Seoulmates
Main Leads: Hannah Cho, Jacob Kim
Setting: United States, California, San Diego
Tags: Best Friend Love, Second Chance Romance, Hate to Love
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Young Adult
Published On: September 20, 2022
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Format: e-Book
Source: Purchased
Pages: 314
Purchase It: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Hannah Cho had the next year all planned out—the perfect summer with her boyfriend, Nate, and then a fun senior year with their friends.
But then Nate does what everyone else in Hannah’s life seems to do—he leaves her, claiming they have nothing in common. He and all her friends are newly obsessed with K-pop and K-dramas, and Hannah is not. After years of trying to embrace the American part and shunning the Korean side of her Korean American identity to fit in, Hannah finds that’s exactly what now has her on the outs.
But someone who does know K-dramas—so well that he’s actually starring in one—is Jacob Kim, Hannah’s former best friend, whom she hasn’t seen in years. He’s desperate for a break from the fame, so a family trip back to San Diego might be just what he needs… that is, if he and Hannah can figure out what went wrong when they last parted and navigate the new feelings developing between them.
Her ex-boyfriend wants her back. Her former best friend is in town. When did Hannah’s life become a K-drama?
This book came on to my radar when I learned that the author is a Carat (a fan of the k-pop group Seventeen) and the boy in this book was inspired by Mingyu..who is my bias in Seventeen. I’m all about supporting a fellow Carat so I bought this book and was eager to read it.
This book follows Hannah Cho into summer after she gets dumped by her boyfriend Nate who broke up with her because he was more into her culture than she was. He legit broke up with her because she didn’t know what a bias was so Hannah plans to win him back by getting into k-pop and k-dramas. Her plans are derailed when her childhood best friend, Jacob Kim returns to San Diego for the summer and his family is staying with her family for the summer. He hasn’t been back to San Diego since he moved to Korea and because Hannah has abandonment issues, she’s got issues with Jacob.
Jacob is going through his own struggles and he’s in San Diego for the summer because he needs to take a break from his job and from the immense pressure he feels surrounding his job. Jacob is a k-drama actor and the drama that he’s working on is pressuring him to be in a fake relationship with his co-star to garner interest and appease avid fans of the show. On top of being in a fake relationship with a girl he doesn’t even like, he’s got some family drama with an uncle trying to horn in on his fame and capitalize on Jacob’s fame. When he became the man of the house, Jacob had to find work to support them and working in the industry is taking a lot out of him. Add to that, he’s back in his hometown with the girl he left behind and she kind of hates him now.
Seeing these two bicker their way toward their happy ending was good but it wasn’t anything that I was head over heels in love with. I think I struggled with Hannah’s attitude toward everything and everyone the most. It is absolutely a mature thing. I get that she’s young and she’s immature and the obvious reason for the story was to see her growth in character but holy shit, she made it hard a lot of the time. Jacob was better but I don’t know, I didn’t absolutely love him either. I thought he was just okay…which sucks to say because I really love the guy that inspired his creation. I also struggled with the writing style. I felt like I was talked at, not really connected to the story and the characters. I felt like I was watching a tv show but it was more background noise and I just wasn’t as invested in what happened.
I will say that the ending was better than the beginning and when Hannah does her growing and Jacob gets his shit together, they were a lot better to take but that’s about it.
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