Book Review

Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo

TW/CW: Potentially disordered eating.

Somewhere Only We Know is an adorable YA romance that feels very much like a modern Roman Holiday retelling between a K-Pop star and a freelance tabloid photographer. It’s light and incredibly sweet. This isn’t to imply that it lacks substance; there were just deeper issues that could have used extra exploration.

Lucky is a K-Pop superstar who has just wrapped up a multi-city tour ending in Hong Kong. The following Monday, she’s expected to make her U.S. debut on a late night television show. Jack Lim is taking a gap year, as he tries to figure out what he wants to do in terms of college and a career. Rather than backpacking around Europe like he wanted, his parents agreed to his gap year wishes if he interned at his father’s bank during that time. Jack’s real passion is photography and secretly takes paparazzi photos for a local tabloid mag on a freelance basis. His parents have no idea.

Jack lives in Hong Kong with his parents and Lucky lives and travels a ton in East Asia. However, both are Korean American and originally from California. The two cross paths when Lucky sneaks out of her hotel room in search of a hamburger as Jack is creeping around the same hotel, hoping to score a photo of two actors carrying on an affair.

What begins as a teen popstar hoping to shed the shackles of her management turns into a weekend excursion for Lucky and Jack. Lucky “hides” her identity as best she can. She frequently performs in a pink wig and signature thigh high boots. With her regular hair, casual dress, and use of the name Fern, she hopes to blend in for a while. Jack pretends not to know Lucky’s identity as he agrees to show her around Hong Kong, and hopes to use their time together as a way to get exclusive photos he can sell for major cash.

See? Major Roman Holiday vibes! Lucky and Jack even meet while Lucky is drowsy from her anxiety meds.

There are several rather serious things that Lucky deals with. She takes anxiety medication, but she has to hide it from the public to maintain her “perfect popstar” image. Her management is rather toxic, keeping her on a very short leash and dictating literally every morsel of food and drink that goes into her body. You can just feel how unhappy she is and how much she misses being legitimately excited to perform.

At the end, there are some steps to fixing her unhappiness, her unhealthy relationship with food, and her anxiety. Lucky also mentions attending weekly therapy sessions, which is fantastic. However, I had hoped these things would have played a bigger impact on the unfolding romance and story. Lucky was really secretive about being on anxiety meds. Jack mistakenly thinks she’s drunk when they first meet, yet Lucky never fully explains why she’s on medication. I had seriously thought that Jack would take a photo of Lucky taking medicine as part of his secret picture stash to sell, but that never wound up being a plot device, despite my fears that it would.

Jack was a sweet hero with a cynical surface. He wants to pursue an artsy dream, but he thinks his parents would scoff at the idea. He hides his passion for photography while begrudgingly assuming he’s in for a life of 9-to-5 misery. Of course, as he spends more time with Lucky, he isn’t sure if giving photos over to tabloids is the right move and if this is really  how he wants to use his photography skills. Jack gets his own resolution, but I wasn’t as invested as I was with Lucky. I felt her stakes were much higher, despite my relating more to Jack’s problems. “What am I going to do with my future,” was a very prominent part of my post-high school life.

The entirety of the book and romance occurs over the course of the weekend. Can you really get to know someone in that span of time? I don’t know, but oh, to have the energy of a teenager again. Jack and Lucky explore Hong Kong, sight see, and do a lot of eating. Never once did either of them need a nap. This book was fluffy and fun. Watching the two of them approach experiences in different ways was really lovely. Lucky was full of gusto, knowing her freedom was short lived. She wanted to do and see everything. She inhaled street food and desserts. Meanwhile, Jack felt pride at being able to show Lucky these things, at seeing her light up because of some tasty dumplings or gorgeous city skyline views.

With young adult romance, there’s an amount of skepticism I have for a complete HEA. While some people I know have met their spouses in their late teens or earlier (Hello, Sarah!) (Ed. note: Can confirm.) my personal experiences are quite the opposite. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a shitty small town and would rather eat fire ants than marry any of my fellow high school classmates. That being said, Somewhere Only We Know manages to dodge that skepticism and come up with a rather satisfying conclusion for this cynical reader.

Click for ending spoilers

Jack and Lucky are on estranged terms following everything hitting the fan, but the end of the book skips ahead a year.

Lucky as rebranded as Cat (her given name is Catherine Nam). She left her toxic label with her super adorable manager leaving to manage Cat on her own. She’s also now living in Los Angeles and doing a secret tour of local dive bars (a la Lady Gaga). Admission to the shows are only given out by lottery.

Well Jack winds up winning a ticket because he now lives in L.A. and is attending UCLA as a dual major in photography and journalism.

They two still have some obvious chemistry, but things are awkward AF. They flirt and agree to catch up after Cat’s show.

Now that we’re back in the same room though? It was so clear that our emotions had been simmering right under the surface. Catherine wasn’t someone I could forget.

I watched her step up lightly back on stage, that happy glow still radiating from her as she sat down on her stool and picked up her guitar.

This feeling right now? The tingles and light-headedness?

It was the anticipation of something extraordinary.

Something special with another human being who was going to leave an indelible mark on your life and change forever. Drawn together by an otherworldly force. I recognized it for the first time in my life.

We would start again, and do it with eyes wide open.

“Hi, sorry for the interruption,” she said into the mic. She glanced up at me. “But I’m yours for the rest of the night.”

I melted. They would try again, no lies or secrets, and just see where things went. Jack knows that Lucky will be one of those people who leave an “indelible mark,” whether for the next five minutes, five months, or five years.

For me, it was a satisfactory “happy for now” resolution.

If you’re after a breezy, somewhat lighthearted romance for spring and summer reading, Somewhere Only We Know is a great contender. Though I wanted more involvement with Lucky’s anxieties and struggles regarding the direction of her career, the resolutions were ones I were happy with, even if I didn’t get to see it as much on the page.

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Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo

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  1. Georgina says:

    Aww, that sounds sweet. I went off YA for a while but am currently half-way through The Summer of Jordi Perez and really enjoying it. (I found that one via a SBTB review as well.) I might add this one to the pile, too.

    Thanks!

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