This review is solely for the narration—something I've never done before. The narration was so incredibly bad that I couldn't even get through the book as hard as I tried (and I'm usually quite good at being able to flex with narrators good and bad alike, so this truly is a first). I really wanted to engage with the story itself, but the narration prevented me from being able to do so at every turn. I highly recommend you have this book recorded again using a different narrator.

The narrator spoiled this book... a lot. I couldn't connect no matter how hard I tried and I really wanted to love it.

The story was ok but it was all kinda flat!

Flat characters, flat speech... flatty flat flats!

If you like montone then this one may work for you.

2.5 stars

an entertaining mixture of friendship, romance, and mystery set in Jeju. I enjoyed this fun read while wishing for more focus on the friendship

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!

What a good book! I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. This is a first by this author but will not be my last! I listened to this in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down.

I went into this listen with no expectations other than that the title, cover and premise seemed interesting. I was disappointed in this. The narrative and the audiobook performance failed to really engage me. I am not sure if it was some flair missed in translation but I just failed to connect as a reader and just did not at all care for the audio.

Overall, I liked this book, but it was really hard to get into. I can tell the author wrote this story in the same way a K-Drama would unfold, but unfortunately the whole bee premise really didn't keep me interested. The main female character's are all likable, and the girl with the surfer romance was my favorite sub-plot. However, I found the other two a little harder to empathize with. Some of the plot twists were a little too forced, and the explanations a bit too "just because". I would recommend this book to someone who loves K-Dramas and want to support bipoc writers! As far as recommending for the sole reason of loving the story... I could have lived without reading this. Not a bad book, but not a great book.

The overall concept: the main characters embark to Jeju in search of this mysterious person from the past. Along the way, the characters' stories unfold, the past, present and the future.

At face value, the story and concept seemed to be up my alley as I am exploring into more contemporary fiction. However, there were a few things that may have prevented me from really enjoying the book to the fullest. The first major thing may have been the translation of the story. That could be an important factor that made the connection hard to make. Secondly, the narration was difficult to follow. Third, the narrator was not my favorite. Last but not least, there were a lot of characters and their own storylines to follow throughout the entire book. Put all their storylines together that jump throughout the timeline, and it can get very confusing really quickly. And very similar to other reviews, there was a really odd subplot of a mysterious character. I really was looking forward to this ALC, and unfortunately it fell flat for me. Two stars.

Thank you Netgalley, Brilliance Publishing | Brilliance Audio, Amazon, and the author for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

I will be posting on Instagram, Goodreads and Storygraph

I was truly intrigued with this one. It sounded so good. It was so slow, I was expecting a nice fun romcom, but I did not get that at all. I couldn't connect with any of the characters, the story just was not doing it for me either. I really wanted to like it but it just wasn't for me.

Slow-paced and steady flow of the story. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy book, but it’s not too exciting or drawing me into the book immediately. I wish it’s more ups and downs and exciting parts. The narrator did a great job to say the book though.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my copy.

Pub date: Aug 20, 2024

I should start off with I am a huge Kdrama fan and have read some translated Korean Romcoms so I was excited to read this but I DNF at 20% on this one. It sadly was just really slow and couldn't hold my attention. So sorry.

To me, this felt more like literary fiction than romance. The pacing was a little slow for me. I enjoyed the audiobook narration.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

Thank you Netgalley and brilliance audio for the free ALC. My opinions are being left voluntarily. I made it to 29.3% before throwing in the towel and dnfing it.i was disconnected fro. The characters and story. I loved the narration enjoyed the audio portion. I felt like nothing happened and way too slow at 2.5x audio speed.

2.5/5☆