Thank You to Edelweiss and Inkyard Press who sent an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this book! The cover is amazing. I did't know what to expect since I don't watch any K-dramas and only recently started read YA Romance books. It is a childhood friends turned enemies to lovers story. I couldn't put this book down (the only reason it took me so long to read was because I was on holiday). The main characters are so relatable but like able at the same time. I can't believe I have to wait ages to pick up the hard copy. ( )

YA about two Korean-American teenagers, Hannah and Jacob, who grew up together, but stopped speaking to each other three years ago, when Jacob’s family moved back to Korea. They are thrown together for the summer.

There’s a lot going on for the two of them -- including but not limited to Jacob’s emerging career as a kdrama actor and Hannah’s complicated feelings about fitting in. Some of the developments, particularly the emotional ones, felt a bit too abrupt. I might have become invested if this story had just been told from one POV. ( )

I don’t read a lot of YA, but Seoulmates interested me for two reasons – Christina Lauren loved it and I listen to their opinions and I, like the main character, don’t really get the K-pop and K-drama trend. Yes, I’ve eaten the BTS meal at McDonalds (those guys really know how to choose a sauce) and I’ve listened to many conversations about K-dramas. I can happily take it or leave it. A bit like this book – it’s cute and a lot of fun but it’s not super deep on the subplots or overall plot. It’s a romance of friends-enemies-friends-lovers that is rather cute.

Hannah is heading into her senior year at high school and she’s got her summer planned. But then her boyfriend Nate dumps her because she doesn’t like K-pop and K-dramas, which leaves them nothing in common. Hannah’s summer is ruined, and then even more so when her mother announces that her friend and children are coming to stay. Except one said child is Hannah’s former friend Jacob, now K-drama star on the rise Kim Jin-Suk. Hannah does not want Jacob around and Jacob – well, he just wants out of the factory of entertainment for a while. It’s prickly at first, but Hannah and Jacob reach a truce where they can be friends – and quite possibly something more. But Jacob has contractual obligations and his time with Hannah is stirring up social media. Can Jacob reveal the truth about what he really wants? Or will he and Hannah end up complicating and potentially destroying their friendship?

Seoulmates is a simple tale – not that there is anything wrong with that. It’s fun and sweet, and has the added benefit of being a great guide to what to do during a San Diego summer. Susan Lee’s writing style is easy-going and feels like you’re really in the minds of the characters, particularly in relation to what’s weighing on their minds. Sometimes the plights of teenagers come across as a bit trivial but Lee treats her characters’ emotions with the seriousness they deserve, no matter how unimportant it might seem to an outsider. The story is told in the first person, alternating between Hannah and Jacob and Lee does the distinction between the two characters well. It’s not the same voice and same scene retold, but a unique perspective.

Hannah has some issues with her father and sister both leaving, which I would have liked to read more about. Likewise, Jacob is troubled by an uncle plotting to reveal all, but it is all over rather quickly without much of an idea of what it’s about. I would have liked to have had some stronger subplots instead of a very firm focus on Jacob and Hannah’s reunion and the number of hiccups they run into. Overall, it’s a light fun read that’s heavily on the misunderstandings, revelations and mix-ups of young love.

Thank you to Harlequin for the ARC. My review is honest.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com ( )

Recommended: sure!
For a sweet k-pop star and regular girl love story, for friends to lovers with a little bit of enemies, for a realistic take on this now-common trope (hesitancy and all), for something that will really just make you smile happily 😊

Thoughts:
I think what I loved most about this was how clear I'd Hannah Chow was. She doesn't just have a K-Pop star show up on her doorstep and then be like oh sure this is fine. She reacts as any regular person would, I think: and that is to be floored and not super comfortable with it. Putting aside their personal histories, it's not actually that easy to date a super celebrity, I'm sure.

I also loved the shorter chapters we got from Jacob perspective. They added a nice sense of intimacy and prevented him from just looking like a clueless jerk in some scenes, because we saw some of the pressure and guidance that he was receiving on his end.

Their slow rekindling of their friendship is so sweet to watch, and it has bits of friends to lovers, and enemies to friends, and even enemies to lovers! It covers a lot of ground. However, as with a lot of good enemy to lover stories, it's all very one-sided. I think it's just shy of that common scene where the male lead goes, "I never thought we were enemies?"

Emotional growth happens for just about every character in this, even the side characters who are mostly just foils to our main couple. I always appreciate when the people on the side have some texture and personality to them. In this one you could often understand where people were coming from, even if you didn't agree with them or they express themselves poorly.

And as expected when there's emotional growth required, they did start from a place of low-key idiocy in some ways, but in a very lovable sense. They're teenagers in love after all! Some of the decisions they made I thought we're very blatantly stupid, but surprisingly they didn't always turn out to be as bad as I expected. Then I thought, maybe I'm just a bit jaded and always expect the worst. 😅 Regardless, the good and bad decisions all work together and made it so sweet and lovely to follow along with. ( )

A K-drama in a Book

I've watched a handfull of k-drama's through-out my I've and I love that this book exists. Because for SO LONG, I've allways wanted to read books like this, but could hardly find any. Even though I am an avid reader as well, I love the Asian women authors that I know of and am allways on the search for more. So I'm really happy to know about this author. Remember that reading books with diverse authors is good. Just as I enjoy watching a good kdrama with a main romance plot, and books with main plots as romance, I hate seeing the main women/girl/female presenting leads becoming terribly stuck and unsure of what to do when they get broken up with, and how much of that feels like a codependent relashonship in a lot of the romance centered entertainment media. Though, i enjoyed reading this book and seeing how everything turned out for Hannah, how she was going about in her life with herself/inner conflict and how things were going with figuring out which culture she's going to stick to. ( )