Seoulmates, by Jen Frederick

Hi friends, I have such a cute book to share with you today, Seoulmates, by Jen Frederick. Technically the second book in a series, I didn’t read the first one and had no troubles with this one.

This book takes the levels of “forbidden love” to new places and uses that trope to examine themes of family pressures, cultural expectations, individuality, finding yourself, and belonging in some really lovely and thought provoking ways.

Hara Wilson has flown to Seoul to find her birth mother, and falls in love with her birth mother’s step son, Choi YuJun. This conflict is heightened with the considerations of tradition in Seoul and the cultural expectations that surround so much of life in South Korea. Especially since her birth mother gives her a job at her company. Hara feels depserately that she needs to prove herself, but isn’t completely sure of herself yet either.

This book felt to me like a journey of self-discovery with a romance involved. The steam is mild, not fade to black, but not necessarily explicit. Seeing Hara stumble and often crumble to her own personal sense of isolation, dealing with being adopted and raised in America but being biologically a part of an important South Korean family; she struggles with understanding her place and feeling at home in either situation.

As the book moves, she starts to figure out what she likes, understanding more of the motives of those around her, so she is able to go from surviving to creating a life she enjoys and finding out how to love and live and be happy.

The cultural aspects of this book are incredibly interesting. Even if these two weren’t technically step siblings it would be a difficult relationship. The pressure of tradition, family, reputation, and more, it is really really interesting. I learned so much from this book that I didn’t know before. The difficulties of older traditions in modern times are called out and it’s interesting to me, a very white lady, to see and read and think about. I’m curious about more readers responses to see if the way this is portrayed is relatable for them since it’s not a culture I personally identify with or know much about.

The feelings of isolation, of low self-esteem, of feeling completely out of place, those I believe are universal and portrayed in an incredibly relatable way here that isn’t always shown in romance novels. I appreciated all the more the way that Hana is able to overcome her struggles, how she rebuilds her sense of strength and identity, and from understanding her low points, her success is all the more meaningful.

Looking forward to what Frederick writes next! Seoulmates is available now wherever you get your books!

**Thanks to NetGalley and Berkeley Romance for an advance e-galley, all opinions are my own.