As an asian woman, I really enjoy reading about characters that I can really relate to. Looks, food, families! This was a cute easy read that I finished in one day. The two main characters had an awkwardness about them that didn't always make sense, The translation was lost at times, but it wasn't too difficult to figure out.

I had high hopes for this one, but I found the male main character deeply unlikable and almost misogynistic. I DNF'd 30 pages in.

I really loved the premise of the book. A doctor with few social skills falls for the woman who makes the boxed lunches he loves, but two things prevented it from working for me. First the main character Dr Soohyuk is kind of terrible. He yells at and berates the nurses and residents working around him and clearly has a huge ego. He's depicted as being really dedicated to treating his pediatric patients, but for me that didn't redeem how awful he was to everyone else.

I also found some of the translation choices kept pulling me out of the story. When people would argue or curse the words didn't really make sense, and at one point a nurse calling a woman "ma'am" was meant to signify something meaningful, but we call everyone ma'am. It's a signifies that you're speaking respectfully to an adult woman, not necessarily that that woman has some sort of elevated status. Little details like that just made it hard for me to enjoy the story itself.

I thought Yuna was a lovely character, and the parts about food were really interesting, but the other issues just made this book not work for me.

1/5
Trigger warnings: physical abuse ; trauma ; abusive parent ; bullying ; sickness

There are so many things that annoyed me in this book. First, the writing... Our protagonists clearly had both a difficult childhood, but the writing is flat and conveys no emotions at all. I started the book getting a bit attached to them, and ended caring for non of them. I even thought about DNF-ing it at 50% but I don't like that, so I finished it, but I did not feel any joy with this book sadly.
I was also really annoyed with the characters reactions sometimes. Soohyuk has difficulties to feel emotions. I had a horrible childhood, so at first I found it being totally understandable. However, here I just got the feeling of him being disrespectful, not just bad at feeling emotions. At some moments he would be fine, caring and all, but most of the times he was really horrible

Thank you to Netgalley and POPPYPUB for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review!

Soo-hyuk was found as a little boy without any memory of his previous life, so he was sent to the USA with a family. Luck was not on his side but he became a doctor anyway. As his last girlfriend cheats on him, he decides to go to Korea and find his true family. There is where he meets Yuna for the first time, the only person whose food Soohyuk can eat without feeling ill.

They developed feelings for each other, although Soohyuk's wrong way of speaking the language creates a lot of misunderstandings, and are probably the cutest couple I read in 2020. Soo-hyuk has a special way of acting, he is aggressive with everyone and doesn't hesitate against the ones that are not doing their work right in the hospital, which explains why he doesn't have any friends before knowing Yuna.

The story is not just about Soohyuk and Yuna but has side-stories such as the one of Yuna's nephew (which I will say nothing about, you will have to discover it reading the book) and Soohyuk true family, which is not confirmed but I am quite sure of who are them because of their protagonism in the book together with their story, which makes me quite sure of how things happen.

What I love more about this book is that it is not just a romantic comedy but it talks about some issues that people can suffer in their daily life. As a person who is used to see K-Dramas, I have to say that this book reminds me a lot of one of those. I really needed a romantic book with more than just a love book, but a full story that brings the characters together and builds their way of acting and behavior, which makes all the characters really well polished, and this book was it.

The only thing someone could say against it, an opinion I don't share but I can understand, is that the love story happens slowly in comparison with what we are used to, but I found that this helped a lot with getting to know the characters and being able to empathize with them.

To sum up, I enjoyed this book from the beginning until the end, the characters are well written and have an incredible story building behind them. I can't wait to read the next book in the saga, because the ending is not even close to being closed.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishing team for providing me with this read.

I did not enjoy this and ended up not finishing it. The writing style was just not something I could connect with and enjoy, neither were the characters.

I think the story has a lot of potential, especially with its kdrama-ish vibes but the delivery just didn't have it.

It took me a bit to get into this book. I believe it's been translated into English, so I think some of the wording was a bit off and it didn't flow as well as it probably does in the author's native language. Once I got used to the writing style, it was easier to dive into the story.

This centers around Soohyuk, a pediatric doctor who lacks people skills and empathy. He's good with his patients, but is easily frustrated by adults and doesn't sugarcoat anything. I thought he was weird and not my favorite character, though I did appreciate when he told off parents for putting their children in harm's way.

Our other main character is Yuna, the complete opposite of Soohyuk. She's sweet and kind and everyone loves her. She cares deeply for her family, especially her nephew, and makes delicious food that hooks Soohyuk right away. I don't know why she likes him so much, but she does bring out a softer side in him. I think if they really start to date then we'll see some changes in Soohyuk for the better.

The ending was pretty abrupt and I didn't realize there would be a sequel. We didn't really get to see Soohyuk and Yuna date, but they're making definite progress. I also want to know what will happen with Yuna's nephew because I need a happy ending for everyone!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I appealed so much to the plot as I love kdramas but sadly could not connect to the story and there was a lot of pacing issues. I think it was just too slow for me and it was very hard for me to connect to the characters as well. It was a bit predictable although I truly enjoyed the romantic relationship between the main characters.

Overall if you can get through the slow pacing and enjoy romance then this would be a great choice for you!

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Just the Two of Us was an okay and kind of a cute book. In it, you will meet Yuna and Soohyuk. She is a chef and just loves to cook. Honestly all the dishes she made sounded so freaking good and made me extremely hungry. Oh, and he recently moved to Korea from the US for an exchange program. In other words, he is a doctor.

I'm not going to lie, these two had some cute and then super weird interactions with one another. Or even when they weren't together. It took me to drink my second cup of coffee to realize all of this. So in a way, it kind of baffled me but it also seemed like a lost in translation thing as well.

In the end, I enjoyed it somewhat but it ended kind of abruptly. At least to me. Still enjoyable though and I definitely had food envy while reading it.

3/5 Stars

This is a quirky, and cute.

Just the Two of Us is a Contemporary Romance set in Korea.

We follow our main character Soohyuk, who is a very talented pediatric emergency medicine specialist with a dry and cold personality that is off putting to the people around him. Soohyuk moved from the United States to Korea as part of an exchange program. While on his way home from work one day, Soohyuk meets Yuna Lee, an owner of a restaurant. Although wary due to past traumas both open up to each other and begin to fall in love.

It very much reminds me of a K-Drama.

What I liked:
- I liked the slow character development of Soohyuk.
- I really enjoyed exploring the past of both of our main characters and being on a journey with them to heal from their respective past traumas.
- enjoyed the love dynamic and juxtaposition between both of the characters.

What I didn't like:
- This is most noticeable in the first half of the book but there are some parts of the book that can be jarring. This would benefit extremely from tighter editing. It may be a translation issue.
- This book also leans heavily into the cold but smart asian guy who only cares about work and can not connect with his feelings. Although our character does show growth I did not enjoy this.


Thank you to Netgalley for providing an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. I tried really hard to like this book. The premise seems promising. The main character is an interesting person, and the love interest is sweet. But...where is the heart of this book? Was it lost in translation? The writing was really stiff. I kept wondering if the main character was on the spectrum but we aren't let in on it. I am enthusiastic about books that represent all different types of identities and mental health, but this character seemed to not have any emotions, and I couldn't tell why. The plot of the story is also very slow. He is a doctor and he meets up with the woman to order lunch from her. Her brother gets ill, and then the woman moves in with the doctor to save money. It's all very inexplicable. If you read this book and understand what the angle here is, please let me know. I tried. So hard.

I really wanted to love this - it had all of the components of a good drama/fluff piece... but I think that the translation really does this a disservice. The word-to-word translation might be great, but i think there's cultural translation that's lacking. There's stuff that's rude in Korea that just doesnt' translate without explanation.

I was drawn to this book because the cover looked so lovely. The romance inside was even better! Such a sweet and fun read.

This book was quite bizarre. The writing was very cut and dry and while a lot happened, not much happened. I loved the descriptions, but was not a fan of the style of writing or the plot.

<b>Actual rating: 4.5/5</b>

Just the Two of Us is the first book in this series. It is set in Korea and has two points of view: Sookyuk, a pediatric doctor, living in Korea for two years with the plan to search for his birth parents and Yuna, the chef of her own restaurant that just delivers home-made meals.
First of all, the two main characters had amazing and powerful background stories and their emotions felt just so real.
As well as that, the plot was astonishing although a bit slow. And last but not least, this book made me laugh more than I can count: it was hilarious even though some heavy themes were &approched.
Overall, this book was great and I can't wait to read the sequel to continue on with this story and these characters.

This boik is nice and well written without typos that sometime are in ARC
Nice story well va developed that has one gigantic flaw the cultural difference between WEST society and EAST society rules and comfort zone and privacy
Some parts sounded strange to me
The Ruth’s is slow near to boring
And the evil cliffhanger
I hate them
Omg
3 stars



I just reviewed Just the Two of Us (Book 1) by Ryu Hyang. #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

Just the two of us by Ryu Hyang, Stephanie Cha is an adult romance, Soohyuk: a pediatric emergency medicine specialist. A man who never eats something someone else gives him. Yuna: a chef who makes boxed lunches. A woman who panics and collapses whenever she meets a man, due to trauma from her past.

I felt the story to be very stretched out, I wanted to read the book seeing the Asian character and culture, so thought it would be different. But it was just the same. The unwanted information kind off ruined the book.
_______

Thanks to NetGalley and POPPYPUB for this eARC in exchange for a honest opinion.

2.5 stars

This book was super interesting to read! I loved how the main character slowly warmed up over the course of the book. Even though he was rude and blunt, you could see he was a good person because he never treated people rudely when they didn't deserve it. The translation was a little weird. Some of the details seemed to make no sense in the order the paragraph was organized and some sentences came off as redundant and choppy which made for a slow read. Otherwise this was a sweet book!

This book was really amazing, my first time reading a korean novel, and it makes me remember kdrama. It's a really romantic novel, i was so drawn till the last page. Please when will the second book, be released.
I loved Yuna and Sooyuk, infact i loved everyone, and can't wait for everything to unfold. Especially the love life of our macho man.
I'll post my review on my page @r.o.n.n.i.e.e.e on. IG soon enough
Can't wait to read more relaxing, and soothing words

I knew this was a two part book when I started, clue in the title, but usually there is some sort of story within a story. Not here It really is just half a book. What there is is enjoyable but I can't give many stars to a book that just seems to stop. Not my cup of tea i'm afraid.