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allison_sirovy's review against another edition
5.0
This is a beautiful book about growing up, friendship, love, and change. I’m a little teary-eyed right now.
batsinthecastle's review against another edition
4.0
**3.8 stars**
This is an interesting book for me. I don't normally reach for contemporary and I don't normally reach for romance. When I do, I expect things to be light and fluffy -which sometimes this was, but when it wasn't I still enjoyed it. This was a quick read and it had a lot to say about the Korean-American experience. However when it came to fluffy romance I found it fell short.
I don't want to compare this to his wife's books, but in one way it is - neither of them want to practice the "happy ending" trope. (Ultimately, I like this Yoon's books way better.) Instead, they both opt for what I think they find realistic. There were choices that Frank made that don't make him a good person in those moments and sometimes there was no resolution for those choices, but I think David Yoon did that on purpose because, in real life, there sometimes isn't resolution to our choices or for those we hurt/who hurt us. I did appreciate that, when Frank had a choice, he worked us through his inner thinkings.
Librarian note: I'm very glad I did this as an audiobook, as there was the added benefit of pronunciation for all of the Korean words/phrases. I also hope more boys pick this book up, as I think they could relate to Frank. Unfortunately I think the large "LOVE" on the cover may keep them from it.
This is an interesting book for me. I don't normally reach for contemporary and I don't normally reach for romance. When I do, I expect things to be light and fluffy -which sometimes this was, but when it wasn't I still enjoyed it. This was a quick read and it had a lot to say about the Korean-American experience. However when it came to fluffy romance I found it fell short.
I don't want to compare this to his wife's books, but in one way it is - neither of them want to practice the "happy ending" trope. (Ultimately, I like this Yoon's books way better.) Instead, they both opt for what I think they find realistic. There were choices that Frank made that don't make him a good person in those moments and sometimes there was no resolution for those choices, but I think David Yoon did that on purpose because, in real life, there sometimes isn't resolution to our choices or for those we hurt/who hurt us. I did appreciate that, when Frank had a choice, he worked us through his inner thinkings
Spoiler
and not kissing Joy the next time she wanted it was beautiful! Frank finally grew to have a backbone and start standing up for himself. And while I didn't like that he cheated on Britt and wasn't buying Yoon's 'boys will be boys' or 'he didn't have the guts to say sorry,' it's unfortunately also realistic. And I also wish we got to see a little more resolution with Hannah, but at least that was getting there.Librarian note: I'm very glad I did this as an audiobook, as there was the added benefit of pronunciation for all of the Korean words/phrases. I also hope more boys pick this book up, as I think they could relate to Frank. Unfortunately I think the large "LOVE" on the cover may keep them from it.
valeria1988's review against another edition
3.0
Empezó como la típica historia de adolescentes coreanos en un país como Estados Unidos contando sus anécdotas y se fue transformando en una novela con temas profundos como el descubrimiento personal, familia de inmigrantes con sus complejidades culturales y decisiones difíciles en la adolescencia. Buena historia.
christygsp's review against another edition
3.0
Okay, so the satanic references were not specific to the other David Yoon book I read, but neither was the humor.
He’s funny. It was funny.
Racism explored, immigrants explored, terminal illness and cancer along with fake dating and high school shenanigans.
It was pretty good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness and Death of parent
Moderate: Infidelity, Racism, and Xenophobia
mehvie's review against another edition
3.0
They say immigrants bring their aesthetic with them where ever they go and now I know its true.
I was super excited when I got to know that Nicola Yoon's husband was coming out with a novel! I read the blurb and was like this sounds like an interesting book- yes it has its cliche fake-dating scenario but it caught my attention.
Frank Li is in his final year of school where big decisions such as what university to go to and taking the SATs were made to be taken. Frank is your average Korean-American teenager who has a basic idea of the Korean culture and the expectations from his immigrant parents ( don't we immigrant children know the drill... get good grades, get into a good university, get a great job and finally get married lol).
Frankly in Love gives us a better understanding of the Korean culture and the difficulties which Korean- American have such as:
- dating non-Koreans
- Racism (Their community being racist towards other communities)
- the language barrier between the children and parents.
I bet his intentions were pure, to educate his readers about the Korean culture and being a child of immigrant parents but I felt the author was trying to put in many concepts and ideas in this one book. Another thing which annoyed me was the author trying to sound like teenagers nowadays! The book has a funny and sarcastic tone to it but it does get boring.
Some positives about the book- I loved the cultural representation and how Frank learned about his parents. One thing I liked was the explanation of the hyphen between Korean-American; from what I understood from the idea of the hyphen was that people within your community won't completely consider you from the home country (for instance Korea for Frank) and people outside the community won't consider you from their land ( for instance America for Frank). And I could relate to this concept.
All in all, i didn't like this book as much as I thought I would.
I was super excited when I got to know that Nicola Yoon's husband was coming out with a novel! I read the blurb and was like this sounds like an interesting book- yes it has its cliche fake-dating scenario but it caught my attention.
Frank Li is in his final year of school where big decisions such as what university to go to and taking the SATs were made to be taken. Frank is your average Korean-American teenager who has a basic idea of the Korean culture and the expectations from his immigrant parents ( don't we immigrant children know the drill... get good grades, get into a good university, get a great job and finally get married lol).
Frankly in Love gives us a better understanding of the Korean culture and the difficulties which Korean- American have such as:
- dating non-Koreans
- Racism (Their community being racist towards other communities)
- the language barrier between the children and parents.
I bet his intentions were pure, to educate his readers about the Korean culture and being a child of immigrant parents but I felt the author was trying to put in many concepts and ideas in this one book. Another thing which annoyed me was the author trying to sound like teenagers nowadays! The book has a funny and sarcastic tone to it but it does get boring.
Some positives about the book- I loved the cultural representation and how Frank learned about his parents. One thing I liked was the explanation of the hyphen between Korean-American; from what I understood from the idea of the hyphen was that people within your community won't completely consider you from the home country (for instance Korea for Frank) and people outside the community won't consider you from their land ( for instance America for Frank). And I could relate to this concept.
All in all, i didn't like this book as much as I thought I would.
irezelina's review against another edition
5.0
This book caught my attention because the author was Asian and I love seeing some Asian representation! The story blurb sounded funny and light-hearted, and the story was that and so much more. I was only one-third of the way through the book when I started recommending it to my other friends. I found myself highlighting so many quotes and relating to so many of Frank and Joyce's thoughts. The author not only understands the dichotomy/conflicts in culture, ideologies, priorities, and identities many Asian Americans face, he did such a good job writing it out and creating a very relatable story. I love the way the author vents about the issues of racism, classism, and adamant stubbornness most of our immigrant parents have: reading about it and understanding the frustration gave me all the feels. I also loved all the book's characters. There probably won't be a sequel to this story, but I would love to read more about the other characters.
aotora's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Man I wanted to love this one so much - it's about a MC that is a Korean living in America. His parents are Korean - they are traditional, they barely speak any English after years of living in America, they disown his sister for marrying a black man and they want to force him to have a Korean girlfriend because of that. We also meet his quirky best friend Q, who is black - the parents are somewhat racist towards him too - but Frank just ignores that and shrugs that off. I liked the different culture, I liked seeing him interact with his parents and the gatherings they had - I liked Q... but I didn't like how ignorant Frank comes off as- he excuses his parent's behaviour, he wants to speak up but doesn't have the guts to do so - and I didn't like that it takes father getting cancer and dying for the parents to finally get over their racism and accept their daughter and her husband again and I didn't really find myself caring for either of the love interests - Britt is bland and boring and Joy is slightly better but not really... I also wasn't a fan of how Frank knew that he was in love with Joy for a while ... and he still chose to cheat on Britt with her and she was perfectly fine with it-
The book had an interesting premise but it just felt flat- it had some really good parts, too bad there were a lot of bad parts that dragged this one down for me.
The book had an interesting premise but it just felt flat- it had some really good parts, too bad there were a lot of bad parts that dragged this one down for me.
tiffani_reads's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
magyvonne's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
bluelilyy's review against another edition
1.0
frankly, this book was pretty terrible.
i was bored for like 75% of the time and i only continued reading because i promised myself i would.
honestly this was a waste of $2 and my time.
i almost cried at a certain part but didn’t because i literally couldn’t care less about these characters.
also frank was a god awful person and he never had to face any consequences or make up for his god awful actions towards other people.
so in conclusion, david yoon is not as a good an author as his wife lol