Bubbling up with Helena

• Title: Julia Song is Undateable
• Author: Susan Lee
• Publisher: Canary Street Press
• Release Date: 10/28/25
• Genre: Romance
• Age Range: Adult
• Rating: ★★★★★
• Publisher’s Summary: CEO seeks dating coach. Critically acclaimed and reader-favorite author Susan Lee’s hilarious adult debut is a shimmering and joyful look at the magnificent—and sometimes suffocating—weight of family, the ways we limit ourselves, and the irresistible power of love. Julia Song, CEO of Starlight Cosmetics, is at the height of her career. Then why does she feel like such a failure? Maybe because she’s thirty and single, with a terrible track record at dating. And in the eyes of her Korean family, that is just unacceptable. It never really bothered her—that is until her beloved grandmother drops the bomb that she is sick and her dying wish is for Julia to get married. Impossible. So in a moment of weakness, Julia asks her family for help. Set her up on three dates to help her find The One. But it will never work—Julia is undateable. If only there was a coach for that…Tae Kim knows about the weight of familial expectation. He’s currently unemployed, living in his parents’ basement to care for his ill father. Sure, he’s become somewhat of a fix-it man for the Korean community around town, but that’s not a real job. And the pressure to get his life together is getting to be too much. So when the Julia Song—his childhood crush—asks for his help, it may be just the distraction he needs. He’ll do whatever it takes, even coach her for these three dates. Problem is, the more time they spend together and the closer they get, the more Tae wonders if anyone is good enough for Julia…including him.

I love Susan Lee’s work (see my previous review The Romance Rivalry. Her work up until this point has been young adult, and I was so excited to read her first adult romance novel. Julia Song is Undateable certainly did not disappoint.

This book’s synopsis reads like a Hallmark movie, and I mean that in the best way. A high powered business woman has a hard time making space for romance, and she finds it in someone who has been helping the community in her hometown. I mean, you see it too, right? I love Hallmark movies, so this is not a bad thing at all. It just had me eager to see this book adapted into a film.

There is nothing like a good cinnamon roll male main character, and Tae is so charming. He is so willing to help others, he’s bilingual, he’s handy, he has good design taste. What else could you possibly want in a potential partner. I was also so proud of him for taking his brother’s suggestion to see a mental health professional. Therapy continues to be too stigmatized, and it is so important for stories to be out there where people seek the mental health support they need. I found myself wishing Tae was my friend and rooting so hard for him.

Lee’s writing has a positive energy that leaps off the page. I love reading her work because it never fails to make me smile. I mean, an intimate scene on a child’s race car bed? I also thoroughly enjoyed the scene where Julia’s grandmother drunkenly fell asleep during an event at Julia’s office. Lee’s quirky sense of humor pervades her characters and her work.

This might be Lee’s first romance novel, but that does not mean it is devoid of some spicy scenes. There are a few others in addition to the aforementioned one in the race car bed. I would not say this book has the highest level of spice of any romance novel I’ve ever read, but it had a perfect level for this romance reader.

I appreciate how important both family and friends are to the characters in this novel as well. Julia is concerned that her grandmother is in ill health and not only is determined to to ensure she gets proper health care, but Julia even is willing to let her grandmother set her up on dates. Tae leaves his life in Chicago in order to be there for his dad who is recovering from cancer. I love when romance novels center other kinds of love other than romantic.

I will always look forward to reading Lee’s work, and this one had all of her signature humor and charm. I cannot wait to see what she writes next. I know whatever it is, I will be there, eager to read it as soon as I can.