After absolutely loving Lee’s debut novel I’ll Be The One, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Flip the Script. In this story, we follow Hana, who has landed her dream role in a new K-drama. She’s about to make her big K-drama debut and things couldn’t be better. However, when things don’t go as planned and the series ratings and reviews drop, Hana and the studio need to come up with a solution to save the show. Suddenly, Hana not only finds herself fake dating her annoying male co-star, but also facing a problem at work when the studio hires a new girl to challenge Hana’s role as main love interest and it turns out to be none other than Hana’s former friend who she trumped in the casting process early on. Can Hana fight for her position on the school while falling in love for her on-screen rival in real life?
I really enjoyed reading a book that is set on the set of and surrounding a K-drama. While I’m not the most avid watcher of them, I felt like the vibes really represented the drama, glitz, and glam yet harsh downsides of being in the spotlight as a Korean actress. We also get to see so many different aspects of Seoul since Hana is taken to quite a few places on fake outings with her fake boyfriend and later on with Minjee while they’re trying to keep their relationship secret. Lee describes these lesser known places in Seoul with so much detail that you can really imagine what it must look like which I definitely enjoyed.
Now, Hana is struggling with the fear of disappointing her parents who moved to Seoul for her career and that influences a lot of her decisions throughout the book. One of them being the studio forcing her and her co-star Bryan to enact a fake relationship to make viewers guess at the outcome of both their characters’ arc on their K-drama as well as their personal relationship. I think this highlighted fandom craze and possessiveness of fans quite accurately as Bryan is also a known K-pop star and has very devoted fans who aren’t always…cordial to Hana. While I often didn’t understand Bryan’s motives and didn’t quite believe him falling for Hana in the few short interactions we get with them on their dates that always seem to end in chaos, I did really enjoy Bryan as a character and think he was such a sweetheart for the way he supported Hana when she came clean about her feelings for Minjee.
Speaking of Minjee, perhaps because of the book’s heavy focus on the somewhat initially reluctant friendship between Hana and Bryan, the rivals-to-lovers and overall romance aspect fell a bit flat. Minjee and Hana are friends and the only rivalry they really had was for the role that Hana snagged. Likewise, when Minjee first appears on the set, there is no sense of true rivalry and it’s glossed over pretty quickly as we learn that Hana has had a crush on Minjee for a while. Unfortunately, their friendship and eventual romance almost felt like an afterthought since so much focus was on Hana and Bryan and their struggle with pleasing the studio while also not alienating Bryan’s fans or making Hana the target of hate crimes, and we rarely get to see Minjee and Hana interacting beyond retellings of their phone calls or short bantery interactions. There was more potential to explore their relationship and their dynamic with Bryan that would have added more to the story. I also would have wished for a bit more depth to Minjee’s character as well because we often only get to hear what Hana thinks of Minjee and of the expectation Minjee’s parents and the studio have for her which felt like a missed opportunity. Nevertheless, the few moments we actually get between Hana and Minjee were absolutely adorable and I really liked their bonding on the set as well as their fight for more queer representation in Korean media.
The resolution of this story as well as how the script of the K-drama the three characters are on is flipped was super sweet and definitely made me wish that more K-dramas (and television in general) would give the spotlight to queer characters and change up the same old narrative. I think it’s so validating to see representation change and hope that life imitates art when it comes to how the K-drama ended, but no spoilers.
A love letter to K-dramas, Flip the Script is a fluffy, breezy romance, offering behind-the-scenes looks at K-dramas and a fun queer twist on the fake dating and secret relationship trope.
Flip the Script is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of May 31st 2022.
Will you be picking up Flip the Script? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
The first rule of watching K-dramas: Never fall in love with the second lead.
As an avid watcher of K-dramas, Hana knows all the tropes to avoid when she finally lands a starring role in a buzzy new drama. And she can totally handle her fake co-star boyfriend who might be falling in love with her. After all, she promised the producers a contract romance, and that’s all they’re going to get from her.
But when showrunners bring on a new girl to challenge Hana’s role as main love interest—and worse, it’s someone Hana knows all too well—can Hana fight for her position on the show while falling for her on-screen rival in real life?
-K-drama lovers will fall for all the fan-favorite tropes that make for a hit show.
-Romance is everywhere in this swoony, joy-filled novel, with fake dating, a secret relationship, and a classic love triangle!
-Visit South Korea as Hana takes readers through popular spots and hidden gems.
