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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
Desi Lee is a super ambitious, high strung Korean-American teen. She is highly driven and uses that desire and focus to get a guy. After watching a Korean drama (K-Drama), she makes a wildly crazy multi-step plan to get Luca, a new guy in school. Hijinks ensue. Definitely piqued my interest in KDramas; I want to watch one. Involves a lesbian best friend; caring, great relationship with cool dad; deceased mother; platonic guy friend; anti-friend that she becomes more acquainted with and they accept each other. A lot of feel good moments. Shows growth mindset and that being good at something often takes a lot of work and practice. Also shows a cute, positive, father daughter relationship. Desi's behavior was cringe-worthy at times, but I think it was completely in line with her personality. She goes full out for anything she puts her mind to, which is good and bad. I like how strong Desi is. She allows herself some self-pity but doesn't let it drag on. I would definitely recommend this as a fun, light, summer read.
Spoiler
**Spoilers**Cute, light romantic comedy.
Themes: Friendships, relationships, right vs. wrong (Desi is very elaborate with her KDrama steps; some are really bad choices, like staging a car accident) Intentions vs manipulation/ secrets.
Genre/Category:romantic comedy, realistic fiction
Mature Content:
Violence: Desi stages a car accident, and Luca gets hurt, but otherwise, no
Language: nothing that I noticed or stood out
Sexual:making out; For those parts, the writing of the actions felt too forced personally
Drugs/Drinking: nothing that stood out
Reviews mainly say 12-18 and I would agree. Not revolutionary or groundbreaking, but I think this is very appropriate for students.
I wrote a longer review for the library's blog: http://carnegiestout.blogspot.com/2018/02/staff-review-i-believe-in-thing-called.html
I haven’t finish a book in a while, particularly a YA title so I decided to pick up I Believe in a Thing Called Love out of sheer randomness. I remember being so excited for this book when Dramabeans unveiled its cover BECAUSE fucking finally, we have another YA title with a Korean model on the cover. I’m glad my taste didn’t failed me, because I Believe in a Thing Called Love delivered what the premise alluded its going to offer. Like a true K-drama inspired book, I almost died out of second-embarrassment but of course the swoony romance made up for that.
The story follows Desi, an A-straight popular student who believes that she can accomplish everything smoothly and get an A+ grade as long as she has the reins of control. As a walking disaster at flirting, she devised a step-by-step plan (inspired by her favorite K-dramas) in landing a boyfriend. Who's her target? Luca, the new-hot-artsy student of her school, who'll go under the alias of Won Bin.
I Believe in a Thing Called Love stayed true to its K-drama roots. The heroine is a goody-two shoes, who has everything under control; she has supportive friends who enable her weird antics. She has a loving supporting dad, there's the mysterious love interest. Of course, there's some tragic obstacles. What I love about the story is the bond of the characters with the main character, Desi. Her single dad has a firm presence in the plot, so are her friends and other supporting characters. You could see a brief snapshot of their life and personality. I also adore, the optimistic and broad-minded writing like the push for equality. There's the witty rapport and dialogues of the characters, you'll just die laughing because Desi is tragically a disaster magnet. In addition, the romance is just simple and pure.
I frankly don't have any qualms about this book, it just made me so happy in a time that I needed it the most. I wish more people would read and hype it just like they did for All the Boys I've Loved Before which is another classic favorite of mine.
If you want a fun read that would get you of our reading slump or funky mood, I highly recommend I Believe in a Thing Called Love.
PS: if you love Kdrama, why haven't you pick this up yet? Like seriously.
*contains explicit language, kissing*
This was positively pleasant and genuinely made me laugh out loud at points (which is hard for me!). I appreciated the authenticity of a lot of the characters, though I did find Desi’s friends to be a *~not so great~* but then again, Desi wasn’t perfect either (and that’s usually what I’m looking for).
I really appreciated the plot of this and how fun/cringe/crazy it all was - it made it such a fun read! It was also superrrrr quick!! I know it looks like it took a while for me to read this, but I read most of it in the span of 2 days!
I’d definitely recommend checking this out, especially if you enjoy K-Dramas (something I now MUST check out).
Good God, do I feel like an outlier looking through the recent reviews. I wanted to like this book — I really did. The idea of implementing the cheesy (but fantastic) Kdrama tropes into real life is such an attractive plot for fans in every regard. However, I feel like although this book achieved that much, it was lackluster with everything else.
Spoiler
Pros:
+ Korean drama mentions were relevant and appreciated.
+ Story didn't shy away from its Asian roots.
+ Interesting relationships between the main character and people around her.
+ Self reflection (though this is to an extent).
Cons:
+ Desi Lee.
- Her sophisticated dialogue does not translate in her monologues.
- She obsesses and makes half-hearted apologies to her friends, family, and boyfriend, but is then forgiven immediately.
- She's popular in literally every aspect, but with boys, she's just so gosh darn awkward.
- She exploited her mother's death to get sympathy from a boy who she wants to like her.
+ Luca (the love interest)
- Boring.
- Victim of insta-love.
It may be rather harsh of me to say that the biggest con I found was the main character, however, in all fairness to her, she didn't spark all of it. She was only the catalyst in releasing what was the most uninteresting relationship I've ever read.
My problems with Desi goes to the main point of the book, so this could be taken as a grain of salt by people who actually enjoyed this story and her character. In no way do I want to rain on anyone's parade, but I'm sorry — her popping his tires on purpose was just the line for me (seriously, I know she doesn't drive but given that her dad is a mechanic, you'd think she'd know that replacing tires is expensive). She orchestrated the entire thing because she believed that would get him to like her. Yes, that's who she is — someone who relies too much on planning — but holy crap, where is her line?!
The answer is, she has none. This is shown when she and Luca break up because of her manipulative list and then she continues to get him back BY USING THE SAME MANIPULATIVE LIST. She learns absolutely nothing and Luca calls her out on this, but in the end, they still get back together. Her shamelessness is even more prominent when she uses her mother's death to get sympathy from Luca. WTF.
And let's not forget that their fight lasts two pages over a problem that was 320 pages long. Luca, Luca why.
Out of all the characters, the ones who I enjoyed reading about the most were Desi's dad and her friends, Wes and Fiona. I think the only way this book would have turned around for me was if Desi either didn't end up with anyone, or ended up with Wes. There was definitely good potential there that I feel could have been more interesting than the Luca/Desi relationship. With Luca and Desi, there was no real honest connection between them that sold them as this wonderful couple we should want to see together. The only connection they had was him spitting out a couple charming one-liners that broke through his otherwise quiet and mannequin-like demeanor, and Desi's cooly calculated conversations to get more out of him (which was entirely based on her manipulating him).
If nothing else, I was partly expecting this to be one of those moments where the reader realizes the perspective they're reading from was from a psychopath. What a spin that would have been.
Overall, I was really rooting for this one because of its concentration on a diverse character, but alas, the entire story felt a little mediocre for me. Don't get me wrong, Goo isn't necessarily a bad writer, but the problem goes to her character building and consistency, and that's where I think she needs to improve on.
I can't believe it took me this long to get to this book, but I'm glad I finally did. This was cute and just the perfect amount of lighthearted romance. Also as a fan of K Dramas I'm so glad to read a book that dips into it and at some points it even plays out like a drama which made me laugh and gush 💞