Reviews

”I want to be independent with my career but not with my relationship. I want to need someone, just as much as I want to feel needed.” This is a companion novel to XOXO, and follows Sori, who we met in the first book and while standoffish at first, became Jenny’s friend. Sori is the daughter of a k-pop company owner, and even though the relationship isn’t perfect I did really like Sori and her mother’s relationship throughout this book. Her mother really stood up for her against her father, who was just the worst and caused a lot of pain for the family with his affairs that caused a scandal. Anyway, in this book Sori has a history with Nathaniel, a member of the boy group XOXO. Sori has worked her whole life to debut as a k-pop idol but she discovers in this book that she doesn’t want to be a k-pop idol, but she does want to help groups debut. That’s part of her journey in this book and it was nice to see her mother’s support. But the history she has with Nathaniel is that they caused a scandal with dating when they were younger and vowed not to anymore because of the impact it would have on their careers. So throughout this book we see them meeting again and falling in love but having to be careful about going public, which is just really interesting to think about. Like in real like do they have to worry about this as well? Seeing how the paparazzi treats them is really horrible. But the various things that Sori and Nathaniel do, like appearing in variety shows or having cameos in k-dramas (where they have to kiss!) are constantly pushing them together. And they are even caught in a photo together which creates a scandal but they manage to make it seem like it was Nathaniel’s cousin. He even lives with her for a while to avoid the paparazzi which is super bold but again forces them to be near each other. In the end they make a conscious decision to be together and try to make it work. And Sori and her mother have a heart to heart about the company that Sori was trying to protect, which is why she wasn’t dating Nathaniel. This is a story about finding courage and embracing your true calling. I enjoyed it. I liked seeing Jenny from the first book appear as well. I kept imagining the XOXO members as the members from stray kids lol. I couldn’t help it.

gwenhwyfar82's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

itsmelauren's review against another edition

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lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

kimberlyreadsbooks's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

bookphenomena_micky's review

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

I got on with this more than XOXO, probably because I knew the world, characters and idol set-up. I preferred the MCs Nathaniel and Sori. I enjoyed Sori's storyline of ambitions to step outside of the world that she'd been trained for. Nathaniel was a loyal good guy. Some of the misunderstandings were a little frustrating and drawn out but overall this was a cute read.

Thank you Harper 360ya for the review copy.

oldie's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

3.5

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