Reviews

Frankly in Love - Francamente... l'amore mi spezza by David Yoon

papertraildiary's review against another edition

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3.0

Review to come

pomochi's review against another edition

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dnf - while i do appreciate asian american rep in YA and i can definitely see how the conversations, esp around having immigrant parents and addressing anti blackness in asian american communities, are very topical and valuable especially in a YA novel, i just couldn’t get past frank’s inner monologue. might come back to this in the future, but for now it’s a dnf for me.

dorisxu's review against another edition

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4.0

me: thinks this is a fluff piece (like c’mon, fake dating)
also me: almost crying at a swim meet

lluvia's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

samrushingbooks's review against another edition

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4.0

4.5 stars

thehobb's review against another edition

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1.0

It's worth mentioning that I wouldn't have read this book if not for a school event... 'cause I am definitely not a fan of romance novels. Aside from that, I went into Frankly in Love with an open mind and decided that I might as well *try* to like it. That failed in a lot of ways.

While it was not the worst book I've read, it did have its flaws. For example, I thought that it was trying to force way too many different plots at once. And frankly, it just didn't work. Beyond this point will be unmarked spoilers.

SpoilerWe were promised a cute fake dating book, but that is definitely not what we got. Frank Li was supposed to fall in love with a Korean girl, so he pretended to date his friend so that they could both go out with the people that they wanted to. Well, then he ended up falling in love with that Korean girl. Like, what? That's seriously how you're going to solve the "main conflict" of your book? Then it switched to something totally different with his dad's injuries and cancer??? Why use this cliche and beaten to death trope? It's so overdone, especially in the way that it was using it so that he and his dad could work out their differences before his death. I recently read a book that did a similar thing, but that was the *focus* of that book. We knew that it was going to be about it. The cancer in Frankly in Love feels like an afterthought.


Also, the audiobook narrator was phenomenal.

yeli_yeli's review against another edition

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2.0

1.5/5 stars

Just no

booksarebae's review against another edition

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3.0

3.7

this book was a little slow in the beginning, and although i loved the tropes and the representation of topics dealing with racism, i felt that the romance was rushed and certain characters were forgotten when not needed anymore. however, the characters' spunk was amazing, the ending hurt :'), and the friendships here were loyal and real. i'd recommend this book, but not as much as one of my five-star reads.
still a really great book though.

shirleymak's review against another edition

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4.0

oh my gooooooooDNESSSSSSSs. wow i really enjoyed this book. was kind of hard to read in the beginning because it is very high school but overall it got better (esp once i got back into that high school mindset LOL) and all of the first gen asian american issues that Yoon brought up was super relatable and really cool to read about
Spoiler OKAY SO Frank Li is Korean American, his parents own a store and they are v korean. they want him to marry a korean girl, etc etc. his older sister married a black man and basically got disowned and they (his parents and her) don't talk anymore (& they live in the east coast). but then he starts to like and then gets a white girlfriend (britt means). he freaks out because he doesn't think they'll ever accept her. so he and his friend joy (who he knows because of Gatherings- aka what we do at CABS except it's the parents who know each other since they first came to america or something so they try and do a hang out situation every week or month or something) decide to fake date (because their parents were trying to set them up) so that they could date their actual partners. but then they both basically realize that they actually really like each other and break up with their respective ppl and end up dating. but of course when that starts happening a big fight happens and their parents don't like each other anymore. he finds out that his dad has cancer, he gets into stanford, his best friend (Q) gets into MIT, joy gets into CMU. joy and frank break up. he leaves for stanford- turns out Q actually has a crush on him and omg the part when he kisses frank and is crying is so sad oh my goodness. frank goes back home after 2 months because his dad is about to pass. his sister and her husband come back, her parents are so apologetic (also she's pregnant). and his dad passes. and in the end he reflected a lot about his identity and how he felt korean but also american and could never really choose. but how he's going to live his own life and make his own decisions, etc etc