Title: Hello, I Love You
Author: Katie M. Stout
Published: June 9, 2015
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Pages: 304
Genre: Young Adult ♥ Contemporary ♥ Romance
Source: NetGalley
Summary from Goodreads: A teen escapes to a boarding school abroad and falls for a Korean pop star in this fun and fresh romantic novel in the vein of Anna and the French Kiss.
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.
Average Goodreads Rating (as of 11/30/2015): 3.50
- Christina thought this title was okay. It goes on her third shelf. To find out why…
**SPECIAL NOTE:** An eARC of this title was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. However, that did not influence this review in any way. All thoughts, quotes, and opinions will be of this version and not of the published edition.
♥ Quick Thoughts and Rating:
2.75 stars! Hello, I Love You was not love at first word or chapter for me. It took me a good percentage of the first half of the story for me to really find my footing. I didn’t exactly love Grace in the beginning either, and I found it hard to wrap my head around a young teen moving so far away from home to a place of such cultural difference just to avoid family drama. I’m proud I stuck it out though because it ended way better than it started, and was really the saving grace (heh) of the book.
♥ The Lowdown: Grace Wilde is so desperate to get away from her dysfunctional family and emotional turmoil that she hops on a plane, jumps an ocean, and plants herself in Korea where she knows no one, nor the language or how to get around, and little else about her new home aside from the fact that she’ll be attending an international high school populated with famous people and plenty of trust fund babies for her senior year. In fact, her new roommate’s brother, Jason, just so happens to be the newest Korean pop music superstar. But he’s looking for his own escape in the world, away from the fame, and they find a little bit of solace in each other…as well as a lot of angst and misunderstandings.
♥ Review: I’m planning to keep this section short and sweet. I chose this book simply because the cover was cute, the premise intrigued me, and it was referenced to a beloved read of mine, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. (You can find my review of that book here.) Perhaps this is where this novel and I got off on the wrong foot. When you compare a book to another one I loved so wholeheartedly, that comes with certain expectations and big shoes to fill. I don’t think this book even comes close to capturing the romance, the almost whimsical ambience, or the literal environment that Perkins so easily introduced in her book, geographical differences aside. I feel like comparing these two works is only setting up your readers to be disappointed, in my opinion.
Now that that little issue is out of the way, let’s discuss this book. In the beginning, I didn’t like Grace’s character at all. I definitely feel like she’s an acquired taste. She was a snooty, judgmental, music snob who bashed everything about her new home when she was the only person to blame for being there in the first place. She chose this location knowing it would be a drastic culture shock to her, and I don’t feel like she went out of her way to attempt to fit in or acclimate to herself to her new surroundings until much later in the book. At times, even some of what she or other characters (especially her mother. Sweet. Lord. That woman.) said stuff that seemed really insensitive and rude, borderline (or hurdling right over it) racist in some instances. Below is apparently the only example I highlighted on my kindle, but it wasn’t the worst one by far. (The mom with that one waitress? I literally cringed while reading it. AWFUL.)
“Why are there so many different levels of formality?” I ask Jason, praying he’s feeling gracious. “I don’t get it.”
“It has to do with respect,” he says, shocking me. “You want to give respect to people who have authority over you or are older.”
“Okay, I get that, but seven levels? Really?”
He doesn’t answer.
“It’s dumb” pops out of my mouth before I can stop it, and I mentally kick myself. Just what I need–to insult the language of the country I just moved to. Koreans probably think English is dumb.
“It’s just part of the culture.” He’s still studies the textbook like it will reveal the cure for cancer or how to achieve world peace. “You’ll need to be more culturally intelligent if you want to live here.”
Culturally intelligent. Why didn’t he just say “You’ll need to stop being an American elitist?” That’s what he meant. I think.
~quote taken from the eARC of of Hello, I Love You at 13%
Aside from this major hangup that almost had me giving up on the book before I ever really got started, I have a general problem with unnecessary drama in books and authors that drag it out just for the sake of the added angst. If it’s believable, then I can hang in there, but in this book, it was enough to have me rolling my eyes. Overall, I feel like the author stretched the angst out too long by prolonging the drama of the “we totally love each other but can’t be together because of all these reasons” minefield. I felt like the characters had decent chemistry, but the hindrances of all the non-reasons they simply couldn’t be together proved to be taxing after a while. Had all that been cut in half, I feel like this book may have worked better for me.
With all that being said, I feel like the author really pulled it together in the end. I appreciated that we saw genuine growth from Grace and Jason, both individually and as a couple. Furthermore, I liked how they were when they allowed themselves to be together; I only wish we had been given more time to enjoy how adorable they were at the very end. That last full chapter and the grand gesture was the cutest.
♥ Rec it? Maybe. I feel like people will either only like this or hate it. I doubt anyone will love this one. I had high expectations, but in the end, I don’t feel like they were met. In conclusion, I feel like Hello, I Love You was only okay, just shy of good. For those that can wade through Grace’s nastier side, I feel like they’ll almost like her by the end.
♥ A very special thanks to St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
