A group of us lovers of both young adult fiction and kdrama had a brilliant idea on Twitter, a way to bring our two loves together. We’ll be alternating through our five blogs with one post a week in our new feature YA Meets Kdrama.

Kdramas cast since my last post:
Eva Ibbotson’s A Countess Below Stairs, cast by author Rachel Carter
Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, cast by Katie M. Stout

Lauren Morrill’s books are basically perfect for kdrama. Light, fluffy, romantic contemporaries. Being Sloane Jacobs fits with my current favorite kdrama style, because it’s got two heroines. I’m finding that I prefer the ones that have more than just one couple, because they tend to be a bit less depressing. At any given time, there’s usually at least one happy plot line.

Once again Meg (Cuddlebuggery) designed a banner for me, so she’s basically my hero. She also helped me with my casting choices. *squooshes Meg*

Synopsis:
When two girls with the same unique name meet, they take it as a sign: they should switch places over the summer at their training camps. Both Sloane Emily and Sloane Devon have been feeling stifled in their competitive and familial situations at home, so the switch seems like just what they need. Living life in someone else’s skates reveals that everyone has problems, and teaches them about skating and about love.

About the Cast:

Sloane Emily’s a well-bred girl who’s had an easy life, at least if you looked at her you’d think so. She’s a figure skater and tends to dress in cutesy girly clothes. For her, I wanted someone who really looks like the pampered princess that Sloane Devon immediately assumes she is. I saw Haw Yun Joo playing an actress in I Need Romance and I think she’d be great at this role. Plus, look how good she looks in frilly, shiny dresses!

Casting Sloane Devon was the really hard part. The actress playing Sloane Devon needs to look at home in sweats. She disdains frills, at least at first. She’s not cutesy-looking, which, trust me, is hard to find in young kdrama actresses. Choi Eun Seo is definitely pretty, but I think with the right hair cut and a bit of dark eye makeup (not that Sloane Devon would wear makeup in general, but whatever it’s tv), she could pull it off. She has a girl next door sort of quality that I like. She’s almost entirely unknown to me as an actress (I know her from the last episode of Coffee Prince), but sometimes you need to take a chance on someone relatively unknown.

Casting Will was basically just looking around the internet for an athletic-looking hot guy. Guys, my hobby is horrible. Anyway, I’ve seen Jung Yun Ho play a soccer star, so he can handle ice hockey, right? Don’t mess with your logic. Look at those abs and quiet your minds.

In Being Sloane Jacobs, Nando (short for Fernando) is Hispanic. In the drama, Nando (obviously with a different name) is going to be Japanese. Kim Jae Wook played a Japanese character in Coffee Prince, and he’s absurdly beautiful, so I’d like to look at him some more. Though it’s basically a crime to cut his gorgeous hair, I’ve got one picture of him with short hair (which he might have for the drama) and one with the long hair showing his (hockey) muscles.

Andy’s Sloane Devon’s gay, fantastic, figure skating male best friend at camp. I’m casting Lee Min Ho, because I can. I like to see actors step outside of their comfort zones. Before I made Lee Min Ho play a bad guy, and now I want him to play a gay man. Also, the way kdrama actors are dressed for photo shoots made finding pictures for this WAY too easy, like this and this and this. If he’s a good actor, he can man up and flirt with men. And, hey, he has the muscles for the lifts. Well, okay, I don’t know what muscles are required, but let’s look at the abs.