A smart & funny romantic comedy where an Oklahoma woman meets a K-drama star... at a New York business school...
An OK-Drama
A debut novel
November 2026
Oklahoma heiress Charlie Ridell is as obsessed with K-dramas as she is with building power plants for her family’s company. When she moves to New York to get her MBA, her fictional and real worlds collide when she’s assigned to partner with an actual K-drama star with his own hidden reasons for needing business skills…
Early Reader Comments
With immense gratitude to An OK-Drama's wonderful early readers for their enthusiasm for this book & love for the characters
Emily, a Farmer in Oklahoma
“I read the entire thing in one night, because I couldn't put it down! I was so tired the next day. But it was absolutely worth it!”
Catherine, a lawyer in California
“You’ll wish Charlie’s whip smart family was your family. You’ll covet her inner circle of
singularly eccentric but perfectly complementary compadres. The personalities & dialogue are so
engrossing I couldn’t wait to turn the page and see what this crew would think, say & do next,
and to whom.”
Professor Robert Bontempo, Columbia Business School
"Beneath the romance and entertainment, the book has real substance. Charlie's Oklahoma roots,
her family's commitment to building infrastructure that lasts, and the emphasis on stewardship
over short-term profit give the novel a moral center. It isn't simply a love story or a coming-of-
age story. It's also about what it means to build something enduring, whether that's a company, a
community, or a life.”
Beth Richtman grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After earning her BS at Stanford University, she worked in Hollywood for several years, learning the art of storytelling before learning the arts of finance & leadership at Columbia Business School. For years, she worked on the type of large scale real assets projects her main character loves. An OK-Drama is her (entirely fictional) love letter to K-drama fans & creators, Oklahoma and Columbia Business School. This is her debut novel. She hopes you enjoy reading it as much as she enjoyed writing it.
Beth Richtman
Author of An OK-Drama
How did Charlie Ridell, the main character, discover K-dramas?
Text, reluctantly, cut from Chapter One of An OK-Drama
"For nearly a decade before I met him, I listened to either K-pop or country music while doing my homework. As for the K-dramas, they sucked me in from the moment I met them. It started one day when someone left behind a DVD at the dojang where I studied Tae Kwon Do with my mom. I definitely wasn’t any kind of kleptomaniac. However, something about the DVD cover called to me. Before I knew it, I snuck that DVD into my bag, swearing to myself that I would bring it back right after I’d watched it. It was called, “Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo.” In some places the translation was odd, but overall, it was one of the most interesting shows I’d ever seen. Watching it, I was suddenly on a college campus across the world where a strong and determined, weight-lifting girl was going to fall in love with at least one of two very attractive brothers. I was hooked from the first episode. I simply had to see more."
Contacts
For Book Sales, Media Inquiries, Translation Opportunities & Fan Letters
Please reach out to Beth@Bethrichtman.com or
https://www.instagram.com/bethrichtman/