Frankly in Love by David Yoon (ARC Review)

Title: Frankly in Love
Author: David Yoon
Type: Fiction
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
(Penguin Random House)
Date published: September 10, 2019

A physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Two friends. One fake dating scheme. What could possibly go wrong?

Frank Li has two names. There’s Frank Li, his American name. Then there’s Sung-Min Li, his Korean name. No one uses his Korean name, not even his parents. Frank barely speaks any Korean. He was born and raised in Southern California.

Even so, his parents still expect him to end up with a nice Korean girl–which is a problem, since Frank is finally dating the girl of his dreams: Brit Means. Brit, who is funny and nerdy just like him. Brit, who makes him laugh like no one else. Brit . . . who is white.

As Frank falls in love for the very first time, he’s forced to confront the fact that while his parents sacrificed everything to raise him in the land of opportunity, their traditional expectations don’t leave a lot of room for him to be a regular American teen. Desperate to be with Brit without his parents finding out, Frank turns to family friend Joy Song, who is in a similar bind. Together, they come up with a plan to help each other and keep their parents off their backs. Frank thinks he’s found the solution to all his problems, but when life throws him a curveball, he’s left wondering whether he ever really knew anything about love–or himself–at all.

⤖ My Review ⬻

The moment I heard about Frankly in Love, I immediately got on my computer to email Penguin Random House Canada about how I would love a review copy. The funny part was that my contact at the publishing house knows my tastes so well that she had literally already shipped a copy of Frankly in Love to me that morning! The fact that she thought of me and knew my tastes so well just left me feeling very touched. (Thank you again! You know who you are and I know that you’ll be reading this review.) And, speaking of review, I guess I should actually start telling you what my thoughts were about this book though, right?

When I read the synopsis for Frankly in Love I thought that the story sounded a little like something I’d seen or read before, but that it still sounded cute and like something that I’d enjoy. Well, I was wrong about the first part! I was unable to predict anything that happened in this story—and if you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that I really appreciate unpredictability in a book! Another thing that I enjoyed was the humour. There were parts that made me burst into laughter and made me think that David Yoon must be really fun to talk to. That being said, there were also parts that made me burst into tears (which I didn’t expect). All in all, I really enjoyed this book (and recommend it to those who enjoy contemporary YA that tackles high school romance a well as issues revolving around immigrant cultures and race) but just found that I wasn’t the greatest fan of the ending.

⤖ About the Author ⬻

David Yoon grew up in Orange County, California, and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife, novelist Nicola Yoon, and their daughter. He drew the illustrations for Nicola’s #1 New York Times bestseller Everything, Everything. Frankly in Love is his first novel. You can visit him at davidyoon.com.