I picked up Made in Korea by Sarah Suk this spring after seeing her on a panel during the FOLD Festival and as many of you book lovers know, TBR piles get bigger and bigger instead of smaller and smaller. When library books become available, those need to be read first before books I own in my collection. I have finally been able to take some time and dive into this charming YA novel centered around two Korean American high school students who sell K-beauty products at school. A really fun jumping off point for a wonderful story about friendship, family, identity and business.

Valerie and her cousin Charlie have a successful student run K-beauty business V&C K-Beauty. They have loyal customers and Valerie has incredible business acumen. When all of a sudden there is a new K-beauty business on campus, Valerie must learn to deal with competition and discover exactly what success looks like.

Valerie is this strong and edgy character. Her business is her life and besides Charlie who is her cousin and business partner, she doesn’t have any friends. People are either customers or non-customers in her eyes. Her drive comes from trying to prove her mother (Umma) wrong, to show her that she is every bit as good as her older sister and her business isn’t some cute club but an actual, meaningful thing in her life where she excels.

Wes, owner of the rival K-beauty business, has his own reasons to be successful and they come down to family as well. He wants to pursue music as a career but his parents have made it abundantly clear that music will not be his path. After accidentally starting his business, he sees no way other than to beat the competition to support his dreams.

Of course, like any great teen romance, there is this great tension throughout the story between Valerie and Wes. I love how they bring out both the best and the worst in each other. Their rivalry evolves over the course of the story and they both begin to open up parts of themselves that they have kept hidden for so long. There is so much growth in both Valerie and Wes that keeps readers engaged and wanting more of the story.

There is a lot of discussion about home, family dynamics and culture; about finding a home and being a third-culture kid. Ultimately, we all need to find our home within ourselves however that looks. It’s not always obvious and takes some tough parts of life to figure it out. There is a lovely moment in the story where Wes, a third-culture kid, describes how music is his home when he doesn’t feel like he belongs anywhere in particular which I thought was beautifully profound.

Speaking of home, check out this incredible panel featuring author Sarah Suk where the panelists all discuss the topic of home from this year’s Word on the Street Festival: https://youtu.be/ooYqsGwpNDs