Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hmm not interested in love story between 12 year Olds.  The writing felt clunky and  boring. May try another time.

Love and loss. The clash of cultures. History and warfare. Generational turmoil. This is an excellent read that really touched some open wounds in my life right now. The story is strong for 3/4 of the book then weakens a bit towards the end, but it's excellent.

I don't like romance novels (anymore) until I do. This story is complicated, richly detailed and compelling. Absolutely unforgettable.

This book told a lovely story. Keiko and Henry were such vibrant characters, and I also enjoyed the inclusion of Sheldon and jazz. I think this book was a bit heavy-handed at times, emotionally. I read it while staying in Seattle for a weekend, and enjoyed the connection to the city.

what a sweet story!

with all that's been happening in ~2020~, it often seems like things couldn't get any worse. but... at least whole populations of the country aren't being shipped away to internment camps? not yet, anyway, despite the current administration's best efforts. i know, the bar is pretty low. it's so hard for me to believe that this was a thing that happened to americans not that long ago.

I wanted to like this book so much. The story is personal to me, both as the grandchild of Japanese-Americans who were incarcerated during WWII as well as a person from Seattle. I love the tea room at the Panama Hotel and exploring Seattle's International District. Unfortunately, while the premise for this book is great and the history important, I just didn't find the writing to be very good. The descriptions were stilted, and the character interactions weren't believable. This is a story worth telling; I just wish it had been told better.

Absolutely fell in love with this one. Heartbreaking in parts, love in the mix, history and it's prejudices displayed. Very well written. One of my new favorites.

A Fantastic Story of Love and Connection

I read this novel for a “community reads” with the high school at which I teach. It's a rich, multi-layered story of young love torn by prejudice and the horrible internment of Japanese Americans. It's also about the distance between fathers and sons and how understanding and acceptance can overcome this. A few elements of the plot were more fantastic than realistic and these only contributed to the fairy tale aspect of the story. With the start of the school year next week, I look forward to the discussions out students, faculty and staff will soon have about this memorable novel.

It's always exciting to win a free book from Goodreads. Unfortunately I did not enjoy this author's work very much.

Very touching story.

I really liked this one; I thought it was similar in tone to “Sarah's Key,” with the same heaviness of human emotion during the war years. “Hotel” is set in 1940s Seattle. Henry is a first-generation Chinese-American whose father is very interested in the happenings of the war in China. His parents believe that all Japanese — even other Americans — are their enemies, and when 13-year-old Henry befriends the only other non-white student at his school, Keiko, he worries what his parents will think of him spending time with a Japanese girl. But when all the city's Japanese-Americans are rounded up and sent to internment camps in other cities, Henry realizes how deep his feelings for Keiko run and will risk his familial relationships, his safety and his heart to continue their friendship.

A sweet and sentimental story. It's not Nobel Prize material, but sometimes a simple love story is good enough. I'd suggest a box of tissues when you get to the last quarter of the book.

I really, really enjoyed this one! I sat down yesterday to read a little and basically read it from cover to cover in one afternoon. The story is just so beautifully written and the characters and their relationships are poignant and heartfelt. I didn't know a lot about what went on in the US during WWII, so I found that part to be especially interesting and sad. There are a few rather large mistakes throughout the book, one of the biggest being the fact that there were no Internet therapy groups in 1986, heck I am not even sure most people had a computer in their home in 1986, much less the Internet, another one was that Brandon Lee didn't die until 1993, making it impossible for him to be buried with his father and near Henry's wife in 1986, if these types of mistakes annoy you, then you may find yourself not enjoying this one, but truth be told the mistakes didn't distract me from what was an otherwise fabulous debut novel from this author!