"A heartwarming, sparkling romantic comedy about what happens when what your heart wants and what your parents want don't match...Melissa de la Cruz enchants and delights in her usual style. Completely unputdownable!" —Sandhya Menon, New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi "A refreshingly modern love story, 29 Dates serves up a funny and heartfelt rom-com about finding love and figuring out life on your own terms." —Maurene Goo, author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love and The Way You Make Me Feel How many dates will it take to find The One? Jisu's traditional South Korean parents are concerned by what they see as her lack of attention to her schoolwork and her future. Working with Seoul's premiere matchmaker to find the right boyfriend is one step toward ensuring Jisu's success, and going on the recommended dates is Jisu's compromise to please her parents while finding space to figure out her own dreams. But when she flubs a test then skips out on a date to spend time with friends, her fed-up parents shock her by shipping her off to a private school in San Francisco. Where she'll have the opportunity to shine academically—and be set up on more dates! Navigating her host family, her new city and school, and more dates, Jisu finds comfort in taking the photographs that populate her ever-growing social media account. Soon attention from two very different boys sends Jisu into a tailspin of soul-searching. As her passion for photography lights her on fire, does she even want to find The One? And what if her One isn't parent and matchmaker approved?

メリッサ・デ・ラ・クルスは、伝統的な期待と個人の夢が衝突する火花を鮮烈に描きました。主人公がカメラを通して自分だけの真実を見つけ出す過程は、他人の価値観に縛られがちな現代人への力強いエールです。単なる恋探しではなく、自己を定義する闘争こそが本作の本質的な魅力と言えるでしょう。 映像版では都市の躍動感やデートの喧騒が華やかに表現されていますが、原作は主人公の繊細な内面の変化を深く掘り下げています。映像の色彩美と活字が紡ぐ心理描写の相乗効果により、物語は立体的な厚みを増しました。両メディアを味わうことで、愛と自立の物語はより鮮烈に読者の心に響くはずです。