The Comeback
by Lily ChuSetting: Canada and Korea
Length: 12:14
Published on July 14, 2022
Format: Audiobook Source: Audible
12 hours, 14 minutes
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.
Ariadne’s only goal in life is to make partner at her law firm. She sacrifices everything else for that goal. No hobbies, no vacations, no dating. She would love to go on vacations. She even makes elaborate plans of vacations for herself and for friends. But she never takes them. Going on vacation shows a lack of dedication to her job.
Her world gets turned upside down when she meets her roommate’s cousin. For a while she thinks he’s into organized crime because he never goes out of the apartment without a hat and mask. She doesn’t suspect that he’s a major K-Pop idol. She doesn’t know anything about that world.
I enjoyed this book even though it had a few tropes that I can’t stand. I hate when people get all bent out of shape about someone lying to them. Usually “lying” in this context actually means not telling them everything. You don’t have the right to know everyone’s business. If they don’t tell you something you don’t get to be all huffy about it. Shut up.
Ariadne is a very angry person. She likes to hold on to her anger even when it is actively hurting her and other people. She’s stubborn too. Any deviation from her life plan is unacceptable even if she can admit that her life might be better. I do enjoy a good character flaw but it got a little old to listen to her ramble on about how she is mad at her sister for having a life she didn’t approve of.
There were a few times when I thought that I had heard this story before. It shares several plot points with Once Upon a K-Prom. That story was aimed more at a YA audience. It shared concerns with lack of privacy in k-pop, fan anger over idols dating, and wanting to write different styles of music.
