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aliciaclarereads 's review for:
Somewhere Only We Know
by Maurene Goo
read for Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge: a book that takes place in a single day
I think I'm settling on a 3.5 rating, but I'm not quite sure if I want to round up or round down for Goodreads.
I enjoyed my time reading this! Maurene Goo has such a fun style and really interesting premises that sucks me in every damn time. This book was pitched as Roman Holiday but with a k-pop star in Hong Kong, and I knew I had to get my hands on it. Lucky and Jack sightsee and eat their way through the city (don't read this on an empty stomach), and become more and more infatuated with one another. It was so sweet and I squealed and curled my toes and had all the proper reactions one should have in a rom-com.
The main reason I feel iffy about giving this a higher rating is that the entire foundation of Lucky and Jack's romance is built on a lie. Lucky is pretending to be a normal girl, and Jack is pretending he doesn't know who she really is in order sneak a story about her. Oh and how they first connect is when Lucky is super high on sleeping meds and that just felt... icky. The power dynamic was off for a lot of the book, and frankly, I don't love rom-coms that are built on lies. I know this is a retelling of a classic film! And it's hard to modernize a story about celebrities having a free day out in a world of social media. And I do commend Goo because I thought she did that well. It's just... I think there's only so far this modernization can go. And I just felt so uncomfortable during their initial meeting because Lucky's written as if she's out of her mind drunk. It just made Jack seem way creepier at first, even though it didn't at all imply that Jack was anything but a gentleman and had absolutely zero designs on taking advantage of her (until he finds out she's famous and talks her into spending the day together). I don't know if I'm making sense, but I just couldn't really start to enjoy the book until about third of the way in.
I did enjoy this though! It's a fun, light romp as long as you don't think too deeply about how they get into this situation. Jack and Lucky play off each other well, and I love the variety of cultural experiences they have. They're both Korean-American and ex-pats, Lucky in Korea as an idol and Jack in Hong Kong. It gave the book a really new fresh take, which is one of the reasons I think Goo is such a great voice in the YA contemporary community. This wasn't my favorite from her, but I'm still willing to pick up anything she writes!
I think I'm settling on a 3.5 rating, but I'm not quite sure if I want to round up or round down for Goodreads.
I enjoyed my time reading this! Maurene Goo has such a fun style and really interesting premises that sucks me in every damn time. This book was pitched as Roman Holiday but with a k-pop star in Hong Kong, and I knew I had to get my hands on it. Lucky and Jack sightsee and eat their way through the city (don't read this on an empty stomach), and become more and more infatuated with one another. It was so sweet and I squealed and curled my toes and had all the proper reactions one should have in a rom-com.
The main reason I feel iffy about giving this a higher rating is that the entire foundation of Lucky and Jack's romance is built on a lie. Lucky is pretending to be a normal girl, and Jack is pretending he doesn't know who she really is in order sneak a story about her. Oh and how they first connect is when Lucky is super high on sleeping meds and that just felt... icky. The power dynamic was off for a lot of the book, and frankly, I don't love rom-coms that are built on lies. I know this is a retelling of a classic film! And it's hard to modernize a story about celebrities having a free day out in a world of social media. And I do commend Goo because I thought she did that well. It's just... I think there's only so far this modernization can go. And I just felt so uncomfortable during their initial meeting because Lucky's written as if she's out of her mind drunk. It just made Jack seem way creepier at first, even though it didn't at all imply that Jack was anything but a gentleman and had absolutely zero designs on taking advantage of her (until he finds out she's famous and talks her into spending the day together). I don't know if I'm making sense, but I just couldn't really start to enjoy the book until about third of the way in.
I did enjoy this though! It's a fun, light romp as long as you don't think too deeply about how they get into this situation. Jack and Lucky play off each other well, and I love the variety of cultural experiences they have. They're both Korean-American and ex-pats, Lucky in Korea as an idol and Jack in Hong Kong. It gave the book a really new fresh take, which is one of the reasons I think Goo is such a great voice in the YA contemporary community. This wasn't my favorite from her, but I'm still willing to pick up anything she writes!