Fun summer story!

Sydney gets sent to Korea her senior year of high school with her Godparents she doesn’t know and their son doesn’t help the situation. Until he does? This was YA book with drama (enemies to lovers but tryin to fake date?) but it was enjoyable and the drama amount is perfect!


Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review.

Falling for Korea is a young adult romance set in South Korea with many reminiscences of Korean Doramas.

As a fan of dramas, the moment I saw this book I told myself that I had to read it.

The novel begins with Sydney, a girl from California who has to move to Korea with her godmother from one day to the other without any explanation. There she must adapt to the millionaire life of her godmother, her husband and her son Chul, who still doesn't know what to think of his new partner but can't deny the imminent attraction that he feels for her.

I read the book in a few days and all the time I felt like I was seeing a drama like the ones I love so much. It has all the clichés found in the series to be fun and enjoyable from start to finish. The good ones are very good and the bad ones are very bad, a classic. It has a touch of action that surprised me for the type of book that was presented at the beginning, but it was a nice twist. I enjoyed and fangirled with the main couple, which is very important to me for a romance novel.

The way it is written is light and pretty. At no time did I feel tired and I was sorry to have to go to sleep because I wanted to continue reading.

For fans of romance and dramas, or those who want to start watching them, this book is ideal.

⚠️TW: Mention of cancer - Anxiety - Manipulation - Violent family members - Post traumatic stress.

Update 1/31/23: The more I think about this book, the more it unnerves me.

I didn’t connect the dots until I saw the full cover today (my ebook didn’t display the full cover). The words “One American, One Oppa”There was so much about this book that made me super uncomfortable and it read like a self insert, borderline fetishization. I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t sure what ethnicity the author was. After this morning, I looked it up and when I tell you it was impossible to find a photo of this author. Not on her website, not on her publishers (whose only book is this one??). Finally tracked down the Instagram and yep it’s a white woman. this made a lot of the book make sense because it read like someone was obsessed with the idea of being Korean. Dropping my rating to a one

Original Review: This was so messy. So much could have been avoided if people just communicated. This book read like early 2013 romance- the super possessive guy, no boundaries at all, the girl who just goes with whatever he says. I liked the other plot line but again it could’ve been so much better if it wasn’t reliant on miscommunication.

Overall, this was a hard to put down book!! I loved it and everything about it. This story captures all of the things we love and probably don't love about Korea (ie violent toxic bullying culture). The hero is from the wealthiest of families and is what we all love in these swoony romance tropes, totally fallen for the girl no matter what happens and when. I did wish the ending wasn't so rushed, and would have loved the Sydney to have actually fallen in love with Korea and not just a Korean, to actually match the title. That would have been a good character development/growth to showcase for her, since she struggles with the food and from what we can tell hasn't been anywhere other than Namsan Tower. There are so many beautiful places she could have gone to help there.

I loved this story and easy 4 stars.

K-Drama to read!
I love it! This was so emotional, dramatic and beautiful. Sydney and Chul are so lovely together. I just want to read more about them. :)

So, I will preference this by saying I was suckered into the cover artwork because it's beautiful but also I love kdramas so this was right up my alley. This was a quick read, enjoyable and I enjoyed the main characters.

3 stars for this YA split POV romantic drama!

Tropes: guy falls first, forced proximity, super rich main male character, mental health representation.
TW: plot points involving Munchausen's by proxy, psychological trauma, absent parents, cancer.

"Falling for Korea" by Piper Jean plays out like a K-drama written on the page. While I don't typically read YA books, this one piqued my interest because of its plot and setting. Like most soap opera-y types of shows and films, it's a little outrageous, but I liked it for the most part despite it being super high-school drama-heavy. It's mostly good with some not-so-good sprinkled in. I liked Sydney and Chul's character arcs, both together and separately. I like how they mature slowly over time. Unfortunately, I didn't really feel immersed in the setting all that much. At times, I forgot the book took place in Korea despite almost all of the characters being Korean. Though I love the prospect of Sydney's mom raising her as bilingual! More of that in books (even with the ridiculous given reason)!

There is a lot of untapped potential in this story. Piper Jean is good at writing tension between rivals (Min and Sydney, Chul and Gun, and Sydney and her uncle), but there is much to be desired in the romantic tension between Chul and Sydney. It feels like it happens out of nowhere and too quickly, especially considering Chul hated Sydney when she first showed up. I also didn't love the ending. This book is fine, but I don't know if I would recommend it. Most of the people who would listen to my recommendations are too old for this one. As I said, there is some squandered potential here. Still, looking forward to see what this author writes next.

Thank you to NetGalley, Piper Jean, and Vaniker Press for providing me with an ARC copy of this book! All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for my review.

𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘒𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘢 follows Sydney Moore who's rushed off to Korea by her mother to spend time with her godmother under false pretenses. Added to her misery is her godmother's son, who's a real jerk but unbeknownst to her is actually the school's most popular boy who can't seem to get her off his mind. So what will happen when he can't keeps his feelings to himself? Will she forgive him his atrocious behaviour? Will they get married?

- ~ -

Okay okay first off - forwarnings... this book may or may not be suited to everyone's liking, I'll get into the why later, but me? I ate it up.

One major trigger warning I'd also like to highlight is manipulation. It was a major plot point and heavily portrayed in the story and added the drama but not everyone is comfortable with that.

Now getting into the story, I'll say that it's very K-drama(ish), in a good way, as in it begins unsuspectingly and loops into a dramatic mess that had me invested.

THE thing I'd like to address is that there is a plot point involving the love interest which can come across as dubious to some (please note that neither protagonists were decieved or hurt by each other that led to harm). It was just a scene some may consider a big step for two people barely into their adulthood but it was also the moment all self-respect and feminism left my body and I swooned, so you won't hear me complaining.

But yeah, the whole
K-drama-meets-YA-esque nature of the plot worked well for me and I can't wait to see what else the author has in store.

- ~ -

4.04 /5✩

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘝𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘐 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 & 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘥. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

With the love triangles, family secrets, laughs, twists, and sob-inducing moments you usually only find in your favorite K-drama, "Falling For Korea" is the perfect late night binge-read!

This was a good read. I was sucked in by the cute cover at first and decided to give this book a try. Gotta admit I was surprised how addicted I was to the story. Some parts was were hard to believe but it still kept up at a steady pace that I kept wondering how things would turn out. Even though some of the characters were problematic they do seem to grow over the course of the book. Also wasn’t too big a fan of the sort of instalove but whatever. I was satisfied the read and would tell others to check it out. 3.5 stars rounded to 4.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

CW: Bullying and parent death

Thank you to NetGalley and Vaniker Press for the ARC!

As a K-Drama lover, I really wanted to love this book. The reviews made it seem promising—I was looking forward to lots of romance, drama, and tension. And while the book certainly did have all three elements, I can’t say that I liked the execution of any of them.

This is a romantic book, but I simply couldn’t buy into the romance between Sydney and Chul. I found it unbelievable how Chul went from adamantly refusing to interact with her to suddenly feeling the urge to protect and take care of her within the space of a few chapters. It felt deeply unrealistic and by the end of the novel, I still wasn’t sure how they were so deeply in love with each other because that the basis of their attraction didn’t really have any solid foundation. (Not to mention certain red flags in Chul’s behavior towards her which really didn’t sit well with me.)

The plot itself did feel very much like a K-Drama, with a lot of drama and tension that kept me reading. I was motivated to keep going because I wanted to figure out why Sydney’s and Chul’s families were acting so shadily, but I was left feeling unsatisfied by the end of the story. The characters felt flat and one-dimensional, sometimes even stale and stereotypical—“mean girl” Min was classically vicious but there wasn’t much insight into her motivations, Gun was dropped towards the latter half of the story, and the introduction of Greg added some unexpected and interesting twists to the story but again, his characterization was that of a typical villain and nothing more. And it was hard to feel anything for Shannon even though her character was designed to evoke sympathy because she was hardly present throughout the story.

Overall, I felt that this story had a lot of potential and could have been an intense exploration of the lengths that one will go to to keep loved ones safe, as well as the unfortunate toxicity of some familial relationships. I will say though that this book is very easy to get through and I was hooked all the way because I really wanted to find out why certain things were the way they were, but ultimately this just didn’t deliver for me.

Very enjoyable story. It had all the feels of Kdramas that I cherish. I did need Sydney to “fall for Korea” a little more with her attitude about Korean food and enjoying the Korean experience. Yes, she didn’t want to be there because of circumstances, but I didn’t feel the title fit well with the entire story. But for the Kdrama feel, it had villains, kind friends, and an excellent male lead. Chul was a hit for me. I loved that he had a “past” and I enjoyed his changes and honesty with Sydney. I really liked Sydney too. She had her own issues to overcome. (But the uncle was way too icky, and I felt I needed a little more of “why” he did what he did.) The book is clean (which I appreciate immensely), has great characters, and storyline.

I really enjoyed this book and discovering this authors works. The story was full of adventure and twists and turns that I found very engaging. I absolutely loved this story and the journey the characters went through. I will be recommending this book to everyone I know.

Just a super cute romance between Sydney and Chul! First book I’ve ever read set in Korea and it was very enjoyable! Can’t wait for more by Piper Jean!

This was pretty cute, though it got quite a bit emotionally heavy towards the end.

I didn't like Chul though. He was a bit creepy and over-protective, especially in the beginning and it felt like Sydney forgave him too quickly. Their relationship also teetered a bit too much on the instalove side for me to get fully invested in their relationship.

I did really enjoy the writing style, and I'll be keeping an eye out for other books by the author.

Recommended if you're in the mood for a sweet, albeit drama-heavy story with kdrama vibes.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.".
I enjoy watching K- drama's that's what Falling For Korea reminded me of. It was a cute 4 star read



Thanks Netgalley for a arc copy of this book for a honest review

Happy Reading Lisa 📚

Absolutely fire. This book will take you out of a book slump and bring you on the rollercoaster that is "Falling For Korea". I absolutely loved every minute of this one and I thought Piper jean did an excellent job of transporting me into this book.

I was hoping for a cute romance that stood out to me but sadly this story falls in the same genre of every author YA contemporary romance.

Falling for Korea was a decent middle-of-the-road read. Yes, it did feel a bit like a K-drama (one of the more melodramatic teen rom-coms), and I could imagine the scenes playing out on the screen as I read. The plot was, as mentioned, a little overblown, but it was still fun and allowed for some interesting action. The split POV in 1st person worked fine, letting the reader understand the perspectives of both main characters. However, there was a little something lacking in the relationship for me. It felt too sudden, and I never really got why they were so right together when they hardly knew each other. It was also hard to see how she 'fell for Korea' when she didn't go anywhere much except school and the house and did nothing but complain that she hated the food every time they had a meal. A K-drama would have 16-20 hours to gradually expand the relationship and let us see Sydney adjust and come to like Korea. This book had fewer than 300 pages, and I fear that was too short a time for the relationship development to be believable, especially given her age and the way the book ends. This was an entertaining enough read, especially if you like the K-drama vibe, but it requires a high suspension of disbelief. It gets 3 stars from me.

"Falling For Korea" is exactly what it promises! A wild ride of a book with the pacing of a K-Drama and as a K-Drama addict and lover it lived up to my expectations!
I have no cons in "Falling for Korea" and I recommend the book!!