Review: Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout

Title: Hello, I Love You
Author: Katie M. Stout 
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release date: June 9th 2015
Source: Netgalley
Format: eARC

Rating: 3.5/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

A teen escapes to a boarding school abroad and falls for a Korean pop star in this fun and fresh romantic novel in the vein of Anna and the French Kiss.

Grace Wilde is running—from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.

She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can't stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can't deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.

Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she'll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, this young adult novel explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.

I had high expectations when I started reading this book, because I liked that the love interest was a Kpop singer and I´ll be sincere I was really expecting something like Anna and the French Kiss (one can dream, right?) due to the synopsis, but unfortunately the book did not meet my expectations, but it´s not a bad book, it was okay, is just that I expected more.

Grace the main character, is a Country music "princess", because her father owns one of the most famous and powerful record companies of that genre and her older brother is a famous country singer, so she´s accustomed to harassment by paparazzi, people who approach her for her connections or to be famous by association. But something happens in her life that make her flee Nashville and seek refuge in the boarding school for rich kids on an island in South Korea. Once there she quickly becomes friends with her roommate Sophie, whom is Korean, but spent her childhood in the United States so she speaks both languages ​​perfectly, unlike Grace who only speaks English.

And it´s through Sophie that Grace meets Jason, her twin brother and a famous K-pop singer, which is also in the same boarding, and at first they don´t like each other, but because both hang out with Sophie they spend some time together.

Jason is the lead singer and leader of a famous Kpop group, he´s a jerk and rude at first, unlike his bandmates Tae Hwa and Yoon Jae. Tae Hwa does not speak English, so we don´t get to know him very well because he doesn´t interact with Grace, but Yoon Jae is fluent English and he become friend with Grace, I think of the trio, Yoon Jae was my favorite. Jason is a divo at the beginning of the story, but as he gets to know Grace and lose the attitude, his character improves, but he has its moments where he returns to being a jerk, making this a very slow romance.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Hello, I Love You, especially when Grace goes sightseeing and gets to know a little more of South Korea. The main plot is the romance between Grace and Jason, but there is a subplot about what happened in Nashville that made Grace move to another country, which for me at least was predictable because I had already guessed very early in the story, the big reveal.