Seoulmates

Hannah Cho's carefully planned out summer is starting to unravel - her boyfriend Nate breaks up with her with claims that they're nothing alike, leaving Hannah in confusion as everyone around her seems to be obsessed with K-pop and K-dramas. Further adding complications is her former best friend Jacob Kim, who is back in San Diego for the summer after moving to Korea to go star in a K-drama himself years ago.

I enjoyed the development of their relationship through the bucket list that Jacob has, and I loved this look of San Diego that we get.

I love the former best friendswho are now not-quite strangers dynamic, the way that Hannah and Jacob know all of each other's tells, the way they knew exactly how to hurt each other during arguments. I especially loved the intention and extra details that Hannah would look into when she would take Jacob places to eat due to his severe allergies.

I really enjoyed the discussion around identity as Hannah and Jacob struggled in parallel ways as Korean Americans - Hannah feeling like she had to hide the Korean part of herself growing up to fit in, Jacob struggling to not feel "too American" to his fans and audiences in Korea. In particular as an Asian American, I emphathized with Hannah's anger at having "rejected" the parts of her culture to fit in and feeling a sort of whiplash when it seems to suddenly be accepted and even popular to enjoy these same things that would've gotten you bullied or ostracized as a kid.

I loved Mrs. Cho, Mrs. Kim, and Jacob's sister, esepcially the family arcs in this book. I really liked how Hannah, who suffers from feeling abandoned by everyone in her life, ends up seeing some new perspectives on the situations from her mom.

Thank you to Inkyard Press and NetGalley for the ARC.