Review: Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi

Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi

Published: September 3, 2019

Publisher: Simon & Schuster BYR

Format: via audiobook

Rating: 3/5

Synopsis

After a year of college, Pablo is working at his local twenty-four-hour deli, selling overpriced snacks to brownstone yuppies. He’s dodging calls from the student loan office and he has no idea what his next move is.

Leanna Smart’s life so far has been nothing but success. Age eight: Disney Mouseketeer; Age fifteen: first #1 single on the US pop chart; Age seventeen, *tenth* #1 single; and now, at Age nineteen…life is a queasy blur of private planes, weird hotel rooms, and strangers asking for selfies on the street.

When Leanna and Pab randomly meet at 4:00 a.m. in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn, they both know they can’t be together forever. So, they keep things on the down-low and off Instagram for as long as they can. But it takes about three seconds before the world finds out.

My Thoughts

Pablo is just a guy working at a local deli when Leanna enters his world and turns everything upside down. One night Leanna walks into the deli and sparks fly and they hit it off and things take off from there. If they want to have fun and see where this goes they can’t let anyone know, meaning they must stay offline.

Each of them are having their own problems so they know this whatever it is won't last forever. Pablo is dealing with family issues and his college career is up in the air. Leanna has been in the spotlight all her life and all she wants is to have some time off and just be herself. I felt that they both entered each other’s lives just when they needed someone. They used each other as a means to escape what they were going through.

While I didn’t love this read I thought it was okay. I liked the characters but some of the storylines just went on longer than I thought they needed to. This was a middle of the road read for me but I would give the author another chance in the future.