Review of Give Me a Reason by Jayci Lee

*Give Me a Reason* by Jayci Lee (2025). Published by St. Martin’s Griffin.

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

As someone who has been running a book/movie/television/lifestyle blog for over four years now, something you really learn about yourself during this process is that if you’re reflecting on the kinds of books you’re reading and consuming, you start to know patterns. I know my taste really well, so I can usually figure out whether a book might be for me or not.

That said, I’m someone who is very conscious about diversity. Not just diversity in the kinds of authors I’m reading—I also want to read more genres and different kinds of books in general. It’s really important to me, especially as a writer, that I expose myself to a bunch of different traditions and modes of storytelling.

I give this little preamble because Give Me a Reason is not a book I usually go for. Romance is nowhere near something I tend to pick up at the local library, nor do I tend to receive advance copies in this genre. However, because I’m trying to be more open minded and accepting of the kinds of books I read, it led me to getting one of the first copies my local library branch had.

What sucked me into this book originally is that a Korean American creator I follow was posting roundups of upcoming books that were written by Korean and Korean diaspora authors, and I remember looking at the cover of this book and thinking that it was gorgeous. I definitely judged it by the cover, especially considering I had no idea what the book was about at first nor heard of the author.

The synopsis also seemed interesting when I finally got around to reading it, which led me to requesting the book at the library. The day after it came in and I picked it up, I finished the book over the course of a lazy Sunday before I had to go back to work.

Here’s my review! I don’t want to ramble too much in the introduction.

A popular Korean drama actress returns to California, where she becomes tangled up with her ex-boyfriend.

If you think the header above is just like a Korean drama scenario, I would say that you’re right on the money. I would definitely classify this as a Korean American and broader Asian American book for sure though, especially considering the characters are Korean American and act/speak/exist as such.

Anyways: the main character in this novel is Anne Lee. Years ago, she was happily dating Frederick Nam in college, but when her aunt tells her to audition for a Korean drama part, in South Korea, and leave Frederick behind, she reluctantly agrees to do so. We see more of the reasoning later on in the novel, but this turns out to be quite the move for Anne’s career as an actress.

She moves from having bit parts to second female lead to some leading roles. She’s a big drama actress, who’s done some films here and there, and people all around the world recognize her for her roles. However, she’s now thirty, and she finds that the kind of work she wants to do is drying up. She doesn’t want to portray aunts, nor does she feel like living in Korea like this anymore.

So at the beginning of the novel she packs her bags and heads back to Southern California, which is where she’s from. It’s when she goes in for a site visit and talk to her cousin’s classroom that she bumps in Frederick again. His response to her is quite chilly, and she learns that he became a firefighter and is giving his own site talk to the kids.

The novel alternates perspectives every chapter, so we see actually how Frederic went into finance then quit to pursue his passion. He’s kind of empty ever since Anne broke up with him, and we see throughout the course of the novel that he continues to write these letters to her throughout the years.

As Anne is devastated to see Frederick acting so cold to her, the events in this novel are going to push them together. When one of Anne’s cousins and Frederick’s firehouse buddies are getting married, the two are going to realize that they’re in the same wedding party and literally cannot avoid each other.

And although they try to act like they’re not interested and angry with each other, neither of this duo is over the other. Like it’s actually kind of bad how deeply in love they still are with each other, especially on Frederick’s end. He mentions only dating like two other girls, which means he never really experienced a dating life beyond Anne.

Overall Thoughts

For my tastes, I thought this novel was just okay. I’m not into the romance, and there are some scenes in here that get a little spicy towards the end of the book, but I thought the story overall was kind of cute. Did I find it realistic? No, but we’re not reading these kinds of novels for realism sometimes.

I did find the dynamic between the sisters and cousins to be something really refreshing to read. It felt like real life jumping onto the page, and it was very clearly set in the modern day from the way these women were acting and talking to each other. I wanted to read more scenes like that, before they had to go to the firehouse to comfort Joe, but we only got bits and pieces of that throughout the rest of the book.

I also thought that the two main characters were kind of flat and static. Love that they’re obsessed with each other after all of these years and clearly have some regrets, but Frederick especially felt like someone written by a woman. He didn’t feel real to me, even though there are tidbits about his past that should make me sympathize with him more.

In the end Anne just felt like the more real and fleshed out character, which is why I couldn’t fully invest myself emotionally in their relationship. I was also getting kind of bored of the story by the time I got to around page 220 and I did wonder if this novel could use some trimming.

This wasn’t my cup of tea, but I could see how someone else out there might love it! If you’re interested and reading it and haven’t gotten the chance, please go ahead and do so. Taste is so incredibly subjective, so while this might not be a book I love, it could become your favorite book. Neither of us are wrong.

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