Hello, I Love You

What are the odds that Grace, the music-savvy daughter of a famous Nashville record producer and the sister of a chart-topping country musician, will fall in love with Jason, a Korean pop-music heartthrob, while attending boarding school on an island near Seoul? First-time author Stout deepens a potentially clichéd premise with carefully revealed backstory. Grace opts to spend her senior year far from home to escape family tensions and avoid the spotlight. Though it’s overly coincidental that Jason—the twin brother of Grace’s new roommate, Sophie—is also a music superstar, that parallel strengthens the bond between the girls, who share an innate understanding of the effects fame can have on superstars’ families. Though Grace is smitten with Jason, his occasionally renegade behavior dredges up her haunting memories of her brother, who readers gradually learn more about. The story has more than a tinge of melodrama, and Grace’s stubborn cultural naiveté, while not necessarily unbelievable, grates from the start. Still, Stout’s romance credibly examines facing one’s inner turmoil and orchestrating new beginnings. Ages 13–up. Agent: Emily Keyes, L. Perkins Agency. (June)