Thanks to Avon for my complimentary copy of this book!

One sentence review: I loved this coming of age story that had me chuckling and craving Korean food at the same time.

This story centers around Jessie Kim who is laid off from her job as an investment banker and moves back in with her parents in Tennessee. While there she revives her retired YouTube channel in order to bring food hacks to busy professionals. With the help of friends and family, will she succeed?

My thoughts:

- Jessie's mom is the absolute best! I loved Jessie's parents so much. Seriously they are funny and so endearing in their love and support for their daughter.

- I really loved the interaction of food and media in this book. It seemed very timely and was interesting to watch develop.

- This book has romance elements but I'd definitely view it more as women's literature than a romance.

In summary I thought this book was a ton of fun and really enjoyed it. Just go in knowing that this is about one woman's journey in renewing her confidence in herself and building a new business, not necessarily a romance.

I was expecting this to be more of a romance than it actually was so that was kind of disappointing.

I still really enjoyed it. It was very funny and the characters were great.

I listened to this on audiobook and I also had an ARC of the ebook from Avon and NetGalley so I switched back and forth between the 2 formats and the audio book narrator was great and I am super picky about audio books.

3.75 stars

At first this one seemed to be a contemporary romance, but it was really a story about female empowerment. Now don’t get me wrong, there is some romance. It just wasn’t the focus of the book. Jess thought she had everything figured out until she was fired from her Wall Street job. She had to move back in with her parents and figure her life out. She decides to relaunch her Korean cooking show on YouTube. This was one of my favorite parts of the book. I also love her relationship with her family. They were so cute and loving. This was such a fun read! Thank you to Netgalley and Avon Books for the ARC of this in exchange for my honest review.

So We Meet Again by Suzanne Park is just the enemies-to-lovers romance readers need for fall 2021. Full of small town vibes, a smart heroine perfect for fans of Jane Austen's Emma, and a swoony second chance romance, So We Meet Again captivated me from the first page.

A cute romance, SO WE MEET AGAIN reminds me of going home after a year away and finding that people can and will change dramatically once they are out of your view. The relationship between Jessie and Daniel is very natural, the chemistry between them making it almost unnecessary for Park to write it out for the reader. Meanwhile, we got Umma and Appa, adding the welcome famiy angle that romance can sometimes like. Add in the odd character like Flora and Celeste, and you have an ensemble piece that will etch a spot in your mind while you are working.

This book was not really a romance to me. It seemed like it could be heading towards an enemies-to-lovers romantic plotline, but I felt it never really panned out. It was more about starting over and figuring out/ following your dreams.

There is some good banter and humor throughout the book, but Jessie seemed immature to me. And most of the timeline did not make any sense. It seemed like she went from making a prototype of a box and uploading one YouTube video to becoming a best-selling household name culinary expert in the span of about 1 week. It was just really unrealistic and I found that annoying.

Also, there was no chemistry between Jessie and Daniel. And whatever happened with the job offer Jessie's friends got her? It seems there were some plot lines that went unresolved.

Overall, I just feel very "meh" about this whole book.

I had fun with this one. Following the story of someone laid off and stereotyped who goes back home to figure things out was very relatable. Perfect millennial story, especially around the pandemic. But there is success and minor romance and fun stuff happening.

I love this book, this author, these characters. I will need to read more by this author. This is one of the best books I have read all year.

This was pretty cute. Having the main character's family play a part was really fun. There have been a lot of cooking/baking themed romance books lately. This book was a fun spin on that theme.

Thank you Avon and NetGalley for the ARC.

Overall, this book was OK. My main issue is that the synopsis/preview I read gave away basically the entire plot so I had no reason to keep reading it. Because I apparently knew what was happening, I couldn't get excited about reading it.

Jessie was fun. It's always nice to read a book based in Nashville - I feel like I know where everything is. Although I'm very bummed that the Dolly bar isn't real! I feel like we didn't know much about Daniel because the characters had a history. Everytime he showed up it was to be sexy or aggravating (or both).

OKAY! This is what we're talking about when we say romantic comedy. I am blown away by how Park gives us these fun characters. I can't wait to read more from her.

So We Meet Again tells the story of a women named Jessica who is living the perfect life. She has a high pressure job on Wall Street that she enjoys but, could be made better with a promotion. She is also supposed to start an elite college in the fall. Suddenly, her life starts not going as planned, and she is forced to move back home with her parents. At first, she thinks that this is the worst thing that could happen to her...and then she discovers that her high school rival Daniel is back in town again...and her parents think he is just as perfect as he was when they were younger!

I actually read So We Meet Again in one day because it was so easy to get lost in the atmosphere of the setting. At first it is set within the world of Wall Street which allows the reader to have a point of view of a Asian American woman working in Wall Street within a male dominated field of work. There are glimpses of sexism, racism, and as the reader I understood the struggles which Jessica was going through trying to better her career.

The world of Nashville is completely different from Wall Street and I loved it. Being in Nashville allows Jessica to re-find the parts of her that she left behind when she moved away. These are parts of her identity and the Korean culture that she has always loved. A deep route of this culture for her is the Korean food and it is from this that she develops her business idea. All of the foods sounded so delicious! It seriously made me hungry. And I loved her interactions with her parents. Yes, they drove her crazy but, they also kept her real and human. Also, those interactions could be really funny!

There is also a sweet touch of romance in this story between Jessica and Daniel. It starts out as an enemies to lovers troupe because these two characters were always pitted against each other when they were younger. When they reconnect, it is hard not to fall back into these competitive patterns. The more time they spend together, the more they realize that tings have changed and that both of them have been through their own struggles, and are trying to regroup. I really enjoyed the dynamic between the two of them because it was a part of the story but, it wasn't the whole story. It was a piece of it that was built around the deeper story of growth, family, and culture.

So We Meet Again is the second book that I have read by Suzanne Park. I really enjoy the atmosphere that she creates within her worlds. Her characters are strong and diverse and the experiences which they go through feel so very real...and are often times funny! I always love to find books that will make me genuinely laugh out loud. If that is your cup of tea as well, I recommend you check this one out!

A quick-witted and clever friends to lovers romance with a feminism outlook and a focus on the food industry. The brewing chemistry that takes place between childhood rivalries Jessie and Daniel creates a tension that is insanely competitive, making this a book with lots of banter and great action!

When Jessie is fired from her high profile job she moves back home in hopes of figuring out her next move. She ends up running into her high school rival and feels her competitive drive heating up. Jessie finds herself starting up a food business and in the process learns more about herself, Daniel, and the family she left behind.

Although I loved all the foodie references and family cooking in this one, I didn’t really connect with Jessie. I needed more romance and less descriptions about building up a food company. For as much as I wanted to love Daniel, he didn’t appear that often and I felt like the ending was more about success than love. All in all, a well written book, but just not completely satisfying for me.

My second attempt at a Suzanne Park book was a rousing success! (I'd previously DNFed LOATHE AT FIRST SIGHT due to its toxic masculinity work setting.) I'd agree with other reviewers that this story leans further into the women's fiction category than romance, although there are definite romantic elements. It actually straddles the categories quite well, but the story does focus on the female MC's journey.

What I enjoyed most was how Jessie's career change felt authentic and unforced. She didn't have this brilliant idea percolating in her mind all these years, and she certainly didn't see herself as an entrepreneur. It unfolded due to certain circumstances she found herself in and happenstance. And even then, she was still unsure. I think that made her feel real, and it reminded me a little bit of my personal journey to being a book editor (which had *never* been on my radar in school or in the early stages of my career).

I also especially loved the development of the relationship between Jessie and her mom throughout this story. I almost wish there'd been more focus on it early on, so its evolution would've been even more satisfying.

And then there's all the Korean food ... SO MUCH DELICIOUS FOOD, some of which I cook/make myself, which was super fun to read about!

Overall, there was a lot to love here, and I think anyone who's ever felt a little lost in life would be able to relate to Jessie's story. She's easy to root for, and I'm looking forward to reading more Korean American stories by this author.

RATING: A-/B+ (4½ stars)

This has been my favorite book by this author to date. There were several times I could not help but chuckle out loud and I was thoroughly entertained.

Much like her novel, Loathe At First Sight, this book deals with a character who is working in a male dominated field where women are not treated well. I love that the author focuses on characters who learn to stand up for and believe in themselves. When Jessie is fired from her Wall Street banking job she begins to doubt herself and struggles to find purpose when she moves back to her parent’s home in Tennessee. To make matters worse she runs into her old rival, Danial Choi, who is now a successful attorney and doing very well for himself. It’s difficult for Jessie not to compare herself with Daniel given their old rivalry and it begins an interesting dynamic between the two characters.

Daniel is completely charming and while he annoys Jessie horribly, I couldn’t get enough of his confident and joking personality. Jessie’s sarcasm and tendency to argue with Daniel was fun to read and I really loved their interactions together. I also adored Jessie’s parents and particularly how her relationship grows with her Mom. Their tension felt real and I’m sure lots of people will relate to their struggle to understand one another. Jessie’s group of friend were also fantastic. They were all big personalities who jumped off the page and kept me wanting to read more.

My review was assigned by Chapter 16 and published on their website on August 18th, 2021.

Here's the review:

Comedian and novelist Suzanne Park delivers the laughs with her contemporary romance So We Meet Again, a perfect comfort read for all the foodies and homebodies who love to live (and eat!) vicariously.

Jessie Kim did everything right. She was studious in school, paid her dues with internships, and landed a job on Wall Street as an investment banker. For all intents and purposes, she’d made it. She was an accomplished, independent woman. It didn’t matter that her workplace was packed with men who did half the work and took all the credit, or that most of the women dealt with offensive or dismissive comments. Jessie had built a life she could be proud of. More importantly, it was a life that impressed her Korean parents, whom she often addresses as Umma (Mom) and Appa (Dad).

But when Jessie is fired via a virtual meeting because she is “not a leader,” she’s forced to reevaluate her career goals and aspirations. With nowhere else to go, she sheepishly returns home to her parents’ house in Nashville, where she hides out for several days in her childhood bedroom, debating how to explain her sudden reappearance to everyone in town. She has the grocery delivery woman, Flora, chuck her coffee ingredients through the second-story window and spends her time working on an in-depth spreadsheet about the trajectory of her life.

Eventually forced to go out on an errand for her mother, Jessie winds up at the Asian market fighting to snag some discount bags of rice. The problem is the bags are 50 pounds each, and Jessie struggles to get them off the pallet and into her cart. Plus, she’s starving, and the delightful smells of the food court aren’t helping. Most of the people in the store are “geriatric, some weighing far less than one hundred pounds,” so Jessie is forced to deadlift the two 50-pound bags into her cart, her knees cracking in protest in the process: “Crack! My knees popped again as I squatted like a sumo wrestler, grabbing a second bag on a higher stack and pulling it toward me like I was hugging a large bear I’d won at a carnival.”

After giving the elderly customers a show with her rusty lifting skills, Jessie heads over to the food court. Since her grocery cart won’t fit into the tight enclave for the restaurant kiosks, she decides to approach an attractive man eating at one of the tables and ask him to watch her rice while she orders a meal to-go. When the man turns around, however, Jessie recognizes him as her childhood nemesis, Daniel Choi. Jessie and Daniel’s accomplishments were always compared in school, and Daniel had been the golden child, leaving Jessie feeling like the perpetual loser in the contest between them: “He was a barometer of my childhood failures, a constant reminder that I would never be good enough by Korean parental standards.”

Thus begins a comical rehashing of old dramas, with newly-returned-home Daniel and Jessie being compared by their parents — as well as the larger Korean-American community at Daniel’s father’s church — on every aspect of life, from dating prospects to job prospects to where they went to college. Jessie feels like she’s in middle school all over again, losing to Daniel in every aspect of life. But Daniel may not be the golden child he appears to be. Why else would he be back home living with his parents, too?

As Jessie becomes inspired to revitalize her long-abandoned cooking hacks YouTube channel, she meets a series of new and old friends who help her on her journey to build her own business from the ground up. But when her mother walks into the frame and starts correcting her cooking during her first livestream, the channel becomes a family endeavor, even generating “Umma to the rescue!” and “Umma Approved” memes signifying Jessie’s mother’s approval of each dish and cooking hack. The “Umma Approved” meme quickly morphs into a logo for Korean mother approval, while Jessie’s father also makes an appearance at the end of each stream to taste the food and give a double thumbs up of Appa approval.

Tennessee native Suzanne Park incorporates nods to Southern culture in the novel. Jessie, for example, has a “framed photo of Dolly Parton I’d gotten from a high school trip to Dollywood” on her desk, and she often looks to the photo for guidance and encouragement. The novel also features a Dolly-themed bar that Jessie visits with her friends. In addition to the Dolly-loving culture, Park imbues her novel with plenty of humor.

Readers of So We Meet Again may come for the romance, but the witty jokes and humor, Jessie’s loveable parents, and the mouth-watering food descriptions will have them eager for second helpings. Or thirds. Or fourths.

When Jessie Kim is laid off from her Wall Street job, it's a blessing in disguise - especially after all the misogynistic and racist bullshit she's had to deal with. Home in Nashville to figure out her next steps, she reconnects with her parents, her passion for cooking, and her childhood nemesis turned dreamy lawyer, Daniel Choi. When Daniel helps her re-launch her YouTube channel (with hilarious help from her mom), their rivalry is renewed - and flames the chemistry between them.

This book was charming and super funny - especially Jessie's interactions with her mom. Jessie really grows as a character as she finds her feet as an entrepreneur, after such a hit to her self-confidence. I thought the approach to the sexism and racism Jessie experienced was bold and well done.

The romance was a bit of a slow burn, but other than that I really enjoyed this book!

This book was a great glimpse into Korean culture, food, and how food brings people together within their society. It’s also a cute enemies-to-lovers romance, with a heavy focus on women in the workplace and empowering women to chase their dreams.

Reading about a successful Korean woman who bent over backwards to do her work yet was let go and still managed to make the most out of it was inspiring. More than this, her ability to conquer everything in her path was incredible – she turned a passion for cooking quickly into a new business, and no matter how many issues arose, she managed to come out even further on top.

While I loved both Jessie (MC) and Daniel (her childhood nemesis), and I could see them together at times, I felt as though their relationship was a bit forced. They went back and forth with their feelings without truly talking anything through it seemed. Plus, I loved the empowering side of the story, and would have loved it if it focused more on her becoming successful instead of this AND falling in love (not that you can only have one, of course).

This book was cute and definitely enlightening regarding another culture for me! I loved Jessie’s parents and they provided a light sense of humor throughout the book, too. Overall, it was a fun read, but it was a bit slow for my personal preferences.

In this book we are following our main character Jessie Kim who has just been laid off on a zoom call. Not knowing what to do she ends up moving back in with her parents and then almost immediately comes in contact with her old rival Daniel Choi. Growing up both parents of Jessie and Daniel used the other as an example of what the perfect student looked like. Deciding to use her time off to work on her side project, which is a youtube cooking show and ends up needing Daniel's help with streaming it. I really enjoyed this story and Jessie's journey with starting a new venture and the support she gets from her mom and Daniel. One of my only complaint for this one was that things happen a little too quickly. Within like 6 months she becomes so popular that she gets a line of cookware in Target and in reality I just don't think that would happen that fast. However, the writing was fantastic and every dish she made I wanted to make and eat right along with her. This book makes you so hungry! Thank you Avon and Harper Voyage for my gifted copy for review!

Review posted on Goodreads (August 18, 2021)
Review linked below.

4/5 stars!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Avon for sending me an E-ARC of this book for an honest review.

I really enjoyed Suzanne Park's last adult romance book so I was super excited to pick this one up. This book was so much fun. It had the perfect mix of romance and important discussions about feminism in the workplace. I love Park's romances because they do a great job of discussing intersectional feminism in the workplace. It is always so much fun to read about her main female leads and watch them discover love and empowerment.

I really enjoyed the romance in this book! I loved both of our main characters, and I loved seeing Jessie and Daniel discover more about one another and learn to be vulnerable with one another while falling in love. This book had the perfect mix of romance, family and friend relationships, and career-driven plots.

I really recommend this book to anyone who loves adult romance.

Thanks for reading!
Caden