The 'leaked' video goes viral and Rachel begs Mr. Yujin takes Rachel to an underground café for celebrities, where she meets DB singer Kang Jina and sings with Jason. Rachel meets with her mentor, DB executive Chung Yujin, and concocts a plan to restore face by recording a video of her singing with Jason and then anonymously leaking it to the public.

Noh announces that the best female trainee will be chosen to release a duet song with Jason, but Rachel flubs the evaluation and vomits on an amused Jason. Rachel is drugged by Mina at a party and arrives late to a trainee evaluation the next morning. Rachel also faces opposition from her mother, Umma, who believes that k-pop training is distracting her too much from the rest of her life and future.Īfter a chance encounter with DB boy-group singer Jason Lee, Rachel becomes attracted to him. Chief among the bullies is Choo Mina, a wealthy trainee who hates Rachel for several etiquette violations she accidentally insulted Mina with years ago. Rachel is bullied by her fellow trainees due to her Korean-American background and because she lives with her family rather than in the trainee dormitories. The atmosphere at DB is highly competitive due to the instructors' high standards and the knowledge that only a small minority of trainees will ever be chosen to debut as a DB performer. Seventeen-year-old Rachel Kim is a trainee at DB Entertainment, a prominent K-pop company. Jung, a former member of the South Korean girl-group Girls' Generation, was inspired to write the book based on her experiences in the Korean music industry.Ī sequel, Bright, was released on May 10 2022. Shine is a 2020 young adult romance novel by Korean-American singer Jessica Jung, published by Simon & Schuster on September 29 2020.

He's also the first person who really understands how badly she wants her star to rise.Print (hardback, paperback), e-book, audiobook It's not just that he's charming, sexy and ridiculously talented. Easy right? Not so much.Īs the dark scandals of an industry bent on controlling and commodifying beautiful girls begin to bubble up, Rachel wonders if she's strong enough to be a winner, or if she'll end up crushed … Especially when she begins to develop feelings for K-pop star and DB golden boy Jason Lee. Six years ago, she was recruited by DB Entertainment - one of Seoul's largest K-pop labels, known for churning out some of the world's most popular stars. What would you give for a chance to live your dreams? For eighteen-year-old Korean American Rachel Kim, the answer is almost everything. Crazy Rich Asians meets Gossip Girl in this dashing debut about a Korean American teen who is thrust into the competitive, technicolour world of K-pop by Jessica Jung from Girls Generation.

Shine by jessica jung