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Behind Five Willows by June Hur Review — A Breathtaking Historical Romance Set in the Heart of Joseon Korea
- Joao Nsita
- Jun 9
- 10 min read
Behind Five Willows by June Hur Review — A Breathtaking Historical Romance Set in the Heart of Joseon Korea
I did not expect Behind Five Willows to do what it did to me. I went in knowing the broad strokes — historical Korea, Pride and Prejudice retelling, forbidden books and secret pen pals — and I thought I understood what kind of book I was about to read. Something lovely, probably. Something elegantly constructed. Something that would make me feel good about the state of historical romance without rearranging anything fundamental inside me.
I was wrong about that last part.
Behind Five Willows by June Hur is something richer and more affecting than I anticipated. It is a book about books — about the act of reading and writing, about the power of stories to connect people across distance and difference, about what it costs and what it means to preserve the stories that those in power want silenced. It is, simultaneously, one of the loveliest slow-burn romances I have read this year. And it is set in Joseon Korea in the eighteenth century, a setting rendered with the kind of detail and warmth and cultural specificity that makes you feel — genuinely feel — like you have visited a place you have never been.
Haewon is one of those literary protagonists who arrives on the page completely formed. She is not simply a romance heroine. She is a woman with a mission and a mind and a specific, fierce relationship to the written word. Reading her story felt like being trusted with something real. Like June Hur wrote this book for readers who believe, deeply and without irony, that stories matter. That they have always mattered. That the impulse to read and write them is one of the most human things there is.
This book is extraordinary. I want you to read it.
What This Book Is About
In eighteenth-century Joseon Korea, fiction has been outlawed. The government has decided that stories — imaginative, invented, potentially dangerous stories — are a threat to social order, and the possession or sharing of fictional texts carries serious consequences. Into this environment comes Haewon, the dutiful second-eldest daughter of a poor family, who has found a way to be both useful and secretly herself: she is an illegal book transcriber. She copies forbidden stories by hand and shares them through a clandestine network, doing business under the pseudonym "Magpie." It is dangerous. It is also, for Haewon, essential. She cannot imagine a life without stories.
Among the authors whose work she transcribes and distributes is "Black Lotus" — an anonymous writer whose stories she has come to love, with whom she has been conducting a slow, tentative, revelatory correspondence through their shared work. She does not know who Black Lotus is. She has not heard from him in some time. What she does not know is that Black Lotus is Seojun, the son of a government official — one of the very people whose family enforces the book ban that makes her work illegal.
When Haewon and Seojun meet in person, they are not what either of them expected. He knows her as Magpie's client, nothing more. She knows him as the son of an authority figure she cannot trust. Their real-life dynamic begins with misunderstanding and wariness and the particular friction of two people from incompatible worlds who cannot quite help being drawn to the same things. What they share is their love of stories. And Hur uses that shared love — that most fundamental thing about both of them — as the engine of one of the most beautiful slow burns I have read in a long time.
The world Hur builds around this central romance is detailed and alive. The streets of Joseon, the social hierarchies that govern every interaction, the specific risks of Haewon's illegal book trade, the political tensions around the government's cultural censorship — all of this is woven into the fabric of the novel without ever becoming overwhelming. It enhances rather than overwhelms. This is a historical romance that respects its setting completely.
Author's Style and Craft
June Hur writes with a precision and economy that suits her subject matter beautifully. Her prose is clean and evocative — she does not over-describe, but she gives you exactly enough detail to conjure each scene vividly. There is a quality to her writing that feels almost like the prose itself is in conversation with the books Haewon loves: careful with its words, aware of their weight, trusting the reader to bring their own imagination to what is left in the spaces between sentences.
Her characterisation is her greatest gift. Haewon is wonderfully specific — her thoughts, her fears, her humour, her deep attachment to the written word — all of this feels entirely particular to her rather than generic. Seojun is her equal and her opposite, a man whose relationship to stories has been complicated by his circumstances in ways that make his eventual understanding of Haewon's world feel genuinely significant. Their slow, careful movement toward each other is handled with a patience and attentiveness that makes the eventual resolution feel genuinely triumphant.
Themes and Deeper Meaning
Behind Five Willows is, at its most fundamental level, a book about the power of storytelling — and about the fact that those in power have always understood that power and tried to suppress it. The government's ban on fiction in this novel is not arbitrary; it reflects a real historical anxiety about stories and their capacity to shift how people understand themselves and their world. And Haewon's defiance of that ban is not simply romantic rebellion. It is a genuine political act rooted in a genuine conviction.
The Pride and Prejudice parallels — two people whose first impressions of each other are shaped by class and misunderstanding, who must revise their judgments as they come to know each other truly — are handled with real intelligence. Hur does not simply translate the Austen plot into a Korean setting. She uses the template to illuminate something specific about Joseon society and about Haewon's particular place within it. The resonance is there, but the story is entirely, vividly its own.
There is also a quieter theme about identity and authorship — about what it means to speak through a pseudonym, to be known through your work before you are known through yourself. Both Haewon and Seojun have been hiding behind their pen names in different ways, and part of what the romance does is slowly strip those away until they are finally in each other's presence without armour. It is a lovely, literary metaphor that suits the book's sensibility perfectly.
This is a very different kind of romance from the contemporary stories we most often discuss, but the emotional truth at its heart is the same. I think about the way our review of The Book Club Boyfriend by Kendall Ryan explored what books do between people — the way a shared love of reading can be its own love language. Behind Five Willows is a complete and gorgeous expression of that same idea, set two and a half centuries ago and an ocean away. And for readers who want to explore the full breadth of what romance can do and be, our 10 Must-Read Romance Books from April 2026 is a wonderful place to continue.
What This Book Gets Absolutely Right
The historical setting is immersive without being inaccessible. Joseon Korea is rendered with enough detail and care that you feel genuinely transported, but Hur never makes you feel lost or excluded. The world unfolds naturally, as you need to understand it.
The slow burn is exquisitely managed. Haewon and Seojun's movement toward each other is unhurried and earned. Every step they take closer is meaningful because of everything that had to shift before it could happen.
The literary theme is completely integrated. This is not a romance that happens to be set among book lovers. The love of books and stories is structural — it is how these two people understand themselves, how they connect, and what ultimately gives them the courage to reach toward each other.
The political stakes feel real. The danger of Haewon's work is not background decoration. It has weight and consequence, and Hur lets those consequences shape the story without letting them overwhelm its warmth.
The Pride and Prejudice references are joyful rather than mechanical. There is genuine delight in recognising the parallels, and Hur handles them with enough lightness that readers who don't know Austen at all will not miss anything.
Where the Book Could Have Gone Further
Some readers may want more time in the early correspondence between Magpie and Black Lotus. The pen pal relationship is established efficiently, but given how central it is to both characters' inner lives, a little more of it would have been a gift.
The political intrigue occasionally competes with the romance for the reader's attention. Both threads are interesting, but in the middle section of the novel they occasionally pull in slightly different directions, creating a mild tension in the pacing.
The secondary characters, while warmly sketched, are not always as fully realised as the leads. Haewon's family, in particular, has potential that is slightly underexplored.
Books to Read If You Loved This One
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh — A lyrical, gorgeously rendered novel set in a world inspired by Korean mythology, with the same combination of emotional depth and cultural richness that makes Behind Five Willows so special.
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker — Another deeply immersive fantasy world with a slow-burn romance and a heroine whose inner life is as compelling as her outer journey. For readers who want even more world-building with their romantic feelings.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig — A contemporary novel about the power of stories and the choices that define us, told with the kind of warmth and intelligence that resonates with everything Behind Five Willows is doing.
Who Should Read This Book
Behind Five Willows is for readers who love historical romance with real cultural depth. For book lovers — the kind who think reading is a radical act — who want to see that belief reflected in a love story. For slow burn devotees who are willing to wait, because the payoff here is completely worth every patient page. For readers who have been wanting historical romance set outside the familiar European settings and who are ready for something genuinely different.
And if you want to explore more of what romance can do and be — across genres and settings and styles — our Romance Book Recommendations page has something for every kind of reader.
Content warnings: government censorship, references to historical violence, class inequality, slow burn (very slow — this book takes its time beautifully), mild peril.
How This Book Made Me Feel
I finished Behind Five Willows in the early hours of the morning, which is always the sign of a book that has me. I turned the last page and I sat for a long moment in the quiet of the room, feeling something that is hard to name but that I would describe, if I had to, as gratitude.
Gratitude for books like this one. For a writer like June Hur who has taken a setting and a story and a theme that she clearly loves deeply and translated them into something that anyone can access and be moved by. Gratitude for Haewon, who copies forbidden stories by hand so that others can read them, and who reminded me of why the story I am currently reading matters. Who reminded me that reading is not passive. That it is its own small act of keeping something alive.
There is a moment near the end of this book — I will not tell you what it is — where Seojun does something that demonstrates exactly who he has become through knowing Haewon. It involves books, of course. It is quiet and specific and completely unexpected and it made me catch my breath.
Books about books tend to do this to me. They remind me why I am here. Behind Five Willows is one of the best ones I have ever read.
Final Verdict
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — 5 out of 5 stars
Behind Five Willows is a rare and beautiful book. June Hur has written a historical romance that is also a love letter to storytelling itself — to the readers and writers who have always understood that stories are never just stories. Haewon and Seojun are a couple you will root for completely and remember long after the last page. This is the book I will be pressing into people's hands for the rest of 2026.
About the Author
June Hur is a Korean-Canadian author of historical fiction and romance set in Korea. Her previous novels include The Silence Between Us and The Forest of Stolen Girls. With Behind Five Willows, she has written her most accomplished and accessible work yet — a book that draws on her deep knowledge of Joseon history and her love of literature to create something genuinely moving. Learn more at junehur.com.
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FAQs
1. Do I need to know Pride and Prejudice to enjoy Behind Five Willows? Not at all. The Austen parallels are a joyful layer for readers who know them, but the novel stands completely and beautifully on its own. Knowledge of Pride and Prejudice enhances the experience; it is not required for it.
2. Is this a fantasy novel or a historical novel? Behind Five Willows is historical fiction set in eighteenth-century Joseon Korea. There are no fantasy elements — the story is grounded in historical reality. Readers who love both historical fiction and romance will find it a perfect combination.
3. How slow is the slow burn? Very slow and very deliberate — and it is all the better for it. The build between Haewon and Seojun is measured and patient, and the payoff is proportional. This is a book to savour.
4. Is this appropriate for younger readers? The content is suitable for upper YA readers and adults. There is no explicit content. The themes — censorship, class inequality, defiance, love — are sophisticated but not dark in ways that require content warnings for younger audiences beyond those listed above.
5. Is June Hur's other work similar to Behind Five Willows? Hur's previous novels are historical fiction set in Korea and share her meticulous attention to setting and character. Behind Five Willows is her most explicitly romantic work and her most emotionally warm. Fans of her previous books will find it a wonderful evolution; new readers to Hur will want to go back to her back catalogue immediately.
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