I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo

Farrar, Straus and Giroux | May 2017 | 336 pgs

Source: Library

This book caught my attention because of the diversity of the characters (a Korean-American heroine, a Caucasian hero and the heroine's BFF is a gay) and most of all it is literally a tribute to Korean rom-com dramas so being a fan of the latter, I couldn't possibly turn my attention away, right? 

So the book opens with the introduction of our heroine, Desi Lee. She's smart and actively involved in various clubs and sports in school. Heck, she even set her goals into getting Stanford. The only problem - she's never been good with the opposite sex and it's no wonder she has never had a boyfriend. The confidence she has for other things immediately diminish whenever she meets a guy she fancies. 

Desi lost her mother since young and she is very close with her father. One thing she couldn't understand about her father is his love for Korean dramas. She finds their storylines cliché and formulaic and no matter how different the two protagonists are or how they were thrown in difficult circumstances, they always end with happiness tied with a big red bow. Her opinions in Korean dramas start to change after she encounter a guy named Luca Drakos. Moody and ever elusive, Luca is also an expert in Arts and Desi is immediately drawn to his charisma. What she thought of the romance in Korean dramas has a plan in making a relationship work and she decided to work out a list by following their "tactics". 

Now while I find this book entertaining, hilarious and even adorable at times, I do have a few issues concerning Desi's plans. While there are positivity in a few of them, there are one or two issues which had me shaking my head. I think it is understandable of Desi to come up with some plans of having Luca to take notice of her, but it is totally not right to lie and manipulate and this is the point which I couldn't agree with her. Onto other topic, it was refreshing to read about the dynamic between Desi and her father; their interactions and the moments they shared tell a lot about their father-and-daughter bond and I found this perspective endearing since I've read so much about the relationship between mother-and-daughter but rarely this. Overall this was an 'OK' read to me and while I didn't like this book well enough, I'll still read the other books by this author.

* This is a scheduled post as I'm currently taking a short break off of blogging. Comments and blog hopping will resume thereafter. 

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