FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Los Angeles, CA — Suzanne Park is a master at finding the funny, and her authorial debuts are brilliant examples. After years of performing stand-up comedy, she’s branched out into a new career, writing laughter-inducing novels.
Her #ownvoices young adult romantic comedy, “The Perfect Escape” (April 7, 2020, Sourcebooks) introduces Nate and Kate, who meet at the most romantic of places: a zombie-themed escape room. Both are dealing with the difficulties that come with the expectations of their families and being teenagers. But when they partner up for a survivalist competition, they find escape in each other.
And Park ventures into contemporary women’s fiction with a workplace romance in “Loathe At First Sight” (Aug. 8, 2020, Avon). Korean-American Melody Joo has to deal with a lot — she is a female video game producer in a company filled with largely obnoxious males. Nolan, the distractingly cute MBA intern has just been added to her team, and she’s being harassed by online trolls. Women will smile and grimace in equal measures as they recognize themselves in Melody’s struggles.
Contemporary and charismatic in every way, Park is a new voice not to be missed in the landscape of rom-com revival.
More about The Perfect Escape
Love is a battlefield in this hysterical debut, perfect for fans of Jenny Han.
Nate Jae-Woo Kim wants to be rich. When one of his classmates offers Nate a ridiculous amount of money to commit grade fraud, he knows that taking the windfall would help support his prideful Korean family, but is compromising his integrity worth it?
Luck comes in the form of Kate Anderson, Nate’s colleague at the zombie-themed escape room where he works. She approaches Nate with a plan: a local tech company is hosting a weekend-long survivalist competition with a huge cash prize. It could solve all of Nate’s problems, and Kate needs the money too.
If the two of them team up, Nate has a true shot at winning the grand prize. But the real challenge? Making through the weekend with his heart intact…
“Suzanne Park’s The Perfect Escape is just that — perfect. Filled with humor and heart, it won’t let you go until you’re smiling.”
New York Times bestselling author Danielle Paige
“Pure fun! A hilarious rom-com that head-fakes you into tumbling headlong into a techno-zombie survival thriller propelled by banter and plenty of heart.”
David Yoon, New York Times bestselling author of Frankly in Love
“The Perfect Escape”
Suzanne Park | April 7, 2020 | Sourcebooks
Paperback | 9781728209395 | $10.99
Ebook | 9781728209401 | $9.99
Young adult romantic comedy
More about Loathe At First Sight
Melody Joo is thrilled to start as video game producer, but her dream job can be far from a dream. Namely, a team that consists of mostly male co-workers who make the term “misogyny” pale in comparison to their obnoxious comments and an infuriating — yet distractingly handsome — intern Nolan MacKenzie, a.k.a. “the guy who got hired because his uncle is the boss.”
While joking with a friend, she creates a mobile game that has male strippers fighting for survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Suddenly, Melody’s “joke” is her company’s most high-profile project — and Melody’s running the show.
With her pet project about to launch, Melody suddenly faces a slew of complications, including a social media trolling scandal that could end her career. When Nolan is appointed a key member of her team, Melody’s sure he’ll be useless. But as they grow closer, she sees he’s smart and sexy, but she’s here to work—and nothing more. She suspects one of her co-workers is behind the trolling sabotage. Could the man she’s falling hard for help her play the game to win—in work and love?
Tackling trolling to loathful colleagues, Park’s writing pops off the page as a contemporary reflection of women everywhere navigating the obstacles of love and career with a little bit of struggle and a whole lot of humor.
“Bursts with humor, heart, and great energy. I loved it! Park is a hilarious new voice in women’s fiction.”
Helen Hoang, author of The Kiss Quotient
“Loathe At First Sight”
Suzanne Park | Aug. 8, 2020 | Avon
Paperback| 9780062990693 | $15.99
Ebook | 9780062990709 | $10.99
audiobook | 9780063016736 | $26.99
Contemporary Women’s Fiction
More about Suzanne Park
Suzanne Park is a Korean-American writer who was born and raised in Tennessee. In her former life as a stand up comedian, she was a finalist in the Oxygen Network’s “Girls Behaving Badly” talent search, and appeared on BET’s “Coming to the Stage.” She found this to be the funniest thing in her comedy career because, well, she is not black. Suzanne was also the winner of the Seattle Sierra Mist Comedy Competition, and was a semi-finalist in NBC’s “Stand Up For Diversity” showcase in San Francisco. Suzanne graduated from Columbia University and received an MBA Degree from UCLA. After spending many years as a tech marketing executive, she turned to writing fiction full-time. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, female offspring, and a sneaky rat that creeps around on her back patio. In her spare time, she procrastinates. Keep up with her at https://www.suzannepark.com.
In an interview, Suzanne Park can discuss:
- How Suzanne is an emerging voice within the “rom com revival”
- Her representation of Korean-American family dynamics in both of her titles
- The #ownvoices movement
- How her past in comedy has brought her to writing fiction
- The excitement surrounding the publication of her debut novels within the same year
- Her decision to write contemporary fiction while exploring the nuances in both YA and women’s genres
- Writing a book from the perspective of a male teen, which is more rare in YA
- Including immigrant inter-generational family relationships, race and socio-economic divides in her writing
An Interview with Suzanne Park
1. How did your own experiences as a Korean American present themselves into your writing?
It’s been important to me to show breadth and depth in my Korean-American main characters to help fight all the stereotypes that existed when I grew up that are still around today. For my young adult book, I wanted to portray a Korean-American male in a positive light, someone who was smart, athletic, with a snarky sense of humor and a fun group of friends who could also be a romantic and action hero lead. For my women’s fiction book, my female Korean-American character isn’t a wallflower at work and is able to resourcefully navigate Corporate America without stepping on others to move up. In my stories I was also able to include glimpses of what it’s like to have Korean parents, where everything you do seems to warrant getting yelled at.
2. What’s the best lesson you’ve learned about writing in comparison to other media forms?
In business school, I took a class called Entertainment business strategy, in which the professor discussed how indie movies compete in the marketplace. He pointed out that films don’t just compete against other movie releases in the box office: they compete against video games, and Netflix, and TV. Books are the same way…you’re competing for mindshare against movies, streaming media, games, TikTok, cat memes, the list goes on and on. My goal is to write unique books that can compete with all of that.
3. How do you balance comedy in your books with more serious topics like online harassment?
Comedy can be used as a tension diffuser, like in Jordan Peele horror movies when the creepy murder music gets louder, and you need to get relief. He does it by adding expertly-timed laughs. For me, comedy can add levity to the story without negating the critical points being made. Comedy can also be a tool to change the conversation when straightforward arguing or debating isn’t productive. It’s a risk to address these weighty topics with humor, but I like big challenges.
4. What makes you laugh?
My husband would say absurd, slapsticky “fall down stairs” humor makes me giggle nearly every time, and he would probably be right. My kid makes me laugh every day, and it’s usually because she says something so surprising it catches me off guard, like when she guessed that my mom was 200 years old and used to call blueberries and blackberries “blue babies” and “black babies.”
5. What makes you the most excited about the resurgence of rom coms across all media forms?
I love the diversity we are seeing in rom-coms! More inclusivity with happily ever afters, who doesn’t want to see more of that?
A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.
Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.
