Nate and Kate come from two completely different worlds, but have a common interest in zombies. As if working at the local zombie escape room isn’t a dead give away, when they catch wind of a zombie survival competition for a chance to win a large cash prize, they partner up. Nate needs the money to help his family. Kate wants the money to leave hers. On this journey though, what else do they learn about themselves and about each other?

What a fun debut novel! This was a modern Hunger Games meets fluffy Disney (like that old TV movie Smart House) kind of story, and it was fast-paced, well-written, and I loved how the differences Nate and Kate had were what made them great together. (Yes, Nate and Kate were great. It rhymes.) I also appreciated the Korean ethnic flare and all the deadpan jokes. Though the romantic aspect wasn’t heavy, I still enjoyed reading this! And, I definitely recommend to my fellow YA readers.

The Perfect Escape is a quick and fun read that I finished in a single sitting! I loved that Nate and Kate met through working at the zombie-themed escape room. They were both very likable characters, and their interactions were so fun and realistic. The zombie survival challenge was a great way to continue the zombie theme of the book and offer Nate and Kate a chance to bond in a high-stakes setting.

However, I felt like there was so much untapped potential in this book. Technology is a tool that Kate's father uses to monitor and control her, but we never get to see a face-to-face confrontation between Kate and her father. After the twist during the survival challenge, I was disappointed that this was resolved off-page. Another major conflict in the book is Nate's focus on earning money due to his family's lack of financial security, and I thought the ending oversimplified it into a 'money isn't that important' lesson.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and would definitely read a sequel!

With names that rhyme like Kate and Nate this was bound to be a cute read. I never thought a zombie themed escape room could lead to romance but Suzanne Park proved me wrong. I loved the awkward moments, funny conversations and sweet interactions between Kate and Nate. Nate is likeable and is the nice guy you can’t help but root for. Kate was understandably guarded but I enjoyed her sense of humor.

There were a few aspects of the story that felt a little over the top for me. Parts of the survivalist competition reminded of The Hunger Games which threw me a bit with this being a contemporary romance. Also, the use of technology to control Kate felt unbelievable at times. Even with those minor moments I was entertained the whole way through.

I wanted so much more from this book. It’s a quick, cute, and easy read, but things felt rushed and sloppily put together. I felt like we didn’t get enough time with Nate and Kate together for them to develop feelings for one another so quick. Despite that I did like both of them as the main characters. I felt really bad for Kate and her broken relationship with her father and how he was pushing his expectations on her and didn’t give a flying flip about she wanted. I have righteous anger about that, and I’m glad Kate was able to make her own way and be independent.

I wanted more of Kate and Raina’s friendship. They’re obviously good friends and as the story progresses we see how Raina played an important role but there’s not a lot of backstory there. Nate’s friendship with Zach and Jaxon were casual and cool, and you could tell they’re a tight knit group of friends. I really like that as well.

I keep thinking back to all the parts that simply needed more and what felt rushed. The whole confession Nate’s dad did at the end kind of felt out-of-the-blue considering the setting. Despite the whole Korean thing about not talking about feelings or asking questions, I thought this moment would have been a good time for Nate’s dad to break that mold and have a moment. But again, it simply felt rushed.

I thought the zombie survival contest thing would carry a bit more substance. We don’t really know much about it outside of the prize money but when we arrive there we see it’s really a big deal, and isn’t just some national competition but rather international. A lot more explaining and detail could have happened here but it—and other settings—felt a little lackluster.

Despite how rushed things felt, when Nate and Kate did acknowledge their feelings it was really cute and left me thinking that they have a lot of potential together in the future (which is a plus in my book)!

The story had a cute premise, I could've used more zombies in there though. Characters were interesting though I'm not sure I found them to be very realistic. The storyline with the crazy father was a bit much and wrapped up rather too tidily.

unfortunately, this book did not resonate with me. the plot felt too "out there" to be believable, but didn't have enough of a sci-fi aspect to make up for the fact. it just came across as weird. regardless, even though i did not personally enjoy it, i would still recommend it for library purchase.

This book was so adorable and I really enjoyed everything about it. It was fun quick read! I loved the character especially Nate! I adored him so much! I loved all of the nerdy references and the setting was amazing! Thank you so much Netgalley for giving the Oporto read this amazing book!

This is a sweet story about a teen girl who invites her crush to enter a survivalist competition with her. It's a unique premise. This story is very light and fluffy. Its entertaining and fast paced.
The male narrative I think was too sophisticated, I didn't feel like I was in the head of a 16 year old boy. I feel like this book lightly skims the surface of their story, there are issues that they could have delve deeper or spent more time on. At times it felt rushed.
If you are looking for a nice, quick, YA romance this is the book for you.

THE PERFECT ESCAPE by Suzanne Park | Grade: B+ | No spoilers ahead.

Lovers of great romance tropes unite! I love a good romantic comedy and this fits this bill exactly with a little of dose of action added on top. One thing that worked really well for this novel was the alternating points-of-view. If you had asked me what I thought about alternating POVs a few years ago, I would have told you that I absolutely despised them. But it seems that they are here to stay in YA lit and I have grown accustomed to them. And while I have started to like them more and more, there are still few books that really mandate it. However, this is one of them. Getting to hear from both protagonists showed the different lives they led and gave so much insight into the lives of both characters. From the perspective of a less affluent Asian American male and a uber rich white female, we were treated to each’s thoughts, home lives, and feelings. So, I must really applaud Ms. Park for that masterful use of alternating POVs. And even though I am not really into zombie fan culture and would never be able to last through a survival competition, I had a lot of fun reading about the competition that the novel revolved around. My biggest complaint about the novel is how some of the action was written during the competition. There were several moments where there would be the start of a problem or situation, but it seemed like it was solved way too quickly. While this is a pretty minor complaint, it was one of the only negative things that I encountered by the time I reached the end of the book. I definitely recommend this to those who are in the mood for a quick and fun YA read. A very special thank you to @netgalley and @sourcebooksfire for an advanced copy of the novel. While I of course appreciated this opportunity, my review is presented without bias.

This is a fun addition to the young adult romance genre. Nate is a scholarship student at an elite high school in the Seattle area. To help meet ends meet, he works at a zombie-themed escape room. Kate starts working at the escape room as a zombie; she and Nte hit off. They each have their own reasons to want an influx of cash. They decide to pair up on a weekend zombie-themed survivalist competition (think Hunger Games).

This book gets 4 stars for pure creativity in subject matter. I had no idea there was such a zombie culture out there. Along with more info about zombies, we get to know Kate and Nate better as they get to know each other better. Both are at that stage of lie (seniors) where they are figuring out who they are and what happens next. This was a sweet YA romance/coming of age story. It was fun to read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Perfect Escape was a fun read. There were zombies and AI. Though it was fun, I didn’t love it as much as I thought I would. There were a lot of things I liked about the book, but also quite a few things I didn’t.

Kate and Nate (yes their names rhyme) were decent characters, but they also felt a little flat. Kate’s home life was honestly a little terrifying. That part I really could have done without and while Kate was a decent character I didn’t like her as much as I should. Nate, on the other hand, was a typical dorky high school kid. I loved the dynamic between him and his family. In fact, I really wish the book had focused even more on that.

I liked the story, but it also felt unfinished. But it felt like there were a lot of things missing from the story. I also felt like there was a lot of telling and not showing in this book. Normally I enjoy a dual narration, but I felt like the first person was the only way I knew these characters even liked each other.

I think this book could have been great, but instead, for me it was just fine. I’m hoping there may be some sort of a sequel or something because the story felt unfinished and I would be interested in reading more.

I did enjoy reading this one but I wish the characters had a little more to them and some of the jokes and plot points fell a little flat for me. I came for zombies and romance and that’s (kinda) what I got. Overall enjoyable though.

The Perfect Escape follows Nate Jae Woo Kim and Kate Anderson. The two work together at a zombie escape room, and the story picks up the first night they work together. They quickly strike up a bond and become fast friends with a mutual crush—but it wouldn’t be YA if they didn’t realize it until 75% through the book, am I right?
The duo come from completely different worlds. Having just lost her mother, Kate deals with an EXTREMELY overbearing father who doubles as the CEO of a high tech company. She lives alone in a high check mansion with a robot butler. Nate, on the other hand, lives with his mother, father, and sister. The family has a low income, and Nate is a scholarship student at prestigious school for the overly rich.
After Kate gets fed up with the constant surveillance from her father and a classmate tries to bribe Nate into throwing his GPA, they decide to team up to enter a zombie apocalypse survival competition. If they can make it across the finish line first in a weekend contest, they can win $50,000. With both being zombie aficionados winning the contest seems like a piece of cake, but scheming fathers and classmates, a blooming romance, and zombies stand in the way.

The Perfect Escape is a solid 3.5 stars, and it’s a breath of fresh air in the sea of too-angsty romances in YA. It’s cute. It’s funny. It’s spunky. And a zombie apocalypse survival competition was the perfect setting.

I loved how different the characters’ backgrounds are, but at the same time, they were able to bond and compliment each other so easily. They were both awkward, believable teens with their own issues. My only complaint character-wise is that Kate wasn’t as fleshed out as Nate. With Nate, we knew his family, his friends, his hobbies, his ambitions, etc. With Kate, it seemed like we knew her dad was a jerk right off the bat, but it took chapters to find out anything else about her, and even then it felt like less. Nate’s friends were also pretty unique characters and were pretty consistent in the story. Kate’s friends seemed to only show up when convenient.

I also enjoyed Nate’s family dynamic. You could feel how much he loved his little sister Lucy even thought they fought. His parents also had their own personalities and remained in the story quite a bit. Part of the reason Nate wanted to earn the money was to help his family after his dad loses his job.

I also kind of loved that Kate had a less-than-perfect family situation, mainly because it was carried out so well. Usually I get the vibe that the parent is well meaning and had their reasons and it’ll be okay and all that jazz, but not so much here. Kate’s dad was just insane. She called him a “drone parent” and she was right. He sent her emails about how much money she spend (she was $0.44 over on groceries!) and tracked her phone (why did she talk to the pizza guy for 15 minutes?)--it was downright creepy at times. He also made all her decisions for her—major decisions like pulling her out of school her senior year and having her volunteer in Asia. He also was never around and left her in the care of the adorable robot butler Jeeves. There was also times where he really put her down by criticizing her love of theater and calling it a waste of time. However, I didn’t like that this wasn’t really resolved in the end.

The pacing in this book was also a little weird. The first half was a lot of lead up to the contest and felt a little too drawn out sometimes. The first 50-60% was about a month of lead up to the contest. The next 40% or so was the contest—only two days. Then the last 5-10% was the ending which seemed a little sudden and incomplete, leaving me with a few questions.

Overall, this was a great debut. There were a couple problems, but it really showed Park’s talent and I look forward to reading more from her!

This is a cute story and I think the idea of the plot is uniquely fun and adventurously flirty, but I am not quite sure this story reaches its full potential.

I would consider this a good starting point for a debut novel. The writing isn’t terrible, the story has good pacing, and the characters are relatable. I just think there is a lot of room for SP to grow as an author when it comes to finalising details and the overall polishing of the story.

For example, if you pitch your story as a rom-com, there should be generous amounts of both romance and comedy. I found this story to be lacking in both areas. And i don't feel as if ‘Kate's super rich father with his all-powerful, ever-reaching company’ serves as a realistic opposition. Her dad as a villain just seems way too one dimensional and gimmicky.

I think this is one of those cases where I like the idea of the story more than the actual execution. But I do believe it's a promising start for SP's writing career!

The Perfect Escape is a YA romance, and I have read my fair share of those, with Eleanor and Park and Love, Simon being my absolute favourites in the genre. While Suzanne Park’s novel isn’t really on that level, it’s unique in the way it navigates the genre.

Firstly, the love story isn’t really the big, defining thing in The Perfect Escape. Nate and Kate (it’s cute how their names rhyme, a fact I did not notice until I typed them out) may be developing feelings for each other, but that is all rather secondary to the issues that they have to deal with in their lives.

Nate’s family is struggling financially. His father has lost his job, the bank isn’t going to support a loan for the mortgage, and if he doesn’t hustle academically as well as in his extracurriculars, then he might not even get to go to college. Kate is dealing with more emotional issues, with a distant father who seems determined to force her down a path that isn’t something she wants.

As an arts person who loves theatre, I felt myself getting triggered by her father’s view that the arts are a soft option and that there’s no future in it. As much as we think this is a dated perception, as an educator I deal with this stereotype all the time.

On the flipside, it does seem that the two have rather a lot of baggage to deal with, and the struggles really do seem endless, almost hyperbolic at times. Are they merely the sum of the problems they have to deal with? Sometimes it does feel that way, but hopefully it’s an issue that Park will be able to remedy as she gains more experience as a writer – this is after all her debut.

When you first begin your journey into the novel, it comes across as a typical rom-com type of book (this is also how it is being marketed), with the meet-cute being one of the first tropes we encounter. But it becomes so much more than that. The more I read, the more I could feel the distinctness in Nate and Kate’s narrative voices. It’s certainly a bold choice for Park to structure her novel with two narrators, but it is a stylistic choice that really pays off.

While Nate is Korean, we aren’t constantly hit over the head with his ethnicity every single moment. There are references that come up from time to time that remind me, like the fusion food comments, or whenever his family is around. His ethnicity doesn’t become his defining trait, and that really stood out for me as something quite wonderful. This isn’t a love story about a Korean boy who falls in love with an American girl. This is a story about Nate and Kate, regular teenagers trying to navigate the curveballs life has thrown at them, and finding solace and comfort with each other.

I definitely liked the semi callback to The Hunger Games, as the two take part in a zombie apocalypse type competition, where Kate’s survival skills are praised alongside Nate’s agility and quick thinking. While YA romances tend to get all intense and angst-filled as the protagonists fall in love, The Perfect Escape comes across as more real, reminding me of my own memories of having a crush and the analysis of every little moment that comes after.

There are times where Nate and Kate don’t even speak to each other for a period of time, which is certainly normal. However, sometimes fiction needs to offer me something fictional (for a lack of a better word). Too great a dose of real life can result in a boring narrative that gives me nothing to hold on to. The Perfect Escape needed something to draw the reader further into its world, because unfortunately, at the end of it all, I was only in its peripheries.

The Perfect Escape was the perfect blend of romance, comedy and adventure. My recent love for Romcoms made this one easy to pick up. I have been looking for an adorable and funny read. This book came to my rescue!
The book starts with a really humorous conversation between the main characters Nate and Kate, and I fell in love with them from the very beginning!
Nate is such a loveable character. His down-to-earth attitude and caring nature towards his family members melted my heart. And don’t even get me started on how much I loved his conversations with his 5 year old little sister!!!! Kate was a character I really felt sorry for throughout the story. There were countless times when I wanted to hug her and comfort her from everything she had been through with her father.

All in all, I thought this book was definitely a sweet one!

I don't read a lot of YA literature, but what I have read has resonated with me. It either made me reminisce about teenage-dom, or profoundly clued me in to how modern teenagers function. This book did neither for me. It didn't have that same resonance. Yes, kids are preparing for college and finding themselves, but there is also an absurd zombie competition that no teenagers would be able to enter in real life. The characters were paper thin. I appreciated a look at diversity in the main male protagonist. However, everything felt very surface and no deep insights were made. Teens will enjoy reading it, there is a little romance, the dialog is funny, and the characters exhibit a good about of angst about their parents. But I was hoping for more.

A quick, funny and entertaining read that kept me hook till the end and root for the characters.
It's well written and the plot flows.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I picked up THE PERFECT ESCAPE on my fifth day of self-isolation in hopes that a survival story would help distract me from the world for a while. I was INCREDIBLY surprised that the actual survival competition hyped in the blurb didn’t happen until the back half of the book! This wasn’t a bad YA rom-com, but the fact that the one piece of the story I was most excited for didn’t happen for most of the book really threw me off and kept me from enjoying it fully.

I really liked Nate Kim and his family, and found them to be incredibly warm and funny. I had serious issues in the way that Kate and her father were portrayed. Frankly, Kate’s father’s behavior was abusive and controlling, and it really bothered me that the book never really highlighted that the behavior was wrong or showed him learning from his actions. It left a sour taste in my mouth.

Overall, this wasn’t a bad book, I just don’t feel as though it was really pitched in a way for the reader to know what to expect, and that kept me from being fully immersed in my reading experience. It also probably didn’t help that I recently read another contemporary YA zombie rom-com (who knew this would be a trend?) GIRLS SAVE THE WORLD IN THIS ONE, that had much more zombie action and ended up being way more my speed.

Best enjoyed with: hamburgers, french fries, and a huge chocolate shake.


*I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I received this book from Netgalley and SourceBooks Fire in return for a fair and honest review. There were many things I found charming and fun about this book. I would not, perhaps, call it. a "hysterically funny rom-com." The main characters, Nate and Kate, were well developed and I especially enjoyed the glimpse into Nate's family dynamic and his friendships.

I did expect there to be more time spent in the actual survival competition and was surprised when it didn't really start until the back half of the story. I can say that it was not an unpleasant realization as I liked the time spent on developing the relationships between the main characters and their supporting cast. The romance did seem a bit lackluster for me. Again, something I would be fine with if the book as not billed as a rom-com. I think my biggest issue is that the synopsis did not necessarily lead me in the same direction the book did. In many ways this felt more like a coming of age novel than a rom-com or adventure story.

One final note, I really struggled with Kate's father in this book. He was genuinely frightening at times, even bordering on abusive. I had a hard time reading some of the parts of the book involving him because of how irredeemable he seemed. His controlling naturing may be too much for some teens to read.

Overall, I liked this book and would probably recommend it to certain teens at my library, who are looking for coming of age stories.