This book was such a rollercoaster of a read! Not only did I love reading a romance book that has so many other themes to explore throughout the story, but the sense of mystery and suspense kept me on my toes in a way that not many books within the genre have been able to. Romancing on Jeju, by Hyun-Jo Park, is a truly unique story of friendship, how we change and grow as we age, love in all its many forms, and those sinister individuals so many of us have learned to be wary of.

I’ll admit, for a while I struggled with keeping the characters straight, but that is no fault of the author, and instead is my own whitegirl lack of familiarity with a list of names that stray from John, Jane, James, etc. That’s an exaggeration, but still, it didn’t take more than a handful of chapters for each character’s storyline and personality to solidify within my mind and I was able to read without needing to remind myself of who I was reading about. Each of the three female main characters are delightfully different and have such unique voices that it was simply my own stumbling block to overcome. I’m assuming many readers won’t have the same issue.

The vibrant setting of South Korea has me itching to travel there and the author does a beautiful job at describing all the many settings the story takes place in as our characters navigate to and around Jeju Island. I kept trying to pick a favorite character, between Rome, Hadam, and Chakyung, one that I was looking forward to reading more of than the others as the book progressed, but Hyun-Joo Park weaves such an enticing story that I found myself equally invested in all of their lives. It was wonderful to read a book where two of the three main female characters don’t end up becoming supporting characters while one pulls ahead and takes the spotlight.

Overall, I highly recommend Romancing on Jeju. There were certainly scenes that left my skin crawling and goosebumps rising on the back of my neck, but it was all because these scenes were so relatable as a woman. This book is an excellent break from the plethora of cutesy romance books flooding the market that I think any reader will love.

As always, a big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Amazon Crossing, for allowing me the privilege of reading the ARC of this fascinating story.

Romancing on Jeju, by Hyun-Joo Park, was published on August 20, 2024. Enjoy!

Living on the edge for a cute stranger just might get you your perfect match…maybe.

Romancing on Jeju by Hyun Joo Park is a standalone novel and is filled with love, chaos, spontaneousness, and living on a whim. When a woman and her friends are all at a standstill in their lives, they decide to go on an adventure and help each in the process. One for love and the others for work and life in general. While things seem great as an idea, they soon realize there’s a lot more that needs to be sorted out in order for things to go their way.

I really enjoy the fact that this story is rooted in friendship. Sure it’s a love story but the deeper relationship is between the three women and their friendship. In addition to that, I really love that they are all in their thirties. A lot of the time stories have younger protagonists and when you’ve aged out of that era, it’s not relatable anymore. So having those moments with older women makes the stories more interesting.

The taking their lives back and taking control over what they do moving forward aspects pops out strongly. It’s refreshing to see women standing in their own power and not just following along with what society has presented to them. They go against the grain and follow their hearts. Whether it’s love or passion, they are on it.

The biggest issue I had was with the constant jumps through time. Every other chapter was a different time period so sometimes I didn’t realize when things were taking place. But I do like that backstory is brought in by having a dual timeline. It just could’ve been a little clearer.

If you love a group of women who thrive together as a tribe and push each other into their next levels, this is for you. Between the love, the spur of the moment decisions, and the filming, there’s something for everyone. I recommend diving into this story!

One quote I liked and that sums up the story: “This could be a documentary, a marketing campaign, and a search for a long-lost love, all in one. — Searching for Honeyman” - Hadam.

*This was an honest review for a complimentary copy of Romancing on Jeju from Hyun Joo Park via NetGalley

I liked almost everything about this book, but, it was just a little too slow for me. It had a wonderful begininng, however, after about the 40% mark, I was struggling to not lose interest. I went into this thinking it would be a romcom, but, I won't really classify it as one. It dealt with some heavy topics, and I personally really enjoyed the relationship between the main characters.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc. I am reviewing this voluntarily.

Sorry but I found this book to be to boring to finish. I also didn’t like the head hopping I found it annoying.

I read around 20% of this, but it wasn't living up to my expectations and it couldn't hold my attention, so I decided to DNF. I was especially hoping for more vivid and detailed descriptions of the setting.

I love that we are seeing more Asian books being translated into English, and this Korean story was a delight to read. Is it a romance? The title is misleading because I thought it was a romance but once you get over that it’s a fun little read.

It’s Hadam’s 36th birthday and she has quit her dead-end production job. Having dinner with her friends Romi and Chakyung they devise a plan to visit the island of Jeju to search for a beekeeper Romi had met three years earlier and film the adventure as a documentary. Thinking it will be a fun, potentially romantic adventure there is far more sinister things afoot that will unravel during their adventure.

This is not a Romance book, it’s like a contemporary fiction with romantic and mystery plots. It’s slow paced with multiple threads to unravel while following the main story line of three friends and their love life as they visit Jeju. The relationship between the three women were one of those things that I would have liked developed more. They were supposed to be there to help each other also they had different goals for their trip to the island. They each had their own plot line mostly revolving around romantic entanglements. The plot was interesting and characters were well developed but it was less about friendship and more of a mystery/suspense than I was expecting. At times the threads were difficult to follow but at the end everything was made sense of.

*2.5

At first I thought this was going to be a cute light-hearted rom-com about 3 friends travelling to Jeju and finding love but it’s actually much deeper and complex than that. There’s stalking, cheating and secret business deals involved and so many different characters. The different relationships between the characters got confusing as everyone knew each other in some way but it was just difficult to keep up with everything to the point where I stopped paying too much attention. I loved the friendship between the three FMCs and how they supported each other through everything.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC! ✨

Romancing on Jeju was not what I was expecting (me thinking it was more focused on romance-which it was not- mystery and self-discovery). This story follows 3 friends- Hadam, Romi and Chakyung as they travel to Jeju island (with their own missions). This story is more of their friendship and each character's discovery of themselves- it was great having each character have their different POVs and seeing the development of each character and their character growth throughout the book.

Overall it was not a bad book but not what I was expecting.

I thought overall this was a good book. It was hard to me to keep up with who was who to be honest. Especially with the amnesia and the lies. It's a me problem. I promise. I was so intrigued by it though. I thought it was cute.

I got an e-arc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was so excited to check this book out. I’m glad I did. I love romance and I’m happy that I got to read one written in a different language and with a different culture. It just shows love is everywhere. This is set in a beautiful island and finding love where least expected. Great book to end the season. I’ll be looking forward to more books.
The main character is fun yet had layer and as she chases down love she also finds herself.
What a fun book!
I always love mentioning the translator, they did amazing with this.

Recommended: yep!
for a romance-light story about romantic relationships, for side information about beekeeping and bees that might pique your interest in the topic, for a range of endings for each of the characters

Thoughts:
Look, I know the title has "romancing" in it, but it's not a romance novel like you might see from most traditional United States publishers. It's more subtle, and modest, and somehow that makes it feel so much more intimate in a lot of ways. It's all heart, no genitals. There are romantic relationships that are a focus, but there's not so much romance itself.

Romance in this story is also much less flashy, and yet much more impactful. Tearful confessions and bold declarations are sparse. We see love and affection through action. People stepping up to help someone they don't have to, or risking their own safety to ensure that of the person they admire. Getting mad at the person they admire for risking themselves in the first place. And, maybe if you're lucky, a tender kiss or two. You know the phrase "show don't tell?" That's how this is. Love is shown through actions far more than words.

What the perky cover and cutesy title don't hint at is the darker storyline woven into it as well. It was very unexpected but not at all unwelcome, so when we got the first perspective narration from an ominous and unnamed person, it colored everything else differently. Things that seemed so idyllic and light suddenly had a cloud chasing after them. This shifted the tone in a really interesting and exciting way, and allowed for an ending that was all kinds of crazy. loved seeing how everything connected between all the characters and I guessed absolutely none of it, which was fabulous.

There were a LOT of characters, all with complicated relationships between each other. I had to stop and think about who was connected with whom sometimes to remind myself what was going on when it switched between them. I did generally enjoy everyone's stories though, and I felt like they each got enough growth shown despite how much was going on. The three core friends have an interesting bond together, although I'm not sure we ever learn how they even met or why they're so close. They show it though, in really admirable ways.

This novel is translated, and huge kudos to the translator, because the book still felt like it carried that Korean style. It was eloquent and subtle and refined and had moments that popped with humor and insight. Reading it in Korean would be an interesting comparison, but it doesn't seem like anything has been lost in translation here. Even a plot point around words that are near rhymes were made to be similar enough in English as well that it was believable! That's quite impressive to me.

Overall I enjoyed this story and felt like there was so much in it for being a standard length novel. The translation was excellent and I'm really happy with the whole story that I got in here.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for a free advanced copy. This is my honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hyun Joo Park for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Romancing on Jeju coming out August 20, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first book by this author. I understand it’s a translation from Korean to English. I’ve been obsessed with Korean dramas for a long time, so I’m always looking for new Korean books to read. I think this book wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I was hoping for more romance. I think it was just a little dry for me. There was a lot of description of things and not so much dialogue and drama. I’m just more into dialogue, so I got lost in the descriptions. I would check out other books by this author.

Romancing on Jeju by Hyun-Joo Park was an entertaining story set on the island of Jeju!
The storyline was great and I flew through this book in one sitting. Kept me turning the pages late into the night.
This fun and exciting read that really took me on a ride. And one I hated to see end.
This story was so riveting and unique, that I'm still thinking about it.
It was realistic and relatable. I absolutely loved everything about it

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really interesting read. The overall vibe of the book had cozy Kdramas vibes and nothing makes a cozier setting than Jeju island! The atmosphere and setting of Jeju Island with its beautiful nature- bees, waterfalls, beaches and oceans, also really helped to bring the story to life.

I found each of the perspectives of Romi, Chakyung, and Hami very interesting and none of them was boring or dull. I like how each women's romance life and story was different and unique.

They go to Jeju in search of Honeyman but things don't go as they expect. What was originally a journey to search for Romi's romance, it became one of self-discovery as well as one which helped to strengthened old relationships (friendships) as well as create new ones (romance). It became a journey to find one's purpose.

The ending took me a bit off-guard even though there was build up with Romi’s stalker as well as Chanmin’s suspicious actions. I feel like this part of the story was a bit random and out of nowhere which is my only overall complain on the story.

Overall, I do recommend reading this for someone looking for a story with cozy vibes!

Romancing on Jeju
Genre: Fiction, mystery, romance (book).
Rating: ★★.5 (2/5)

I thank NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for providing me with an advanced reader copy (ARC) of this book in return for an honest review.
***
Romancing on Jeju was a bit of a letdown. What was marketed as a romance turned out to be 90% mystery, which put me off the story a bit. I mean, even in Goodreads, the story is marketed under the tags "fiction" and "romance", so it definitely wasn't what I was expecting. It's not like I'm not a fan of the genre, but I think that it was... misleading, somehow.

Overall, the story had potential, but it struggled to balance the multiple topics it tried to tackle. As a result, none of them were explored in depth, leaving the story feeling all over the place and underdeveloped. And while I liked the characters, the confusion I felt didn't let me enjoy the story.

I was really excited for the island setting with a story about friendship,self Discovery and a bit of Romance at first I was really liking this the characters were great very unique and interesting but the more the story progressed I got more bored and I felt like I didn't care about anything in this book not the characters and not the romance I tried to take a break and get back to it but I still felt bored ,the book is just not for me I guess great writing tho props to the translator so in conclusion interesting concept just not excuted well.
Thank you for the e-arc I am sorry this one fell flat for me I would love to try other books by the author cuz I enjoyed the writing.

I struggled to get into this book; I was not expecting a high-stakes mystery alongside the friends-on-vacation/finding-lost-love plot. The characters were well-written and interesting. I do think the book lost something in translation; it felt like more telling than showing and the pace was slow at times. However, the dialogue was solid and moved the story along. It was an interesting premise!

This book is delightful. It's a fun trip with 3 besties to the romantic holiday destination of Jeju.

In so many ways, this book feels like a favorite kdrama - in all the best ways! I couldn't resist fancasting! All my favorite kdrama tropes are here! And of course, the romcom feels are real!

But it's also a mystery, with a stalker and a seedy criminal element.

And bees, apiaries, and beekeeping! You may actually learn something! I definitely appreciate this focus on hives and queens!

However, my favorite thing about this book is that it opens a dialogue about prosopagnosia, a little understood disability where someone struggles to recognize faces.

I adore the three main characters of this book. Each gets her time in the sun, and each needs the others. Above everything, this story is about the beauty of friendship and taking care of each other.

An interesting story set on the island of Jeju. Romi has been unable to get a man who lives on Jeju out of her mind and so her friend Hadam, a filmmaker convinces her to travel there to search for him and their pal Chakyung, a marketer tags along. She finds him but he doesn't remember her. There are, however, other opportunities for the trio. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read.