I used to love Melissa de la Cruz's books but the last few I've read just missed the mark for me. This book was just okay - it was a cute and fluffy contemporary romance, but the plot felt patchy and the writing style didn't flow well, in my opinion. Not my favorite!

I thought this was a really cute and fluffy contemporary. It’s not like anything I’ve read in the young adult arena, so I was excited to give it a go. Not to mention it was focused around a Korean American and I love learning about other cultures. I found it an enjoyable read, mostly be I am a huge fan of this author’s writing style.
I enjoyed the whole match making date aspect of the book, it was something new to me. I found it a bit dramatic, which is ok with me, but I can see it being frustrating to people not knowing that going in. I also found it very predictable which was fine by me.
Overall I thought this was a solidly written YA contemporary novel. It was exactly what I was in the mood for at the time and made me laugh a lot. I do feel like it was a bit monotonous and took me longer than expected to read.

DNF at 20%.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. I just couldn’t get in to this one. The writing style felt very choppy and juvenile. I think it’s definitely aimed at a younger audience. It didn’t have a smooth flow at all, and I didn’t like any of the characters I’d met. None of the conversations felt natural.

I wanted to like this book, because it is so important to have better representation in YA literature. That being said, this book didn't click with me. There was too much drama for the sake of drama, and not enough heart or purpose to it. At times it often felt rushed, so it wasn't as satisfying of a read as it had the potential to be. It kind of meandered along most of the time, the plot didn't have a lot going for it. The author isn't Korean, so it felt like there was an over-reliance on generalizations about Korean culture which made the whole book feel rather inauthentic.

This is a pretty basic young adult novel. While reading it nothing stood out to me and I don’t remember most of what happened. I personally do not think Melissa De La Cruz is for me as I haven’t enjoyed some of her previous works

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 4.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

This was a very sweet little book. It was a nice and light and fresh read that would be an excellent choice to pick up after reading something heavy and/or emotional.

I do think this was definitely geared more towards actual 17 year olds.

This cute and charming story is the perfect read for diverse teen girls who are going through the stress of college applications. I think they’ll find a kindred spirit with Jisu.

That being said, it wasn’t the best written book I’ve ever read. While the story was cute, you don’t quite connect with the characters on a level I’m used to. Hence the lower rating.

Would recommend this for young adult readers, but probably not to adult YA readers like myself.

This is a cute story for teens and young adults that is full of romance and the large idea of identity and how you can adapt to and accept the family and culture you are born into. This was a fun story to read and the author's writing style is so easy and fun to read.

29 Dates was more of a miss than a hit for me. It felt as if the author was targeting a younger audience. The pacing was very slow, the plot was over dramaticized, and the characters were flat rather than fleshed out. It took me much longer than I intended to read and review this book because I simply wasn’t enjoying it. It was very predictable and cliche. It didn’t bring anything new to the table.

I wanted to love this book so much, but it just fell flat for me. Honestly, I think it is better suited for a younger or middle grade audience. As a young adult, this book just didn’t work for me.

29 Dates is a look into how some Korean parents make sure their children find worthy mates by hiring "matchmakers" to arrange seons or dates with potential matches. Sometimes funny, sometimes cute, and sometimes intense but still a worthwhile read.

This book was a lot of fun to read! I enjoyed it so much! I really enjoyed getting this look into an aged down version of Korean culture, because according to the author, matchmaking doesn't usually happen until they're in their 20's. But then it wouldn't be YA, would it?

Jisu is a pretty fantastic character. She's a teen and has to deal with the pressures of getting good grades, look good for colleges, and find her perfect match, all at the same time. Not fun! Of course she doesn't meet up to all those expectations, which ends up having her shipped to the US. But she makes the most of it.

I have conflicted feelings about Austin. Because he did wrong with what he did and how he handled things, he also was pretty emotional scarred. It doesn't excuse his actions but explains them, and makes me glad that Jisu didn't have to deal with him anymore!

There was something that was really fun, and really confusing. It was the first date that we had in the book, and it's with a guy that when we start the book proper, she's going to school with. The date apparently is in the future, and yeah, the way it cut off, wasn't looking too good! And by the end of the book, I was like, what? But then we had the full date, and yeah, that was just a lot of fun!

Such a great book, such a great read! I loved it a ton!

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

As an only child, Jisu’s parents have high expectations for her. They expect high grades so that she can get into either their Korean alma mater or an American Ivy League school. They also expect her to go on seons, blind dates arranged through a matchmaker with boys from other wealthy Korean families. Jisu’s hobby, photography, is a waste of time to her parents. When Jeon gets a single C at the beginning of her senior year of high school at her elite Korean school, her parents arrange for her to transfer to a private high school in San Francisco to elevate her chances of getting into a good college. Leaving her family and friends behind and starting over again is daunting, and Jisu doesn’t even get to look forward to the seons ending; they will continue as before. She may find just the boy for her at her school, however.

This was cute YA rom com. I liked that the author alternated between regular chapters and conversations that Jisu had during each seon. My main complaint would be that the book seemed to end too soon. Couldn’t there at least have been an epilogue to show us what happens between Jisu and the guy from her 29th seon?

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. This book is a bit intense. I have never been on blind day let alone more then one. She has to deal with her family, her host family, matchmaker, the dates, friends, and school. That is a lot for anyone to deal with and even as she grows in popularity and is in the needs of some soul searching. It is a good light hearted novel to read. I have head a few other things by this author and was not disappointed with this novel.

This was a fun, fast read. A young adult story that perfectly captures what it is like to not feel that you fit in. I was impressed by how much this author was able to teach me about culture while still telling a fun story about being a teenager finding their way through the dating world. I loved that there was a matchmaker in this story. I haven't encountered a modern matchmaking story before, so not only did I enjoy that aspect of this novel, I would love to find more novels that tackle the same topic. This author managed to spark an interest that I didn't know I had.
Melissa de la Cruz tackles racisim, complicated teenage life. dating, match making, being sent away from home for school, and a million other challenging topics.

I don't 100% love the way this is set up. The prologue opens with Jisu on her 29th seon, or arranged date. Then chapter one starts at the beginning of the school year in Korea with Jisu getting in trouble with her parents and being sent overseas to study. The next chapter is a transcript of seon #1, which happened back in early summer. It's followed by another present-day chapter, then flashes back to another date transcript that happened earlier. Somewhere around mid-book the transcripts from the dates catch up to the present-day actual story being told in the chapters, and it was just really disorienting to suddenly have the seon chapters be happening in the same timeline as the actual story content, where before they'd been (cute but not super relevant to the story) flashbacks.

That being said, I really liked the story itself. I love Korean food and this book was really bad for my wallet! I kept ordering delivery from my favorite local Korean restaurant because every time Jisu goes to Dave's house in the book and Dave's mom feeds her, it made me really want to eat Korean food!! :D I do like that Melissa de la Cruz noted in the afterward that seons are typically set up for people in college/early 20's and she took some artistic liberties to have a matchmaker that arranges dates for high society high schoolers.

I loved reading about Jisu's journey to make new friends and find herself in a new country, and really enjoyed that focus more than her romantic storyline (at least until the end, when I got WAY MORE into the romance plot!) This was a quick, fairly light-hearted read that at the same time deals with some real issues. It was enjoyable, but really mostly made me hungry!

This was lighthearted and fun, and while incredibly interesting to read about another culture, I had this nagging worry about representation. I didn’t realize the author herself isn’t Korean and so while reading I kept worrying if she’d had sensitivity readers and help in nailing the nuances of Korean culture. This is a personal concern of course, But it did make me distracted while reading!

I found the reading of her 29 dates to be fun, but I was hoping for more development between Jisu and the love interest. Their romance happened quite quickly and I wish we would have gotten to seen more of their love story (instead of it happening off screen).

I have been trying really hard to get back into reading after working at a book store for 3 years. Nothing will kill the joy you experience than having people shove books you are not even remotely interested in down your throat when you are already working 2 jobs and helping your mom raise your siblings.

So, I was excited to read another book about Korean culture and requested this as soon as I saw it. It has taken me MONTHS to get into this book. MONTHS. Everything felt forced and awkward and I was not able to finish it prior to release. So now I am listening to the audio book, which if possible, seems even more awkward. I want to state here and now that while I am grateful for the oppurtunity the NetGalley gives to readers like me, I could not finish this book. I spent 15 minutes cry laughing because Jisu is going on a date with Lee Taemin. Lee Taemin? From Shinee? One of the most popular Kpop artists? Did you just google "Korean names" Melissa de la Cruz? Oh gosh. I'm still laughing. This is too rich.

Maybe I will get around to completing the book sometime soon but in comparison to all the books I have read with Asian characters and backdrops recently, this one has truly paled in comparison.

It did give me a good laugh though!

I love pretty much every Melissa de la Cruz book I come across. This book was the typical YA romance rom=com type book that you see frequently, but it was still a really cute read. There is a bit of cultural appropriation which I didn’t appreciate, I mean its 2019 this shouldn’t be a thing still. Korean culture is absolutely beautiful, this book did not portray it accurately.

Unfortunately, this book was not quite what I expected.

I remember loving Melissa de la Cruz's books growing up, and the sound of this matchmaking story sounded like a really unique take on a romance book! However, I quickly realized that this book focused less on the romance and proved to be more of a coming of age story.

I felt as though everything was really rushed, and surface level. Some of the events that occur in the story just aren't realistic or believable, which ended up taking away from the story for me.

Somehow just as much and not as much romance as I expected. Everything felt very surface level, from the move to her feelings for Austin. Overall, not my kind of book, but I definitely see the audience for it.