Summer Scavenger Hunt // The Comeback

Who is Ariadne Hui?

• Laser-focused lawyer diligently climbing the corporate ladder

• The “perfect” daughter living out her father’s dream

• Shocking love interest of South Korea’s hottest star

Ariadne Hui thrives on routine. So what if everything in her life is planned down to the minute: That’s the way she likes it. If she’s going to make partner in Toronto’s most prestigious law firm, she needs to stay focused at all times.

But when she comes home after yet another soul-sucking day to find an unfamiliar, gorgeous man camped out in her living room, focus is the last thing on her mind. Especially when her roommate explains this is Choi Jihoon, her cousin freshly arrived from Seoul to mend a broken heart. He just needs a few weeks to rest and heal; Ari will barely even know he’s there. (Yeah, right.)

Jihoon is kindness and chaos personified, and it isn’t long before she’s falling, hard. But when one wrong step leads to a world-shaking truth, Ari finds herself thrust onto the world stage: not as the competent, steely lawyer she’s fought so hard to become, but as the mystery woman on the arm of a man the entire world claims to know. Now with her heart, her future, and her sense of self on the line, Ari will have to cut through all the pretty lies to find the truth of her relationship...and discover the Ariadne Hui she’s finally ready to be.

Lily Chu has a way of putting together a sweet slow-burning romance that is perfect for me. Not only that but the main character is actually growing and finding real passions instead of just focusing on the love interest. This is the case with Ariadne who followed her father's passion to become a lawyer. Ariadne's life is work. She wishes she could travel so when she can she writes the perfect itineraries for destinations she knows she can only dream of because making a partner at her law firm is more important. Enter Jihoon, her cousin's roommate, whose quiet attentiveness upends her world. She opens up to him and slowly and unexpectedly falls in love. The problem is that he's a K-POP star whose high-pressure life is making him reevaluate things. He wants to write his own music and go out on his own but his label will never allow it. Things get complicated with family and work but will their love win out?

I like that Chu's books are steeped in reality but with a twist of the unrealistic. She also makes the sweetest male love interests. I liked that there was a focus on family dynamics and that Ariadne or Ari for short learned how to express her emotions. Her relationship with her sister was complicated and interesting. The father-daughter dynamic was worrisome. I was interested in every portion of her life. I did find towards the end that her decisions were annoying me. On the other hand, I get that she made those decisions because she was scared. Overall, this was a pleasant romance with the sweetest love interest you could hope for. I do hesitate to read more of Chu's books since I've read this and The Stand-In. I've read that The Takedown sounds too similar to her other characters and I could see that. All are high corporate women who are rigid but have a passion on the side. I will wait to see what she has up her sleeve next before diving into her next romance.