“And the place where you once thought you belonged, you don’t. You’re still on the outside. […] Everyone wants to belong —to someone. Somewhere.”
Heart and Seoul is Jen Frederick’s latest novel and the author borrows from her own experiences as a Korean-American adoptee to tell an emotional story full of ups and downs. We follow the main character, Hara, a Korean-American adoptee that decides to go on a journey to her birth country to search for her birth father. However, she discovers more about her roots, her identity, and herself than she imagined before embarking on this trip.
Hara doesn’t have an easy start. When we meet her, she has just lost her adoptive father and after receiving a certain message, she decides to fly to Seoul to find and confront her birth father. However, that does not go as planned and very early on—as in her first day in the city—she discovers a harsh truth that will set her in motion to investigate even more on her birth family. But in the city she also has some heartwarming and fun moments where she gets to learn more about the Korean culture, even if they clash with her American customs. These moments come from her roommates but also from the charming boy she met upon her arrival at the airport… A boy that completely enchanted her.
If we’re being honest, romance is not the main focus of the story, and you certainly will not get a Happily Ever After ending. This is more of a self-discovery journey, the story of a young woman who wants to find herself and her roots, a girl in her 20s that is so desperate to belong. Heart and Seoul focuses a lot more on family relationships and dynamics. It’s about the secrets that people keep from one another thinking they’re protecting each other and themselves. On the romance side, the story is missing something and it can cause mixed feelings on readers as much as it does on the main character. However, the initial friendship between Hara and Yujun is quite sweet and endearing. Yujun teaches Hara a lot about Korean culture and reassures her that she is indeed Korean, which is a part of herself that she had always tried to erase in the past.
Hara’s journey towards finding herself is the main highlight of the book. It’s interesting to see her thoughts on her own identity, on how people perceive her, and also the struggles that adoptees face: how she “looks Korean but feels American”, how she felt too Korean on the outside whilst she lived in America but when she was in Korea she felt too American the moment she opened her mouth, and how she feels this “otherness” no matter where she goes. It’s a very introspective read and the truth is that Hara comes so far throughout the book and her character development is beautiful. She goes from being a timid woman who bottles up her emotions to being a bold, strong, and assertive woman who stands up for herself. What’s also great about this emotional growth is that it goes in hand with Frederick’s writing, since we’re seeing the story from Hara’s POV, we can feel this growth as we read and that’s all thanks to the author’s words and the way she describes and phrases everything.
The other main strong point and highlight of the book is the setting. South Korea is a beautiful country with a rich culture and lots of different customs. Whether you are familiar or not with these, Heart and Seoul will be an enriching read. Seeing Hara navigating through the city of Seoul, the place she was born in but that she knows nothing about, is very interesting: from the city landscapes, to the language itself, the customs (drinking customs, how to address people, etc) and even the way adoption is seen in Korea.
The story itself is also interesting as this is not your usual adoptee story. There are a lot of ups and downs and plot twists that one would not expect, but they keep you hooked and it’s all very intense because Hara is presented with some harsh truths that nobody would find easy to deal with. The story in general has a great pace and flows well; however, the ending does feel a bit abrupt and with a slight lack of resolution on some points. That being said, even if the ending isn’t the one one would hope at the beginning of the book, there is a glimmer of hope as Hara does find some peace with herself.
All in all, full of twists and turns, Heart and Seoul is an addictive, emotional, and tense read that will keep you hooked from the very beginning, much like a K-Drama!
Heart and Seoul is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
From USA Today bestselling author Jen Frederick comes a heart-wrenching yet hopeful romance that shows that the price of belonging is often steeper than expected.
As a Korean adoptee, Hara Wilson doesn’t need anyone telling her she looks different from her white parents. She knows. Every time Hara looks in the mirror, she’s reminded that she doesn’t look like anyone else in her family —not her loving mother, Ellen; not her jerk of a father, Pat; and certainly not like Pat’s new wife and new “real” son.
At the age of twenty-five, she thought she had come to terms with it all, but when her father suddenly dies, an offhand comment at his funeral triggers an identity crisis that has her running off to Seoul in search of her roots.
What Hara finds there has all the makings of a classic K-drama: a tall, mysterious stranger who greets her at the airport, spontaneous adventures across the city, and a mess of familial ties, along with a red string of destiny that winds its way around her heart and soul. Hara goes to Korea looking for answers, but what she gets instead is love —a forbidden love that will either welcome Hara home…or destroy her chance of finding one.
