School 2013 - ep 1. Plus a bunch of romance novels
I am feeling a lot better, thank you everyone for your get-well wishes!
Anyway, ep 1 of School 2013 totally hit that sweet spot. My only complaint is where Kim Woo Bin? I was promised Kim Woo Bin! He better appear soon!
I find the first ep a surprisingly breezy experience, more like a school jdrama than any kdrama that comes to mind (and I used to love school jdramas).
Daniel Choi is an ace teacher and his own adorable self.
Especially since he is paired with Jang Nara again. Please please tell me they hook up. Jang Nara's teacher character is one of my favorites. In another drama, I'd totally ship her and Lee Jong Seok's intense loner student, Majo no Jouken style. But instead, hopefully I will get her and yummy Daniel bickering all the way to love.
Speaking of Lee Jong Seok, is it me or is the boy a dead ringer for Jung Il Woo? I do love his character - very quiet but you can sense a seething intensity under his demeanor. And I don't feel bad drooling since despite playing a highschooler, he is 23 in RL.
The class bully (who is not some angsty misunderstood kid but a real, nasty bully) seems to bring all the undertones out in our lead - you get the sense he gives the bully money etc not out of fear but because he doesn't want to go to the bother of fighting - he certainly stands up to him, to protect the mousy kid or Jang Nara's teacher character, the only one who dares. And at the end, when his temper finally snaps when the bully hits him and belittles him and he goes for the desk to hit the guy with - yeah, whatever his issues, cowardice is not one of them. I am kinda in love with him already.
Oh, and he has an alcoholic Dad whom he takes care of and no Mom that I can see. Yeah, I can see why he has issues and no ambition and a sort of gritted-teeth attitude to life.
I already ship him and Park Se Young (hello there, Queen Nogook!) like mad. I mean, she is a bitchy upper-class princess and he is the angsty poor boy. She wants to pay him to keep quiet she goes to cram school (he doesn't even bother answering) and they are on a school committee together and she tries bossing him and etcetc. Plus, awesome chemistry. Luckily for me, they are supposed to be an OTP in this drama. EEEE!
Oh, and I totally love the tomboy gal. Maybe she and Kim Woo Bin can hook up? Heeee.
In romance novel news, I've read:
* Broken Wing, Judith James - hero is a former male hooker turned mercenary, heroine is a lady who sails with pirates and likes to dress in men's clothes. Despite the promised fun of the premise (and also the ton of angst up my alley), I confess I didn't love it. I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot better than the second which is all about the hero being a mercenary in Africa and heroine being elsewhere. It's not bad, but I didn't love it as much as everyone else seems to.
* Three Nights of Sin, Anne Mallory - Marietta Winters is on the bare edges of society but even this ends when her younger brother gets arrested as the Middlesex murderer, a maniac who has been gruesomely killing women. Determined to prove he didn't do it, she goes to Gabriel Noble, the best investigator in London, who charges either 10,000 pounds for his services or three favors to be named (if the client can't pay and he finds the case interesting. No, the favors do not involve sex in any form). Marietta is penniless so she agrees to the three tasks deal and the two of them work together to investigate the murders which are less random than they appear. And Marietta begins to worry that the murderer might be Gabriel himself. This was ridiculously fun (despite the stupid name that had nothing to do with anything except for making a potential reader think incorrectly that our hero likes to barter for sex). And for once, the hero who was not an aristocrat of any sort. I confess much as I liked the romance, I sort of wished this was the first in a series of mystery novels in which Gabriel and Marietta investigated various grisly London crimes.
* If I Desire, Kresly Cole - Hugh has been in love with Jane since they both were young, but he believes he is cursed (long story) so he leaves her without as much as a confession and becomes an assassin for the Crown, as one does. Ten years later, he is still in love, still knows he can't have her, only now one of his fellow agents has gone rogue and seeks to kill her as a sort of vengeance against her father. So now Jane and Hugh must marry so he can protect her. Only no sex, so it can be annulled when the killer is put down. The 'no sexing' goes as well as you expect in a romance novel. This was fun, especially if, like me, you are into alpha dudes who are totally devoted to and putty in the hands of, spunky heroine.
* Taming an Impossible Rogue, Susanne Enoch. What is with awful tiles for romance novels? Anyway, this is my favorite of the batch, because I happen to love most of Enoch's stuff - she always has the most loveable, sympathetic heroes and heroines, despite not wallowing in my beloved angst. Keating is disgraced and also in desperate need of money, so he agrees to his cousin's offer of 10,000 pounds if he talks his cousin's runaway bride into coming back. Only he and Camille prove to be ridiculously compatible...this is just such a fun, wonderful read, with the hero and heroine who treat each other well, talk (no big misunderstanding here), have issues but try to struggle though them etc etc. I adored it.
Anyway, ep 1 of School 2013 totally hit that sweet spot. My only complaint is where Kim Woo Bin? I was promised Kim Woo Bin! He better appear soon!
I find the first ep a surprisingly breezy experience, more like a school jdrama than any kdrama that comes to mind (and I used to love school jdramas).
Daniel Choi is an ace teacher and his own adorable self.
Especially since he is paired with Jang Nara again. Please please tell me they hook up. Jang Nara's teacher character is one of my favorites. In another drama, I'd totally ship her and Lee Jong Seok's intense loner student, Majo no Jouken style. But instead, hopefully I will get her and yummy Daniel bickering all the way to love.
Speaking of Lee Jong Seok, is it me or is the boy a dead ringer for Jung Il Woo? I do love his character - very quiet but you can sense a seething intensity under his demeanor. And I don't feel bad drooling since despite playing a highschooler, he is 23 in RL.
The class bully (who is not some angsty misunderstood kid but a real, nasty bully) seems to bring all the undertones out in our lead - you get the sense he gives the bully money etc not out of fear but because he doesn't want to go to the bother of fighting - he certainly stands up to him, to protect the mousy kid or Jang Nara's teacher character, the only one who dares. And at the end, when his temper finally snaps when the bully hits him and belittles him and he goes for the desk to hit the guy with - yeah, whatever his issues, cowardice is not one of them. I am kinda in love with him already.
Oh, and he has an alcoholic Dad whom he takes care of and no Mom that I can see. Yeah, I can see why he has issues and no ambition and a sort of gritted-teeth attitude to life.
I already ship him and Park Se Young (hello there, Queen Nogook!) like mad. I mean, she is a bitchy upper-class princess and he is the angsty poor boy. She wants to pay him to keep quiet she goes to cram school (he doesn't even bother answering) and they are on a school committee together and she tries bossing him and etcetc. Plus, awesome chemistry. Luckily for me, they are supposed to be an OTP in this drama. EEEE!
Oh, and I totally love the tomboy gal. Maybe she and Kim Woo Bin can hook up? Heeee.
In romance novel news, I've read:
* Broken Wing, Judith James - hero is a former male hooker turned mercenary, heroine is a lady who sails with pirates and likes to dress in men's clothes. Despite the promised fun of the premise (and also the ton of angst up my alley), I confess I didn't love it. I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot better than the second which is all about the hero being a mercenary in Africa and heroine being elsewhere. It's not bad, but I didn't love it as much as everyone else seems to.
* Three Nights of Sin, Anne Mallory - Marietta Winters is on the bare edges of society but even this ends when her younger brother gets arrested as the Middlesex murderer, a maniac who has been gruesomely killing women. Determined to prove he didn't do it, she goes to Gabriel Noble, the best investigator in London, who charges either 10,000 pounds for his services or three favors to be named (if the client can't pay and he finds the case interesting. No, the favors do not involve sex in any form). Marietta is penniless so she agrees to the three tasks deal and the two of them work together to investigate the murders which are less random than they appear. And Marietta begins to worry that the murderer might be Gabriel himself. This was ridiculously fun (despite the stupid name that had nothing to do with anything except for making a potential reader think incorrectly that our hero likes to barter for sex). And for once, the hero who was not an aristocrat of any sort. I confess much as I liked the romance, I sort of wished this was the first in a series of mystery novels in which Gabriel and Marietta investigated various grisly London crimes.
* If I Desire, Kresly Cole - Hugh has been in love with Jane since they both were young, but he believes he is cursed (long story) so he leaves her without as much as a confession and becomes an assassin for the Crown, as one does. Ten years later, he is still in love, still knows he can't have her, only now one of his fellow agents has gone rogue and seeks to kill her as a sort of vengeance against her father. So now Jane and Hugh must marry so he can protect her. Only no sex, so it can be annulled when the killer is put down. The 'no sexing' goes as well as you expect in a romance novel. This was fun, especially if, like me, you are into alpha dudes who are totally devoted to and putty in the hands of, spunky heroine.
* Taming an Impossible Rogue, Susanne Enoch. What is with awful tiles for romance novels? Anyway, this is my favorite of the batch, because I happen to love most of Enoch's stuff - she always has the most loveable, sympathetic heroes and heroines, despite not wallowing in my beloved angst. Keating is disgraced and also in desperate need of money, so he agrees to his cousin's offer of 10,000 pounds if he talks his cousin's runaway bride into coming back. Only he and Camille prove to be ridiculously compatible...this is just such a fun, wonderful read, with the hero and heroine who treat each other well, talk (no big misunderstanding here), have issues but try to struggle though them etc etc. I adored it.