XOXO
By: Axie Oh
Published Year: 2021
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 352
Summary (provided by Goodreads): Cello prodigy Jenny has one goal: to get into a prestigious music conservatory. When she meets mysterious, handsome Jaewoo in her uncle’s Los Angeles karaoke bar, it’s clear he’s the kind of boy who would uproot her careful plans. But in a moment of spontaneity, she allows him to pull her out of her comfort zone for one unforgettable night of adventure…before he disappears without a word.
Three months later, when Jenny and her mother arrive in South Korea to take care of her ailing grandmother, she’s shocked to discover that Jaewoo is a student at the same elite arts academy where she’s enrolled for the semester. And he’s not just any student. He’s a member of one of the biggest K-pop bands in the world—and he’s strictly forbidden from dating.
When a relationship means throwing Jenny’s life off the path she’s spent years mapping out, she’ll have to decide once and for all just how much she’s willing to risk for love.
First Impressions
This cover got me good! Then I read the summary and it jumped to the top of my list of summer reads. I am a sucker for romances with popstars and through in a secret aspect behind it and you’ve got me hooked.
What I thought
I loved this book!
Jenny meets a mysterious Korean hottie in her Uncles karaoke bar. They have one night of fun and then he goes back to Korea and she never hears from him again. When her mom announces that she needs to move to Korea for 5 months to take care of her grandmother, Jenny applies to an international performing arts school so that she can join her. Once she gets to Korea she finds out that the boy she met in LA is actually a huge Kpop star who just so happens to go to her school.
Jenny and Jaewoo were adorable. I also loved all of her friends and all of the bandmates. It was so fascinating learning about how the Kpop world works. I had only a vague idea of how they were trained and put together but didn’t realize that they were trained from such a young age and that so much relied on their public persona.
I also really liked Jenny. She was a strong teenager and I appreciated that she didn’t fall for some of the games Jaewoo tried to play even though she liked him. It was refreshing to hear a teenager realize that a guy asking you to be their secret friend is not romantic.
Jenny is also a bit of a perfectionist which I related to. She knows that she wants to be a cellist and knows she wants to go to the Manhattan School of Music, but she doesn’t know how to relax or really act like a teenager. Her time in Korea helps her find that. I did get a bit anxious knowing that there was going to come a time when Jenny and Jaewoo were found out and it took forever to get there. I did really like how it played out though. While I expected it to happen, it played out a little differently than I have seen it done in the past.
This was a great summer YA. If you are into popstar romances like I am I highly recommend checking it out. I need an entire series with each book focusing on the different band members. I’m also looking forward to more contemporary novels by Oh. Every character was likable and I love the growth and the story as a whole.