The Comeback by Lily Chu is an emotional yet delightful read

If there’s one word to describe Lily Chu and her books, it’s dazzling. I was so excited when Sourcebooks Casablanca sent me an early copy of The Comeback.

While her debut got a lot of hype due to its audiobook, Sourcebooks Casablanca eventually published it in paperback and is now doing the same with The Comeback. Even if you’ve listened to the audiobook, it’s still worth picking up in a physical copy.

The Comeback is slightly similar to Chu’s debut novel, The Stand-In as a lot of the themes are there and some of the same sentiments are echoed. Regardless, The Comeback feels like an entirely different world in some ways.

If you’re excited about getting a physical copy of The Comeback or want to dive back into this author’s work, you’re in for a treat with this new release.

The Comeback by Lily Chu is a dazzling yet emotional read with lots to offer.

If you’ve read The Stand-In, you’ll know Lily Chu enjoys writing about fame yet The Comeback takes it further. We first meet Ariadne Hui who is a successful lawyer and that’s pretty much it. Her entire world gets turned upside down when she meets Jihoon who is her best friend’s cousin and the two begin by embarking on a reluctant friendship.

Of course, as these things go, Jihoon and Ari get a lot closer yet the book doesn’t focus solely on their relationship. Instead, we find out a pretty big secret about Jihoon and everything essentially implodes from there. It’s very dramatic yet surprisingly fun to see how everything plays out.

While I did enjoy all of the commentary about fame, celebrities’ right to privacy, and realizing your goals can change, the character development in The Comeback was top-tier. I couldn’t get enough of seeing how both Ari and Jihoon grew as people and a couple. For Ari, she was dealing with so much and once she started to reassess her priorities, it felt so refreshing.

Although I will say that some of the things Ari did felt surprisingly relatable. I mean I’m sure most of us love making a list and planning which was her specialty. I just couldn’t get enough of her and I’d honestly read a novella just about her doing her job.

As for Jihoon, I don’t want to give away too much of his plotline, because that felt like such a huge part of the story that we weren’t privy to. Regardless, you might be able to figure it out from the synopsis. Even so, I don’t want to feel like I’m giving away too much.

As much as I enjoyed how sparkly and fun The Comeback was, I felt like the romance took too much of a backseat at times. While I know this book isn’t written as a traditional romance, I feel like there could have been more moments of the two together or just more relationship development on the page. Maybe that’s just my qualm as a romance reader, though. Either way, I adore Lily Chu and I know I’ll be picking up anything else she puts out.

The Comeback by Lily Chu is out now in paperback wherever books are sold. 

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