I couldn't put this book down. I wasn't a huge fan of Loathe at First Sight, but So We Meet Again hit me in all the "rivals to lovers," "unintended pining," "I live at home with my parents but desperately want to take your clothes off" feels I didn't know I had.

When investment banker Jessie Kim is laid off in a virtual meeting and then overhears why (“she’s already being overpaid anyway for a woman” and “Asians are worker bees, not someone who can drum up new deals”) she delivers an “eff you guys” speech and storms out.

After moving back home to Tennessee to live with her loving but meddling mother and father, she runs into her childhood nemesis—golden child Daniel Choi—at the local Asian grocery store. The smart, charming lawyer appears to have it all...while Jessie has nothing.

Jessie works to overhaul her defunct cooking YouTube channel and Daniel, with his connections, helps out. Shenanigans ensue in the most delightful way.

Jessie is unexpectedly fired from her Wall Street banking job and is now moving back in with her parents in Tennessee. She feels like a failure, but doesn't want that failure to rub off on her parents if word of her losing her job gets around the Korean community at home. And she's dreading being compared to all the people she grew up with who are successful, such as Daniel Choi, who has also moved back to Tennessee and grew up into a very handsome man. With a nudge from her friends from New York, Jessie decides to start a new business, but that comes with headaches of its own. Will she able to balance her family, the new business, and new complications from Daniel?

I really enjoy Suzanne Park's strong-willed female characters, but this novel, similar to her first adult novel, seems to be more focused on Jessie's success rather than romance - which is how the book is advertised by the publisher. It does have an HEA/HFN between Jessie and Daniel, but I would have liked to hear more about their relationship if this is truly a romance novel.

This book was a delight. It felt like the pandemic reading, leaving the high-pressure NYC job to move back home with your parents. The passion for food and creating hacks in the kitchen to add more flavor to the meal kits. I wish that was a real business. This is more WF rather than a romcom.

This is a sweet, low heat romance. Jessie Kim moves back to Nashville after her life on Wall Street falls apart. She rekindles both feelings for and competition with her middle school rival, Daniel Choi, who is also temporarily back in Nashville. I really loved reading about Jessie starting a cooking brand with her Mom and would have happily read even more about their relationship and business.

I’m absolutely loving this theme of books that center around cooking! So We Meet Again was such an enjoyable and delicious book!

Jessie Kim moves home to Nashville after being laid off by her investment banker job. She is dealing with her mom and dad when she runs into an old friend also in town. Daniel Choi has it all going and Jessie decides it’s time to do something with her life. She starts recording her old YouTube show about food hacks for busy professionals. Her mom accidentally joins the show one day and the two of them are an instant hit! They make several more videos when Daniel decides to help Jessie make a box of Korean seasonings and sauces to enhance meal prep kits.

This book reminded me of a much more mature version of the Donut Trap. Both Jessie and Daniel had worked at very high powered jobs and had real careers. They both had some setbacks, but they went about their new ideas with ambition and organization. I love that Jessie was worked for an investment bank. I also did, and it’s definitely a difficult field to be in as a woman. We don’t always get the same opportunities and the author really showed that in this novel.

All of the food sounded so good. I love the idea of adding a “flavor” kit to meals I already make. Korean cuisine is so yummy; I would absolutely buy one myself!

I love the romances that Suzanne Park writes. Her writing is just so fun and entertaining. This was a classic enemies to lovers romance, my favorite trope. I'm not gonna lie, I was kind of burnt out on that trope but this has brought it roaring back. And who doesn't love a good cooking YouTube channel too! I loved every minute of this, highly recommend that you check it out!

Jessie Kim’s world is turned upside down when she is let go from her Wall Street job. Forced to move back home to Tennessee, living with her parents, and back in her childhood bedroom, she isn’t exactly where she thought she’d be at this stage in her life. An encounter with her former childhood nemesis gives her the push she needs to take her dreams off the back burner. As her business starts to heat up, Jessie is presented with an opportunity that would take her back to New York, she has to decide if her passion project is worth gambling her future on.

I really enjoyed how much of this book centered around Korean American culture, community, and food.

It had some warmth with the family aspects, but overall it was missing a lot of substance. Jessie’s inner monologues veered into the info-dumping territory, and there just wasn’t enough actual plot to even it out.

This book definitely leans more toward women’s literature than it does the romance genre. It’s a story about Jessie finding her voice, her passions, and her inner strength. The romance was a glossed over side plot that was never really flushed out or developed.

My main issue with the story was the timeline and pacing. Over the course of a couple months Jessie was not only able to come up with her business idea, manufacture and distribute her products. And in that same time was also approached for cookbooks, a cookware line, and a spot on the Food Network. It simply was not realistic. She never encountered any kind of conflict, everything was an instant success. The lack of tension and the way things came together it just didn’t work for me.

This was my first Suzanne Park book, and while there were a lot of things I liked about this book, I feel like it also missed the mark.

Do not, I repeat do not read this while hungry! You will want ALL the Korean food.

This story was so cute. I'm a fan of Suzanne Park as a person, and now I'm a fan of her writing as well.

Jessie was such a fun character. Her witty comebacks were epic.

Daniel was also quite an interesting guy. I loved that he had such a tough exterior but was so thoughtful at times.

I did struggle with the pace quite often. I would find myself wanting to put down the book to do other things.

Overall, this was a cute read with run wit. Thank you Avon for the advanced readers copy. These thoughts are solely my own.

I might have enjoyed this more if it wasn’t marketed as a romance. While I love empowering, kick ass females chapters, I don’t love it when I’m expecting a romance but one half of the main couple is barely present.

This book was just okay to me. Not bad or anything but not my fabled of the year either. Thank you for the arc

There is so much to love about this hilarious rom-com! A strong female lead, sparks that fly, cooking, and so much more! Pick up this book if you are looking for a pick-me-up. Also perfect for anyone in a reading slump!

I unfortunately did not have time to read this before release date due to issues in my personal life, but i’ve heard amazing things!

Sorry. This was just not for me. For starters, shelving this as Romance is a HUGE stretch. The love interest is absent for large portions of the book and by the end I still had no idea why they got together at all. If you can call a couple make out sessions and then radio silence “getting together”. At no point in the book were they dating or an item of any kind.

The only reason I didn’t give this book 1 star is because I did like the main character, Jessie Kim. She was lovely. Her entrepreneurial storyline, however? Not so much. Sometimes I run across plot lines in books that I just can’t accept because I know too much about them in real life. And starting a business from the ground up is something I know about, being married to an entrepreneur. So, instead of getting into the story, every time business was being talked about, I was finding all the ways that could never happen in real life. There are plenty of ways to tell a story about a successful entrepreneur. But, please, please give it realistic challenges (of which there are many) and successes and a realistic timeline.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful tale of Jessie Km finding her way back after getting fired. I loved family interactions and food descriptions. Daniel and Jessie were such vibrantly written characters who feel so real. A sweet relationship blossoms and I love how strong Jessie becomes. A beautiful story.

eBook provided for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

There is so much I to say about Suzanne Park's So We Meet Again! Jess the main character = amazing. Her kick-ass career turn, the relationship she has with her mom (and dad), and the food!! (I seriously got hungry every time I picked the book up to read.)

Just like Park's last adult novel, So We Meet Again is not your typical "romance." Park's characters are modern women who know life isn't just about finding the man. They are career-focused and won't take any shit from men in their life with outdated views on what it means to be a woman. The more I read from Park, the more she's becoming a favorite of mine.

Author interview with Suzanne Park

Today’s author interview guest is Suzanne Park, author of So We Meet Again.

After reading Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous, I jumped at the chance to read So We Meet Again by Suzanne Park.

Jess Kim moves back home to Tennessee and starts a Korean cooking (or more accurately, a prepared meal service hacks) channel on YouTube after being let go from her job in finance. As she's trying to find her way, and deal with her usually overbearing mom, Jess starts to fall for Daniel Choi. By day he's a lawyer, by night he's a video game streamer, and he gives Jess some tips to get her YouTube channel up and running, as well as helping her network her way into selling her sauces to a local grocery chain.

While filming her first cooking video Jessie's mom walks in and kind of steals the show. The video ends up going viral (I'm sensing a theme here with Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous). Jess gets an offer to buy her business and ends up face-to-face with the finance firm she recently left AND it turns out that Daniel Choi is involved in the buyout offer!

On the business side of things you have to suspend reality a bit, but this book was sweet and fun overall. The characters were enjoyable, but it did feel more like a new adult than an adult novel to me, just with their maturity levels and the decisions they made etc.

In terms of steaminess, there was a lot of build up and ‘almost’ moments where something would interrupt their alone time. At first it was amusing but it got to be a little much after the first couple of times they were interrupted.

The @lovearctually crew also got to zoom with the author which was super fun. I love learning more about the thought process behind the book and personal experiences that get woven into the story.

A romantic and empowering novel complete with heartwarming and laugh out loud moments.

When Jessica Kim, a young Korean American woman, loses her prestigious Wall Street job, she’s forced to move back home to her parents’ house in Tennessee. Her confidence is at an all-time low and her career is in question, making this the worst time to bump into her arch enemy, the charming and successful Daniel Choi.

Inspired by her culture and family, Jess soon develops an idea for a new business, adding Korean ingredients to existing meal plans. With the launch of her YouTube channel and a camo appearance by her mom, her new career begins to thrive. As Daniel and Jess’s paths continue to overlap, his influence on her business and personal life start to grow.

Park creates great characters that bring to life family dynamics and relationships. This uplifting second novel is perfect for readers of Sophie Kinsella.

I read So We Meet Again soon after finishing the tv show Kim's Convenience, and I think it was good timing: having some familiarity with Korean family dynamics, food, and cultural expectations helped me dive right into the story faster. Jessie was a relatable main character, Daniel nicely morphed from antagonist to love interest, and the rest of the cast of characters were varied enough to provide interest.

My only complaint is how Jessie's new business venture is handled. Yes, I KNOW this is a romance, and not the type of book that it is going to focus on the details of actually starting a new business, but I didn't need pages and pages of Jessie making test batches of her sauces or the details of her business plan - just some acknowledgement that those things HAPPENED besides just "I had this idea and oh, lovely, now stores are buying my product!" How did she find a manufacturer? What does distribution look like? How did she pitch it to the grocery stores? How did she develop the recipes? How did she balance creating a quality product with making it affordable?

All in all, an enjoyable read, but probably not one that would tempt me to read more from this author.

This book was clearly a labor of love. The story felt personal and the characters felt like real people. It’s the perfect novel for people who want to read about success after failure and improving connections in your personal life.