I love seeing cultural representation in romance books! I love how the main character went to Korea and fell in love, just seeing and learning about a new culture is exciting and interesting.

Now to the second book where we see what comes after the Happily Ever After!

Thank you to NetGalley and POPPYPUB for the earc in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, and unfortunately my time with the ARC ended before I could finish it. I love Asian culture so this book really intrigued me. I loved the concept and I was pumped when I got approved. I felt a connection to the characters and the storyline, and I really felt for Soohyuk. I really liked Yuna and I was loving learning more about the two and their relationship, and I was really sad when I saw "expired." Definitely one I will be picking up so I can pick up where I left off. 3 stars since I can't fully say it was 4 or 5 since I don't know how it ended.

This was a DNF for me from the first chapter. I think it might have been the translations but I just didn't like the writing style and could not get past it .

Thank you for the opportunity to review.

This checked off everything I look for in a book. Was not disappointed. Really enjoyed this book. I will read more from this author and series

I received this eARC from Net Galley and Poppypub. Thank you for allowing me to read this. My review is my honest opinion.

Just the Two of Us by Ryu Hyang is a charming story of a Korean boy who was adopted and emigrated to America. As a grown man, Matt (aka Dr. Cha) is an excellent doctor with a picky stomach. When he goes to Korea to work at a hospital, he discovers how picky his food habits are. Lucky for him, he finds Yuna who cooks box dinners.

This story is complex, which I enjoyed. The food descriptions made me so hungry. I’m definitely going to try some of the foods talked about in the story. The plot is evenly paced. I fell in love with the characters. Dr. Cha is quirky and blunt. Love it.

The part that confused me several times was it was written in third person, but also omniscient. The story bounces between characters so it was a little hard for me to follow. That is why it’s 4 stars rather than 5.

I did not realize this is book 1; but I can’t wait for the sequel. I definitely enjoyed it, and would highly recommend it.

***Trigger warning ⚠️ : there are some difficult topics discussed that happened to the characters. Trauma, loss, and child abuse.

Don’t read this if you are hungry (highly descriptive South Korean cuisine,🤤 specially the dumplings recipe). I was expecting a bit more of the plot in what comes to the romance between the two characters because you don’t really have it in this book - it ends on a cliffhanger. However, it does a good job on portraying the cultural differences, like how hard is it to adapt to a whole new country. Overall, it was an interesting read and I look forward to know what happens with the characters, specially Minjoon.

I wish that Just the Two of Us would have captured me a bit more. Without being rude to the author and the story, it was like a really poorly portrayed K-Drama (which I LOVE watching and getting consumed in). It was honestly just an okay ready and cute book. In it, you will meet Yuna and Soohyuk. Yuna is a chef and cooking is her passion. Honestly, all the dishes she made sounded so freaking good and made me extremely hungry as I was reading. Soohyuk enters the story by recently moving to Korea from the United States for an exchange program so that he can focus on his practice of being a pediatrician doctor.

I'm not going to lie, these two had some cute and then super weird interactions with one another. I think there was an issue in translating the words into proper English and being able to get wrapped wholey into the story. It was just really hard to follow along at time, even if the concept of the story was good.

In the end, the details of the story were great in regards to cooking and their passions. I just wish there could've been more chemistry and background for the readers to enjoy. The translation could use improvement in regards to readers being able to follow the dialogue and concept better.

It was a cute romantic k-drama, but I wish it could've been better with grasping my attention. I will definitely give Book 2 a try.

A heartwarming story of two people who were meant for each other.

Soohyuk: a pediatric emergency medicine specialist. A man who never eats something someone else gives him.

Soohyuk, the tyrant who rules S University Hospital’s pediatric emergency room. He only cares about treating sick children, whether or not that gets in the way of advancing his career. He, a grouch to everyone aside from the patients, suddenly starts noticing a woman: the woman who feeds him.

Yuna: a chef who makes boxed lunches. A woman who panics and collapses whenever she meets a man, due to trauma from her past.

Wanting to do what she likes rather than going off to college, Yuna opens up her own business that specializes in boxed lunches, A Tasty Meal. She gets scared when one day she sees the tall Soohyuk standing outside her restaurant, but she soon learns he is only drawn to the delicious smell. And, somehow, she comes to be in charge of his everyday meals.

When Soohyuk meets Yuna, a confident, surefooted woman who gets startled and scared when he comes near, he wants to know everything there is to know about her.

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I thought the blurbs seem good and promising but nope. I really really want to like this book but it's just not as good as what I've been expecting while I read the blurbs so MEH. The characters also nope, not good.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC

OMG, I love these characters, not just Yuna and Soohyuk but also all of the secondary characters, too. My only disappointment is that it is only part one and not a complete book. I hope not to have to wait for the second half long. I feel that they are family and I need to follow them further on their journeys. It is a very emotional, heartfelt tale. It is not just a romance, it is a family tale or even a tale of multiple families . Families filled with heartache but oh, so much love. Highly recommend. I couldn't stop reading.

#netgalley#Justthetwoofus

A book with an aspect of food, I'm sold. Thank you net galley and the publisher for providing me a copy to review. Just the Two of Us was such a cute contemporary read, it reminded me of a K-drama which I love to watch. This is an own voices story which is another reason you should pick up this book. Yuna is a cook and all the dishes mentioned made me soo hungry, I absolutely love when authors incorporate different foods in their novels, I am a sucker for them. Overall, this was a cute and wholesome read and Soohyuk and Yuna had great character development over the course of the book.

I really wanted to love this book, but I was only able to get in about 20% before I had to put it down. I wasn’t connecting with the characters at all and the writing just wasn’t my favorite. I could see myself giving this another try in the future.

Super light and cute! I liked the characters and really enjoyed the premise. Its going to be hard to wait for book #2!!! It was a great book!

This book was very difficult to get through due to the translations. I honestly was not sure if the rocky plot was due to bad translation issues or if the plot was just that uneven. There were cute scenes/moments, but all in all, the translation issues made it hard to enjoy the book.

I really wanted to love this book since both the synopsis and cover seemed interesting to me, but I ended up being very disappointed. It's so boring and bland! I don't give out too many "negative" reviews, because I always want to find the good in a story, but this was just not for me. The only reason why I didn't finish it, was because I kindly was send an eARC. I couldn't really connect to the main characters at all.

<b> Thank you to NetGalley and the author for kindly providing me with an eArc, in return for an honest review. </b>

honestly, i feel like people either really like this book or hate it. and, i honestly didn't like it. i mean, i feel like the characters were just annoying and just so unlikeable. and also how they talked about how the main male character was talking to someone, so like the male character calls this girl a slut cause she gets in his way and then she calls him an orphan, and it was just so uncomfortable and weird and so unnecessary. and then there was just so much drama and like petty middle school crap, like pulling hair and slapping and just so much petty crap.

and yeah, this might have just been lost in translation, but everything about this book was bad, like the writing and the dialogue. and also how the male character referred to people as sluts and even a cheap porn star. and the tone and the writing was just so misogynistic and i hated this book so much. and he also was a cheater, but it just got to be annoying after a while.

I read some reviews on Goodreads about this book. Some are good and some are bad. So I decided to give it a chance despite my gut feeling was telling me that I'm not gonna like it. And I only got to read 4% and I had to put it down. I instantly hated all the characters that was introduced till then. Ugh! I can't bring myself to like that guy, Matt I think who's the main male character? Gah! Whatever. He was cheated on by whomever that girl was because he didn't even define his relationship with that girl. All he was thinking about was hygiene. 🙄🙄🙄

This was such a fun and amazing book! It really started off the series with a bang! I am already looking for the next book. I absolutely fell in love with these characters and this story. This is truly a love story.!

Matt our hero is a Korean child who was brought up in America with an abusive step father. Still he made good of himself and became a successful pediatrician. But while being very scrupulous at his job, he comes of as cold and callous to other people. He comes to Seoul for a two year stint in hopes of finding his birth parents and meets Yuna, who has a local shop for lunchboxes.
She is very close to her family especially her nephew Minjoon whom Matt mistakes for her son at first. Like Matt, or as he is known in Korea, Soohyuk, she had to deal with a trauma that still affects her and her relationships to others. These two slowly gravitate towards each other overcoming their childhood traumas, and soothing both their souls along the way. They need to overcome some miscommunications mainly due to Matt's poor language skills. We are often explained that his Korean tends to slip into vulgar expressions or lack of manners without him realizing.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It felt like watching a Korean daily drama with a lot of makjang (melodrama), serendipity, Korean cuisine and heartfelt backstories. But also somewhat predictable plot trajectories and Korean drama staples like the nasty mother in law. I am not sure how the book lands itself to people with no cultural background.

Thank you to NetGalley and POPPYPUB for ARC which I received in return for an honest review.

This is going to be very hard for me to review, because I am somewhat confused. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about this book. Is it me? Is it the book?

I was drawn to this one with the cute cover, the synopsis sounded TERRIFIC, and I just had to have it. But as soon as I started reading I was kind of shocked by the writing itself. I am still slightly intrigued... is the writing and the way characters talk a cultural thing? Is it the translation? How can an immediate disconnect like this happen to me?

To be quite honest I was frustrated with all the cursing and the directness of the main character. At the very start, our main character exchanges words with the woman living in his apartment, him calling her a slut, and she calling him a damn orphan!? The conversation felt so unnatural, so uncomfortable. And don't get me wrong, I love an arrogant dude who can hold a great conversation and even a bickering session, but this felt unnecessary.

I would have put the book down immediately if Yuna wasn't introduced. She was cute and quirky and kind and funny. I liked her voice, I loved everything about her.

But somewhere half into the book, everyone starting being a drama queen. A lot of 'HOW DARE YOUS'' and a lot of slapping and even pulling of hair wow! I honestly didn't know what I was getting myself into. I think this may have been a shock for me, and having not expecting all the drama I was startled.

The book did have its funny or cute moments. I really enjoyed reading about Yuna's cooking, how Dr. Cha worked, the cases in the hospital. The setting was great...It was so promising!

Towards the end, I was starting to get used to it, tho unfortunately it wasn't an enjoyable read.

I will read Book 2 now, in hopes that it's a more fun experience.

It may be due to the translation, but the dialogue is just so bad. I can’t read this. Also I really don’t like that he referred to a woman as a “cheap porn star.” The tone felt very misogynistic and instantly made me hate the main character, and feel sympathy for the cheater. Like, I don’t condone cheating but igi girl, he seems awful. DNF.