Once Upon a K-Prom

Oh, my heart. This book was delightful.

Elena Soo has felt invisible, overshadowed by her siblings and friends, who all seem to know exactly who they are. What she is sure about is that she'd rather work to save her local community center than go to prom...until her childhood best friend turned K-Pop star Robbie Choi shows up back in her life to fulfill a childhood promise that they made to each other.

I really enjoyed the story arc around the community center as Elena's favorite place to be, and how central it is in several events throughout the book. I loved the way the other community center workers felt like members of Elena's family to her.

I really appreciated the journey with Elena's insecurity, especially in the resolutions with other characters. We're reminded that while Elena's feelings are valid, she's also a teenager and that sometimes all it takes is to see a different framing of a situation to feel completely different about it.

I loved WDB, meeting each of them and how easily I managed to tell them apart - something I don't always manage to do quickly when I meet a larger group at once. Minseok, Jun, Jaehyung, Jongdae, and Robbie all had their own personalities that made them endearing to me as I met them with Elena. I loved the little fun fact cards about each of the members between chapters. Sooyeon ended up being one of my favorite characters, and even though D.E.T. was only on page for a little bit, I was super charmed by his character as well.

Robbie and Elena's relationship developing as people who were once best friends but now had to learn about who each other grew to be in the seven years apart was great - I absolutely love the not-quite strangers who used to know all of each other's tells - especially since Robbie is now a K-Pop star, which has it's own complications. I thought it was hilarious that Robbie would put on a dark hoodie thinking that he wasn't going to be seen as creepy. I loved Robbie and Elena carrying on traditions from their childhood, and I was satisfied with how they chose to move forward.

I do wish that we saw more from Robbie's perspective - we got some chapters from his, but the chapters are mostly from Elena's, so it sort of felt like we were getting just enough of Robbie's perspective so that we would still be rooting for them when the conflict between the two of them erupts in the last part of the book, as given Elena's insecurities, I'm sure having only her perspective would've skewed our perception as readers as well.

Thank you to Disney Publishing Worldwide and NetGalley for the ARC.