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3 stars! This review will be spoiler free!
Synopsis:
Girl is a realist, doesn’t believe in fate, and yet is hoping for a miracle to keep herself and her family from getting deported before the end of the day.
Boy is a romantic, a poet, and a Korean-American son of parents with too high expectations.
Boy sees girl. Boy thinks its fate. Girl does everything she can to tell boy it’s not fate. Story of boy and girl ensues from there.
Boy being Daniel Jae Ho Bae. Girl being Natasha “Tasha” King.
Thoughts:
This wasn’t a terrible book, but it also wasn’t particularly overjoyed while reading this one. I think it was just okay-good. So-so if you will.
Things I liked:
Tasha’s real world experience of pain and sorrow with getting deported.
I felt her sadness and despair that no miracle was going to come save her and her family from deportation, but I also felt the hope she had that a miracle may still happen. I felt like I learned a little bit more about the U.S. and the laws in place for immigrants through her experience. It felt REAL. And I always appreciate that in a story.
Daniel’s troublesome relationships with his brother and parents, particularly his father.
Being Asian myself, I feel like I understand the pressure of having to always impress my parents and live up to their expectations. This aspect of the story also felt very real and relatable for me. I also have an older sister who, when I was younger like Daniel’s age, I would argue and fight with more often than get along. I like that Yoon didn’t pull punches (literally) with the feelings and emotions Daniel has towards his family.
The dialogue between Tasha and Daniel, and Daniel’s inner dialogue.
Wow, there were so many funny moments. The whole “don’t fall in love with me” reminded me of A Walk to Remember. The karaoke scene reminded me of my own relationship (I actually started talking to my current partner who is Black whilst I’m Asian while we were at a karaoke bar, what a coincidence!).
The use of side characters in a circular way.
Every side character had a purpose. Every side character had a story, a history. And they all came back full circle to add to the story in their own ways. All the way up to the end. The side characters were necessary.
The realistic ending.
I can’t say much about it without spoilers, but at this point you can tell I like it when the plot and characters are believable.
Things I didn’t like:
Daniel was so so so so infatuated with Tasha his inner thoughts kept making me laugh because I thought his feelings were ridiculously overdone
I’m mildly annoyed by one of the plot twists regarding the Fitzgerald guy. He really just annoys me.
There wasn’t anything particularly amazing that stood out to me.
Overall enjoyment level of the book as just “meh.” (Excluding the karaoke scene, that one was my fave)
Overall:
I think most people will enjoy this book. Me, being the not-so-in-love-with-contemporary person I am, probably didn’t like it as much for that reason alone. It was good. But I wasn’t astounded by the story or the characters. My fave things though that made it worth finishing were seeing Tasha’s experience of battling deportation through and that karaoke scene.