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valeria13's review against another edition
4.0
Los adolescentes son tan complicados pero su drama es muy entretenido
zarahhs's review against another edition
4.0
im not gonna lie, the reason i first wanted to read this book is because it's set in tokyo and i love everything about japan and i wish i could live in tokyo. so i obviously loved that aspect of the book, but the plot was just as great, i really liked it and jamie and sophia were so beautiful and i cant decide if the ending is painful or beautiful. a mix of both maybe. i just think this was really sweet and i had a good time reading it.
tswanson103's review against another edition
2.0
It's not that this is a bad story, necessarily. There are a lot of cute moments, a lot of growing up, a lot of dealing with the ache of big changes.
For a contemporary romance, I wanted the happy ending and I didn't get it. For a story about leaving, I don't want the romance at all. This book just felt a little bit off to me.
For a contemporary romance, I wanted the happy ending and I didn't get it. For a story about leaving, I don't want the romance at all. This book just felt a little bit off to me.
hanbock's review against another edition
5.0
Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC one change for an honest review!
THIS BOOK WAS SO ADORABLE! The setting was what drew me in at first; reminding me of one of my all-time favorite contemporaries, When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney, but the stories had completely different conflicts. The character development was SPECTACTULAR and showed a very realistic portrayal of the "coming of age" contemporary. Sophia has her quirks, but she was an excellent and, in my opinion, very relatable character. Jamie is a bit of a stereotypical YA male love interest, (millionaire lifestyle included)however, it didn't stop me from squealing every time he did something cute for our main character. The ending is a bit of a hit to the heart, but no spoilers!
Rating: 4.5/5 hearts ❤️❤️❤️❤️
THIS BOOK WAS SO ADORABLE! The setting was what drew me in at first; reminding me of one of my all-time favorite contemporaries, When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney, but the stories had completely different conflicts. The character development was SPECTACTULAR and showed a very realistic portrayal of the "coming of age" contemporary. Sophia has her quirks, but she was an excellent and, in my opinion, very relatable character. Jamie is a bit of a stereotypical YA male love interest, (millionaire lifestyle included)however, it didn't stop me from squealing every time he did something cute for our main character. The ending is a bit of a hit to the heart, but no spoilers!
Rating: 4.5/5 hearts ❤️❤️❤️❤️
hannadekoning's review against another edition
4.0
This book was adorable, funny and just the perfect summer read. I loved it a lot <3
felfiramoon's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book in less than 24hrs and really loved it. Super easy to read and to put myself into the places mentioned. I love Japan and it's culture and everything about this book made me more hyped to go in September.
It's a brilliant summer whirlwind romance. Occasionally Sofa got on my nerves somewhat but it was made up for by dealing with her siblings issues and friend issues in a realistic way
It's a brilliant summer whirlwind romance. Occasionally Sofa got on my nerves somewhat but it was made up for by dealing with her siblings issues and friend issues in a realistic way
dani_reviews's review against another edition
5.0
I never, ever, ever thought I’d find a book that I could relate to as much as this one. So many contemporary YA books are set in the US, with your typical American high schools. And yeah, you’ll have the ones set in “exotic” places when the characters go on holiday. On the rare occasion, you’ll find one set in a boarding school somewhere in Europe. But you see, I’d lived in four countries by the time I turned 18. I spent my high school years in Yokohama, Japan, which is right next to Tokyo. I did not think I’d find a book that not only explored the expat kid experience, but also did so IN JAPAN. So, needless to say, it brought up a lot of feels.
Objectively speaking, I guess I can understand the 3.5-star average rating on Goodreads. It’s not like this is The Best YA Contemporary In The World. It’s fairly standard in terms of being about a teenage girl with a few family and friend problems, developing a relationship with a boy, having that relationship go through some difficulties, and then having some sort of happy ending.
But I can’t be objective about this book. It was too much like my life. Hell, I even had my own interesting boy experience following my high school graduation ceremony, two days before my family left Japan forever. This older guy flew all the way from the States to see some of his friends (including me) graduate, and he and I ended up staying out all night at our own version of the American Club, lying on the grass and talking. There was even a …moment… when things could have progressed, but I was too chicken.
Enough about me. Let me tell you why I loved this book...
- Because Vinesse also lived in Tokyo, she wrote about the foreign teenage experience SO WELL. The wandering about all night (because Japan is super safe), the trains, the kombini, the karaoke. GUYS, THE KARAOKE. You can’t find the experience of Japanese karaoke, or the appreciation for it, anywhere else. (The one thing missing is the last trip to Tokyo DisneyLand, though.)
- Sophia was sort of your average (expat) teenager. She wasn’t perfect, but she also wasn’t a complete mess. She was really good at school, especially physics, and she wanted to study astrophysics at MIT. She also didn’t drink, and she’d never been kissed up until this book, as she’d had a crush on a friend for a while. This might make her sound too “good,” but she wasn’t perfect. She did go out all night, and she said awful things to people she cared about because she got carried away emotionally. So basically, she was me, except I didn’t like physics, preferring biology. Also, though I had a brief “relationship” in 9th grade (for a week), I didn’t have my first real kiss until I went to university, so she had the jump on me.
- Family = messiness. I loved how the relationship between Sophia and her sister changed during this book. I can attest the fierceness of sibling bonds when you’re always moving around, as my brother is my favourite person in the world. That being said, we did not always get along, and our relationship went through a distant phase when he went to high school in South Africa while I was in university and then working in the UK. Also, their parents are divorced, and their father lives in France with his “new family", which both Sophia and her sister react to differently, causing strain between them.
- On the topic of family, different kinds of family dynamics are portrayed in this book, from trusting to absent to disappointed. I know absent parenting is considered a problem in other YA books, but actually, this was very much a real thing amongst my fellow expat kids. I knew lots of classmates who rarely saw their parents and had money thrown at them, so they could do whatever. Also, everyone had a different cultural background, and in some cultures, parenting is a bit more lax.
- The exploration of people coming and going in life, and the difficulty of saying goodbye, made me cry multiple times. So did all the talk about belonging and where home is. IT HURT TO READ. I still don’t really know where to consider home, and I struggle to trust in any new relationship because I've been conditioned to believe that everything is temporary.
- The limited timeframe and countdown gave this book a great sense of urgency, especially towards the end, when I started thinking there was no way this could turn around in time.
- And yes, I was also all swoony about Sophia and Jamie. Especially because they originally became friends thanks to Studio Ghibli and Howl's Moving Castle. SUCH A GOOD MOVIE.
There are probably more things I could write, but this review is getting a bit long, so I'll stop. I'm now going to go and lie in bed, fully experiencing this book hangover and wondering if I'll ever be lucky enough to meet the author in person and thank her for writing about my life.
So even though, objectively, I’d maybe give it 4 stars, it meets my requirements for a 5-star read because I know I’ll be reading this again and again just for the sake of nostalgia. And I think other people should read this to get a glimpse into what it’s like to be an expat kid, going to international schools and learning early on just how temporary everything is. (You know, just one of the reasons I have a therapist.) I’m going to be shoving this book at all my friends from high school, so they can also experience all the flashbacks!See this review in its natural environment, Dani Reviews Things.
You can find me on Twitter and Instagram.
Objectively speaking, I guess I can understand the 3.5-star average rating on Goodreads. It’s not like this is The Best YA Contemporary In The World. It’s fairly standard in terms of being about a teenage girl with a few family and friend problems, developing a relationship with a boy, having that relationship go through some difficulties, and then having some sort of happy ending.
But I can’t be objective about this book. It was too much like my life. Hell, I even had my own interesting boy experience following my high school graduation ceremony, two days before my family left Japan forever. This older guy flew all the way from the States to see some of his friends (including me) graduate, and he and I ended up staying out all night at our own version of the American Club, lying on the grass and talking. There was even a …moment… when things could have progressed, but I was too chicken.
Enough about me. Let me tell you why I loved this book...
- Because Vinesse also lived in Tokyo, she wrote about the foreign teenage experience SO WELL. The wandering about all night (because Japan is super safe), the trains, the kombini, the karaoke. GUYS, THE KARAOKE. You can’t find the experience of Japanese karaoke, or the appreciation for it, anywhere else. (The one thing missing is the last trip to Tokyo DisneyLand, though.)
- Sophia was sort of your average (expat) teenager. She wasn’t perfect, but she also wasn’t a complete mess. She was really good at school, especially physics, and she wanted to study astrophysics at MIT. She also didn’t drink, and she’d never been kissed up until this book, as she’d had a crush on a friend for a while. This might make her sound too “good,” but she wasn’t perfect. She did go out all night, and she said awful things to people she cared about because she got carried away emotionally. So basically, she was me, except I didn’t like physics, preferring biology. Also, though I had a brief “relationship” in 9th grade (for a week), I didn’t have my first real kiss until I went to university, so she had the jump on me.
- Family = messiness. I loved how the relationship between Sophia and her sister changed during this book. I can attest the fierceness of sibling bonds when you’re always moving around, as my brother is my favourite person in the world. That being said, we did not always get along, and our relationship went through a distant phase when he went to high school in South Africa while I was in university and then working in the UK. Also, their parents are divorced, and their father lives in France with his “new family", which both Sophia and her sister react to differently, causing strain between them.
‘Home has to be, like, a place.’
Alison sighs and turns to the side, her profile illuminated by the glow of the streetlights. ‘No,’ she says eventually, still staring out the window. ‘It really, really doesn’t.’
- On the topic of family, different kinds of family dynamics are portrayed in this book, from trusting to absent to disappointed. I know absent parenting is considered a problem in other YA books, but actually, this was very much a real thing amongst my fellow expat kids. I knew lots of classmates who rarely saw their parents and had money thrown at them, so they could do whatever. Also, everyone had a different cultural background, and in some cultures, parenting is a bit more lax.
- The exploration of people coming and going in life, and the difficulty of saying goodbye, made me cry multiple times. So did all the talk about belonging and where home is. IT HURT TO READ. I still don’t really know where to consider home, and I struggle to trust in any new relationship because I've been conditioned to believe that everything is temporary.
‘I’m still a kid? Because I don’t want to lose everyone who loves me? Because I don’t want to spend my whole fucking life finding people and then moving on from them?!’
- The limited timeframe and countdown gave this book a great sense of urgency, especially towards the end, when I started thinking there was no way this could turn around in time.
- And yes, I was also all swoony about Sophia and Jamie. Especially because they originally became friends thanks to Studio Ghibli and Howl's Moving Castle. SUCH A GOOD MOVIE.
There are probably more things I could write, but this review is getting a bit long, so I'll stop. I'm now going to go and lie in bed, fully experiencing this book hangover and wondering if I'll ever be lucky enough to meet the author in person and thank her for writing about my life.
So even though, objectively, I’d maybe give it 4 stars, it meets my requirements for a 5-star read because I know I’ll be reading this again and again just for the sake of nostalgia. And I think other people should read this to get a glimpse into what it’s like to be an expat kid, going to international schools and learning early on just how temporary everything is. (You know, just one of the reasons I have a therapist.) I’m going to be shoving this book at all my friends from high school, so they can also experience all the flashbacks!See this review in its natural environment, Dani Reviews Things.
You can find me on Twitter and Instagram.
loveisthething's review against another edition
3.0
A quick read
I flew through this. It was easy to read and definitely expressed teenage emotions very well. Would be good for travel if you want a light read.
I flew through this. It was easy to read and definitely expressed teenage emotions very well. Would be good for travel if you want a light read.