Monday, July 13, 2015

Hello, I Love You

Author: Katie M. Stout
Goodreads Rating: 3.64
Pages: 304
Grace Wilde is running—from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.

She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can't stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can't deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.

Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she'll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, this young adult novel explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.

 At first, I didn't know what to think of this book. It was my first contemporary romance and I usually don't go for them much. But this was about a KPop band, and since my recent obsession with KPop has blossomed, I couldn't say no to it. And I'm actually kind of happy I didn't say no :)

The book started out pretty rough for me. I wasn't really feeling the main character has a famous dad thing at first but it ended up working really well with the story. I had felt that if Grace had come from a "normal" family, I'd be able to connect to her more (and I usually prefer the ordinary girl who manages to get the guy).

I ended up not completely hating Grace but she did frustrate me a lot. In the beginning, I couldn't find a lot to connect with. She hated listening to music in other languages, she didn't like reading subtitles, and frankly....she was kind of a bitch. When she said she hated Jason, I thought that was a little bitter. I thought Jason was barely rude to her and figured the author was playing the "people who hate each other and then come to love each other" story. I found myself agreeing with her roommate (and Jason's sister), Sophie, when she tells her off. At this point, I thought maybe Stout was making Grace out to be a bitch on purpose?

However, even after some occurrences (I won't mention for fear of spoilers) I felt like Grace was trying to mix Jason's words up on purpose. Their whole argument at one point confused me but I chalked it up to Grace's insecurities. I think the author should have left it more as the differences in Jason's character when he is with Grace in private vs public thing and let everything else be.

I did enjoy the mystery behind Grace's brother's death and how the author let you know things piece by piece. Grace's burden with this though really got me later on in the book. That's when I started to feel more for her. Grace isn't my favorite character by any means but dealing with that stuff made her a little stronger in my opinion.

After I got past all this, the book ended up being really awesome. My relationship with this book ended up being like Grace and Jason's: we got off to a rough start, but in the end I was loving it! I loved the moment the title finally made sense (and ironic that when I picked up the book, I started to sing the song by The Doors). Also, I was listening to some instrumental music while I was finishing this book, and a song called "Grace's Theme" came on and was the perfect melody to go along with the ending of the book it almost made me cry! The last 100 or so pages were just amazing!

For a first contemporary romance, this wasn't bad. It definitely didn't shut me off to the idea of reading more so I guess it is a success :)

The Court's Decision:
 
 

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