This friends-to-lovers story is fraught with pain and misunderstandings. Hannah Cho isn’t the sort to forgive or forget. When people wound her, she lashes out and/or retreats. In fact, her life has been filled with people inadvertently hurting her by exiting themselves from her life. She comes off as spunky but wounded, the type who covers up pain with sarcasm, vicious commentary and sullen silence.
The biggest source of her pain is Jacob Kim, a boy she knew when they were both kids. The author takes us through her anguish and confusion, her bitterness that caused her to shut him out of her life after he tore out of hers.
Jacob Kim, aka Kim Jin-Suk to his fans, is the star of a K-drama, “Heart and Seoul”. The K-drama and K-pop worlds are phenomena I’ve only marginally touched upon so it took me a bit of time to understand what I was reading. Apparently Jacob, snatched from obscurity when he was a sickly, weedy kid, is kind of a big deal in Korea and America. For months, he was so busy he didn’t have time for Hannah. By the time he managed to get a free moment alone, she had turned her back on him because of his apparent radio silence. Talk about crossed wires.
(Let me take a moment here. If half of what I read here is true, the K-pop world is insane. Young lads are practically snatched off the streets by avid talent scouts and then trained in an intensive program to become picked to be the next bright young star. Think of someone being chosen at the age of seven to undergo the grueling training to become a fencer, champion ice dancer or ballet dancer, e.g., and you’ll have an idea of what I glimpsed in this novel.)
When an accident lands Jacob back in San Diego where he and Hannah knew each other as children, we understand the tension that twangs between them, the bad blood and hurt that Hannah refuses to let go of until she and Jacob manage to make time together.
We, along with Jacob, are taken through a San Diego filled with good times, interesting tourist spots and tender interludes. San Diego sounds like a terrific place and some of the Korean food mentioned in this novel seem mouthwateringly delicious. But K-pop stars draw as much attention as Hollywood ones, apparently, even more so. While American devotees are more aggressive in pursuing autographs and selfies with their idols, Korean followers are more intrusive, demanding to have so much of Jacob that it’s a wonder he’s not clinically insane from keeping up with their scrutiny and expectations.
The novel doesn’t spare either of them nor give them easy solutions. Jacob’s career is necessary to keep his family financially afloat. So Hannah has to think what she’ll do when his health retreat in San Diego comes to its inevitable end. Both of them have dreams of the future, dreams that suddenly have to make way for the other person. Far from being a tepid YA love story, this one keeps us on the edges of our seats as we wonder what will happen to our two star-crossed kids.
The novel culminates with a scene of giggling conspiratorial talk between Jacob and Hannah’s mother that ends with a hammy line. But it’s little to complain about and the novel manages to avoid such cheesy moments. This is a novel about making a relationship work by putting in the work. Its moral is subtle but telling: Love isn’t supposed to be easy. If it were, anybody could do it.
The biggest source of her pain is Jacob Kim, a boy she knew when they were both kids. The author takes us through her anguish and confusion, her bitterness that caused her to shut him out of her life after he tore out of hers.
Jacob Kim, aka Kim Jin-Suk to his fans, is the star of a K-drama, “Heart and Seoul”. The K-drama and K-pop worlds are phenomena I’ve only marginally touched upon so it took me a bit of time to understand what I was reading. Apparently Jacob, snatched from obscurity when he was a sickly, weedy kid, is kind of a big deal in Korea and America. For months, he was so busy he didn’t have time for Hannah. By the time he managed to get a free moment alone, she had turned her back on him because of his apparent radio silence. Talk about crossed wires.
(Let me take a moment here. If half of what I read here is true, the K-pop world is insane. Young lads are practically snatched off the streets by avid talent scouts and then trained in an intensive program to become picked to be the next bright young star. Think of someone being chosen at the age of seven to undergo the grueling training to become a fencer, champion ice dancer or ballet dancer, e.g., and you’ll have an idea of what I glimpsed in this novel.)
When an accident lands Jacob back in San Diego where he and Hannah knew each other as children, we understand the tension that twangs between them, the bad blood and hurt that Hannah refuses to let go of until she and Jacob manage to make time together.
We, along with Jacob, are taken through a San Diego filled with good times, interesting tourist spots and tender interludes. San Diego sounds like a terrific place and some of the Korean food mentioned in this novel seem mouthwateringly delicious. But K-pop stars draw as much attention as Hollywood ones, apparently, even more so. While American devotees are more aggressive in pursuing autographs and selfies with their idols, Korean followers are more intrusive, demanding to have so much of Jacob that it’s a wonder he’s not clinically insane from keeping up with their scrutiny and expectations.
The novel doesn’t spare either of them nor give them easy solutions. Jacob’s career is necessary to keep his family financially afloat. So Hannah has to think what she’ll do when his health retreat in San Diego comes to its inevitable end. Both of them have dreams of the future, dreams that suddenly have to make way for the other person. Far from being a tepid YA love story, this one keeps us on the edges of our seats as we wonder what will happen to our two star-crossed kids.
The novel culminates with a scene of giggling conspiratorial talk between Jacob and Hannah’s mother that ends with a hammy line. But it’s little to complain about and the novel manages to avoid such cheesy moments. This is a novel about making a relationship work by putting in the work. Its moral is subtle but telling: Love isn’t supposed to be easy. If it were, anybody could do it.