Kat Cho
Disney Hyperion
29 April 2025
336
eBook - PDF
YA Romance
ARC via Edelweiss
Moon Minseok—or Moonster as this WDB fans know him—wasn’t born to lead. Even as part of the world’s most popular K-Pop group, he found comfort in his role as the jokester, the sidekick, the unserious one (with the cutest smile). But now WDB is drowning in dating scandals, and it’s time for Moonster to take charge of the group's image.
Shin Hyeri has been dealing with some scandals of her own. An up-and-coming K-Drama actress, she’s been labeled a “nepo baby” (with a famous idol as a big brother) and now, a bully (which couldn’t be further from the truth). Desperate to show the world that she’s earned her spot, Hyeri is determined not to let her rising star crash and burn.
When these two childhood enemies get caught up in yet another scandal while co-hosting a K-Pop festival, there’s only one solution that will save both of their reputations: appear on one of Korea’s most popular variety shows, Our Celebrity Marriage (where celebrities pretend to get married and compete in ‘newlywed’ challenges).
The plan is simple—pretend to get along, win back the fans, then go their separate ways. But what happens when a fake marriage leads to real feelings? Will Moonster and Hyeri bow to the pressures of their famous realities, or will they decide their love is something worth fighting for?
There were a lot of fun aspects to Wish Upon a K-Star. I enjoyed the banter between the two main characters, and the development of their relationship throughout. I thought the book also offered a thoughtful assessment of the difficulty living a celebrity life and the bullying that can result both within the industry itself and from the audience. The pacing of the book worked well, and I could imagine Disney turning this into a film or mini-series; it would certainly lend itself well to that medium. The one thing that did really irk me, though, was the use of romanised Korean here and there. I assume it was to add flavour, but I would personally have preferred it either written in hangeul or omitted. The reason for this is because the romanisation was bad. Some words I had to pause for ages to decipher what it was supposed to be (and I am an intermediate Korean speaker). That wasn't helped by the fact that certain syllables seemed to be romanised sometimes one way and sometimes another. If you tried to read it out, unless you already know Korean there is no way you'd pronounce it correctly the way it was presented. The cringy romanisation did keep pulling me out of the story, which is why I have flagged it as a fault, but I guess for those who don't know any Korean it won't be so noticeable. Overall, I am giving this book 4 stars. It was an enjoyable contemporary YA romance with a premise sure to appeal to fans of K-pop and K-drama.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
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