Book: Trick of the Spotlight by M.L. East
Genre: Kpop romance
Rating: ★ ★ ★
I was approached to read this first book of a new kpop romance series by a new author. Of course I was all, sure! It seems to be kind of my thing at the moment I guess. She warned me that this one might have some content (language and etc.) that I might have issues with, but still I said, eh. I'll see what I think.
Well, let's just say the warning was justified! Whew, this one has a LOT of content that I usually don't read! It actually read like a fanfic, which I am not...a fan of...even though I've never really read any. LOL. But a fanfic in this fandom is when people write really explicit (usually? mostly?) stories about their favorite kpop groups turning them into lustful, rebellious, sometimes nasty boys. If I understand right, people insert their fantasies into these stories including their favorite ships (meaning the boys in love with each other) and inserting themselves (what we call a y/n moment... or your name here moment) into the stories. So many people LOVE LOVE LOVE them and they get a lot of response and activity.
So that being said, they aren't my favorite thing and yet, this book really felt like that to me. If that makes sense. But despite that, I found it interesting to just plug along and see where this book took me.
It's about a girl from Ohio who loves a very popular kpop group. They inspire her to tryout for the singing thing herself and by some crazy miracle she makes it! And suddenly she finds herself in Korea becoming a very popular idol herself and even in the same company with her favorite band! The book opens when she is on a TV talk show together with these guys. So we meet them there and see their interaction and her first impressions of them in real life. Afterwards, she gets invited to their concert and then gets invited to their after party. And they are... shall we say... interesting! And not at all how I picture MY kpop boys!
After that she ends up in their same path often, and starts a relationship with her favorite dude. Which makes her a little nervous because this favorite dude is "shipped" with one of the other guys. And she is worried about whether or not this relationship is actually real. Is she messing something up? Or is this relationship just a play for the fans? She doesn't know for sure. And it goes from there and things get a bit crazy!
So in that aspect it was lots fun. And again it's fun to see someone's idea of what might be going on behind the scenes. This take was very very different from the other's I've read in that regard. These boys were in my opinion, not so nice. Sex craved, foul mouthed, mean to our girl, and etc. And of course, we don't know what they are like in real life when the cameras are off, but I like to still imagine them as decent guys!
The girl was interesting too. I wanted to like her more, but she made me a little crazy. But not sure I can actually put my finger on why. Maybe because she went along with things way too easily. She portrayed herself as a very naive, but she didn't act like that. I don't know. She was interesting. I am willing to give her a chance though.
So yes, I understand there will be more to this story. I think if given the opportunity I will continue. I am curious. The author told me these characters will go through quite the arc and will make changes. I want to see that! And my heart goes out them, because they are portrayed as having many hard issues they are dealing with. So it would be nice to see what happens to them and if they find happiness and peace.
Thank you to the author for sending me this book to read and review! Hopefully it's okay that I am totally honest in that there were some things that were a bit over the top for me! :)
Oh, this book has a lovely book trailer:
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