After learning that her father is the Crown Prince of Japan, Izumi travels to Tokyo, where she discovers that Japanese imperial life - complete with designer clothes, court intrigue, paparazzi scandals, and a forbidden romance with her handsome but stoic bodyguard - is a tough fit for the outspoken and irreverent eighteen-year-old from northern California.
Imagine living your entire childhood not knowing that you are, in fact, a princess. This is Izumi Tanaka's reality. Growing up in northern California with her single mother, she has never known her father, and has always felt like an outsider in her small, mostly white, community.
Well, it turns out that Izumi is actually Japanese royalty, a secret her mother has kept from her for Izumi's entire life. Soon, Izumi is whisked off to Japan to meet the Imperial Royal Family and The Crown Prince, the father she has never known. But learning how to "be royal" isn't easy, nor as fun as one might believe, and Izumi quickly finds herself torn between the perfect princess Japan expects her to be and her true, authentic self. Will Izumi show up for herself, or will she bend to the will of the Crown?
Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean is a fun, vibrant YA novel of the rags to riches variety. I have seen the book compared to the Princess Diaries series, but having never read Meg Cabot's take on this storyline, I have no comparison. Going into this book, I also had no idea that Japan has a royal family - one that is actually the oldest continuous hereditary monarchy in the world. Therefore this book was not only entertaining for me, but educational as well. Readers are swept up into the royal life alongside Izumi, and honestly, that is the best part of this book. Royalty is an exclusive club, so it is always fun to peek inside their lives.
However, Izumi's transformation into a Princess of the Imperial Family is not seamless. Having grown up in America, Izumi's customs, manner of speaking and behaving, and choice of clothing is not in line with what is expected of Japanese royalty. Readers will see Izumi grow throughout the course of this novel, not only into a princess, but also as a young woman coming into her own. The struggle between what is expected of her, and what she holds in her heart is a common theme in this coming of age novel, and it is satisfying to see Izumi grow and mature across the pages.
This book is also not without a romance, although some readers may feel that the connection between Izumi and her love interest is rushed and underdeveloped. While I did not dislike it as much as some reviewers did, I felt that the relationship was in line with the tone of the rest of the novel. Much of this book only scratches the surface, which is likely its greatest fault. A longer storyline at a shorter pace would have likely benefitted Tokyo Ever After greatly, as it tries to pack too much punch into too few pages.
Availability: Book
Rating: **** Stars (I really liked it) Reviewer: Brooke, Public Relations Librarian
ARE YOU AND THIS BOOK A GOOD MATCH?
DISCOVER MORE WITH NOVELIST APPEALS!
GENRE: Book Club Best Bets; Realistic Fiction
SERIES: Tokyo Ever After #1
THEME: Hidden Heritage (Unknown to them, these protagonists' heredity sets them apart; it's a shock when they find out, but might explain a thing or two.)
STORYLINE: Character-Driven; Own Voices
TONE: Angst-Filled; Romantic
WRITING STYLE: Engaging; Stylistically Complex
SUBJECT: Americans in Japan; Asian American Women; Belonging; Duty; Eighteen-Year-Old Women; Families; Identity; Japanese Americans; Men/Women Relations; Misfits; Princesses; Teenage Boy/Girl Relations; Teenage Girls; Young Women
IF YOU LIKE THIS BOOK, YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY THESE TITLES: