Skip to main content

XOXO by Axie Oh

 


SYNOPSIS

Cello prodigy Jenny has one goal: to get into a prestigious music conservatory. When she meets mysterious, handsome Jaewoo in her uncle's Los Angeles karaoke bar, it's clear he's the kind of boy who would uproot her careful plans. But in a moment of spontaneity, she allows him to pull her out of her comfort zone for one unforgettable night of adventure... before he disappears without a word.

Three months later, when Jenny and her mother arrive in South Korea to take care of her ailing grandmother, she's shocked to discover that Jaewoo is a student at the same elite arts academy where she's enrolled for the semester. And he's not just any student. He's a member of one of the biggest K-pop bands in the world- and he's strictly forbidden from dating.

When a relationship means throwing Jenny's life off the path she's spent years mapping out, she'll have to decide once and for all just how much she's willing to risk for love.

REVIEW

This book is a charming, heartfelt story about following your dreams and being true to the music. It makes you want to smile and have that warm feeling, just as we get into the sunny summer months.

Even though there were plot points that could have been developed, this was a sweet story about family, friendship and love in the beating heart of Korea.

If you want all the feels of travelling and visiting somewhere when times are tough and you just want to escape, this would be the perfect book to escape to. It doesn't impose what you should do, but rather what you could be and how you can better yourself, even if you feel like you have a pretty great life already. It opens up that treasure box stored deep away in yourself, asking, are you really being true to yourself? How can you be better than the person you already are.

This is a great book even if you want to experience a new culture that is vivid and exciting. It has an outstanding impact on the plot and gives you that overwhelming sense that this is a culture that must be shared and you must discover for yourself.

It would be quite interesting to see how this story would continue if there were a sequel because it gives me Fame vibes, yet, is nothing like Fame and something completely unique at the same time.

I'm glad that I was able to read this book at a time when I was struggling to grasp life itself. It just shows, the best books are able to help you understand yourself and the world when you at one of your lowest points. This book is like therapy, but the best kind where the sun always shines and makes you feel at ease.

RATING: **** (FOUR STARS)

BUY LINKS





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts of a Bookworm #5: Goodreads Choice Award is Fake

 Hello! So, I know that it has been some time since I was last writing to you all. But I saw an email the other day and it really got me that I couldn’t not share my thoughts on it.  As we all know it’s that time of year again. The fairy lights are beginning to twinkle, the days and nights are getting darker and colder and we are all starting to look ahead to the next year. But what comes before next year? Well, the Goodreads Book Choice Awards of course. One of the biggest events in a bookworm’s calendar. But personally, I think the whole thing is an insult to the whole book community. Obviously, when I was younger I didn’t think any different to most bookworms. However, I have come to realise that it isn’t necessarily what is the best book of the year but rather a popularity contest. More so now than ever with the insurgence of ‘BookTok’. Honestly, I don’t think we will ever get a book worthy of the title ever again. It has become a pure vanity project. Take me back to the T...

What's not to be perfect?

Happy New Year! Like as I have said last week, we are going into something a bit more depressing. To start off this post I have decided that before I do go into specific details, I thought it would be a good idea to look at New Years resolutions. What is yours? I know for a fact what mine will be. It would have to be about how I always leave work until I have to do it. So this coming year my method for to stop making this habit would be to maybe make the habit of doing it earlier than what I once did. Just remember guys, never make a New Years resolution if you can't keep at it. Otherwise what is the point of actually making one? Anyway the book I am going to be focusing on this Tuesday, would be a book called The Perfectionists. It is about how five girls devise a plan against this boy called Nolan Hotchkiss and of course there will be a murder, betrayal and a bit of poison.   I have to be completely honest about how i felt about the whole plot, before going onto other re...

Ice Kissed by Amanda Hocking

The sequel to Frostfire in the Kanin Chronicles trilogy...       So it finally came out in May, after the very disappointing ending of the first book - Frostfire. But this time it came back with a slightly big bang. Not only do we get to the bottom of the mysterious disappearance of Queen Linnea. But also that there is something much more going on, which corruption fills the air with a metal taste.   The plot itself is largely more focused compared to the latter first book, which really only took us in the direction in terms of background and context. There is a lot more heated passion between a few characters, as well as some expected deaths towards the end.   Luckily with this trilogy, all of the three books take place of being published within 2015. Therefore, it is not a long wait until we all find out how Bryn would end up.   Towards the end of the book, I must admit that I found it to become very addictive. As there was a lot of...