Book Review: Kidnapped Idol by Jennie Bennett

Book: Kidnapped Idol by Jennie Bennett
Genre: Contemporary romance
Rating:★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

When I went to that conference that I talked about on the last post, it was mentioned in that class that someone had written a kpop romance. I was all.. WHAT? Cause you know, that's what I want to do. Well, I sort of wanted to do. I didn't think anyone would want to read it. And I sort of wanted to do it just for fun. But here someone actually did for real. So, of course I was intrigued and looked it up that night and since it happened to be free, I downloaded it!

Then I proceed to actually read it... in a day or so.

It's about a girl and her friend who are in China in a study abroad program. One day, they are visiting the Great Wall, and it starts raining and she twists her ankle and she hides in a sheltered spot and then suddenly there's this guy who is also hiding there. And so they talk a bit and she realizes he seems to be running away from something or someone. But he helps her and her hurt foot get back to the their bus at which time there is a ton of chaos and commotion and  he is nabbed and taken away.

So she realizes that he is actually quite famous and well known but everyone is calling him by a different name then how he introduced himself. (His stage name vs. his real name, yeah?)  Her friend helps her fill in the pieces and it's not long until she understands that he is a member of kpop group.

And it appears that he is in some kind of trouble.

Well, of course their paths cross again and she ends up hiding him for a bit in their apartment and it's all very exciting and crazy and impossible. And now I'm a bit fuzzy on the details of what the conflict is but before it's over they are both running from this crazy company and they both end up being kidnapped and threatened and mistreated.

In the meantime, they fall crazy madly in love. They quickly figure out how to deal with these issues and it all ends happily ever after of course.

Well, and so. I enjoyed it just because it was a fun story with all the stuff I'm quite into. But it all felt very surface-y and and I wanted more deepness. That's basically my biggest complaint here. I needed more to it... more to sink my teeth into and to grab a hold of. A more intense romance. More back story. Just... more. Maybe that's not the nature of these types of stories. But if I do write one of my own, I'm determined to try make it just a little more meaty.

The Korean Formula and Writing

It wasn't long after I first started watching Korean dramas that I realized they had a certain template, or formula, that they followed that made them dang good stories. (I even wrote about my thoughts on this back then.) And then when Nano rolled about this year I thought it would be fun to try and write a story using this formula.

Imagine my surprise when I went to the latest writing conference (Storymakers back in May) and realized that they had a class addressing this very phenomenon on the list! (I should have known before arriving, but since I was sort of not very much into attending the conference this year I hadn't even looked over the classes until I got there and bam!)

This class, called The Korean Formula, was taught by a couple of authors who are also very much into this fandom, both kdrama and kpop. (Yes! This gives me hope! A person CAN do both!) They are Shelly Brown and Crystal Liechty and here are some of the interesting things they had to say.

First of all, they claimed that maybe we are all trying to tell the same stories, but Korean dramas are using better ingredients! And, they are using tropes, huge tropes, tons of tropes, that work. Tropes that we all love and look for and expect. Tropes that make the story even better.

Some of these tropes are:

• forced cohabitation... which always intensifies the relationship that's going on in the story. Since this culture has different values than ours (we'll get to that in a minute) they are forced to become friends first and not skip right to sex, which makes this forced cohabitation so crazy and fun.
• multi generational stories... the importance of family and the respect they have for their elders makes it so we have side stories about ALL the people in the lives of our main characters. Parents and grandparents always have a big part and our main characters are always stressed about what these people think of them.
• Polar opposites... it seems often it's rich boy and poor girl. What one is, the other is not. You know we always like these kinds of stories!
• Second male leads... almost ALWAYS there is a second guy who loves the girl, but the girl ALWAYS chooses the main lead. We had an interesting discussion on this and the conclusion is that the second male lead is perfect for the girl, but she chooses imperfection over perfection every time... she loves the main guy enough to choose him even with these flaws. The perfect guy, in the end, wouldn't make her happy cause he's too perfect. I like this thought. Even though it makes my heart ache every single time.

Sadly that's all time they had on tropes (in my link above I listed many more!) but they did have a discussion on the differences between our cultures that make their stories different (better?) than ours. For instance:

• In America we have this idea of independence and self. That we are expected to go off and discover ourselves and do our own thing. In Korea they stress the importance of family and community and it matters what everyone thinks of you. You don't want to disrespect your family and you don't want to let down your community. 
• Speaking of respect, it's a huge thing. It's built into their language. You talk differently to people even if they are just a little bit older than you. 
• Consequences for your actions are bigger. This makes the stakes higher in situations that we might think stupid here.
• Classic gender roles are still the norm and people are expected to act accordingly.
• Romance is more about the slow burning developing love and not the lust and instant going to bed together. This is probably one of my favorite aspects about kdramas. 
• In America we tend to have an idea of entitlement and it's all about me and blame everything and everyone. They have the idea that if something isn't working, your just work harder. You aren't a victim, you don't wallow in stupid things... you struggle and get yourself out and don't blame the world. 

There is so much more that we could have talked about in this class but these are the things we touched on! I loved the discussion and find it to be spot on. There is something different with the way these stories are told that make them resonate more, with me anyway, and with so many other people discovering them!

And now the idea is to use these things to write a fabulous novel! Wish me luck!

We Don't Talk Anymore: A Cover

For those of you don't enjoy the Korean music because, well, it's in Korean...here's a song for you:




This is two of the BTS boys doing a cover of one of their favorite songs, We Don't Talk Anymore, singing in a language they don't understand.... and doing a dang good job of it! I can't get enough of their sweet, breathy voices and adorable pronunciation.

Jungkook and Jimin

Kdrama Review: Lovely Love Lie (aka. The Liar and His Lover)

Drama: Lovely Love Lie (or The Liar and His Lover)

Genre: Romantic drama
Starring: Lee Hyun Woo, Joy. Lee Seo Won
Rating:  ❤ ❤ ❤


This drama was basically a behind the scenes look at what it might be like in a small kpop entertainment company. It wasn't pretty. I really hope it's not truly like this, but my guess is, they got a lot of stuff exactly right.

It centers around a guy who is the songwriter/producer for a very popular band called Crude Play. In fact, he used to play for this band, but instead decided to go incognito and just write their songs. One day, his phone died and he had a tune and lyrics go through his head, but no way to get it saved. Just then, this girl rides by on her bike and she stops, he borrows her phone, records this song and mails it to himself. But didn't delete it.

The guys who play the guys in Crude Play. Aren't they cute though?

So the girl, who is a budding music artist herself. pretty much falls in love with him on the spot and is now obsessed with figuring out who he is. Oh, by the way, she is a HUGE Crude Play fan! If only she knew!!

Well. They do meet up and connect but of course he doesn't tell her who she is... thus the title of the the drama. Meanwhile, she and the two guys she is in a bad with end up getting signed at this small entertainment company... the same one that runs Crude Play! OH NO! Yeah. It gets complicated from there!

The new band that joins the company... Mush and Co.
And the guy on the right is the one I wanted to see get the girl, but of course, he's NOT THE LEAD!

And so it goes. The relationships between the bands... the producers, the managers, the boss. The manipulations between them all. The hurt feelings, the disloyalty, the bonds made and broken. The lies and.. all of it. It's depressing thinking that this stuff probably really goes on.

So that part made me sad.

The romance was cute and fun though. I've seen it described as a pure and innocent romance in lots of places. Which is weird to me cause the guy is "older and experienced" and so for him to suddenly revert back to cute and innocent was strange to me. But still, it was fun.

However, there is not just a triangle in this story, but a... I don't know, what do you call if there is three guys all wanting the girl? Sheesh. Lucky girl. Anyway, I was kinda rooting for the guy who had ZERO chance, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Joy and Lee Hyun Woo

The girl who played this part is Joy from Red Velvet.. a very popular Korean girl group. It was fun to get to know her. I actually really enjoyed the all the songs they sing in this show. It had a sort of musical feeling to it cause there was a lot of singing.

I give it a lower rating because there were a lot of slow parts in between the good parts that were just too boring. And 'cause I wasn't in love with the main dude. LOL.

Here's a trailer:





And here's the song... sung by the two leads... with more clips.




But I actually liked the song sung by the boy band group much better, of course:

Book Review: Switching Gears by Chantele Sedgwick

Book: Switching Gears by Chantele Sedgwick

Genre: YA Contemporary
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I bought this at the writing conference I went to a few weeks ago, especially since it was written by the author in charge of the conference and someone I connected with years ago through blogging. Also, this is a companion book to her book I read awhile back called Love, Lucas. That one was about the sister of boy who died from cancer. This one was about the girlfriend of the same boy.

Well, they never actually were officially boyfriend/girlfriend, but she lived next door to him for years and loved him forever. They only confessed just before he died. Sadness. And so this story picks up a few months later and she is still dealing with his death and his loss.

So she immerses herself into her love and hobby of mountain bike racing. There's a new-ish boy (it's been about a year since he moved in) that has bugged her since he arrived and who actually took over her position as captain of the bike team. She does not like him.

Which means, of course, that they will connect! And so that's the love story. He's had his eye on her since the beginning but she has been annoyed by him. All that changes of course, and he is not what she thought he was. It's a blast to read/watch unfold.

Meanwhile, she has her family life situation to deal with too, which is that her mom is suffering from early onset Alzheimers. More sadness. Yes.

But despite all this sadness, I totally enjoyed this book. Fast and easy to read. Lovely romance. Cute characters. Fun look at mountain biking, which... why would anyone do this? CRAZY! Anyway, these books remind me of Kasie West sort of books and you all know how I feel about those!

Great job Chantele! Okay... so what's next??/

BTS Wins Top Social Artist at the BBMAs

Jimin, Jin, Rapmonster, J-Hope, Jungkook, Suga, V

So, after three weeks of voting online for them... 100 times each day on the BBMA website, and 100 times on Twitter (okay so I was pretty lousy at the Twitter voting, but I tried!) BTS won the Top Social Artist at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night, beating out Justin Bieber who has won for six years in a row previously!

What was the vote count? I don't know the exact final but it was like 300 million for BTS and 20 million for Justin, with the other nominees getting.... way less than that.

It goes without saying that we, the fans of BTS, the fans of any kpop group, were over the top HYPED about this. We were dying for them to perform, but alas, they weren't on the line up. But they did get invited to come and accept the award and so they did and it was awesome and perfect and wonderful.

And now, as expected, the whole music world here is wondering who they are. (Want to know who they are in my words? Here's my post from awhile back!!!) And I'm dying to tell the world. And yet, at the same time, I'm dying to NOT share them. I want to keep them to myself and have them be my own little secret. Let the world sit back and just not know what they are missing. Especially if they are going to be judgmental and racist. (Which is actually happening I hear, after this win, but thankfully, I haven't seen it and I truly hope I can stay away from that crap.) If people feel that way about them, then let's just keep them safe and hidden away!

Anyway, I just wanted to celebrate here and say... look at them, see how awesome they are! If you are interested in seeing our reaction to them getting the award, of course we filmed it.




And if you, like the rest of the music world, want to know more... just ask. Please. And... maybe I'll send you link or two. :)

But I'll send you out with a quick taste for what they're like. Here's some clips of some of their most popular songs:

The Kpop Konverters One Year Channel Anniversary!

One year ago we created our kpop youtube channel. We went into it a bit nervous and embarrassed and shy and wary and feeling pretty weird about it. But one year later we are so so SO glad we jumped in and just did what we wanted to do. It's been a blast. And just like with book blogging, we ended up meeting and connecting with some really awesome people we would have never found otherwise.

To celebrate our one year birthday, we created another favorite moments and sort of a channel trailer to include stuff from all this past year. This will give you an idea of how crazy much fun we're having doing this silly channel and just embracing the passion. Watch and let me know what you think!






We are also trying to push to a goal of 10,000 subscribers, which totally blows me away! We are so close! So...if you have any sort of inkling to subscribe and see what we come up with next, do it now! :)