A sweet story of friends coming back together after years apart only to realize that their friendship is blossoming into something more. I love Robbie and Elena and how much they care for one another even through teenage angst.

This book is so cute! The plot is very swoon worthy and and it made my heart warm. I enjoyed reading this and loved the plot.

Such a cute story! Kat Cho is quickly becoming one of my favorite YA authors. I loved her book, Wicked Fox, and was eagerly anticipating this one because it involves K-Pop, which is a new obsession of mine. The characters in this book were so cute and lovable, and the romance was a slow build- you could tell Elena and Robbie had crushes but the admittance of their feelings took some time to be revealed.

I think this is a very cute story that anyone can enjoy. I didn't love it quite as much as XOXO by Axie Oh, but this is still a very cute and heartwarming story. I will definitely be purchasing this one when it comes out in May.

My thanks to NetGalley and Disney Books for sending an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I mean it in the best way when I say this book was exactly what I expected and wanted.
It was cute, sweet, and fun to read. I was looking for something nice and casual and this filled that need so nicely.
I really liked Elena and thought she was very relatable. her fears, hopes, doubts, and joys were all real to me as a reader.
Robbie was such an interesting perspective that was given in small doses. It could have easily been overdone but we got just enough of how he thought of things to make the story so well rounded.
I really enjoyed the scene with her brother near the end. I didn't realize I wanted that conversation for Elena until it happened.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was a fun fast read for me and I had such a good time with it. I recommend this one whether you are a fan of k dramas/ k pop or not.

**Publishing post on April 15, 2022 for May 17 publication
Publication date: May 17, 2022 by Kat Cho

My Thoughts:
If students enjoyed any of the following rom com teen novels, this is the next great read on the ladder:

Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean
A Pho Love Story by Loan Le
Somewhere Only We Know by Maureen Goo
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

This is a story of childhood friend Elena Soo and Robbie Choi. When they were 10, they separated as Robbieʻs family moved back to Korea but they did make a promise that he would take her to prom. Well it is prom time and Elena seems to be overshadowed by her more popular twin brother and the high school expectations set forth by her high achieving sisters. Elena finds herself ostracized and labeled as the prom hating weirdo because she wants everyone to spend less on prom and donate money to keep her community center alive.

Robbie in the meantime has hit it huge, BTS style in the K-Pop world and although he is highly managed as part of the most popular boy band, he wants to fulfill his promise to take Elena "Lani" to prom even if the two have not spoken in seven years.

Miscommunication, cluelessness, secrets, misunderstandings and enough heart warming side stories to keep readers invested in multiple characters helps to round out this story and make it a devour worthy pick for a long weekend.

I read this over Valentines weekend, but it does not come out until May so put this on your TBR list for memorial day or the 4th of July.

From the Publisher:

What would you do if the world's biggest K-pop star asked you to prom? Perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sandhya Menon, this hilarious and heartfelt novel brings the glamour and drama of the K-pop world straight to high school.

Elena Soo has always felt overshadowed. Whether by her more successful older sisters, her more popular twin brother, or her more outgoing best friend, everyone except Elena seems to know exactly who they are and what they want. But she is certain about one thing - she has no interest in going to prom. While the rest of the school is giddy over corsages and dresses, Elena would rather spend her time working to save the local community center, the one place that's always made her feel like she belonged.

So when international K-pop superstar Robbie Choi shows up at her house to ask her to prom, Elena is more confused than ever. Because the one person who always accepted Elena as she is? Her childhood best friend, Robbie Choi. And the one thing she maybe, possibly, secretly wants more than anything? For the two of them to keep the promise they made each other as kids: to go to prom together. But that was seven years ago, and with this new K-pop persona, pink hair, and stylish clothes, Robbie is nothing like the sweet, goofy boy she remembers. The boy she shared all her secrets with. The boy she used to love.

Besides, prom with a guy who comes with hordes of screaming fans, online haters, and relentless paparazzi is the last thing Elena wants - even if she can't stop thinking about Robbie's smile...right?

I adore unique fiction, and this is such an interesting premise. I recommend because of the story itself, writing style, and its ability to transport you into a different world.

Once Upon a K-prom was one of my most anticipated books of 2022. When I got approved, I was super excited and started reading it immediately. But in the end I never felt this disappointed for a book before.

As I was reading the writing felt messy. The writing was hard to get through. It didn't feel like proper paragraphs and it had to many I's. I don't know if it was the writing style but the third-person of view was better written then the first-person. Because of the writing I never got behind the romance between the main character and the love interest.

One other big problem was the ending. Plot lines that were brought up are never talked about again. Like when a character got injured it was never talked about at all or when the main character's mom was constantly not paying any positive attention to her. I don't understand why it is never resolved. The ending was so lackluster.

The relationship between normal and celebrities was explored and talked about but it doesn't go beyond that. Also way too many characters introduce at the same which is hard to remember. The members of the boy band are not memorable in anyway besides the playful one which I can't even remember.

The relationship between the main character and her brother was the plot point that I enjoyed the most and I was happy when it was resolved. That's the only positive thing about this book I can think of.

One of my favorite tropes, the childhood friends to lovers, could been written so much better if the writing was a little refined. The negatives weigh this book down for me but it was a fast read for me.

Absolutely adorable, and perfect material for the next Teen RomCom film for fans of "To All the Boys I've Loved Before"!

I want to commend the author on how she adjusted her writing for this book. I've read her previous works, set in Korea that are very Urban Paranormal/Fantasy. I loved those, and I also love "Once Upon a K-Prom". The connecting thread is that all of her works are excellent displays of the beauty and fun in the writing of Korean dramas. This work in particular did a great job of adapting for the American teen voice, crucial in writing YA Contemporary and Romance novels.

Personally, if I was in the main character's shoes, the first third would have been my villain origin story, after all these straws ready to break the camel's back when already feeling low. I found Elena's journey of realizing she doesn't have to know her passion and purpose yet at her age, a very prudent theme for teen readers especially in a era where side hustles and monetizing your hobbies is king. Her sense of loneliness and self-preservation were very real, and I liked that despite the childhood friend connection there was a distinction that knowing someone in their past isn't the same as knowing them in their now. It created tension in the plot as well as showing that people can change and also remain the same.

Robbie's character and all of his stumbles is a story I'm glad for as it illustrates of how fame and seclusion so young has a significant impact on how you grow. We don't get many chapters from his point of view, but they always serve to create tension moving forward, always clueing the reader in to the drama ahead.

I would absolutely love to see this as the next big teen movie on Netflix and very grateful for the opportunity to have spent my Valentine's Day curling up with this fun story!

Thank you NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for an advanced copy for review.

Thank you Netgalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide for providing me with a copy of Once Upon A K-Prom by Kat Cho!

short synposis: Elena Soo is a Korean-Amrrican teenager who constantly feels overshadowed by her older sisters and twin brother and finds solace in helping out in a community center for children that is in desperate need of funding. Prom is also around the corner, and she absolutely thinks she has no need to go and believes that the money used for prom purchases could go towards the community center. One day, she opens her front door to find her childhood best friend and international K-Pop superstar Robbie Choi at the door step asking her to prom!

Omg I had such a great time reading this story!! As a fellow K-Pop lover myself, I found so many things I could relate to and knew exactly what was what in the K-Pop world mentioned in this book. Robbie was such a fun character to read about as well as his band mates! Elena was a good character as well, but I did find that she made some things about herself most of the time that I was a bit let down by that. At the end, I could understand her much better and thought she was also a well-rounded character. All in all, I found myself swooning over certain things Robbie said and it was just so cute!! Highly recommend for all my K-Pop lovers out there! 💜

This book comes out May 17, 2022 so DEFINITELY GO GET IT!

It is weird that I’m like obsessed with K-Pop books even though I’m not super into K-Pop? Like I just find the whole idea of being an ‘idol’ fascinating.

Once Upon a K-Prom is just delightful. The whole idea of a childhood friend becoming an international pop star and then coming back to visit is *mwah* chef’s kiss. I loved that Robbie used to be this little average chubby 10-year-old Elena was friends with, then he becomes this superstar, back in town after 7 years to follow up on a childhood promise to take Elena to the prom. But Elena doesn’t want to go… Oh my gosh, I am just a sucker for this book!

It's cute, it’s fun, but I also like the commentary about how society views celebrities, like they somehow belong to them.

I also really enjoyed Elena’s character. I liked that she was trying all these different things to figure out who she wants to be and what her dream was. It made her a really interesting character.

I did have a couple issues with this book—I felt like some of the beginning/ set up was a little messy and felt a little forced. I also thought the random Robbie chapters were a little weird. And I was a bit bothered by how Elena made up with two of the other characters in the end—I’m not sure how to describe it without spoilers, but I didn’t like that they seemed to imply that they could just do whatever to Elena but SHE was the one who needed to brush it off. I just don’t get it *shrug*

I’d definitely recommend this one! Thanks Netgalley for the ARC! 😊

Thank you NetGalley for sending this arc for an honest review!

Where do I begin? This book was such a refresher to many things. Let’s start off with the fact that’s this WAS LITERALLY KDRAMA IN MY HEAD, as the MC of the story stated lmao. It was so cute and WHOLSOME I just had so much fun reading this!

Once Upon a K-Prom was a very sweet, quick read. It's definitely on the side of YA, but I couldn't put it down regardless. The characters were charming, and the premise was great. If you're into K-pop, or would like to understand that world a little bit more, definitely give this one a try! I'm not the age demographic for it, but I found it enjoyable nevertheless.

Thank you Netgalley & Disney publishing worldwide for providing me a copy of Once upon a K prom.

This book has to be the sweetest Kpop novel I've come across this year! If you love K dramas and Kpop then this is a MUST read for you! It's the story of 2 Childhood best friends, falling in love and keeping promises after being separated for some years. After Robbie moves back to Seoul with his family, Elena goes on to becomes the awkward non popular kid at school who's fighting against Prom to save her community center from shutting down while Robbie goes to become a famous Kpop Idol!

The characters were well written, and I loved Elena's (MC) character so much, I could definitely relate to her personality and similar upbringing. I loved the storyline because as soon as Robbie comes back to Elena's life, she is not immediately starstruck by him which makes the moment a Litle tense & fun, and I loved it! I loved that the romance was a slow burn and didn't feel rush.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story and Kat Cho did a good job at making it a sweet contemporary YA.

Seven years ago, Elena and her best friend, Robbie, had to say goodbye when his family decided to move back to Seoul. Now in the present, Robbie is one of the biggest k-pop stars in the world and Elena is in her junior year of high school trying to keep a local community center open. One day, Robbie shows up at Elena's door to ask her to prom, citing a promise the two made when they were ten, but does Elena know who this new version of Robbie is? Can they make a relationship work when the whole world owns a piece of him?

This was frankly super cute. It reminds me of the feeling you get when reading To All the Boys I've Loved Before or The Princess Diaries. It is a YA rom-com filled with family, first love, and the vulnerability of being seen by someone for the first time in your life. Elena and Robbie aren't perfect but they care deeply about each other, the problem isn't their feelings for each other, but how they can trust in them when they have other things in their world pulling at them.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

once upon a k-prom was very cute, but it was simply not for me. i don’t have any particular feelings for this book, it wasn’t mind-blowing and it wasn’t bad. it’s pretty fun to read, so i would definitely recommend it, but it’s just one of those “it’s not you, it’s me” cases.

i really liked the end half of the book, it was so fun to read and it kept me engaged to the very end, however, the beginning was a bit tedious. the references were also really fun to see and i quite like the friends-to-lovers trope and how the book approached it.

i think this novel simply bit off more than it can chew because it switched between so many side plots, that nothing felt well-developed. the characters felt a bit one-dimensional, with a couple of main traits and that’s it. i literally can’t tell you anything about them because they were all superficially characterized. their problems were explored on a surface level and i don’t think all of them were resolved properly. the main character, elena, was interesting, but i have a bone to pick with how she was written. the “everyone leaves me” mentality got annoying really fast. she does get better, but I think the switch was a bit too abrupt. i wish we would’ve gotten more of her realizing she also tends to give up on people easily. she simply refused to communicate with anyone and all of those problems could’ve been avoided so easily.

the book is told in 1st pov – elena’s, but then we’d have some chapters that followed robbie written in 3rd pov and i did not get why. it brought absolutely nothing to the story, it broke off the flow because it abruptly switched at the worst times.

once upon a k-prom is a light-hearted novel that also touches on some heavier topics -like the struggle with self-identity and the dark side of the k-pop industry. i really liked the way these topics were covered and i wished we would’ve spent more time watching the characters deal with these problems. the book was simply too fast-paced for what it tried to do.

overall, it’s a really cute book and i would totally recommend it for when you’re in the mood for something light. i have to say fans of xoxo by axie oh will probably like this one as well!

THANK YOU to the publishing company, Disney Publishing Worldwide and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of Once Upon a K-Prom by Kat Cho!

Once Upon a K-Prom is about a Korean-American teen girl named Elena. She’s just living her normal life but everything changes when her childhood BFF/K-Pop Idol shows up on her doorstep asking her to prom like they promised one another 7 years ago…

I won’t deny I requested this book for the sole purpose of the cover…because the cover art is just breathtakingly STUNNING. But wow did the storyline for this surprise me. This is my first Kat Cho book and I’m happy to say this won’t be my last. I didn’t expect this book to be so addicting. If you are looking for a great childhood sweetheart read, look no further. With an added k-drama twist.

This was a cute and fluffy romance read which is what I expected. I love the romance between Robbie and Elena. I love how it wasn’t rushed and that they got to rediscover one another and see themselves now for who they are. Just thank you to the author for shining light on the importance of communication in any relationship.

Both main characters were so well developed. But my heart really goes out to Elena. She is just one of the most relatable characters in the YA contemporary world. I just love her big heart. And the scenes with Jackson were really one of my favourites.

This book deals with friendships and family. It was interesting seeing both main characters deal with the high expectations held by their family and responsibilities.

A great contemporary romance read with powerful themes and strong character development. Definitely worth checking out!

This is a very cute and upbeat love story, perfect for fans of I'll Be the One, When Dimple Met Rishi, or To All The Boys I've Loved Before. I really enjoyed the way that it fully fleshes out both Elena and Robbie, as well as several of the supporting characters. It is a quick and fun read, perfect for when you need something light.

As someone who doesn't listen to K-pop, and furthermore mostly listens to 90s/00s (grunge) rock, I don't really know the whole culture that encapsulates this genre of music. Like I know it exists and I have listen to it before (I don't live under a rock), but I'm not part of the fandom(?, is that what you would call it?). But that's the thing, you don't need to know a lot about K-pop to read this book, and that's the beauty of it. Cho never made me wonder what was going on, if she mentioned something that has to do with K-pop or Korean culture in general it was explained without losing the flow of the story. That is the beauty of Cho's writing.
Elena, our main character, was friends when she was a child with Robbie, Elena's love interest, before he moved back to South Korea and became a international K-pop superstar. He promised that he would try to keep the connection that they had, but he eventual ghosted her. One normal day during Elena's junior year during prom season though her whole world changed and Robbie, the boy she once knew, shows up a her doorstep to announce that he wants to take her to prom.
This was a charming story, like I said as someone who doesn't listen to K-pop I could understand this story. What I liked even better was all the various references throughout this book, all the movies and books that I actual know and love. I think this really helped me connect to the story even though inherently I didn't really have a connection to the concept of K-pop. Like, I can connect to an 'American High Schooler' no matter said 'American High Schooler' just on the fact that I am an 'American High Schooler'. But Cho didn't stop there, she added various references anyone with a sprinkling of "American Teenage Culture" would know, that helped me really get connect to the story. Elena as a character I couldn't really connect to her on the basis level, unlike her I don't despise the school dances for the most part, but also because I try my best to participate in school stuff, sports and art especially. What I could connect to her was that she was an introvert that thrived of adrenaline, like me. I also really liked how she stood for what she believed in, she believed in the community center and she got it the money it needed to survive. When a character doesn't back down from what they believe in they automatically get an A+ in my book.
Going to our love interest, Robbie. The structure of the book was kind of odd, the main part of the story/book was from Elena's POV, but throughout the book we got little chapters that were in Robbie's POV. While I did like them they just seemed out of place, like they were only there so we would know what's happening. I would really have liked to see more of his chapters and maybe get a more balanced out POV separation, like 60/40 or 70/30. Getting away from the technical, I really liked Robbie, I liked how he imminently loved the community center as much as Elena did (soulmates?). For the most part (*awkward laughing*) I liked how he treated Elena and the people around him, you can really tell he cares about people (again *awkward laughing*). I just think that there could have been more to his and Elena's and his backstory. How did they become friends? Robbie was alone for one whole year in the US before he meat Elena, what happened to shape him into what he is today? Just some questions.
The band, WDB a famous K-pop boy group that kind of came out of no where, was really fun to read from, I really liked all the characters in the band, they where all different and not just a ctrl-c and ctrl-v of each other. They each had there story that (for the most part) made sense. At no point was I like, why are they doing this? The manager on the other hand will have fist thrown at him if he somehow crawls his way out of this book into reality.
Side characters (+band people),I WANTEDDDDD MOREEEEEEE. I wanted more Josie, I wanted more Max (literally the only things we get for Max is that he's cute and has a thing for Josie). I wanted more of the sibling relationships, especial the twin one. Elena and Ethan (her twin) had a few other sisters as well, one to many if you ask me, they didn't do anything other then be there so that Elena can say that none of her family ever came back after leaving for college. I think the main character were balanced out soo well that the side characters were sadly forgotten.
~Setting~ I really liked it, I liked how it was based in the Midwest (whop whop), I liked how I was not ever wondering if this would actual happen in Chicago, as I'm not an expert (I've been there once). And again the references to movies especial this one --> Ferris Bueller's Day Off!!!!!! which is based in Chicago and was supposed to be a love letter to Chicago (why do I know this stuff?).
To wrap things up, I really liked it, it was a fast read, but it was also interesting. I WOULD NOT BE OPPOSED TO A SECOND BOOK, WHICH IS HIGHLY UNLIKELY. BUT I WOULD NOT BE OPPOSED!!!!!!!!!!!

SOOO cute! I absolutely loved the development between Robbie and Elena. Plus I mean, it's a k-pop romance novel, mixed with childhood best friends, so it's such a fun storyline to follow (I couldn't help but wish I was Elena sometimes). I love Kat Cho books, and this one definitely did not disappoint!

The premise of this book is adorable - especially as a huge k-pop fan (loved some of the references she added!). But also the friends to lovers premise was adorable too - they knew each other for so many years and he finally came back to get to know her.

However.

I'm not sure if the book attempted to tackle too many things, or if the main character felt off to me, or the weird occasional 3rd person pov of Robbie to see /why/ he was doing everything, but much of the book felt flat to me.

There were a number of issues that Elena dealt with that some didn't feel fully resolved (her mom, her friendship with Felicity, her relationship with her brother, her relationship with Tia, her relationship with the community center as a whole). Some of them - actually most of them had resolutions but they felt like temporary ones.

Not to be completely spoilery, but making the whole issue remind me of She's All That (which, incidentally, maybe that inspired some of it?), also felt weird! Like yes, him coming back did feel odd and there was probably a reason for it, but for multiple reasons? Like he had to be a little selfish AND also selfless for... offering his friend to the masses without letting her know why? Also the fact that people would be more gossipy in school and not, you know, chase her down the block after she ended up in a few videos seemed off.

I'm not really sure where I land on this one. Super cute premise but a lot of the execution didn't feel like it was fully fleshed out.

Thank you Netgalley and Disney for a copy in exchange for an honest review.