I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo Pages: 336
Published by Farrar on May 30, 2017
Genres: Young Adult, contemporary, Romantic Comedy, Romance
Source: Paperback ARC from Publisher
Desi Lee believes anything is possible if you have a plan.
That’s how she became student body president. Varsity soccer star. And it’s how she’ll get into Stanford. But—she’s never had a boyfriend.
In fact, she’s a disaster in romance, a clumsy, stammering humiliation magnet whose botched attempts at flirting have become legendary with her friends. So when the hottest human specimen to have ever lived walks into her life one day, Desi decides to tackle her flirting failures with the same zest she’s applied to everything else in her life.
She finds guidance in the Korean dramas her father has been obsessively watching for years—where the hapless heroine always seems to end up in the arms of her true love by episode ten. It’s a simple formula, and Desi is a quick study. Armed with her “K Drama Steps to True Love,” Desi goes after the moody, elusive artist Luca Drakos—and boat rescues, love triangles, and staged car crashes ensue.
But when the fun and games turn to true feels, Desi finds out that real love is about way more than just drama.
I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo is a young adult standalone contemporary romance. This book had me giggling and smiling right from the very beginning. I seriously loved this novel. I can’t wait to read more by Maurene Goo because this was everything I am looking for in a cute, feel good contemporary romance. This tag line right here sold me from the get-go: “A funny young adult novel about a Korean-American girl who uses K-Drama techniques to snag the boyfriend of her dreams.” Umm, yes!!! And it was every bit as adorable as you think it would be. I loved all of the k-drama inspiration, and I really loved Desi’s list to finding her perfect boyfriend. It was hilarious.
Desi and I clicked from the very first page. As soon as she was describing trying to make her pencil move with her mind, and she was so deep into her concentration, she had her dad come into the room and feed her soup, I was instantly 100% invested in Desi and in I Believe in a Thing Called Love. Not to mention, her dad! Desi’s dad and Desi’s friends are all kinds of awesome! Desi is a go-getter on crack. She is seriously good at everything, because she comes up with a plan to be the best. I liked this because she is not a mary-sue, she works her butt off. She was awful at soccer when she first started, but it was the sport she wanted to play so she practiced and practiced and practiced until she improved. Same with school. Same with her extra-curriculars. Same thing with everything she attempts. She is incredibly impressive. So when she sets her sights on a boyfriend, she knows she needs a plan because she is adorably bad at everything that is boys. Her friends call all of her attempts at flirting, Flailures- aka flriting failures. Insert a dad who is obsessed with K-drama and a daughter that loves a formula solution, and boom! You have Desi’s new k-drama plan to landing her crush.
I Believe in a Thing Called Love would make an amazing RomCom. It is super funny, super cute and super feel good. I liked Desi’s crush, Luca, but Desi was the real winner of the story for me. I wanted her to succeed because I loved her. Her flailures were pretty epic and hilarious to read about too. If you are a fan of romantic comedies and of K-dramas, you will get a huge kick out of I Believe in a Thing Called Love. I really loved this book!
I Believe in a Thing Called Love by @mauxbot had @Bookbriefs smiling from the start @FierceReads #YAromance Click To Tweet
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Sam@WLABB
I loved Desi and all her Flailures too. Great review.