Ratings73
Average rating3.5
A Reese Witherspoon Book Club YA Pick! Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean is a hilarious and heartfelt novel perfect for fans of To All the Boys I've Loved Before and The Princess Diaries. Izumi Tanaka has lived an uneventful seventeen years in her small town, keenly aware of all the ways in which her family is different from most of her classmates. But then Izumi discovers a clue to her previously unknown father's identity . . . and he's none other than the Crown Prince of Japan. Soon she's traveling overseas to meet the father she never knew and discover the country she's only dreamed of. But being a princess isn't all ball gowns and tiaras. There are conniving cousins, a hungry press, a scowling but handsome bodyguard who just might be her soulmate, and thousands of years of tradition and customs to learn practically overnight. Izzy soon finds herself caught between worlds, and between versions of herself - back home, she was never "American" enough, and in Japan, she must prove she's "Japanese" enough. Will Izumi crumble under the weight of the crown, or will she live out her fairytale, happily ever after?
Featured Series
2 primary booksTokyo Ever After is a 2-book series with 2 released primary works first released in 2021 with contributions by Emiko Jean.
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I think it's more of a 3.5.
This was a very impulsive read for me which I picked up after reading a lovely review of the sequel Tokyo Dreaming. It's YA contemporary which is so not my thing anymore, so I didn't have much expectations. It turned out to be cute and fun, emotional at places, a tad bit predictable but overall enjoyable just like The Princess Diaries. I definitely liked the parts about Izumi wanting to belong somewhere and trying to reconcile her American upbringing with a more conservative Japanese imperial culture, and all the narrative about her learning to speak Japanese, write Kanji and learn the etiquette was very nicely written. The romance is probably a bit of instalove but it's kinda a staple of the genre at this point and I won't begrudge it. Overall, I had fun and I wouldn't mind picking up the sequel.