This book happens in the summer before senior year. Lulu and her friends have planned an epic summer: sleepovers , restaurant nights, and theme parks. Lulu works in her mom and aunt's bakery, but doesn't have a relationship with her father, who had left her mother for his mistress during her freshman year. He doesn't even show up for her graduation. This strained relationship was talked about quite a bit in the story and then dropped.

Lulu's summer plans are spun for a loop though, when her neighbor Kai comes back to town. Kai had moved to Korea to become a star in a K-Pop band back at the end of the 8th grade, so it's a shock when he shows up 4 years later. Lulu is a fan of his band and he had been her best friend before he left Will he still be friendly, when they didn't keep in touch for all this time? And will he even remember her, now that he's a star?

It was strange that Lulu insists on calling Kai by his stage name, Kite, despite having known him since elementary school. I thought this showed that she still saw him as a K-Pop star instead of her childhood best friend. Also, the ending for this book? It just ended. There was no satisfying conclusion. I thought my kindle had died, but then I came to the acknowledgements page.

As a die hard friends to lovers fan this book hit the sweet spot. I am obsessed! This book genuinely convinced me to watch a k-drama so I could get a heavier dose of what this book delivered. The writing is sublime and the romance was like a physical hand squeezing my heart. Loved it!!

It's described as a K-Pop teen rom-com, which already has my heart. It gives me girl-next-door meets "Shine" by Jessica Jung vibes to create an all-around adorable, sweet and wholesome YA romance read. It's super, super cute and sweet, innocent too. The main character is so authentic, real and raw, and together Lulu and Kite make a super-cute and sugary-sweet pair.

Lulu hasn't seen her neighbor and old best friend Kai for years. He went to South Korea in 8th grade to become the youngest member of Karnival, a K-pop group that is almost as big as BTS. Now she has graduated from high school and Kai is coming home for the summer. As he takes some much needed time off the two rekindle their friendship and maybe something more. But life of a superstar can be hard and the fans can be vicious.
The fans of Karnival are called Fireworks so that is where the title comes in. I first wanted to read this because of the cover and the description, but while I think it is very reminiscent of Once Upon a Kprom, I think it has its own merits and faults. I think it is a very cute story about childhood friends reconciling and falling in love. However, when I finished the book I was looking for more at the end. It seems like it never really had an ending. Things seemed to wrap up without a real conclusion. And since I read the prepub, I hope something gets done to fix that.

Lulu is getting ready to have one last amazing summer with her best friends Stephanie and Ester before they all go to college. Things get complicated when Kite, a member of the very popular K-Pop band Karnival, takes a break and heads back home. Kite is Lulu's old neighbor and now she has to contend with K-Pop fans and an old crush on Kite that threaten her perfect summer.

This was a light and sweet romance that isn't explicit, which was very nice. Lulu is a fun character to follow and I kept wanting to hang out with her and her friends in real life. I liked how this was both a slice of life story but also had some added drama about the nature of fandom. My one critique is that there was a lot of plot and characters crammed into one book, but overall it was a fun journey that I'm going to recommend to romance fans.

I really enjoyed Fireworks by Alice Lin. The characters were very likable and the story was a very well-written YA romance. I wish it lasted longer because I wanted to see what happened next. I can't wait to read another book by Alice because this one was GREAT!!!!!

Lulu and her two best friends are written as typical Asian-American girls with various family dynamics. Stephanie is the well-off rich girl, whereas Esther's family is barely touched upon. Lulu's relationship with her father is strained after divorce, and although part of the book brushes upon the topic of parent-child relations after divorce, the primary focus of this novel is a romance between Lulu and Kai. Although there is mention of bisexuality, it is only touched on as an attempt at intersectionality. Unfortunately, the attempt at bringing a bisexual character to good light doesn't really work very well. I also think it's interesting that Kai's stage name, Kite, is continuously used throughout the book by Lulu even though she knew him as a child. It seems to prove that she still sees him as just a Kpop star rather than the childhood friend who moved away. Although the small romance is cute, after the male love interest is introduced, there is no mention of biromantic interest, thus I was slightly disappointed.

I enjoyed Fireworks by Alice Lin.
It was unique and fresh and full of heart.
At first I thought it was going a little slow for my liking, but it quickly picked up and I got into this story really fast.
Lin's writing is great and flowed very nicely.
The characters were something special and I enjoyed getting to go on this journey with them.
I love YA Romance and this one had a nice touch to it.
Overall, A cute, quick, easy read and one I found myself staying glued to my screen.

Underlined,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review closer to pub date.

I am in pure s h o c k after finishing this. I didn't have any expectations going into this book, and to tell the truth I didn't fully read the synopsis. I was surprised when I found out that this was a childhood friends to lovers book about a girl and a K-pop star. I'm all for enemies to lovers but I am a die hard friends to lovers fan. I wish there was a bit more romance in this book, but nonetheless I enjoyed almost every second of this book.
(arc from netgalley)

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing to read and review an early copy of this book!

I’m just gonna start off by saying I love Kpop books and I saw this one and I liked the synopsis so I decided to read. I actually really liked this book but some parts I had some issues with. The ending, I don’t think was done very well. There was like two conflicts and I didn’t think it made sense. I felt like the two main characters should have more interaction and more scenes together before both of those conflicts. I saw another review talk about it and yeah the second half of this book was a little chaotic. But I did like the romance a lot and the nickname Kite had for Lulu “Lovely” I thought was really cute. I do wish we had a chance to see more parts with Lulu and Kite as a couple though. Also, this book has bisexual rep! (the main character LuLu is bisexual). I do think this book has potential so I hope the change the ending but other than that I’d give this book a 3/5! Again thank you to Netgalley :)

This was a very cute YA romance for the most part, but a little too heavy on the drama for my taste in the second half. I would however love to know what happens next!

I didn't know this book would have LGBTQ+ rep, I hardly knew anything about it going in - the MC is bisexual, and the rep is very casual, which I loved!