Falling in Love like a Korean Drama

by A.K. Moon

Summer has been working at her dad’s restaurant as a chef since her mom’s demise. Enduring her step mom’s verbal abuse and unthankful dad seemed to be the only thing each day brought. One day, she sees a man at her deceased mom’s old house, and he strangely magnetizes her mind since then. But on the same day, her stepmom stomps out of their restaurant, her boyfriend sends her a breakup text, and her dad fires her. If there was any good news, it was that she had time, a few cash, and her mom’s old photo. Yet, the Korean address at the back of the picture that she came across seemed to mean something. Summer hopes that a trip to Korea would uncover her mom’s past, but she never expected to see the mysterious man who was at her mother’s house on the other side of the world. The title includes the unfamiliar words, ‘Korean Drama’; however, it is just the background for a love story that transcends culture, language, and other incredible obstacles. From the review, "This is a really entertaining book, especially for those who have an interest in Korean culture. The first half is partly love story but also has a lot of information about Korean culture/society. The second half gets really exciting in terms of the romance, and it becomes a real page turner! If you like Korean dramas or K-pop, or even if you just like romance novels with different kinds of settings, this book is a fun read." N Seoul Tower was overflowing with people. We went to the Padlocks of Love wall, where there were truly a huge number of locks hanging. Apparently, in the past, people would write a promise or their names on locks and throw the locks down from the tower, but now there is a red mailbox to put the locks in. I picked up a lock and read the “Eternal Love, Sohee & Myunghun.” “I guess everybody does this kind of meaningless crap,” I said to myself. I didn’t realize Minho was right behind me. He said, “When you’re in love, the meaningful becomes meaningless, and the meaningless becomes meaningful, don’t you think?” “You know a lot about love, I gather?” He ignored my sarcastic tone. “I’ve been in love before. Haven’t you? Haven’t you ever been so crazy in love that you didn’t act like yourself?” I shook my head. He looked at me as though he felt sorry for me. “That’s too bad.” I scowled at him. Then, he stroked my head as though I were a little child. Seeing my stunned expression, he burst out laughing.

280 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 14, 2016

About the author

A.K. Moon is a Korean-New Zealander writer currently based in Australia. With a background in Social Welfare, a Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education, and certification from the Scenario Academy, her work is grounded in both human connection and deeper, unseen truths.

Her passion lies in exploring the visible and invisible worlds, and writing stories that reflect that journey. Her debut novel, Falling in Love Like a Korean Drama, marked the beginning of her creative path. After its release, she entered a deeply personal new chapter in life—one that inspired her second book, the Christian romance A Girl in an International Boys’ School.

Though the stories are distinct, both novels share a common thread: they are set in Korea, a place close to her heart and rich with meaning in her storytelling.

Through her writing, A.K. Moon hopes to offer readers not only entertainment but moments of reflection, connection, and soul. Her long-term vision is to grow into a soul who brings beauty and light to those around her.

Reviews

[Fiona · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I'm really interested in Korean culture and I just wanted a fun little read that vaguely resembled the dramas I love. So when I saw this book I got really excited! However, it just didn't work for me, and I only finished it because I paid for it.

I'll start with the positive:

-I think it's great that this author loves Korean culture so much that she wanted to write a book about it. Really, it is obvious what she knows and how she feels about it. I would love to see more authors write about something they are clearly so enthusiastic about!

Okay, now the negative:

-All of the pop culture references were really forced and unnecessary. It really seemed as if the author wanted to let everyone know what k-pop and k-dramas she knows and likes through her characters. Which is fine. But it is non-stop throughout the entire book, and it is just incorporated so awkwardly into the plot. I would read these scenes and feel like it was just a nod to whoever was mentioned. Examples of this that particularly stood out to me:
*An Exo fansigning is mentioned. The characters briefly mention this. I think they went, but I'm not entirely sure because there was a whole one sentence about it. Why? It would've been interesting to see the characters in this situation, but instead it was mentioned so briefly and skipped over that it was more confusing than anything.
*The MC randomly runs into G-Dragon. I'm not going to bring up the fact that running into G-Dragon just by chance is highly unlikely, because this is fiction. But it didn't end with just seeing him. Nope. The MC talks to him, is interviewed beside him, and pretends to kiss his cheek. What did this scene contribute to the plot? About a sentence of her drunk boyfriend getting jealous that she "kissed" a hugely popular Korean artist on the cheek. That was it.
*BTS walks into an American diner. This sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. What did this have to do with anything? Again, absolutely nothing.

-Every Popular K-drama is mentioned. I know this book is titled "Falling in Love like a Korean Drama" but this was taken a lot more literally than I was expecting. The MC goes on a korean drama tour while in Korea and every single drama you can imagine is name dropped even when it has nothing to do with the tour.

-It got really dramatic. Just because you like K-dramas does not mean that you should write a book incorporating every single terrible cliché you can think of into it. What do I mean? Well, this book includes:
*Surprise pregnancies
*Tragic backstories
*Memory loss
*Insta-love
*Characters being shipped off to the Army without any lead up whatsoever.
*A company having a kidnapping/betrayal scandal
This is just to name a few.

-Speaking of insta-love, this book is full of it. The two MCs meet a couple of times, and I use the term "meet" very lightly. It's more along the lines of "see". Well, apparently seeing someone is enough to fall in love, because these two are convinced that this is fate bringing them together, and they are just hellbent on hooking up. They get to together so quickly. This leads to really awkward sex scenes and "I loves you"s between two people who have known each other for less than a month! Oh! And then there is a proposal within the same ridiculously short time-span.

-But it makes sense, because these characters are blander than an unsalted cracker. Beside from clichés, these characters had little to no personality. Every piece of dialogue they shared just seemed so awkward and forced.

-Lastly, I hope you're ready to have a bunch of random knowledge about Korea thrown at you, because that's what you get. I get that not everyone knows about food etc. from other countries, and I've seen a lot of other books about Asian countries do this too, but I can't stand when everything the character eats, looks at, interacts with in any way, is explained to the reader. This book was more explanation than it was plot for 50% of it. Think I'm over reacting? The fermentation process of soybeans was explained.

I'm really not trying to be malicious with this review. I think for other people, it will work. There are parts of it that can be enjoyable, but overall this book just wasn't for me. I just needed more of certain things and a lot less of others. If you know absolutely nothing about Korea, I imagine this book will be more fun for you, but if you are aware of basically any information about the country, you might have a hard time enjoying yourself. Or maybe it's just me.

[Marilyn Vix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought this was a good read. I took it on Thanksgiving vacation, and enjoyed reading it on the balcony over looking the beach. Really gives a good look at a romance happening between Korean and Korean-American, though I think she might have been a granddaughter of missionaries. Good roller coaster of emotions. The only thing is the plot got a little too kdrama'ish near the end, which made it kind of weird unbelievable. I think some ideas should have been edited out to clean it up and make it a little more realistic, like she was trying to cram too much in. It wasn't all necessary. And there was a little bit preachy info dumps about Korea. But overall, I liked it, and was crying through several parts. So, if you like kdramas, it will be something that will be a good read for you.