genuinely one of my favorite reads of 2023. susan lee's debut seoulmates was good, but this was even better.
our two main characters, elijah and jessica, have the same legal korean name. this would normally not be an issue since jessica and elijah lead very separate lives - jessica comes from a middle class family with her dad as an employee of haneul corporation, a korea-based company with a large us base. elijah, on the other hand, is the son of the company's owner, which means he'll eventually become ceo despite his older sister actually wanting the job while he doesn't (at all).
unfortunately or fortunately, a case of mistaken identity due to their shared name results in jessica inadvertently switching spots with elijah, getting a first class ticket to her internship, along with getting chauffeured to a fancy brownstone in nyc for the summer, one that even comes with a full time housekeeper. elijah gets the intern treatment, sharing a tiny dorm with other interns, a tight food budget, and the corporate version of busywork when he should be learning how to be ceo.
when elijah and jessica run into each other, they piece together what might have happened, but they no longer want to swap back - jessica wants to take advantage of her new authority to get a move on a career she really wants and elijah wants a summer away from his father.
it takes a lot of work for them to build the lie and maintain it, and with that, the duo grow closer and closer which blossoms into romance!!! i really really loved the (imo) very real depiction of what it's like to work at a large tech corporation - sure the international ones might be "worse" but we're all bottom of the barrel to the execs and c-suiters. the romance was prioritized slightly less than their hijinks and it was perfect - this is the kind of chaos i enjoy reading in a single sitting.
5/5
our two main characters, elijah and jessica, have the same legal korean name. this would normally not be an issue since jessica and elijah lead very separate lives - jessica comes from a middle class family with her dad as an employee of haneul corporation, a korea-based company with a large us base. elijah, on the other hand, is the son of the company's owner, which means he'll eventually become ceo despite his older sister actually wanting the job while he doesn't (at all).
unfortunately or fortunately, a case of mistaken identity due to their shared name results in jessica inadvertently switching spots with elijah, getting a first class ticket to her internship, along with getting chauffeured to a fancy brownstone in nyc for the summer, one that even comes with a full time housekeeper. elijah gets the intern treatment, sharing a tiny dorm with other interns, a tight food budget, and the corporate version of busywork when he should be learning how to be ceo.
when elijah and jessica run into each other, they piece together what might have happened, but they no longer want to swap back - jessica wants to take advantage of her new authority to get a move on a career she really wants and elijah wants a summer away from his father.
it takes a lot of work for them to build the lie and maintain it, and with that, the duo grow closer and closer which blossoms into romance!!! i really really loved the (imo) very real depiction of what it's like to work at a large tech corporation - sure the international ones might be "worse" but we're all bottom of the barrel to the execs and c-suiters. the romance was prioritized slightly less than their hijinks and it was perfect - this is the kind of chaos i enjoy reading in a single sitting.
5/5