I’ve never read a book about teenage entrepreneurs before, so the business rivals-to-lovers dynamic was a super fun setup for a rom-com. Wes and Valerie’s rivalry felt very real in that their motivations for competing with one another were convincing; I liked that they both had real reasons to want to outsell the other so that there was no clear pick as to who the reader should root for. (The dual-perspective narration was helpful in that area.) though at times it felt a bit surface-level, I felt like “Made in Korea” really cashed in on a lot of the possibilities presented by the premise of rival business owners falling in love.

I wanted to enjoy this book but it just left me feeling like something was missing. I didn’t get attached to any of the characters, maybe because their “personalities” fell flat or they were just unlikeable. When Valerie decides to buy counterfeit skincare to sell because she lost her plug, and her friends tell on her/stage an intervention I just thought “Seriously? This is a plot point?”
It felt cheesy and rushed, it would probably make a cute graphic novel but did not like it for an actual YA romance novel.