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*I received a free advanced copy of this novel from Edelweiss+ and the publisher in exchange for an honest review*
Shine was actually way better than I expected it to be. I did judge the book a little but thinking it was going to be something fluffy about the K-Pop world written by a K-Pop star but the book was way more than that. It didn’t show everything as bright and full of rainbows and happiness. Things are mean in that world and it just makes you wonder if this was what the author went through before she left her group and decided to do her own thing. I couldn’t put the book down because I had to know what would happen to Rachel and everything that went along with it. The book was well written and you saw Rachel grow through everything. She was shy in the beginning and by the end she wasn’t going to let anyone tell her what to do and scare her. While the tag line makes it seem like the book will center on her story with Jason it’s really about her loving herself. Yes the story of their relationship does play a decent roll but in the end it’s part of her character building and doesn’t drive the plot with her being a love sick little teenager. Having a male star highlights how different the characters are treated and shows that the women will always be treated worse and held to different standards.
It was very well written and a lot happens in it’s 352 pages but you don’t even realize how long the novel is because it’s so hard to put down. I would recommend it because of this fact and because it highlights a world that most people will never experience and doesn’t show it through rose colored glasses. That’s the best part of it all. All of it shows how things either really are (coming from someone that lived through it) or could be. I feel bad saying that I didn’t expect it to be as good as it was because I thought it was going to be about how awesome being in K-Pop is but it’s the opposite. It’s a woman telling her story of how hard life is for someone like her and you really feel for the characters and how easily the women are pushed around and over looked.
Shine was actually way better than I expected it to be. I did judge the book a little but thinking it was going to be something fluffy about the K-Pop world written by a K-Pop star but the book was way more than that. It didn’t show everything as bright and full of rainbows and happiness. Things are mean in that world and it just makes you wonder if this was what the author went through before she left her group and decided to do her own thing. I couldn’t put the book down because I had to know what would happen to Rachel and everything that went along with it. The book was well written and you saw Rachel grow through everything. She was shy in the beginning and by the end she wasn’t going to let anyone tell her what to do and scare her. While the tag line makes it seem like the book will center on her story with Jason it’s really about her loving herself. Yes the story of their relationship does play a decent roll but in the end it’s part of her character building and doesn’t drive the plot with her being a love sick little teenager. Having a male star highlights how different the characters are treated and shows that the women will always be treated worse and held to different standards.
It was very well written and a lot happens in it’s 352 pages but you don’t even realize how long the novel is because it’s so hard to put down. I would recommend it because of this fact and because it highlights a world that most people will never experience and doesn’t show it through rose colored glasses. That’s the best part of it all. All of it shows how things either really are (coming from someone that lived through it) or could be. I feel bad saying that I didn’t expect it to be as good as it was because I thought it was going to be about how awesome being in K-Pop is but it’s the opposite. It’s a woman telling her story of how hard life is for someone like her and you really feel for the characters and how easily the women are pushed around and over looked.