review: I believe in a thing called love by maureen goo

Desi Lee knows how carburetors work. She learned CPR at the age of five. As a high school senior, she has never missed a day of school and has never had a B in her entire life. She's for sure going to Stanford. But—she’s never had a boyfriend. In fact, she’s a disaster in romance, a clumsy, stammering humiliation-magnet whose botched attempts at flirting have become legendary with her friends. So when the hottest human specimen to have ever lived walks into her life one day, Desi decides to tackle her flirting failures with the same zest she’s applied to everything else in her life. She finds her answer in the Korean dramas her father has been obsessively watching for years—where the hapless heroine always seems to end up in the arms of her true love by episode ten. It's a simple formula, and Desi is a quick study. Armed with her “K Drama Rules for True Love,” Desi goes after the moody, elusive artist Luca Drakos—and boat rescues, love triangles, and fake car crashes ensue. But when the fun and games turn to true feels, Desi finds out that real love is about way more than just drama. ~ Goodreads

Source: ARC via ALA

Review:

There is SO much to love about I Believe in a Thing Called Love. The effortless diversity, Korean culture, the authentic teen voices, the parent/child relationship. It’s too bad that the book derails into some really troubling behavior.

Desi excels at EVERYTHING. If she can’t do it at first, she studies it ruthlessly until she can. She’s smart, hardworking, determined, loyal and kind. She’s a wonderful character to root for at first. The only thing she’s ever failed at is getting a boyfriend. She gets all tongue tied and klutzy. When new broody and artsy Luca shows up and seems interested - until Desi literally drops her draws in front of him at school (it was an accident!) - she knows she needs to apply her trademark rules and order if she’s going to land her guy.

She manages to pick herself up and regroup even after humiliating events that would take down a grown up and it's hard not to love and admire her for that. 

She decides to make a list of steps to follow to get Luca based on the K Drama’s her father obsessively watches. As much as I’m not a fan of Desi’s somewhat goal oriented, impersonal approach – it makes perfect sense for Desi. It’s just how she lives life. Very methodically.

Yes, you know going in this is is going to be a bit of a madcap adventure and you need to go with it. But….

I was happily ignoring some of the silly antics because really, everything about this book was adorable. Desi’s mom died when she was 7 so it’s just her and her dad and they have the BEST relationship I’ve read in YA in a long, long time. Her best friends tell her she shouldn’t do the list but help her out anyway…fake love triangles, pretending she loves art to get into Luca’s art class. All manipulative but fairly harmless and not anything that most of us didn't do in HS to get closer to a crush.

Then Desi goes down a slippery slope that just wasn’t fun anymore. She finds out that Luca doesn’t date and his reasons behind that choice then does exactly what he’s afraid of and manipulates him anyway. Strike one for me. Worse, she puts them in dangerous situations. From that point on it was hard for me to just roll with Desi’s stunts.

I don’t think I’m spoiling anything here by saying she gets found out and things come crumbling down. So Desi learns her lesson, burns the list and does the right thing. HAHAHAHA! No, she’s doesn’t. She 1/2 learns her lesson and does it AGAIN. *face palm* at this point.

If I was just rating this on everything but the list and romance (which was kind of bleh) – I would give it 4-5 stars. SO cute, or if the things that bothered me weren't so pivotal to the plot, but I can’t ignore what she did and the feeling that she would do it all again. I seriously believe she needs therapy. I thought Luca should run for the hills . What will she do if she thinks he’s cheating or losing interest later?

There’s a quote in the book to describe K Drama’s that pretty much explains the mindset you need going in.

“Once you start going down Disbelief Road, you’re lost forever, boyfriend,” I said. “Just sit back and believe, it’s so much more fun that way.”

If you love K Drama and can let some of the things that bothered me go – then I highly recommend this book but if you can’t – take a pass.