Hello, I Love You

April 20, 2015
What are the odds that Grace, the music-savvy daughter of a famous Nashville record producer and the sister of a chart-topping country musician, will fall in love with Jason, a Korean pop-music heartthrob, while attending boarding school on an island near Seoul? First-time author Stout deepens a potentially clichéd premise with carefully revealed backstory. Grace opts to spend her senior year far from home to escape family tensions and avoid the spotlight. Though it’s overly coincidental that Jason—the twin brother of Grace’s new roommate, Sophie—is also a music superstar, that parallel strengthens the bond between the girls, who share an innate understanding of the effects fame can have on superstars’ families. Though Grace is smitten with Jason, his occasionally renegade behavior dredges up her haunting memories of her brother, who readers gradually learn more about. The story has more than a tinge of melodrama, and Grace’s stubborn cultural naiveté, while not necessarily unbelievable, grates from the start. Still, Stout’s romance credibly examines facing one’s inner turmoil and orchestrating new beginnings. Ages 13–up. Agent: Emily Keyes, L. Perkins Agency.

March 15, 2015
A white American teen transfers into a posh Korean boarding school and falls for a Korean pop heartthrob in this debut novel. Grace Wilde knows what it's like to be music royalty. Her father's a famous producer, and her brother's a country-music star. What she doesn't know is anything about Korea before she travels there to attend the Korean School of Foreign Studies: she chose her new school arbitrarily in a desperate attempt to escape her family. Fortunately, her friendly Korean roommate, Sophie, takes Grace under her wing, even introducing Grace to her twin brother, Jason, the hunky lead singer of a popular Korean band. Sparks fly between Grace and Jason, though Jason's fame and drinking habits and Grace's unresolved family issues complicate their romance. Stout's depiction of Korea is often shockingly insensitive and riddled with errors and inconsistencies. Grace thinks crowds of Korean people smell like garlic, is nauseated by Korean food, and obsesses over the horrors of squat toilets. A Korean character incorrectly describes Hangul, Korean writing, as a syllabary rather than an alphabet. In the end, the plot is a variation on the classic "White Savior" story (think Dances with Wolves). It's deeply unfortunate that a novel set in Korea with many characters of color is primarily about its white protagonist's journey of self-discovery. Skip this embarrassing example of clueless cultural appropriation. (Romance. 13-18)

June 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-When family tragedy strikes, Grace, the daughter of a famous music producer, flees Nashville and escapes to the furthest place she can find, an English high school in South Korea. She goes knowing no one, knowing nothing of the language or culture. Providentially her roommate, Sophie speaks perfect English, having grown up in America. Sophie takes Grace under her wing, introducing her to her famous twin brother, Jason, and the rest of his K-Pop band. Sparks fly and though they start out hating each other, Jason and Grace find themselves unable to escape their mutual attraction. Their relationship is tempestuous and becomes the focus of the story as both Grace and Jason must work through their own family dramas and fame to find the courage to be together. Grace's boy drama and exploration of foreign culture will appeal to some readers, and Fans of Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (Dutton, 2010) may be attracted to the story. By setting the tale in Korea, Stout has an opportunity to open a window into Korean culture for her readers; sadly, the opportunity is often missed. The book too closely follows Grace's first person cultural ignorance, and an unfortunate a number of stereotypes are perpetuated. VERDICT An additional purchase for large libraries with YA contemporary romance fans.-Genevieve Feldman, San Francisco Public Library

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