Heart and Seoul

With this charming contemporary, Frederick (Bombshell) delivers a dramatic love story while sensitively exploring the thorny issue of interracial adoption. After Hara Wilson, a 25-year-old Korean American adoptee, overhears an insensitive remark about her adoptive father’s “real” son at his funeral, she signs up for an online DNA matching service to find her biological father and travels from Iowa to Seoul to meet him. At the Seoul airport, she mistakes “photoshop beautiful” stranger Choi Yujun for the driver assigned to pick her up. Their spark is immediate and, after the misconception is cleared up, Yujun joins Hara in her adventures through the city—but before they can live happily ever after, they must contend with some explosive, soapy surprises that come straight out of a K-drama. Hara’s birth father dies just before she gets the chance to meet him, and clues at his funeral lead Hara on a search for her birth mother—whose identity, once revealed, will change Hara’s life forever. Frederick draws on her own experiences as a Korean American adoptee to lend authenticity and weight to the emotional narrative. Fans and new readers alike will be hooked on this page-turning tale. [em]Agent: Steve Axelrod, the Axelrod Agency. (May) [/em]