Book Review: “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by Maureen Goo

“I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by Maureen Goo (2017)

Genre: YA, Fiction, Contemporary, Romance

Page Length: 336 pages (hardcover edition)

Synopsis:

Desi Lee believes anything is possible if you have a plan. That’s how she became student body president. Varsity soccer star. And it’s how she’ll get into Stanford. But—she’s never had a boyfriend. In fact, she’s a disaster in romance, a clumsy, stammering humiliation magnet whose botched attempts at flirting have become legendary with her friends. So when the hottest human specimen to have ever lived walks into her life one day, Desi decides to tackle her flirting failures with the same zest she’s applied to everything else in her life. She finds guidance in the Korean dramas her father has been obsessively watching for years—where the hapless heroine always seems to end up in the arms of her true love by episode ten. It’s a simple formula, and Desi is a quick study. Armed with her “K Drama Steps to True Love,” Desi goes after the moody, elusive artist Luca Drakos—and boat rescues, love triangles, and staged car crashes ensue. But when the fun and games turn to true feels, Desi finds out that real love is about way more than just drama. (description from Goodreads)

Book Review:

I was initially intrigued by this novel as soon as I heard K-dramas were involved being a huge fan on those shows so long I was excited to see how this concept would work for a YA contemporary novel.

Desi, the main character, gets her love of K-dramas from her dad. Though they can be outlandish at times, she enjoys them. Taking some of the tropes she learned from them she puts them to use to snag the new student named Luca, but will it work? Desi is an over-achiever and a nerdy girl who constantly strives for the best, but she’s very relatable too. Though it seems she has a perfect image, she struggles to find her way of the person she wants to be.

Luca is the hottie,somewhat bad boy, who really turns out to be a softie. He has a real talent for art and is very passionate about it which Desi admires. Once the two get to know other they find they have much in common with each other. They also fit into many of the archetype of the hot boy, nerdy girl K-dramas I’ve watched before.

Even though the story is focused on K-dramas I like that Goo focused on other aspects of Korean culture such as food, language, and customs. I did get excited when I saw the names of notable K-drama mentioned or ones I’ve watched previously.  I was curious to see how the scenarios in Desi’s love challenge matched up with those dramas. It was funny to see outcomes of Desi’s challenge list.

The only downfall of this book (for me) was the male romantic lead, Luca. I wasn’t too impressed with his overall character and didn’t really feel like he was a good fit for Desi. Despite that the writing was smooth, aspects of the story were relatable, and it had a good coming of age theme. It’s a bit predictable, but an enjoyable novel and the antics were fun and crazy just like a K-drama.

Final Verdict: