the push of the eventful plot. At times, the narration did become a bit repetitive, especially when it came to Merri’s opinions on kimchi, but it didn’t detract from the story too much overall. 

However,I sometimes felt a bit annoyed with Merri because of her unwillingness to learn about Korean culture. I think that many people that will pick up this book will be fans of K-pop already, and have at least some sense of the culture. Merri is pretty clueless when it comes to anything about Korea. This is understandable, since she points out that she’s not actually a K-pop fan herself and has never really gotten into K-dramas or any of that. But I also think that anyone who finds they are falling for someone from another country would try to educate themselves so as not to sound foolish. Lee brushes this off for the most part (or at least once he starts to fall for her) which is oh-so-sweet of him. But in comparison, he does a lot more research into her and her culture. He has an advantage since he already knows English, but Merri doesn’t really make an effort to learn Korean in return.

Making Merri act this way isn’t necessarily a bad choice, in fact, I think it makes her a believable character and it makes sense for who she is. It also allows the reader to learn a little about Korean culture, becoming educated with Merri as she does, if they don’t already know. But I think that many people who pick this up will already know what she is learning, making this information unneeded. These people may have more trouble connecting to Merri because of this aspect of her character, and may be offended by her unwillingness to learn. Personally, I found it a bit privileged of her and it made me frown several times, but it didn’t bother me so much that it affected my enjoyment of the story too much. Then again, I wouldn’t call myself an expert on Korea, either, and what I know I’ve only come to learn recently, so I can understand where she’s coming from.

My main critique for Hart and Seoul is that I wanted more. More time to get to know Merri before Lee is introduced, more discussion on sensitive topics (especially one, the most sensitive of all), more explanation in the conclusion, and more time for the romance to burn before igniting. The latter two, especially.

The ending tied everything together, but I wasn’t completely satisfied with the explanations the characters gave for the choices they had made and I doubted whether it would have been enough, in reality, for them to move forward in the way it implied they were going to. After all, there were so many factors against it, how were they going to cope? That being said, I would have hated if everything had turned out perfectly. I only wished that there had been a little more to really convince me that what had happened was going to last (or clear implications that it wouldn’t).

What I wanted more of the most was a slow burn. It’s only a short time between when the characters realize they have feelings for each other, start to question whether to act on them and begin to flirt, and then get together. It was believable, and obviously, readers are aware it’s going to happen from the start. It also left more room at the end for other topics to be explored, which I appreciated. But...isn’t that section the best part of a romance? Personally, I think those will-they-won’t-they, kiss-already! moments when the tension is at its crux is the best part, and there was very little of it in this story. I would have settled for having the story run longer if I could have had a chapter or two more of the steamier stuff.

 I rated Hart and Seoul 4.25 out of 5 stars. It’s a great summer romance, especially for K-pop and K-drama fans. Fans of The Sun is Also a Star and Eliza and her Monsters will likely enjoy this new release, coming June 4, 2019.


Thank you to Mascot Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read a digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

I CRIED LIKE A BABY. 😭

This was such a fantastic, fun, heartfelt, sweet, and funny story. K drama is the best. And I will always be a BigBang Fangirl, so this hit straight to my Korean culture loving heart. Lee and Merri start off as just neighbors. Lee in a sour mood and not in a place to even want to make friends. They're thrust together by the ever present auntie (ya'll know who they are) and a break up. Seeing them come together as friends after a crappy situation just melted my heart. The story was just so fun and I just ate through seeing 2 cultures coming together and how much they cared about each other. It was cavity inducing sweetness and I couldn't get enough.

This is the second k-pop book I have read this week. Cute YA love story about runaway k-pop star in hiding Lee who meets Merri his next door neighbor. They are both on the rebound after being two-timed by their exes and hit it off. This is a sweet summer romance type read that I really enjoyed. Merri is a smart girl who falls for Lee and his stubborn Korean ways before she kmows he is a big k-pop star. They are an adorable couple and her ex best friend and ex boyfriend deserve to see her happy with him. Love the story, romance and k-pop back drop. Definitely worth reading. Thanks for the ARC, NG!!!!

Oh wow, this was just a fun read! It was funny, it was charming, it was ridiculous; like the best K Dramas. The characters were believable, the drama wasn’t overly crazy, and they weren’t fixated on the same bad stuff to the point of annoying. Looking forward to seeing what she writes next!

I couldn't finish this. It was cliché and childish and the characters were supposed to be high school seniors but acted like they were barely out of middle grade.

I was given an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! I've been in a slump and this book has gotten me out of it. I read this book in a day and mind you I'm also studying for finals. I latched onto every word and every moment.

The tropes used in this book made me swoon so hard! It's got enemies to lovers and fake dating and mutual pinning and everything you could possibly want in a romance book without being cheesy or awkward. It's got sweet moments between 'Christmas' and 'Mr. Kimchi' but also talks about mental health which really added some character and depth to the story. The storyline of a famous person falling for a normal person seems unlikely but the details with Lee's fame and his retreat to his aunt's house makes it seem possible. The author did a really good job of making a romantic notion seem realistic. The romance is super swoon-worthy and perfect for hopeless romantics like me.

I loved the influence that Korean culture has on this book too! I love K-pop and I loved how the book addressed the pressure that the industry puts on its idol to be perfect. The author's note talks about fame, mental health and offers resources for those struggling with their mental health, which I thought was a sweet addition. You can tell that the author appreciates Korean culture and loves writing. I can't wait to read more from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Okay.. I tried. I REAAALLY tried. But I just can’t finish this book.
I waited up until almost 40% of this story for the main character to stop being so ignorant but she just doesn’t stop?? I even thought to myself okay she’s a teenager from a small town who doesn’t know anything about Korean culture so I’ll give her some time to change.. But as she continues to spend more time with the love interest (who is a runaway kpop idol) she just gets WORSE. She repeatedly makes fun of the way he speaks. Which I was not a fan of the author choosing to write the dialogue in that way.. It felt very stereotypical. And just the way she reacts to Korean culture is annoying (and again stereotypical). What got me to finally put this book down was when she saw the waitress bow more than once and said “man, they like to bow” 🤦🏻‍♀️ — If you’re looking for a cute book with some kpop love then I recommend Somewhere Only We Know.

If you like Korean dramas, pop music, etc., this book was written for you!
I REALLY enjoyed reading Hart & Seoul and it promptly made me interested in watching another K-drama! I love how it follows the lighthearted aspects of K-dramas, but also dealing with true-to-life issues and exploring a different culture. I'm not Korean, but I do enjoy the occasional K-drama or K-pop song and this book fit into that extremely well. This is a cute way to integrate learning about different cultures in high school. I think it would pair well with a field trip to a Korean Restaurant and maybe a K-pop concert afterwards! :)
If you liked watching Boys Over Flowers, You're Beautiful or Strong Girl, you will LOVE this book!

I want to thank Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really loved this book!
The synopsis really intrigued me and after reading it I can say this is honestly one laugh out loud hilarious read!
I loved the plot and felt like I got to know the characters really well.
I will say the plot felt a bit rushed at points but other than that it was an enjoyable read.
5 stars.