From Little Tokyo With Love, A Review

 

My Thoughts:

In a nutshell, this is a feel good romcom/modern fairy tale. It is the perfect summer/Memorial Day weekend read to close out AAPI month, but it could also close out LGBTQ+ month as well as Mental Health Awareness month, so basically, any steamy, humid, too hot to sleep weekend will do as a great incentive to start this book. 

The cheesy fairy tale section headings aside, this was a fun story to read. It may not be something I will read multiple times, however, I know the exact kind of readers I can sell this to. See my ladders chart below. However, I am not wild about some things. First, the cover art is unappealing. The color scheme, with the squished title above the hard, odd colored roof line disappears into the sky. The lanterns in the Os are not cute. I also think we have so many beautiful, hapa (Hawaiian for the Japanese term hafu) young adults. I would rather see actual models than illustrations that seem very stereotypically flat.  Or if they are illustrations, what about almost 3 D collage types of art like the art on Tokyo Ever After or even the rich colors of  Home is Not a Country. 

I think after people stop talking about the newest book, then the staying power besides a good story, is a great cover that will pull readers in. The middle reader develops so quickly. A reader may not be interested in this in 6th grade, but a year later or two summers later, this will be the book to read for them, so it is not just about grabbing the readers who are ready this summer, but grabbing the future readers who will come next summer or the summer after that. Of course if this becomes a movie, then the cover will change any way and it won't matter. 

Possible ladders or centipetal stacks:

• Tokyo Ever After
• Counting Down with You
• Just for Clicks
• A Pho Love Story
• Under a Painted Sky different, but it could still stay in this stack
• My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life

From the Publisher:

If Rika's life seems like the beginning of a familiar fairy tale—being an orphan with two bossy cousins and working away in her aunts' business—she would be the first to reject that foolish notion. After all, she loves her family (even if her cousins were named after Disney characters), and with her biracial background, amazing judo skills and red-hot temper, she doesn't quite fit the princess mold.

All that changes the instant she locks eyes with Grace Kimura, America's reigning rom-com sweetheart, during the Nikkei Week Festival. From there, Rika embarks on a madcap adventure of hope and happiness—searching for clues that Grace is her long-lost mother, exploring Little Tokyo's hidden treasures with cute actor Hank Chen, and maybe . . . finally finding a sense of belonging.

But fairy tales are fiction and the real world isn't so kind. Rika knows she's setting herself up for disappointment, because happy endings don't happen to girls like her. Should she walk away before she gets in even deeper, or let herself be swept away?