e-ARC, 308 pages
Release Date: May 28, 2019Published by: Scholastic
Read from: July 8-11, 2019Stand-aloneSource: Publisher & Edelweiss (I received a copy of this book from the Publisher & Edelweiss in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)TW: N/AFor fans of: Contemporary, Romance, Realistic Fiction, YA, Sparkly Covers, POC on Cover, POC MC, Coming of Age, Meet Cute, Own Voices,
Kimi Nakamura loves a good fashion statement. She’s obsessed with transforming everyday ephemera into Kimi Originals: bold outfits that make her and her friends feel brave, fabulous, and like the Ultimate versions of themselves. But her mother sees this as a distraction from working on her portfolio paintings for the prestigious fine art academy where she’s been accepted for college. So when a surprise letter comes in the mail from Kimi’s estranged grandparents, inviting her to Kyoto for spring break, she seizes the opportunity to get away from the disaster of her life.
When she arrives in Japan, she loses herself in Kyoto’s outdoor markets, art installations, and cherry blossom festival–and meets Akira, a cute med student who moonlights as a costumed mochi mascot. What begins as a trip to escape her problems quickly becomes a way for Kimi to learn more about the mother she left behind, and to figure out where her own heart lies.
*MY THOUGHTS*
As soon as I saw this was a contemporary romance set in Japan I mostly shouted “SIGN ME RIGHT UP!” And then I saw the cover and was SO SMITTEN with this story already. I just knew that I would love the inside of the book as much as I liked the outside… And I was so right.
“Chaos can be part of the process.“pg. 18
Kimi has been suffering from Artist’s Block and she’s been doing such a good job hiding it from her mom. But then her mother brings home news where this time it will be unavoidable. So, she goes to Japan with her grandparents to try to discover who she really is and find out what she really wants.
“What. Is this extremely handsome piece of mochi trying to flirt with me?“pg. 61
Seeing as my blog’s name is called Take Me Away… [on the Pages of Your Story] let’s start with the setting. I LOVE reading about real places in books. Even though I’ve never been there, it makes me feel like I have. And this is one of those times. I really enjoyed my “trip” to Japan. I thought it had a slow start, but once she got there, I inhaled the rest of this book. I never wanted to stop reading because I wanted to stay in Japan and try all the mochi. The world building didn’t have to do much since there’s already all of these beautiful places (judging by the pictures I was able to find online) that they went, but it still swept me off to Kyoto every time I opened the book.
“Cute boy is drasticing enough by himself. Cute Boy + Cute Dog? Forget about it.“pg. 181
I also liked that this was more focused on Kimi and her journey to finding herself and not so much the romance. Now don’t get me wrong, the romance was really cute, but I really liked that this story was more of a coming of age story. We got to know more about Kimi and the romance was just the icing on the cake. It gave the story more heart and less fluff. Most time I like more fluff, but these characters grew on me and I wanted to know all I could about Kimi.
“Just because something is fun doesn’t mean it’s nothing more than that. And anyway, fun is a great and wonderful thing that should be valued -rather than- what do you say? Minimized?“pg. 260
The only reason I couldn’t give this 5 stars was the plot. Although I was sucked in for the characters and the setting, the plot kind of dragged for me in the beginning. I remember only being able to read a little at a time. But once she got to Japan, things started looking up and it got better. But once it got going, I fell into this book and couldn’t stop reading.
“…talking about things that are weighing alot inevitability opens you up to complicated and messiness. It totally ruins things by making them too real.“pg. 201
As for the romance, I really enjoyed it because this book was about so much more. I knew it wasn’t going to end up a big part of the story because she was only there for 2 weeks, but I was glad they had each other during that time. In that short time they helped each other find out some big things about their lives. They needed each other.
“Sometimes reality intrudes on what we want.“pg. 226
There was no surprise that I liked this one. It checked all the boxes for me: Diverse contemporary romance, pretty cover, great setting… just everything. And all of it done in such a great way. This is definitely going down as a favorite!
Overall, I give this
