TITLE: Frankly in Love
AUTHOR: David Yoon
PAGE COUNT: 406 pages
PUBLISHER: Penguin
PUBLICATION DATE: 10 September 2019
GENRE: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance & Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Frank Li is a high school senior living in Southern California. Frank’s parents emigrated from Korea, and have pretty much one big rule for Frank – he must only date Korean girls.
But he’s got strong feelings for a girl in his class, Brit – and she’s not Korean. His friend Joy Song is in the same boat and knows her parents will never accept her Chinese American boyfriend, so they make a pact: they’ll pretend to date each other in order to gain their freedom.
Frank thinks fake-dating is the perfect plan, but it leaves him wondering if he ever really understood love – or himself – at all.
Frankly in Love was the kind of book I did not know I would get so excited about until I had it in my hands. After reading the synopsis, I just knew I had to add it to my TBR and get to it as soon as possible.
I have to confess, I still would not have finished the book when this review is published. I know it is completely ridiculous of me to write a review for a book I have not finished reading yet but I am on a really tight schedule with my blog posts, so I hope you do not mind too much.
After winning a paperback copy from Readers Warehouse, the lovely team sent it to me, including another book and many other goodies. My friend, Ruby from rubyraereads.co.za hosted the giveaway and when I received it, we agreed to buddy read it. Both of us have not really been in a contemporary mood lately, so that is why I have not finished it yet.
The beginning of the book was really cute, light-hearted and humorous. I easily flew through the pages and found myself smiling at certain scenes. I think it is a great book to pick up if you are in need of something fluffy and sweet—especially in this dark time with all the problems we face.
One thing that kind of put a damper on my enjoyment was that it felt as if the book was not going anywhere. The plot felt unclear and the characters lacked proper development.
As I still need to finish the rest of the book, I am hoping the story gets better near the end. To give you more of an idea of how I feel about the book so far: I would rate the beginning four stars and where I am now (about the middle of the book), I would give it three stars. I’ll update the rating if it changed from four stars once I finished the book.
“People who let themselves learn new things are the best kind of people.”
“Humanity’s greatest strength – and also the reason for its ultimate downfall – is its ability to normalize even the bizarre.”
“Laughter is the music of the deep cosmos connecting all human beings that says all the things mere words cannot.”
“If you have the will to do something, and you keep at it, and you don’t give up, you can do anything. And there’s no greater will than the will to love who you want.”
“Nothing is just any one single thing. In fact, what starts out as one thing can turn out to be something completely different.”
“White people can describe themselves with just American. Only when pressed do they go into their ethnic heritage. Doesn’t seem fair that I have to forever explain my origin story with that silent hyphen, whereas white people don’t. It’s complicated. But simple. Simplicated.”
“’Nerds,’ says Joy.
We look at her like, So?”
David Yoon grew up in Orange County, California, and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife, novelist Nicola Yoon, and their daughter. He drew the illustrations for Nicola’s #1 New York Times bestseller Everything, Everything. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Frankly in Love, which was a William C. Morris Award finalist and an Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature Honor book. You can visit him at davidyoon.com.
Keep on reading, and never stop telling stories.
White Rose Stories 