Book Review: Somewhere Only We Know

Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo

🌺🌺🌺🌺/5

Lucky is the greatest KPop singer in Asia—and she’s about to break into America too. But she’s not feeling it, anymore. The spark is gone, and after failing to fall asleep and exhausted by a 15 city tour, she escapes her hotel room and her bodyguard to get a hamburger. She meets Jack, a boy who doesn’t know who she is, and just might have a secret of his own…

I did not expect to love this is as much as I did.

I am not a Kpop star, and honestly the various Kpop stans and armies have me hitting the block-mute-unfollow button wherever I see them because they are so militant in protecting their babies and projecting their music tastes onto others. Honestly, I feel like they are the Evangelicals of the music world (at least country fans realize that it’s not for everyone).

But.

This book.

OMG.

Am I going to start listening to Kpop?

Nope.

But I am in love with Lucky and Jack and their unlikely story and their delightful day through Hong Kong.

The food descriptions alone made me yearn to visit, and like Lucky I’d probably eat everything with zeal, and the love of the city and its various places…just omg. I really, really adored this book, and while it was going to be a solid three star good but not special read, the last twenty pages or so catapulted it into four star territory.

Lots of themes are addressed: the Korean diaspora, being American and Korean and not fitting wholly into either, following your passion, talent vs work, kpop, fandoms, the paparazzo and celebrities, owning yourself and change. Along with lots of other things too that I’m sure I missed.

Anywho, this is definitely a cute book about a superstar and a clueless average dude inexplicably falling in love in a day…while the average dude isn’t that clueless and is actively working to sabotage the superstar for his own purposes.

Why yes, I did have Britney Spears’ “Lucky” running through my head the entire time I was reading this book, so thank you for that, Maurene Goo.