It was ok

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2.5 stars rounded up

This was ok. Just ok. It had its highs and lows, I just wish the highs happened a bit more consistently. This took me a while to finish because I felt it just didn’t have that “it” factor to keep me going.

The thing that I had the biggest issue with was the frustrating and repetitive nature of the book. Seoulmates relies heavily on a formula of miscommunication that goes something like this:
MC1: “I am so mad at you! Why can’t you see things my way?”
MC2: “I am so mad at you! I could never see things your way.”
*Some time passes*
MC1: “Here’s some emotional word vomit that explains exactly how I feel in a weirdly on-the-nose manner. Even though you didn’t ask me to.”
MC2: *Reciprocates oddly specific emotional confession*
They make up.
Repeat.

And the writing was just way too cheesy for me at times. I mean,
“‘Hey,’ he says, eyes bright, sexy AF.”
Like what? Nobody talks like this.

All that being said, was it a totally bad experience? No. There were cute trope-fulfilling scenes, and there was a solid childhood friends to enemies to lovers progression. I also liked how both Hannah and Jacob had parallel yet distinct life lessons learned by the end about boundary setting- Hannah with her inner turmoil brought on by her past and Jacob with his overly demanding job and the weight of supporting his family. Though these themes seemed a bit thrown in at the end and I wish they shined a little more. I just think it all could have been executed better.

I also think the book could have improved so much by adding a third perspective more often- Mrs. Cho and Mrs. Kim. More meddling on their part to fulfill their lifelong dream of getting their kids together could have added so much humor and really transformed the tone of the book!

So if you’re in the mood for a fun, light (though sometimes cheesy and frustrating) friends to lovers contemporary, maybe give it a try. But there’s probably other books you want to get to first.