Book: XOXO by Axie Oh
Genre: YA contemporary
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
I promise when I picked this one up to read I didn't know it was yet another kpop book! I just knew it was a contemporary romance. But then when I looked closer I was like... oh, seriously? So yeah, the kpop books are finding me now, I don't even have to go out and look for them! I don't think it's just me, I think they are becoming a thing. So interesting.
So this one is about a girl who ends up going to Korea with her mom for a semester of high school. She's a huge celloist and plans to get into a prestigious university, so to help her with those goals, she ends up enrolling in a performing arts high school in Seoul. And guess who else goes to performing arts high schools in Seoul... kpop idols!
Turns out that the guy she bumped into briefly and hung out with for an evening before she went to Korea goes to that high school! What are the chances! And yes, he's in a band, and yes the band is very popular. So they become friends, even though they try to keep it kind of secret. That's because one of the other band members has just had a bit of scandal himself. With the girl who is now our girl's roommate. Yes. The craziness!
Anyway, it was another fun look into the kpop industry, and what it might be like behind the scenes of a famous group... and how they are just regular guys trying to live a regular life and have regular friends, in between being extremely famous. It's seriously a crazy world for them.
I really enjoyed this one, yet again. This author knows her kpop and everything felt spot on for me and was presented in a good way and not a dumb "let's make fun of this" way.
And now I have yet another fictional band to love.... XOXO!
