Heart & Seoul — Books, Beauty, & Buys

By: Jen Frederick
Published Year: 2021
Publisher: Berkley Books
Pages: 330

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): As a Korean adoptee, Hara Wilson doesn’t need anyone telling her she looks different from her white parents. She knows. Every time Hara looks in the mirror, she’s reminded that she doesn’t look like anyone else in her family—not her loving mother, Ellen; not her jerk of a father, Pat; and certainly not like Pat’s new wife and new “real” son.

At the age of twenty-five, she thought she had come to terms with it all, but when her father suddenly dies, an offhand comment at his funeral triggers an identity crisis that has her running off to Seoul in search of her roots.

What Hara finds there has all the makings of a classic K-drama: a tall, mysterious stranger who greets her at the airport, spontaneous adventures across the city, and a mess of familial ties, along with a red string of destiny that winds its way around her heart and soul. Hara goes to Korea looking for answers, but what she gets instead is love—a forbidden love that will either welcome Hara home…or destroy her chance of finding one.

First Impressions

I was offered to read the sequel to this book for review. It sounded very cute so I decided to read the first one. I hadn’t heard of this book before but the title and summary spoke to me. The title would’ve caught my eye a little more than the cover, but it definitely did a good job speaking to me.

What I thought

My biggest issue with this book is that I wouldn’t categorize it as a romance.

Hara was adopted from Korea by an American family. She has grown up with them and when her adoptive father got another woman pregnant, she did a DNA test and discovered her birth father in Korea. When her adoptive father then died, she decided to go to Korea to meet her birth father and discover her identity as a Korean. While there, she meets a gorgeous Korean boy who helps her discover what it means to be Korean.

So, to explain my first comment, this story to me felt more like a story about a Korean raised in America trying to find herself and understand her identity. She spent the whole book struggling with not feeling Korean but not feeling American and searching for her birth parents. The romance was such a secondary story for me. Like, it was important and it was fun but the story centered on Hara and her growth. Though, if I had to read the analogy about being a polka dot in a world of stripes I was going to scream.

This book was packed with Korean culture and teaching moments which I loved. I learned so much about Korean culture that I had no idea about and really felt like I was in Korea and that the author had not only been there but spent significant amount of time there. That part of the story I truly loved.

I also loved the small bits of romance that we got. Yujin was a great guy and there was a small twist I didn’t expect. Their chemistry wasn’t jump off the page, but it was sweet and I found myself happy every time they were together. I was suspicious of her friend Boyoung the entire time and I was a bit pleased to see that my intuition was spot on. This book had some drama I didn’t expect and twists and turns I didn’t see coming which can be difficult for me.