✅
→Korean-inspired fae

❌
→Mediocre prose
→Mediocre storytelling
→Generic characters
→Shallow romance
→Very little plot
→The chewing descriptions??
→Fixation with how small Sunny is and how she permanently looks sixteen years old

I feel like I already set my expectations very low for m/f romantasy and each time m/f romantasy shows up with a shovel. 

Here's the plot: Ethan shows up, Sunny mentions how hot he is every other line while acting prickly and distant, a Bad Guy shows up, they run around while Sunny thinks about how hot Ethan is, Sunny thinks about the sad thing that happened to her, Sunny thinks about how hot Ethan is, Sunny thinks about her sad past, Sunny thinks about—

Yeah. 

Since most of the page space is taken up by either “Ethan is hot” or “my past is sad” very few Plot Things actually happen. It's a lot of running around, then they stop to eat and Sunny describes chewing in too much detail. 

Lee tries very hard to convince us Ethan is hot and he and Sunny are “inexplicably” drawn to each other. (Sunny IMMEDIATELY has more chemistry with a guy she talks to for five minutes, and then Lee tries to say he feels like a familial/friend character from Sunny's past.) There is nothing there. Ethan is just a generically hot Generic Guy with almost no personality. Their scenes together are not funny or sexy—Lee’s idea of humour is just saying fuck a lot. 

Is there a genuinely good hetero romantasy out there? Pls point me in the right direction. 

Sunny is a fox spirit. She has hidden from the world of gods for the better part of a century, leading a quiet, boring life. When Ethan, a face from her past, turns up unexpectedly seeking help to get justice for his brother's murder, flying under the radar become more difficult. An ancient evil is stirring, and Sunny soon discovers destiny can't always be outrun. 

Maybe I have just read too many books recently with the whole I-can't-love-tgem-because-it-will-endanger-them-so-I'll-lie-and-hurt-then-instead-of-talk-about-it, but I'm starting to find it a bit annoying. Towards the end of this book, I found Sunny selfish and self-serving, looking for an excuse to end things with Ethan and become a martyr. I felt like this undermined their past and their whole relationship throughout the book, and if they'd just talked it out the ending would have been so much better. 
That aside, I really liked Sunny. She was bold and sassy and a really interesting main character with a deep back story that was explored during flashbacks every now and again. I liked Ethan's character growth and his protectiveness of Sunny; he was just a good guy. 
The book was heavily influenced by Korean mythology, and the descriptions of Korea when they arrived were beautiful. I felt that the author really knew the source material and brought it into a modern setting well. 

It took a minute to get into this one. Started and stopped twice, but the story picked up significantly at about the half-way mark.

i’ll say i did like the book and look forward to finishing it but i disliked:
-the narrator’s tone. everything had to have six sarcastic remarks to it. and i’m a sarcastic person but it felt like either “im not like other girls” or “im the quirky sarcastic damaged girl” but overdone. i rolled my eyes at multiple things the narrator said 
-how things are revealed. 80% of what’s “revealed” to the characters is so apparent imo. but what i don’t like is for each of those the narrator basically says what it is followed by “but that can’t be it!” but it is. 
-the use of fe/male as gender markers rather than wo/man. it’s a common fantasy trope especially where animal/nature spirits are involved but it’s also just transphobic as fuck. the novel starts with wo/man then stops as the fantasy part becomes more prevalent it’s just not needed imo. 

that said, i’ve marked when the sequel comes out on my calendar.