This book is perfect for anyone who likes K-Dramas or Grey's Anatomy, but I must warn, it's not a stand alone even though it doesn't quite end on a cliff hanger. The leading man was a sensitive young boy who suffered in this world till he became a rigid doctor but a strong sense of duty to the children he treated, but no cares for anything else, including his own emotions. The leading lady has had some hard knocks in life as well and still managed to make some of her goals and dreams come through with hardwork and a loving brother.
The medical drama is really engrossing, so is the description of food that feeds the soul.
The prologue was a little confusing and hard to follow, but that also reflects how confusing Matt is to the people around him and is probably due to being a translation. The rest of the book more than makes up for the prologue and I found myself sad when it ended. I feel extremely invested in the lives, trials and tribulations of the characters who are so multifaceted. The blossoming romance is what I'm look it forward to the most in the sequel as well as certain revelations hinted at in this book.
I received a copy of this book from #netgalley.

I really tried with this one. The storyline sounded right up my alley, but I just couldn’t get into it. I was so confused in translation. I literally had to google a few things and realized I was trying too hard to enjoy a book.

This book reminded me of a Kdrama. In fact, I kept picturing kdrama actors as the parts, Bae Suzy for Yuna and So Ji-sub for Soohyuk. This would be a great live action. I can’t wait for book two!

Thank you to Net Galley for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I feel like this book got lost in translation in some places. There were times that the writing seemed immature & had this book been written in English, there would have been no way that it would have been published.

Story wise, it read like a mediocre Kdrama. (And I'm a huge Kdrama fan). It was quite predictable in parts. I actually found the whole stereotypical evil Kdrama mother in law quite amusing.

The book ended on a cliffhanger, so as predictable as the story is, (Hello lost son), I'm actually looking forward to the next part.

Soohyuk is a doctor who was adopted from his native South Korea into the US. He suffered abuse as a kid and eventually, at thirty four years of age, decided to transfer to Korea for two years to try and find his birth parents. He has OCD and a sensitive stomach so he doesn't eat anything another person might try to give him.

Enter Yuna, a thirty year old woman who runs her own boxed lunch store. One day Soohyuk is drawn in by the smell and it's not long before he becomes one of Yuna's regulars. But Yuna has her own troubles too, trauma related to men that makes her reluctant to trust any, especially one as intimidating as Soohyuk.

Over the course of the book, the two leads get closer, try to recover from their bad experiences but...there's also not much romance going on.

A lot of the book is spent at the hospital. And since Soohyuk is a pediatric emergency specialist there's some seriously awful cases mentioned. It's all to show how much he cares about the patients but not anyone else. He yells at the guardians a lot but it doesn't come off as "shocking" as it should because of translation issues.

In general the translation bugged me, even though I love watching kdramas and had a good idea about the actual words spoken and why they were rude when they didn't come across that way.

I also wasn't very attached to any of the characters apart from Yuna and Minjoon.

Then there was all the repetitiveness...specifically about Soohyuk and how everyone was talking about him but almost always saying the exact same thing (how he's cold, won't share a meal, but he's a good doctor, the best doctor, cares about patients etc).

And the only word Soohyuk could use for Yuna for most of the book was "cute".

So what did I like?

The family relationships. How caring Yuna's family is towards her, her business and Minjoon.

THE FOOD. I got hungry at least twenty times while reading this book. Never enough food mentions.

The subtle relationship change between Yuna and Soohyuk. The actual romance barely happens at the end, and yes, I'm annoyed by that because their story didn't finish, and I do wish they got together sooner so it would be more fulfilling, but I liked it.

Some of the kdrama references were fun too.

So while I did like this book, it was only okay/alright on that scale.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I had to stop after one chapter, the writing simply isn't good. It reads like a white kpop fan's fanfiction.

This book was the perfect escape. It was lovely and fun. It was my first book by this author and I will definitely be on the look out for more!!

Cute, light and an entertaining read! The translated writing style takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do, it's not too noticeable. There were some literary hiccups that had me doing a double take, but it's to be expected for a book that is translated.

I'm not huge into Korean dramas, but could definitely understand the appeal - it's a very slow burn. I wish I knew the ending was a continuation of the series rather than a standalone book. The characters like likeable as well, and I found myself liking Soohyuk's character more than I thought I would. If you're into Asaian dramas, you would probably love this book.

This is my first time reading a translated kdrama-romance type novel. I really enjoyed the more original storyline and how the author weaved how abusive relationships affected most of the protagonists in the story's adult life. Yuna and Soohuyun Cha are interesting characters individually even before they began together as a storyline. The only thing that is somewhat disappointing is that the translation itself is very subpar, which distracts from the story itself. Also, while I enjoyed the story, the focus is not really on the romance for the majority of the story, but on the relationship that Dr. Cha has with his patients & family history as well as Yuna's determination to provide for her family and build her cooking shop business. So, if you're looking for a lot of feels or romance development specifically, this may not be the book for you, but if you like quirky personalities, food and a doctor with no filter, then read on:)

I read this book,but I just couldn't connect with it. I don't know why, but it just wasn' my cup of tea. Only 2.5 stars.

I found the translation lacking, not idiomatic enough and I sometimes struggled understanding the point of certain arguments because of it. It really prevented me from enjoying the story, that was in itself not amazingly original. I am quite disappointed.

Just the Two of Us relies on a near-constant suspension of disbelief. Readers follow pediatric specialist Cha Soohyuk from America to South Korea as he voluntarily—though even using that adjective is being generous—transfers hospitals in order to reconnect with his birth parents, using only Korean he's briefly learned through a friend and a collection of vulgar Korean films. His move is marked by an intense dislike for his home country that is largely irrational and never seems to lessen at any point in the narrative, something I found developmentally disorienting, especially considering the bulk of his evolution is reliant on warming up to new things through Lee Yuna, a woman running a boxed lunch business near Soohyuk's hospital. It would have made sense for him to also warm up to Seoul, South Korea and its culture through Yuna. This, however, never seems to be the case. In fact, almost every part of his narrative evolution can be attributed to his growing attraction to Yuna.

I'm inclined to cut this book quite a bit of slack because it's a translated work, and I know by nature translations are imperfect, fluid attempts at interpretation on the part of one pair of hands. In this case, the translation was definitely lacking and I suspect a lot of the author's style and narrative voice was lost to large cultural and linguistic gaps. There's also the fact that this is book one in what appears to be a series and is therefore an incomplete glimpse of a much larger web of narratives.

Some of the stronger elements of this story included the food writing (which I guess I'm just a sucker for, and never get tired of in novels), the relationship between Yuna and her eight-year-old nephew Minjoon + his parents (which did in fact bring me to tears around the 75% mark), and Yuna and Soohyuk's slow, thawing romance. This romance ruled most of the novel's pacing; every other element was beholden to these two, and rightfully so. Because I love slowburn, particularly when that lazy simmer sparks between two people who don't initially get along, this made the reading experience far more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise.

The downside is that in narratives like these, other elements suffer when romance is given disproportionate attention. Soohyuk makes little to no headway with his Korean roots, despite the fact that it's immediately obvious who his birth parents are, and that he has regular contact with them. Though he shares a tragic, parent-less origin story with Yuna, he is never forced to open up to her about his own abuse, while romance with Soohyuk is contingent upon Yuna answering his questions about her own trauma with men and physical nearness/touching. This imbalance threw me off quite a bit.

Because this is principally a hospital narrative, abuse (including molestation mentions), injury/illness, and gore feature heavily throughout—most often specific to young children. Some might find this hard to get through. The most perplexing for me was not that Soohyuk is a cold, resentful character whose ire no one in the hospital is spared from; instead, it was the narrative choice to focus the vast majority of that ire on the women around him, with very woman-specific language to match.

More to the point, most women in this novel are relegated to roles involving cooking, cleaning, and/or submitting to men in some capacity (most often, Soohyuk). I wished there was a greater speaking role for the women of the hospital the same way Dr. Cho, Hwihyun, and even Professor Park were allowed. Unless my memory is failing me, I don't think any female staff even earned a name in the narrative. They were simply "nurse" or "head nurse." It's like the women of the novel only come into focus as their importance to Soohyuk sharpens. Otherwise, they are featureless, faceless, nameless creatures who exist to be berated by Soohyuk.

Having said that, when the women of the novel are given speaking roles, they really do shine. Yuna, Ms. Seo, and Kyungjo were always narratively fascinating—though one-off lines like, "He was a stoic husband who didn't reciprocate even half of the affection Kyungjo displayed," were mind-boggling characterizations of their male counterparts/partners. Yuna, in particular, and her relationship with food and her family were wonderful at every point in the novel. I loved watching her come out of her shell and truly enjoyed all the ways she clashed with and then slowly warmed to Soohyuk. Despite the issue I take with much of Soohyuk's characterization, his romance with Yuna was his—and this novel's—saving grace and is a large reason why I would say this book is closer to a 3.5 than a 3 for me.

Overall, Just the Two of Us is about as subtle as a slap to the face, though there are a good number of tender, stand-out moments between the central couple, Yuna's family, and Ms. Seo and her son that save an otherwise simplistic rendition of what often feels like a network television novella.

After reading the reviews of this one, due to the different triggering elements of the story that I was not aware of I will not be reading this one. I wish I had known before hand about the triggering content.

This book tells the story of a young man, who has faced various forms of trauma from being in an orphanage to being adopted by a kind American family but the step-father turns out to be ill-tempered and abuses the child physically and emotionally. Despite all this, he grows up and is a pediatric emergency room doctor who is completely devoted to his profession. He has some side-affects from his trauma, for example, OCD, but he is managing in his personal life but excelling exceptionally in his professional life thanks to his single-minded focus.

That's until one day he come home to a betraying scene by a woman that he is giving a room temporarily to, and is shaken. He decides to leave for Korea to find his biological parents. This is really where the action in the plot begins. Through a series of events, she meets a woman, suffering from her own traumatic experience. Will they be able to help each other, move on from their haunting past and embrace the present?

Reading the book felt like watching a Korean drama. Even typical conflicts and resolutions that are shown in Kdramas, are used here which in one sense was interesting but also made the book predictable. Having said that, it is a good book for a light read on a tired evening. The perspective shifts quite often which does detract from the literary quality of the work but was not a hindrance to finishing the book for me personally.

First: the cover is lovely. I was attracted to it and the blurb immediately. And it actually is an entertaining story, but a bit hard to read.

The story is about an American/Korean doctor, who returns to his country of birth to work and to find his biological parents. He changes his name to his Korean one. He is rather blunt and straight forward with his conversations. This makes him rather unlikeable, especially at first.

The reason the story is hard to read is because it feels like the book is a direct translation of the original (Korean?) story. This means the sentences and wording feel awkward and strange and it detaches you from the main characters. So even when the story is interesting or nice, you feel like someone with a strange voice is narrating the story.
I think people who love Korean dramas will really enjoy this though, so I gave it 3 stars.

*** I received an ARC via Netgalley for which I want to thank the publisher. This is my honest and voluntary review. ***

Just The Two Of Us was a book that I started reading unexpectedly.
I love watching K-Drama. This book was like a K-drama script. Sometimes it turned into a fun, sometimes romantic and sometimes sad story.
The traumas that the characters experienced were well worked out, but not fully explained. I fell in love with Soohyuk's love of children. I believe Soohyuk is a special character because it was very difficult for him to make some decisions. He is timid and loving in himself but surrounded by walls against others.
Although Yuna and Soohyuk have opposite characters, they were able to meet on a common point. I wish we could read the love between them in more detail. After a while, the part they liked each other was a bit cursory.

The end of the book was very empty. I couldn't quite understand what was happening, so I wouldn't want it to end like this. Maybe it was written this way because it was the first book in a series, but I don't know how original the second book could be.

Despite all this, it was a warm book that you could read while wrapped in a blanket and sipping coffee in the last months of the year. I think those who want to read a sweet story will find what they are looking for.

Thanks for my ARC to Netgalley and PoppyPub.

“Where’s my lunch?” Just the Two of Us by Ryu Huang

3 stars for this book that reads like a Korean telenovela and is really just the 1st book in the story of Soohyuk and Yuna.

Soohyuk is on loan from the US, a ER pediatrician, to this Seoul hospital. He’s abrasive and tough but is one of the best pediatricians in the country. And he will only eat the food Yuna cooks.

This book is light and really has all the markings of a tekenovela: meet cute, handsome male lead, rude male lead, beautiful and shy female lead, family drama (which will erupt more in the next books), a sick loved one, and good food. Hence, the video post now. Hahaha.

I just didn’t like the fact that it really is just book 1 of their story - a true trilogy (?) or duology - that feels like I just watched the 1 st season of this series. I usually steer clear of those till they’re complete, book-wise.

Anyway, this is also a translation to English from Korean and it shows. The story moves a little jerkily than the original most likely. Japanese and Korean books don’t translate as smoothly as Spanish books, the former a little more stiff and a little abrupt. Most books written in their original language anyway are much more beautiful than before they are translated to English. It’s just the way it is. Some words don’t translate well in another language.

Anyway, thank you Poppy Pub and NetGalley for the copy of this book. Hope the next book comes sooner

I ha High hopes for this book but it was written vey strangely. It doesn't flow. It as though the book was written and maybe translated from another language? DNF

*******************I received an ARC for my honest opinion from NetGalley.********************************

Thank you to POPPYPUB and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book, that a doctor who had been adopted from Korea as a child and raised in the States decides to return to Korea to find out more about his past but then falls in love, is not a bad place to start. Unfortunately, the storytelling itself is pretty awful. It isn’t clear if the problem is the translation or the source material but word choices and phrasing, in addition to cliched storytelling made this one hard to read. I hate giving bad reviews but I the only positive thing I have to say about it is that the descriptions of food were great. Otherwise it was overblown, predictable, and trite. I would like to give the author the benefit of the doubt and assume the issue is with the translator but man, this one was a hard read. I don’t feel like I need to read the second half because it’s fairly obvious how things will turn out.

First of all, why is the ending like that? I can’t tell if I should say that it ends in a cliffhanger or for some other reason, it just feels really incomplete? I don’t know, I turned to the next page and didn't expect to see the acknowledgements page already cause the story didn’t feel like it’s already closed and it still had issues to resolve but I guess they will be delved through in book 2?

Overall, I very much liked Soohyuk and Yuna’s dynamics, they definitely had chemistry and some scenes of them were so cute. I may not have liked Soohyuk at first but as the story progressed he grew on me and as he tried to fix his rude attitude more because of Yuna, I liked him more. I didn’t like him at first because he was just borderline rude and an ass to everyone else except Yuna, for some reason.

* spoilers ahead *

One of the issues I had with the book was that it had just so many issues it wanted to tackle that some others weren’t even executed and delved thoroughly that made the plot a mess. For one, I certainly didn’t care about the Cho family issue? I’ve seen the mother-in-law hates wife plot device so much in books and on tv that I really didn’t want to read about it anymore and it just seemed so irrelevant to Yuna and Soohyuk’s relationship as of the moment that I was just skipping through the pages. Despite some of the unnecessary parts, this was such a fun read nevertheless. I am a kdrama binge watcher so reading this story feels like I’m just watching a kdrama, my reading journey through this book was a smooth sail that I finished it in just a day!