Seoulmates — Books, Beauty, & Buys

By: Jen Frederick
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: Berkley Books
Pages: 304

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A woman fights to be with the one she loves while coming to terms with her identity in this romantic drama by USA Today bestselling author Jen Frederick.

Hara Wilson has finally discovered her roots, but the challenges she must face could destroy the love she has found.

First Impressions

The cover and title got me on this one. When I was offered to read it for review it sounded super cute and I was willing to read the first book in the duology before taking on the sequel. I like this cover slightly more than the one for the first book and probably would’ve ended up picking it up and then realizing it was part of a series.

What I thought

This review will have spoilers from the first book which I reviewed last week.

Hara has been living in Korea for 6 weeks. She is working at her birth mother’s company and living in her home while trying to navigate living in Korea and figuring out her relationship with Yujin.

When I reviewed the first book, I said that if you had expected a romance novel you would be disappointed. That book was much more of a contemporary fiction that happened to have romance. This one is definitely more of a romance novel. The relationship struggles between Hara and Yujin are much more central since the fact that they’re step-siblings and this is illegal in Korea. Wansu, Hara’s birth mom and Yujin’s stepmom is very against their relationship and spends a lot of time trying to keep them apart, but not in an evil stepmother kind of way.

I enjoyed reading abut Hara’s difficulty adjusting to Korean culture and fitting in. I can’t imagine moving to a country where I don’t speak the language. Add in the fact that it appears like everything she is getting (her job, clothes, etc) is a privilege afforded to her by her mother.

The romance side I didn’t enjoy as much. I never felt like Yujin and Hara wouldn’t end up together, even though that was the biggest obstacle. I also should’ve counted how many times the word “dimple” appeared in this book. I would bet it was close to 100. Every time Hara mentioned Yujin she would mention his dimple and it got to be very irritating.

I appreciated how the book ended but it felt a little like the author was trying to make up for the fact that the first book didn’t have a Happily Ever After. Everything magically worked out in the last 10% of the book.

These books felt very different to me, not at all like a duology. They had very different styles and vibes and I think I preferred the first one a little more. While I enjoyed reading more about Hara and Yujin, it felt a bit boring. They were already in love and their obstacle wasn’t really an obstacle. I appreciated that nothing stupid came between them to temporarily make them break up but I didn’t quite feel any stakes in this story. I enjoyed the education on Korea again in this story and I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.