Hart and Seoul will have our high school students squealing when they read this book. It has the perfect mix of realistic teenage angst, romance, and Kpop. The writing is aimed at high schoolers as it is easy to read but has a great influx of vocabulary to keep it interesting. This book will be well received in our library.

This was a very cute quick read! I really like the different tropes used within this book! Enemies to lover and fake dating? What more do you want from a YA romance. A good read and I'll be interested in reading the next one!
Thanks again to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for an honest review! :)

If I had picked up this book as a teenager I would have loved it! I have always loved Asian culture and was addicted to everything Korean before K Pop became a huge deal.
As an adult, I enjoyed this book. But I could tell it wasn’t aimed at me. Not my age anyway. It was aimed at 16 year old me who believed you could really meet and fall in love with your celebrity idol.
I would recommend this book mostly to teenager and young adult readers but try it no matter what. You might just find yourself devouring it!

* Solid 3 stars. *

Now that may sound like a low rating, but hey now, 3 stars means that I liked it!
I think if I had read this in high school I would have easily given it at least 4 if not 5 stars, but I have left my K-Pop obsessed past behind and have a desire to read more detailed novels.
That being said, I truly enjoyed this story and read it all in one sitting. I enjoyed the main characters and their quirks. I identified a LOT with Merri "Christmas", as I was an artist on Deviantart in my teenage years, and was obsessed with being an artist, though I was definitely a K-Pop obsessed drama watching fiend at the same time, and had an extensive knowledge of all the K-Pop groups in the early 2000's.

I thought Lee had a very charming character, and enjoyed the scenes with him very much. I also really enjoyed the little news articles and comments from messaging boards that the author included in the story.

What I could have done without was the whole Bree/Luke debacle. I knew IMMEDIATELY what was going on there at the beginning of the book as soon as Merri first mentions Bree's mystery ice cream boy. That whole part of the story line was a huge cliche, and I think the book would have been much better without it, but it definitely made the book read very much like a K-drama, which may have been what the author was going for.

Overall I enjoyed this book and recommend it for teens and young adults who want a very light read and enjoy Korean entertainment.

"Hart and Seoul" is a roller-coaster love story between Lee, a K-pop star in hiding, and Merri, a suburban Virginia highschooler.
This book was a pleasant surprise! It turned out to be a total binge-read that I couldn't put down. The story is sweet and the characters are strong and lovable. I admit that I had trouble getting in to the first couple chapters and when I realized the MC was a suburban white girl I was prepared for the worst - cultural stereotypes and tokenism, etc. But it was pretty good! I've spent time in Korea and I can attest the the pop culture accuracy. I also loved the use of the phonetic Korean instead of the strict translations - that's actually what it sounds like most of the time, yall!
My major qualm is with the somewhat prudish language, but it is YA so it's not too out of line for the genre. I hate when books don't use real curse words ("gosh," "shoot," "crud," "kaka," etc.) because it feels inauthentic to the real high school experience and a bit patronizing to readers of that age, but it's certainly a good choice for readers of a more conservative nature who dislike smut and are looking for that sweet, toe-tingling slow burn.

Recommend for fans of: YA contemporary lit, K-pop, K-drama, Korean pop culture, chaste romance

We are a kpop loving household so when I read this description I KNEW I had to read this book! Who wouldn't want to live next to and befriend a (secret) runaway popstar?! The book was really cute and fun but didn't pull any punches when it came to the dark side of the kpop industry. You could tell that the author is a fan and not just jumping on the bandwagon. Perfect beach read for any kpop fan, but those who aren't will still enjoy it!

Wow. I was not expecting to roll my eyes at this as much as I did. But I was just massively underwhelmed. This read like a really bad K-Pop fanfic written by someone who did little to no research into Korean culture and tried to gloss over that fact by using the same three Korean words and the ritual reminder of "Kim-chi" to pretend they knew what they were doing.
The plot was so predictable, and to be completely honest, way too early 2000s. The sparkly guy-trope? Twilight did it better, sorry. The best friend and boyfriend getting together behind the protagonist's back while she's out of town? Been there, done that. And to top all of that, the protagonist (yes I have already forgotten her name) didn't even seem to care as much about that betrayal than the fact that her new, hot neighbor was mean to her?!
What even? She was so naive and ignorant and childish, I thought she was a thirteen-year old for half the book.
I was promised a lot more from the synopsis of this book and the story just did not hold up to my expectations.
Not to mention the potentially harmful mental health/suicidal ideation plotline that was basically resolved within half a page. Nope.
Definitely not up my alley.

a cheating boyfriend and best friend to isolate the protagonist is hardly original, but it does the job, and it is hard not to be on the side of a teenage girl who returns from two months abroad to learn that her best friend and her boyfriend are hooking up, especially after learning her mother walked out on her family a year before. It's a trope because it works, and it works here. This is the kind of story that would not work as well if Merri had a bunch of other people to spend time with, or a bunch of extracurricular activities. If she had those things, she would never spend all her free time either with her father or with the nephew of her nearly-a-stranger neighbor.

Merri's relationship with her father is one of the things I liked about this book. Mr. Hart, too, is clearly dealing with his wife's desertion as best he knows how, while taking an active interest in his daughter's life. Merri's plot-imposed isolation allows the writer to showcase that their relationship is at times awkward (because Merri seems to remind her father so strongly of her mother), discordant (because Merri wants to pursue art in college), and ultimately supportive (literally, when he carries her up the stairs so she can change clothes more quickly). Their relationship is pretty sweet, all in all, and seems about as healthy as one might expect.

The relationship that forms between Merri and Lee is also fairly saccharine. He swoops in to save her several times early in the book when her ex-best friend and ex-boyfriend put in sudden appearances, but he does not exist to fight her battles for her, and as the beans incident and several interactions with her ex-best friend make clear, Merri doesn't really need someone to fight her battles for her. Just someone to support her (again, literally, because she spends about half of the book on crutches it seems). Their first kiss was so very cute, but some aspects of their relationship are almost too sweet. For instance, Lee nicknames her Christmas, which is a very weird thing to call another human being, even if their regular nickname is Merri ("like Christmas?"). The fact that Merri calls Lee by his last name because she doesn't understand Korean nomenclature at first seems markedly less weird, and serves as a good way to introduce readers to Korean cultural norms.

On that note, Hart and Seoul does well at easing neophytes into the world of K-Pop. It describes the training academies for aspiring K-Pop stars, the apparently common practice of cosmetic plastic surgery to achieve a certain "look," and the high pressure such stars face from their labels, and the toll that can take. Scenes where Merri watches semi-related K-dramas like Boys Over Flowers or Fated to Love You show readers who may have discovered a hitherto unknown interest in Korean culture an easy in. It also has the most wonderful succession of Korean dishes peppered throughout the text as the two leads get to know one another better. Seriously, jjajangmyeon sounds absolutely amazing.

To return to the depiction of K-Pop artistry and its pressures, when discussing the reason Lee is even in the States, instead of back home with his group, Burnham is not subtle about hinting there is darkness there, and throughout the text characters in emotional or mental distress are encouraged to seek counseling. The author's note includes information on her personal struggle with anxiety as well as resources for the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA), the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. She also mentions that Lee is fictional, but his struggles are based in fact, citing the 2017 suicide of Kim Jong-hyun.

For such a short, sweet book, Hart and Seoul really touches on many topics of importance to teenagers and many adult readers in the YA genre. I think it will be easy to find an audience for this book, and I really hope there will eventually be fanart.

As a small-scale BTS fan, I went into this novel with middle-of-the-road expectations. I knew there would be romance, and I knew pretty instantly with the boyfriend/bestfriend arc. I didn't feel too much towards the main characters until quite a bit further on. I did enjoy the book though, but it would have been much better if the author had actually done research instead of writing the book leaning on her very superficial knowledge of Korean culture; knowledge that comes from listening to K-pop and watching a kdrama episode here and there only.

The rest was fine. This book didn’t blow my mind or anything, but it entertained me for a while. I would consider going into it knowing that it’s not the best young adult K-pop book out there in any way, though. And that the Korean representation is not super problematic but it goes in that direction, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a Korean reader felt a bit insulted by this book.

Hart & Seoul is a YA novel with a difference. There's the usual YA factors - broken relationships, friendship struggles and college admissions - but then you throw in a runaway Korean popstar! I think readers need to go into this book knowing that this is YA to a tee. The writing is very simple and slightly cliche at points, and it does skim over some bigger issues, like parental abandonment and mental health. But all in all, I liked Hart & Seoul and couldn't wait to dive back in every day to find out what happens.

I received a complementary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Title: Hart & Seoul
Author: Kristen Burnham
Release Date: 6/4/2019
Review Date: 7/16/2019 On Goodreads

Girl meets boy. Boy falls for girl. Girl discovers boy is a runaway K-pop idol in hiding.
Merilee Hart has been doing her best to keep things together since her mother left, her art a welcome escape from her depressing new reality. But things seem to go even more awry the moment her next door neighbor’s enigmatic and mysterious nephew arrives from South Korea. Lee is moody, cocky, and utterly infuriating.

This book was stinking adorable. I don't tend to reach for YA contemporary novels very often but when I do I prefer them to be unputdownable and cute, and this one was exactly that. I literally just wanted to devour this book from start to finish. I did see a lot of the "twists" coming but I still really enjoyed this book. I have already added the sequel to my want to read shelf on Goodreads and it doesn't even have a title, cover or description yet, I just want it. Also, Lee made me swoon a lot.

I was originally going to say that I wasn't going to be able to review the book as the last book in this situation (KPop romance) left a bad taste in my mouth. But as I was going through/reading the book a little bit as I usually do to see if I can maybe grasp a connection, I kept noticing how the MC's voice just felt very childish and her train of thought just didn't fit with the style I like to read. I gave this one a chance to break through the bad taste but I just don't think the writing style is for me!

Thank you Netgalley and Mascot Books for sending me this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I am not gonna lie - this book feels like a cheesy wattpad fanfiction written by a K-pop fan who has barely any knowledge about the actual Korean culture. There were a lot of grammatical errors too and ridiculous dialogues (like when Lee tells Merri that he came to USA for a vacation she legit asks him with utmost shock "You came to a new continent for vacation?!!!!" as if that's such an unnatural thing to do). This is a lot of complains for a book that I just rated 4 stars. But the thing about this book is it is a perfect guilty pleasure read - it is addictive and captivating and keeps you turning pages after pages until you actually finish it in one sitting. The writing keeps you hooked from the beginning to the end. I liked Lee - he was a really entertaining character. Merri was fine though I did not really care much about her. This book was a typical fanfiction with the tropes but at the same time it was very entertaining. I don't have much knowledge about K-pop but if you are a fan, then this book is the perfect summer read for you.

2.5 stars

I started this book with the best intentions. And pretty high expectations, which is something you should never do with a book, regardless of its synopsis. However, I should have been more careful with this book in particular since it’s about something I love with all my heart and that coincidentally comes from another culture I wasn’t born in. This is very important because I feel like the author should have considered this too. Way more deeply than how she did here. More about it later.

This is why I went into the book expecting too much and ended up putting it down after the first 15%. Not only the main character was bland, but I had already predicted what was going to happen with her friends (dull plot arc that lasts for the entire book istg), and the K-pop artist had made his appearance but he presented himself as the usual cocky rude new next door guy. On top of this, I already had the feeling that the Korean representation would be off. It didn’t look like I would enjoy it at all.

In the end, I ended up picking it back up with the intention of reading a bit more and dnfing it if I still didn’t like it. I lowered my expectations to zero. This is when the book blew my mind with how taken I was by the story once I reached the 25% mark. I’m still trying to understand what made me keep reading and reading without wanting to stop. Was it because I was listening to K-pop full blast with my headphones? Was it because of the writing style? Or because I wanted to see where the story would go?

I was for sure really interested in Lee Hyung Kim all of a sudden. He kinda grew on me a little bit. I think I was obsessed with knowing more about his career? And he was sweet. What I don’t get is why it felt like I liked the writing style when in actuality I didn’t. Maybe it was because it’s simple and quick, however I swear I couldn’t stand all of those parenthesis or exclamation marks. It looked like this book was written by a fangirl obsessing over her idols on twitter, and I don’t mean this in a good way. Especially because with everything else, the book read like a self-insert fanfiction.

Still, I guess I enjoyed the reading experience! Despite some stuff that really irked me which I’m going to go into now.

First of all, the Korean words used in this book are written incorrectly, and I don’t understand how they ended up in the finished book like that. I get that maybe the author (and the editor?) wanted the reader to read those words with the correct pronunciation, but there are better ways to make sure of that. This was the worst one they could come up with. For example, ‘yes’ in Korean should be romanized as ‘ne’, but in this book it was written as ‘deh’. Another example is ‘mwo?’, which was ‘bo?’ here. There’s a bunch more, these are only the most repeated words that I remember because they bothered me a lot.
You know, you can have a key at the beginning or end of the book to help the reader with the pronunciation of some words. It’s not a new thing.

Secondly, I don’t understand the reason why those Korean words were there in the first place. I guarantee you that when non-English speakers come to an English-speaking country, they don’t intersperse their sentences with words from their language. They just speak English. Period. They won’t say words in their language, if not by mistake, and then not explain them, expecting the other person to understand what they said.
It looked to me like Lee Hyung Kim’s nationality was fetishized. The author would find every possible excuse to have him mention that he was Korean, implicitly or explicitly. In every single page.
There are healthier ways to show your admiration for a culture. This ain’t it.

Thirdly, Lee Hyung Kim behaved like an idiot in the first quarter of the book. To me it seemed like the author still wanted to grandly show that he was a foreigner. A foreigner who doesn’t know anything about American culture? How is that even possible, please. He behaved like he had come to the US expecting it to be exactly like South Korea. Like that thing with the glasses size when they eat out (which I find super weird in itself, by the way). New country, new culture, bigger glasses, Mr. Lee. It’s only normal you find different things in a different country.

The rest was fine. This book didn’t blow my mind or anything, but it entertained me for a while. I would consider going into it knowing that it’s not the best young adult K-pop book out there in any way, though. And that the Korean representation is not super problematic but it goes in that direction, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a Korean reader felt a bit insulted by this book.

Although the story is leading to a great start and possibly a great ending, in my personal opinion, the story is slow. I like the hate to love relationship in this story. If you're into KPOP, I think you would really like and appreciate this book.

Very cute.
Merri meets her neighbor’s nephew almost immediately before catching her boyfriend cheating.
At first the new guy is snarky. But he’s kind to her when he realizes what she’s going through. He is Korean and he starts bringing her Korean foods to cheer her up.

They start spending more time together.
Merri is an artist and she basically draws her daily life as a bit of a diary. It doesn’t take long till “sparkly boy” starts making an appearance in her work.

She knows he’s keeping a secret. But it isn’t till after they’ve started to bond that she finds out he’s a K-pop Star and he’s basically in hiding.

I liked the characters and enjoyed the storyline. I thought it got cuter as it went on. Loved all the foodie dates.

I got to read an early copy from NetGalley.
I’ll plan to read the second book in the series too.

Hart & Seoul is a fun romance featuring a K-Pop star.

It's fun that Merri doesn't know who Lee is when they meet.

I found this tale to be cute and entertaining.

Merilee Hart has been doing her best to keep things together since her mother left, her art a welcome escape from her depressing new reality. But things seem to go even more awry the moment her next door neighbor’s enigmatic and mysterious nephew arrives from South Korea. Lee is moody, cocky, and utterly infuriating.
But when Merri’s closest friends betray her and her father crushes her dream of going to art school, Merri finds herself drawn to Lee, who seems to live within even greater shadows than her own. And just when she thought things couldn’t get crazier, Merri’s world is upended when she discovers Lee’s big and bizarre secret…he is none other than a runaway member of the K-pop mega-group Thunder.

It’s not long before Thunder’s fans, the Storm Chasers, begin to close in on Lee, ready to do whatever it takes to return their favorite idol to his rightful place in the band. Faced with the prospect of even more heartbreak and caught up in an international whirlwind that has a life of its own, Merri realizes that she must find a way to mend herself, gain control of her life, and pursue her dreams—her heart and soul depend on it.

I received a copy from NetGalley all my opinions are my own.
I loved this storyline!! It was humorous, sad, happy, and dealt with serious issues, and I enjoyed the two main characters bond. Merri and Lee had a rocky beginning, but they connected and became great friends, I enjoyed the character growth between that they went through. Lee, with his anxiety and learning to trust people, and Merri is dealing with the betrayal of her mother and best friend and having a better relationship with her father. I enjoyed this book, and I am looking forward to the second book in this series.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of Hart & Seoul by Kristen Burnham. I've voluntarily read and reviewed this copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Girl meets boy.
Boy falls for girl.
Girl discovers boy is a runaway K-pop idol in hiding.

Hart & Seoul is a romance story with great comedic timing. It's a quick read and keeps you entertained. The premise is fun and something new, which made for a surprising story.

Even though I enjoyed the story, there were a few red flags for me. At times the writing didn't feel appropriate towards Korean culture. Since I'm not familiar with Korean culture myself, I can't speak to the authenticity of the portrayal of Korean culture in this book. But I do feel that the writing was insensitive at times and could be handled with more care.

This relates also to the mention of self-harm, which I felt could be handled with way more care. In the story it's mentioned briefly and rushed over as if it's just a simple thing. I feel like when you make self-harm a part of the story of a character, you should handle it with care.

For reasons above I rate Hart & Seoul by Kristen Burnham with 2,5 stars.

I read this all in one sitting! I absolutely loved the cute friendship turned romance, the reveal of Lee’s double life and even the betrayal/love triangle between Merri and her friends at the start of the book. I’d really recommend this to anyone looking for a new take on a Young/New Adult Romance as I thoroughly enjoyed it!