Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - XoXo

This was a fun and extra sweet story with a lot to love! Axie Oh touches on a lot of important topics within this book, such as the difficult and terrible parts of idol life, bullying, being in a new country and school all at once and adapting to that culture, death of a parent and distance between parent and child, the importance of friends, and learning to chase after what you love and what makes you love life. One of the characters is also shown to be moving on from a break-up, and while I did hope they would get back together, it was also refreshing to see a character be ok with moving on, while also never regretting their past relationship and treasuring the happy moments they had. Axie Oh also discusses these topics by 'showing' rather than simply 'telling' and this really allowed these discussions to be more engaging and threaded all throughout the story in a great way, illustrating the depth of her writing. I was constantly predicting what would happen next, and also constantly found some of my predictions to be wrong, but it made for a fun and lighthearted reading experience. Throughout the book, I even found some moments that reminded me of my own relationship and that was fun too. The friendships between characters were so deeply heartwarming and made me enjoy this book even further, and I really found myself enjoying the characters and story right from the start of the book.

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kaneebli's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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ceredonia's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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daenerystargaryen's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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cutepatzie's review against another edition

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3.5

I like the idea of this book. And the beginning of story was amazing. But in the longer we go into her that is only dawnfall. On like a half of the book the timing is so off that is just a pure cringe of what happening. And the final is so unrealistic. That is so crazy that I was using myself. Why I reading this. It;s such a shame that the book that could be very cool book about Korean culture and K-pop changed from being good to I just want to finish and move on. It hurts like a girl with big dreams and trauma meet a boy with big dreams and they both have problems with people pleasing. Finally fighting for themself to that change to very stupid and so so cringe romance that I just laugh through the tears of how annoying and horrible it was. I just so sad. It still a nice book but I will not recommended it.

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torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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yvo_about_books's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

4.5

Finished reading: May 7th 2024

"Because the people who live for tomorrow don't take risks. They're afraid of the consequences. while the people who live for today have nothing to lose, so they fight tooth and nail. "

I confess that the main reason I bumped this title towards the top of my TBR was that I needed a title starting with X for the Popsugar challenge. I've been meaning to try Axie Oh's writing for a while though, so it was by no means a struggle to do so... I'm so glad I did now, because I ended up having a fantastic time reading XOXO. I think this book came at exactly the right time for me, because I was craving a cute and mostly uplifting romance and this is exactly what this story turned out to be. I loved the whole music element and while I'm not exactly a K-pop fan nor did I know just how big of a thing it was, it was still easy to follow XOXO. The main characters were easy to warm up to, and I loved spending time with Jenny and the rest. The romance was cute in general, but also had a dose of forbidden romance and drama along the way... I could have done without the love triangle vibe, but as a whole I wasn't too bothered by that. I especially loved the descriptions of the South Korean setting and the food, which definitely made me crave Asian food. I ended up having so much fun reading this story, and I already can't wait to read the sequel with Sori in the spotlight. This was my first time reading Axie Oh, and I already know she will appear on my list of favorite new author discoveries of 2024!

Content Warnings

cait's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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