My Summer In Seoul will certainly delight K-pop and K-drama fans, but even if the phrase "ultimate bias" means nothing to readers, they'll still enjoy this story of Grace Lee overcoming adversity and possibly finding love as an intern for Korea's number one record label.

A great choice for fans of rock star/pop idol romances.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

This was a fun cute read about a young girl, fresh out of college who gets the chance of a lifetime. Her uncle, who runs a record label in Seoul, needs an intern to help manage a situation. He needs someone he can trust to not leak any information. So, when he finds out his niece needs a job, he jumps on the opportunity to bring her to Seoul to help him out. However, what he doesn't mention is that she's needed because there's a huge scandal that needs to be maintained. One of the members of a k-pop group caused a stir and now the fans have revolted against him. Thus, making him extremely depressed and suicidal. What Grace thought was going to be a fun and simply job of fetching coffees for a record label turned into more of a babysitting job where the people she is babysitting hate her.

For the most part the book follows Grace as she not only navigates her new job, but the country itself. She's Korean-American, and doesn't know anything about the culture. Like, not wearing your shoes inside. Which, to me is just common knowledge and would be the first thing you learn when looking up the culture. So, I could kind of understand why the band members would be a little put off by her. I mean, not only is she someone knew invading their life, but she didn't even do any research on the long flight over to give her an understand of the culture of the land she was moving to. I won't sit here a lie, her lack of wanting to learn throughout the entire story really bothered me. Instead of taking the time to learn her job, learn the culture, and understand the people she's been tasked with looking over, she ends up drooling all over them and eavesdropping on everything.

One thing that I really enjoyed about this story was all the behind-the-scenes stuff. Now, I'm not a K-pop fan. However, even I knew a lot of what was going on. From the intense pressure they are under. How they have to go through training and then MAYBE get a debut to the public. They are always watched and scrutinized. They can't date because they need to be "accessible" to their fans. And the littlest thing can have the entire army of fans turning on you, making you feel isolated and attacked. So, getting to see these guys work their butts off, go front one training to another, only to jump right into interviews was very interesting. It was probably the best part of the book.

My Summer in Seoul was a really cute romance. I liked watching the guys train for their big release, and the potential love blossoming between Grace and one of the members. Not to mention, how the members all went from being hostile to viewing her as their little sister as the story progressed. I think for fans of the K-Pop world, this would be a must read.

This is an adorable story! K-Pop is all the rage right now and while I have read a rock-star romance a time or two, this hits differently! I absolutely love the group of guys in this story and I loved even more that they did NOT like our heroine at first! I loved Grace and admire her story of being a Korean American that never really fit in when she was in the States. Her journey and story was very emotional but with so many moments of laughter as well.

And now I want to visit Seoul myself... if that doesn't show you how impactful the story was, I'm not sure what will!

I went to Seoul searching for my heart–and found my destiny instead.
I’m going to be honest, I had ZERO chill when it came to getting to read My Summer in Seoul by Rachel Van Dyken. I have been a longtime fan of RVD and each time she releases a new series it is an instant shot of serotonin that I am absolutely addicted to.

Grace has been studying with the dream of getting into the music industry and is surprised when her distant Uncle Siu, a bigshot in the Korean music industry calls with a once in a lifetime opportunity to intern at his record label. Little does Grace know that she will not just be doing coffee and doughnut runs, she will be the keeper of one of the most famous K-pop bands in the world SWT. Coming off a scandal that has the ability to claim their careers, the boys of SWT are working a fast-paced schedule of rehearsals, photo shoots, interviews and everything in between that Grace must now manage solo.

It’s hard enough learning a new industry with no warning and being expected to deliver perfection, but add learning a new language and culture on top of that? Even the most dedicated would stumble. Grace is half Korean, and the more she realizes she doesn’t know about her dad’s culture the more she starts to feel ashamed that she didn’t make it more of a priority in her life.

The boys of SWT are less than excited to have a new intern running the show and make it known with their less than hospitable introduction to Grace. Lucas, the red-headed rapper of the group, is having a particularly hostile reaction to her presence and as he was the center of the scandal he is also, much to Grace’s dismay, the one she must pay the closest attention to. It is well known to fans of K-pop the overwhelming pressure these idols face, and everyone close the group is worried that Lucas may crumble if they aren’t successful in making their comeback.

Grace just wants to do a good job, make her uncle proud and have the boys of SWT accept her as their assistant if not their friend. I felt for Grace as she struggled to do anything right, battling a language and cultural barrier along with five godlike pop stars who are not overly concerned with her success. As she slowly starts to get friendly with the boys, she becomes more intrigued with Lucas, the broken man she cannot have. Idols are revered among their fans, and even the rumor of a relationship could be seen as a betrayal, so any connection Grace and Lucas feel must be hidden from the public eye, and others who may have a personal interest in Grace.

This book was trope Bingo with a forced proximity, found family, forbidden, bully romance with a touch of love triangle sprinkled on top.. and it was done masterfully. As Grace struggled to be accepted, I felt her shame each time one of her well-intentioned olive branches missed the mark and she was further ostracized from the group. Once she began to make break throughs with each of the boys you could feel her relief which made even small betrayals hit harder as they continued to test her. Her connection with each of them was unique and special, but with Lucas she was forced to show her love in the hardest way possible, with unrestrained honesty. Their relationship was tested over and over but asking Lucas to face his unchecked reality was a limit neither of them were prepared to hit.

If there is one thing that Rachel Van Dyken knows how to write it is broken, tortured men and each member of SWT has their own demons to battle. They will each break your heart with their tired smiles as they work their hardest to make their fans proud, even if it means never being able to be their true selves outside of their apartment.

This was a book you finish and are instantly heartbroken to realize there isn’t a 10 book series waiting for you. I have plead with Rachel Van Dyken to please give us more of these boys because I know that I am not the only one that will be impatiently waiting for them to tell her their stories. Congrats to Rachel Van Dyken on this brilliant new release, please don’t make us wait too long to see more of our new favorite K-pop band!

4.25 stars--MY SUMMER IN SEOUL by Rachel Van Dyken is a stand alone, contemporary, new adult, romance story line focusing on Korean/American music intern Grace Lee, and K-Pop superstar/ lead singer Lucas Baek.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise including issues of eating disorders and suicide, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

Told from dual first person persepctives (Grace and Lucas) MY SUMMER IN SEOUL follows twenty-two year old, Korean /American Grace Lee in Seoul, South Korea, where she is hired by her ‘uncle’ to intern for the scandal ridden K-Pop group SWT (Something Worth Taking). Having graduated with a degree in music production, and no prospects for a job in America, Grace is stunned when her Korean uncle offers her a three month internship in Seoul, South Korea. Upon her arrival, Grace quickly discovers she is out of her element, naïve and ill-prepared for a country whose belief systems and business ethics are beyond anything Grace could have ever imagined. Immediately snubbed by everyone, including the members of the SWT, Grace finds herself on the outside looking in as even the language barrier feels like a personal attack. When Lucas Baek, lead singer and face of the group, takes a personal dislike and hatred towards our story line heroine, Grace must endeavor as lives are on the line, and the group’s mental health is fragile at best. What ensues is the slow building romance and relationship between Grace and Lucas, and the fall-out as South Korea’s ethics and morals are not conducive to a ‘boy band’ romance.

Lucas Baek is struggling to recover from a scandal that has disgraced our leading hero and affected all of the members of SWT. Fans have turned against Lucas Baek, and our hero is battling the will to carry on. Meeting Grace Lee throws Lucas into another spiral; a tail spin of hatred and jealousy, envy and lust when Lucas finds himself falling for our story line heroine but he may not be the only member of the group desiring a relationship with American Grace Lee.

The relationship between Grace and Lucas begins acrimoniously. Lucas despises Grace’s lack of ‘grace’; her naivety about the industry and Korean culture; and most of all, his attraction to a woman that could destroy his career. Grace had no idea she was to intern for the superstars of K-Pop but thrown head first into the proverbial lion’s den meant there were going to be a few bumps and mistakes along the way. But..Grace had no idea the furor that was about to erupt when another member of the group takes aim at our storyline heroine. The $ex scenes turn to black and are mostly implied.

We are introduced to the members of the group, all with secrets that cannot be revealed. Each member has his own quirks and foibles, likes and dislikes, a different personality that is suppressed by management, and the people in charge. Here’s hoping the author has plans to write a story for each member of the group as other love interests and attractions are slowly revealed throughout the story.

MY SUMMER IN SEOUL is an emotional and heart breaking eye-opener into the unreality of a K-Pop star, established and in the making. The competition is brutal and fierce; the strict guidelines and regimen including relationships, food, public appearance and private lives is tightly controlled by the people in charge. Anybody wavering outside of the rules is questioned about loyalty and strength, and in this, Lucas will take the fall for something out of his control. Fans turns viscous and cruel, leaving Lucas on the precipice of ending it all.



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My Summer in Seoul follows Grace, a Korean-American college graduate who gets the chance to intern in Seoul for the summer. What she doesn't realise is she's interning for SWT, the biggest K-Pop group in the world.

My Summer in Seoul features a great mix of characters. From enigmatic and guarded Lucas to sweet Sookie and kind Rae, the members of SWT are an eclectic and entertaining group. I'm sure every reader will have a favourite by the end! Meanwhile, Grace is immediately in over her head, but soon she finds her footing within the group and consequently becomes more confident.

While it has its heartwarming and fun moments, My Summer in Seoul isn't without depth, which I personally always appreciate. It broaches topics like attempted suicide, body image (and shaming) and struggling with your identity.

My only critique is that while this is a new adult romance (there are a couple of open-door scenes), in the beginning, I found it read quite YA. For me, it felt like Grace wasn't written as a 22-year-old. But as the book progressed and things heated up, that's when it personally fell into the new adult category.

Overall though, I believe K-pop fans will love heading behind the scenes, as My Summer in Seoul truly offers an in-depth insider's glimpse into this world.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ out of 5
This book blew me away and honestly I gave to say it would be among my favourite reads of the year! I’ve never shown any interest in KPOP but this book (about a KPOP idol) had me completely enthralled and opened me up to a world I had no idea about.

Our heroine is Korean-American and on break from college she gets the opportunity to intern at her uncle’s record label in Seoul which included looking after one of the biggest KPOP bands. Our hero is one of the idols in this band and he does everything possible to be mean and drive her away so that he won’t have to face how he feels about her. However we all know how that’s going to end…….

This book is so rich in culture and opened me up to a world i knew nothing about- from Korean culture and KPOP and their idols, it was eye opening. Their relationship is completely forbidden and is sooooo slow burn but it was totally worth it. This book also wasn’t even that steamy but it was so poignant I didn’t even care. I loved everything about this book (even though I’m not normally a fan of mean heroes) and I need for there to be more books like this!

Gosh, this book ripped my heart in two! I never had any desire to read KPop romance before. I had no clue why it would be any different than any other romance novel. Boy, was I wrong! Van Dyken does a fantastic job of weaving a tale that balances love, explaining KPop (which she did incredibly well), language barriers, cultural differences, and suicide/trauma. I am going to have such a huge book hangover now!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

My Summer in Seoul by Rachel Van Dyken is an amazing adult romance featuring an ordinary American woman and a K-pop boy group member! I have to admit that as a K-pop fan, I wondered if a K-pop "outsider" could do this type of plot justice, but I'm super excited to say that I loved this book! I enjoyed reading it so much, and the Korean aspects were well-researched and accurate, to the best of my knowledge. I found this book just as good and perhaps even better than books written by Asian-Americans like Jessica Jung and Axie Oh.

The plot of this story revolves around Grace, a half-Korean, half-white American woman. She recently graduated from college. Thanks to a family connection, she gets a gig interning for SWT, a famous Korean boy band. Unfortunately, she doesn't know any Korean words besides "hello" and she's never even heard of SWT before. Additionally, when she first meets the guys, they turn out to be a bunch of rude jerks. Can Grace find her place in the K-pop industry? And will her biggest hater, Lucas, turn out to become something more than a friend?

Here is a dramatic excerpt from Chapter 1, which is from Grace's point of view:

"I stared down the exact same gate that had brought me to Seoul three months ago.
Of course, it would be the same gate.
With exactly seventy-two uncomfortable blue chairs that I'd had the chance to count since I'd gotten to the airport three hours early.
I'd run away.
After the yelling.
After the fight.
After the tears, though some of them still lingered on my cheeks. It was no use wiping them away; more just managed to leak their way from my burning eyes down onto my blotchy skin."

Overall, My Summer in Seoul is a K-pop-infused love story that will appeal to fans of Jessica Jung's Shine and Axie Oh's XOXO. One highlight of this book is the main character, Grace. I really enjoyed reading a book featuring a mixed-race protagonist who is half-Korean. Her inexperience and lack of knowledge about the Korean language and Korean culture was something I related to. In addition, as a reader of Asian descent, it was great to see a romance featuring two Asian characters. That's so rare to see in romance books in general..

Another highlight of this book is the adult romance between the two main characters. Unlike other books about K-pop that keep everything PG-13 as a result of being YA romances, this book is definitely an adult romance. This was a really refreshing point of view to me, and I hope that I will get to read more books like this in the future. The ending was great, but if the author is writing a sequel or another book set in the K-pop world, I would definitely get it. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of K-pop, you won't regret getting this book, which is available now!"

I went to Seoul searching for my heart— and found my destiny instead.


My Summer in Seoul was brimming with emotion and swept me away. I had absolutely no clue what I was getting into, since I don’t know anything about K-pop. But that didn’t even matter. At the heart of this story was friendship, love, trials and trust. And each aspect was so emotional and powerful. So if you’re a fan of enemies to lovers or romance stories with someone famous, then you definitely need this book in your life!

It was always the pretty ones that were the most complicated.
And mean.


Rachel Van Dyken always has the amazing talent of putting me directly into someone else’s shoes and feeling every single thing they do. So of course I loved Grace! She wanted to get into the music industry and her Uncle offered her a job to intern at his number one record label. In Korea. Grace jumped at the chance, but it definitely wasn’t what she thought it would be. Yes it involved coffee runs and other similar tasks. But she had to help oversee the largest K-pop group in the world. And she started her first moment with them, thinking they were interns. Whoops.

Well, if he wanted war.
He’d get it.
Because I wasn’t quitting.
I wasn’t leaving.
And I would stay even if it killed me.


Lucas, Rae, Sookie, Jay and Kai were a formable team in SWT. But they hated Grace. She was loud, bubbly, wouldn’t stop talking, and had no clue what she was doing. Especially when it came to customs. Thankfully Rae, the leader, took pity on her. But it still wasn’t easy, especially with Lucas hating her the most. And while Grace tried her hardest again and again, it still was never enough.

I didn’t look over my shoulder, even though I wanted to.
And I didn’t check on her again.
It wasn’t my place.
And she wasn’t mine to begin with.
Plus, she was the last girl in the world I would go for.
Dead. Last.


Grace was motivated, persevered when others wouldn’t and had the hugest heart ever. And while she started figuring out how to handle the guys in SWT, Lucas still gave her all the hatred. It didn’t matter what she would do or how kind she was to him. He still hated her with a passion. And as someone who loves enemies to lovers, Grace and Lucas’ story was fabulous! It was a roller-coaster of emotions with the most fabulous angst! And while my heart broke for Grace countless times, it also started to break for Lucas too. Once we started to have chapters in his head too.

It was wrong, sneaking around, making her lie to everyone, bringing her down with me, but I couldn’t stop it any more than I could stop breathing.


Lucas was struggling. The music industry of K-pop was beyond intense and brutal. Fans controlled how high they climbed and how low they crashed with a scandal. So as we started to learn more about Lucas, he earned my empathy. Even if he could be a total asshole lol. That’s because I loved how Lucas felt deeply. I loved how passionate he was about music. And I even loved how he messed with Grace at times. But most of all, I loved when Lucas did something that allowed Grace to see more of him. Lucas was drowning at times, and I kept hoping Grace could help him. Somehow.

I still tasted her mouth; I still felt her skin on mine.
I still wanted her so much it hurt.


The way Grace and Lucas developed eeps, I loved it! They made my heart pound faster! And I’m not saying any more about them besides read this book! On top of Grace and Lucas was an industry that was all consuming. Intense isn’t even a strong enough word for it. And we also got to know Rae, Sookie, Jay and Kai. Oh you guys. They slowly found a way into my heart and I didn’t ever want to say goodbye to them. I’d be sooo happy if each of them got their own story! Please ♥.

She had saved me. It was my turn. To save her.


My Summer in Seoul was an enemy to lovers tale that romances lovers will passionately fall in love with! This story played out like I was watching a tv show unfold on Netflix, it was impossible to put down! And while there was a lot of drama and emotion throughout this story, I laughed a ton too. The bears?! Oh I can’t even! So yes, I loved this book and can’t recommend it enough!

Son of a bitch! I was killing them all! ALL OF THEM!


PS What I gasped over? I was just as mad, right along with Grace! Even though I guessed it. Still. Poor Grace ♥.

My Summer in Seoul by Rachel Van Dyken will appeal to all the k-pop fans! Me-not a k-pop fan at all (I don't get it) but I still enjoyed this book! It's different and quirky.

Grace is a young woman who doesn't quite fit in anywhere. She is Korean American, so she was never like her white friends in America, but now that she is in Korea, she is too American for their liking. But, working as an intern for a Korean music label is a huge opportunity for her and she is going to make it work. I admired her tenacity-I would have turned tail and gone back to America. There is a bit of a bully romance trope here as well, because the band is awful to her. There is plenty of angst as well.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by My Summer in Seoul! It was outside my comfort zone, but interesting!

RVD is a hit or miss author for me. I love some of her books, others not so much. I think it was interesting she decided to branch out into something new, and that was what caught my attention. I thought it was good storytelling and a fun read. Interested to see if she will do another