I received an e-galley of The Name Drop by Susan Lee from Frenzy Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Elijah and Jessica are both going to be interning at Haneul Corporation, but while Elijah is the son of the CEO , Jessica is supposed to be one of many overworked, unpaid interns chosen for the summer. The two share the same Korean name - Lee Yoo-Jin - and right from the start, a case of mistaken identity takes Jessica to the executive offices and Elijah finds himself in the summer of this dreams, not controlled by the life that his father has set out for him. As the two realize the mistake and make the decision to trade positions for the summer, Elijah and Jessica find themselves experiencing new things and also finding a connection between themselves that goes beyond birthright and money. 

This was a cute and fun YA novel about mistaken identity, secrets, adventure, and love. I enjoyed the way in which the two get caught up in their situations. I really liked Jessica and found myself really rooting for her - as one does for the poor girl caught up in the drama of a Korean conglomerate, much like in a Korean drama. And so, for any fans of Korean dramas, The Name Drop is perfect for your dose of romance in YA form.

genuinely one of my favorite reads of 2023. susan lee's debut seoulmates was good, but this was even better. 

our two main characters, elijah and jessica, have the same legal korean name. this would normally not be an issue since jessica and elijah lead very separate lives - jessica comes from a middle class family with her dad as an employee of haneul corporation, a korea-based company with a large us base. elijah, on the other hand, is the son of the company's owner, which means he'll eventually become ceo despite his older sister actually wanting the job while he doesn't (at all). 

unfortunately or fortunately, a case of mistaken identity due to their shared name results in jessica inadvertently switching spots with elijah, getting a first class ticket to her internship, along with getting chauffeured to a fancy brownstone in nyc for the summer, one that even comes with a full time housekeeper. elijah gets the intern treatment, sharing a tiny dorm with other interns, a tight food budget, and the corporate version of busywork when he should be learning how to be ceo. 

when elijah and jessica run into each other, they piece together what might have happened, but they no longer want to swap back - jessica wants to take advantage of her new authority to get a move on a career she really wants and elijah wants a summer away from his father.

it takes a lot of work for them to build the lie and maintain it, and with that, the duo grow closer and closer which blossoms into romance!!! i really really loved the (imo) very real depiction of what it's like to work at a large tech corporation - sure the international ones might be "worse" but we're all bottom of the barrel to the execs and c-suiters. the romance was prioritized slightly less than their hijinks and it was perfect - this is the kind of chaos i enjoy reading in a single sitting. 

5/5

A mix-up with names at the airport leads to a summer of opportunities. Elijah and Jessica decide to take advantage of the airport’s mix up and swap jobs for the summer. Elijah, set to spend the summer in New York at his fathers company, decides to go incognito and live the summer as a regular intern and leave the executive training program to Jessica. Elijah is from a 1% family in Korea and Jessica from a middle class family in Southern California, the two get to explore New York City together and realize they enjoy spending time together. This is a beautiful coming of age story about breaking free from toxic family values and learning who supports you in living the life you want and finding happiness. This book also tackles class and financial privilege, misogynistic companies too set in their old ways, as well as complex family dynamics. This book is for romance readers, YA readers, and anyone who wants to read about someone else’s family drama for a few hundred pages. This is my first read of Susan Lee’s and I’m looking forward to jumping right into Seoulmates asap (which is already on my bookshelf ready and waiting)!

I absolutely love Susan Lee and her work!! I loved the setting, the characters, the development, this was such a great YA romance that I would recommend!

🩷 Korean American representation
🩷 Slow burn romance
🩷 Hilarious Hijinks
🩷 Trading places

I finished this book in just a few hours! The premise is great: because of a mix-up with their Korean names, FMC Jessica Lee and MMC Elijah Ri end up trading places while doing their internship at the NYC location of a major Korean company. Jessica is mistaken for an executive level-intern and enjoys all the perks: the glam Upper East Side apartment, designer clothes, and housekeeper and Elijah ends up bunking with 10 other interns in a one-bathroom apartment.

What I enjoyed the most is how Jessica & Elijah see the good in each other and encourage each other to be the best version of themselves. Susan Lee cleverly writes an engaging B-story (which is quite the skill, in my opinion) that really raises the stakes for these two. I also love the supporting characters -my fave is Elijah's sister who should definitely have her own story, and I totally ship #Ellson (Ella and Jason).

The Name Drop is a fun, romantic comedy that takes place in one of my favorite places, my hometown NYC. My family moved to Queens in 1995, I went to college and law school in NYC, worked/played in NYC, and my fam is still there.  I LOVE that two main characters get to explore NYC while exploring their feelings for each other. What an awesome place to fall in love! I practically yelled "KISS ALREADY" in almost every chapter. They were just so darn cute!

I attended the book release party held at Meet Cute Bookshop @meetcutebookshop (which I definitely recommend visiting if you're in SD). She’s a master at getting authors together and had a panel with Ali Hazelwood, Rosie Danan, & Christina Lauren. Loved it! Susan also gave out these awesome goodies.   She's such a generous soul and I love that she’s our hometown hero. 

And lastly - how beautiful is this cover?! Artist Michelle Kwon @michi.kwo is amazing!

While this was a cute YA romance that I did enjoy reading, I would probably never read it again and only talk about it with a friend if they brought it up first. This is not to say I didn't enjoy the book or Susan Lee's writing because I am definitely going to be reading her next book. I just didn't really connect with the characters that well, but would 100% recommend it to fans of cute YA romances and K-dramas.
Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

Thank you! I read this right on the cusp of fall and it felt like the perfect way to end summer! A cute summer romance set in NYC, felt like I was watching a movie!!

A fun rom-com with a unique premise and lovely romance set to the backdrop of New York City. Highly recommend.

It was a cute little summer romance. I enjoyed the office romance and young love. I liked watching them grow together and experiencing love for the first time. It also touched on important topics such as inequality on several levels like race, class, and gender. I also enjoyed watching their internship project develop. However, I did not enjoy the 3rd act breakup and wished the setting of new york had more of a character in the book. It was missing something.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this earc. 
I just reviewed The Name Drop by Susan Lee. #TheNameDrop #NetGalley

I would rate this book 3.5 stars since I really enjoyed it! It's a really charming young adult romance that I believe will captivate viewers of K-dramas.

When Elijah Ri and Jessica Lee traveled to New York for an internship, they were unfortunate enough to get into a misunderstanding. They refused to let it defeat them, though. They made the most of the confusion by remaining switched, rather than obsessing on it. Their will to make the best of a challenging circumstance and upbeat outlook are incredibly motivating.

The book's plot kept me interested and entertained the entire time, despite being a little corny and predictable. If you enjoy Korean dramas and YA romance, I would highly suggest it to you.

📖 ARC REVIEW 📖

Thank you @inkyardpress for an early copy of The Name Drop by @susanleewrites. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Release date: September 12th, 2023

Blurb: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66098768-the-name-drop?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=NYlPGqVKgT&rank=1

🛑Read on with caution; review may contain spoilers🛑

If you love watching Korean dramas, then you’ll love The Name Drop. Elijah and Jessica travel to New York for an internship, and as they share the same Korean name, Jessica is assigned Elijah’s first-class seat, while Elijah her economy seat on the airplane bound for New York. To add more hilarity to the situation, Jessica is picked up by a luxurious vehicle on the way to Elijah’s New York home (yes, the car and the house are supposedly for Elijah). At the same time, he rides with the rest of the interns from Jessica’s group. On their first day of internship, they realize the misunderstanding but decide to continue the ruse. Elijah wants the experience while Jessica wants a platform to prove herself, which is difficult since she has no money or connections. They continued to fool everyone working at the office as they worked on the hackathon project, led by Jessica, the executive intern. 

Though I found their switcheroo hard to believe (I mean, come on, Elijah is from a chaebol family, how could no one know him, especially within his family’s company?), I enjoyed their interactions and their friendship with the other interns. I loved that the author gave both the main characters so much character growth, with Jessica so driven to prove herself and get into college, and Elijah getting to explore what he wanted to do for his future while gaining friends, which was quite difficult with his status and he just really made being rich so lonely that I felt really happy for him during his internship. 

Apart from the unbelievable switcheroo, Elijah and Jessica’s romance was lighthearted and sweet. Really, you’d read this to appreciate their character growth and the K-drama vibes. I just hoped that there was something significant done to fight sexism in their workplace overall.

I decided to stop reading this at about 50% through. I wasn’t very engaged in the story, and didn’t feel inclined to keep going.

dnf’ed at 32% 

this book felt like something straight out of a k-drama and what i read i really enjoyed!! i liked the main characters, i liked the side characters, i liked the setting! i just think that i picked this book up at the wrong time unfortunately. 

i am definitely going to be revisiting it once i’m in the mood for a cute YA romance! (especially since my sister begged me to pick up a copy for her from work!) 

thank you so much to netgalley and Inkyard Press for an e-arc! i will be updating my review once i’ve finished it!

The Name Drop written by Susan Lee was NOT for me. I'm so sad this book didn't work out for me because I loved this author's previous debut novel "Seoulmates". I really wanted to love this one just as much as Seoulmates, but for many reasons it didn't work out for me. The characters were portrayed horrible based on their heritage, they were treated so bad in their work force based on their nationality between Korean and American. The main character was to sit at her job and just look pretty and take notes, and she was absolutely okay with it when she didn't even sign up for that. Another thing that didn't work out for me was the romance portion, all the characters did were just bat their eye lashes at each other and accidentally "bump" into each other and turn it into a hug out of nowhere. I so badly wanted to love this book, but it felt like it was missing too much information, and had me bored out of my mind. I think I went in with too high expectations because I loved Susan Lee's previous debut novel. Susan Lee truly writes the most beautiful dedications in the beginning of her books. Please don't let this review stop you from picking up this book, these are just my own thoughts and opinions. Please do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book. 

THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND INKYARD PRESS FOR AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW!!!!!!

"Don't apologize for being observant, for having a natural knack for reading people. Don't ask for forgiveness based on someone else's reaction to your knowledge", she says. "Be very stingy with your apologies. We women too often say "I'm sorry" for things that are entirely not our fault. It's our go to".

"If anyone looks at you weird, look at them back even weirder".

The Name Drop written by Susan Lee is a story about mistaken identities, the summer of a lifetime, and a love to risk everything for, which didn't really happen since the romance wasn't there except for a few batted eye lashes. Elijah Ri arrives in New York City like a fish out of a fishbowl being a rich Korean boy for an internship at his father's massive tech company, Haneul Corporation. Elijah drove me nuts, I swear. He just arrived in New York City expecting the royal treatment that comes with being the future CEO of Haneul Corporation. Elijah just expected everything to be handed to him instead of just working his ass off like most people do. Despite Elijah expecting the royal treatment, he instead finds himself shuffled into a group of overworked, unpaid interns, all sharing a shoe box apartment for the summer. When Elijah arrives in New York City he's wearing super expensive clothing and has his face covered, for what reason? Because he's extremely rich and doesn't want anyone to know his game. Elijah has never worked a day in his life, so when he interns at Haneul Corporation he's "so shocked" that he has to work instead of shit being given to him. 

Jessica Lee and Elijah Ri are completely different from each other. Jessica comes from a poor family where she has to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, she's extremely shy, whereas Elijah talks to people and gets everything he wants handed to him. When Jessica arrives in New York City, she's so eager to make the most of her internship at Haneul Corporation, even if she's at the bottom of the corporate ladder. What Jessica doesn't expect is to be introduced as the new executive-in-training intern with a gorgeous brownstone house all to herself. But get the catch, it doesn't take Elijah and Jessica very long to discover the source that they share the exact same Korean name. Elijah was supposed to get the brownstone house and Jessica was supposed to be in the shoe box sized apartment. But Elijah and Jessica decide to stay switched up so Elijah can have a relaxing summer away from his controlling dad, while Jessica can make the connections she desperately needs for college recommendations. Someone at Haneul Corporation got Jessica and Elijah mixed up because they share the same exact Korean name, but they decide not to say anything at all.

This book started off as a real page turner right away-this is always such a positive experience with a book and a good indicator that I love to see. A book that can grab my attention from the get go is hard to find and was a pleasant surprise in this one!

I loved how the author did their own unique spin and twist on the swapping places/ mistaken identities trope here. There were moments where I was shocked and laughed, and worried for the characters all throughout.

The beginning of this book was great, and the ending was wonderful. I’ll admit that parts of the middle were slow for me and hard to motivate myself through. It was sort of the zone where things became a repeated trend, the worries and thoughts of the characters remained the same, and we knew the big drop was coming even if they didn’t. But it was sort of that frustrating misunderstanding part where the characters keep secrets rather than just talking it out. And I personally would've preferred a lot less cursing/ swearing, as I expected it to be more clean going in (only to find that the cursing is pretty prevalent throughout the book).

However, the ending has the spark of cuteness that wraps you in and rooting for the characters again! This is a contemporary romance that is reeeally a slow burn. There may be an insta-attraction, but the burn is slowwww. But not in a bad way!

I loved the way the book ended.

Overall, I rate this one:

🌟🌟🌟.💫/5.  (3.5 Stars)

Loved this YA so much! I really enjoyed the characters and seeing them in the switched roles. It was fun and funny, and all around enjoyable. There wasn’t much romance until the end but I loved seeing the friendship develop first between the MCs. This was my first book by this author and won’t be last.

A bit predictable, but a fun read by Susan Lee. I enjoyed her first book and I found this to be a good one, too! Overall a nice YA romance that will be a hit with my kpop fan students. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

I just thought this was so cute! I think this is the perfect book for people who love rom coms and K dramas. I do think it's a bit cheesy, but if you go into it just expecting a cute rom com type cheesy story, you'll have a good time.

The Name Drop is a good enough teen romance, in which the two lead characters happen to have the same name. In Korean, that is. In English, Elijah and Jessica are quite different: she won a place in a prestigious summer internship with 10 other participants, while he is the son of the sponsor company's son. The two decide to switch places for the summer, with Jessica stepping into the executive training program where everyone believes she's the owner's child, while Elijah joins the freedom of living as an anonymous intern with the others in his group. When the discover that both internship programs are primarily designed for the company's image, Jessica, Elijah, and the other interns are determined to make this year's final project something they can be proud of, even if the company isn't so thrilled.

Ms Lee brings in cultural issues, highlighting the different expectations of American and Korean society, and the ways these expectations play out in Elijah and Jessica's lives. She weaves this facet throughout the story, highlighting the differences in a believable manner.

This was a fun read, despite the somewhat implausible role swap. The romance seemed rushed at the end, while the strangers to friends development, as well as Elijah and Jessica's relationships with the other characters were more robust. I recommend this if you're looking for a fun, easy read with a K-drama/K-pop vibe, or if you're fond of rags to riches arcs.

This was a cute YA romance. Perfect for fans of K-dramas.

During Elijah Ri and Jessica Lee's travel to New York for an internship, they experienced an unfortunate misunderstanding. They both share the same Korean name, and as a result, Jessica unintentionally occupied Elijah's business class seat at the airport and inadvertently took Elijah's ride. Thankfully, Elijah and Jessica figured out the mix-up not soon after. However, they decided to stay switched. How long can they keep up the charade without being discovered?

The story was predictable and a bit cheesy but still quite enjoyable overall. Would recommend it to fans of YA romance and K-dramas.