Made in Korea by Sarah Suk

 Welcome Back, Booklovers! July is going by so fast it's hard to keep up. And I'm going to have less free time soon but I'm still trying to keep reading. Audiobooks continue to be a god-send! What I've been enjoying about audiobooks is I can listen on breaks, while doing chores around the house, or just when I feel too lazy to do look at text. I received an audiobook from Simon & Schuster Audio for review. 

Made in Korea follows Valerie Kwon who runs a business at school with her cousin Charlie called V&C K-Beauty. Valerie has goals of raising enough money to afford a trip to Paris for her and her beloved grandmother(halmeoni). Business is going well until one day her sales are low and she hears through the grapevine a new Korean student is selling lip balms from a beauty collab from a popular K-pop group. 

Wes Jung didn't expect to get into the business of selling K-Beauty products but after some classmates decided to buy his mother's sample products off him he sees an opportunity. He has dreams of going to school for his music and since his parents don't support his dreams he plans on raising the money himself.

Well, Valerie is convinced their can only be one student run K-Beauty business at school and challenges Wes to a friendly competition to see who can sell the most. Winner takes the losers earnings. 

One of the things I liked about this story was that it actually felt like a story for teens. These are teens who will be going off to college soon and are dealing with feeling like they don't measure up to their parents expectations. With Valerie she is closer to Halmeoni because her mother often criticizes her and compares her to her sister. And I've been there where I felt I didn't measure up to my mother's expectations and I know many teens that have. Sometimes parents don't realize how much pressure they put on you.

With Wes his mother is so busy with work they don't have time to communicate and he believes her views are the same as his father's without even talking to her. Since his dad wants him to go into what he considers a respectable career he jumps just to having to make it on his own to prove them wrong.

I wanted a little more from the romance because sparks didn't start showing between them until more than halfway through the book but I did like how Valerie and Wes became friends. And Sarah did a good job exploring those new feelings teens feel in a first relationship. I liked them bonding over their Korean culture and feeling like they were caught between two worlds. That's something many children of immigrants face. There's this feeling of not being enough of either culture.

Even the ending wasn't the picture perfect ending but felt true to life. Everyone's issues were not resolved. They didn't suddenly become super close to their parents and have super successful businesses. So I appreciated the ending that said you may not always get what you expected but you can make things work for you.

This was a quick listen and I think teens will be able to enjoy it. Plus their wasn't a white gaze in sight or any white characters I felt played a prominent role so that was also much appreciated. Nor did I feel like this book tried to sell me any heavy handed messages on social justice or teen activism. Sometimes teens just need books where they can just be teens going through teen experiences.