I absolutely adore shows like 25 21, Tastefully Yours, and Weak Hero, but especially because (specifically for 25 21 and Tastefully Yours) they’re obviously meant to be romances but they have a plot and story that’s interesting, so the point isn’t just their budding romance, but a narrative, if that makes sense.
I am also watching Bridgerton and the Twilight movies again (while the latter is admittedly a guilty pleasure), and the same applies to them, where the romance is not irrelevant but actually drives much of the story, but it is not the only thing going on. The genre of the narrative outside the romance doesn’t really matter to me (so long as it’s not horror or historical fiction). I’m open to reading something new!!
Suggestions without/extremely limited sexual content is ideal (actual intercourse; kissing and whatever else is obviously okay).
by Lovely_deer25
2 Comments
If you like the ones set in the Joseon period, then I would go with June Hur. She writes YA novels usually set in the Joseon period. My favorite K-dramas are The King’s Affection and Bon Appetit, Your Majesty. An example would be A Crane Among Wolves.
That said, if you enjoyed TKA, and the gender dynamic, you may enjoy She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World. They are light fantasy (ETA: not “cozy” fantasy, just a some fantasy involved but not much, reads more like historical fiction in many ways IMO), and are going to be much darker than a K-drama (and also sapphic), but it’s one of my top reads so far this year. (That said, I would say that while it did have light points TKA did also get dark at times). 5 stars. The author Shelley Parker-Chan is Malaysian-Chinese though raised in Australia just FYI.
[Princess Jellyfish](https://kodansha.us/series/princess-jellyfish/), which also happens to have been adapted into a J-Drama.