29 Dates - Melissa De La Cruz
Book Synopsis: How many dates will it take to find the one?
Jisu's traditional South Korean parents are concerned by what they see as her lack of attention to her schoolwork and her future. Working with Seoul's premiere matchmaker to find the right boyfriend is one step toward ensuring Jisu's success, and going on the recommended dates is Jisu's compromise to please her parents while finding space to figure out her own dreams. But when she flubs a test then skips out on a date to spend time with her friends, her fed-up parents shock her by shipping her off to a private school in San Francisco. Where she'll have the opportunity to shine academically--and be set up on more dates!
Navigating her host family, her new city and school, and more dates, Jisu finds comfort in taking the photographs that populate her ever-growing social media account. Soon attention from two very different boys sends Jisu into a tailspin of soul-searching. As her passion for photography lights her ok fire, does she even want to find The One? And what if her One isn't parent and matchmaker approved?
I think it's time to address the elephant in the room (meaning why a lot of people did not like this book as much as I did.)
Personally, I thought this book was one of Melissa De La Cruz's best books ever.
Anyway, people seemed to not like this because of the cultural appropriation aspect. Yes, Melissa is Filipina and she does not know too much about South Korean culture, but she has friends and a sister in law who are in fact South Korean. Some may view this as being taboo: an outsider writing all about seons and a foreign culture.
Despite the hate speech coming from some reviewers, I am here to sing a different note. Jisu is into photography and finding love and a steady relationship is not on her agenda at all. When her parents ship her off to San Francisco, things are not so rosy anymore, but she quickly adjusts and learns to follow her heart as well as her parents' instructions.
To be honest, I related to this book in many ways. Not because I am Asian too, it's because I feel pressure too. Like Jisu, I have struggled with what I want to do in life and how to be true to myself and juggle the everyday tasks and who I need to be rather than who I desire to become.
Aside from all of that, I just found the story to be laugh out loud funny and a roaring good time. The format of this book was amazing because of the seons and just the way it was written was so refreshing, I'd want to see this become a Hallmark movie or something or maybe an Asian drama. That would be completely awesome.
GIF is from The Lion King series (one of the movies that came out). Certainly looks like it and what else could it be from.
What are you waiting for? Go out and read this book! Borrow it, buy it, read it! Definitely needed this book after having a little slump in January after reading A Blade So Black. Mind you, I still read pretty religiously (meaning two or three books every single day...) Melissa is definitely starting out my year right and I am currently reading two books: Breathless; Write This Down.
As you can see I am already trying to drown myself in my TBR pile.
All's well that ends well and this book did, I can't wait to read more from Melissa De La Cruz and you know that I will be blogging it all down here.
Rating: ★★★★★ 5/5 Stars