Thank you netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. I'm not one for rom-coms but I loved From Little Tokyo, with Love. I loved Riku and all of her passion. I loved her sister-cousins. I loved Henry/Hank. This was such a fun book with surprising depth. The snippets of Asian folklore and culture was lovely. I especially liked the idea that even though someone is popular and looks to have it all together, they may also be hiding hurts and ideas that they are not good enough for whatever ideal they are trying to live up to.

DNF @ 20%

I had high hopes for this once, since I am a big fan of modern fairytales. However, I don't like the writing style of this book, and I am not engaged enough to continue reading. Not for me, unfortunately.

Beautiful cover art, first person narrative, wonderful protagonist who’s looking to fit in, and find a sense of belonging within her Japanese community in Los Angeles, California. This own voices novel about Rika, will relate to so many, including myself. Such a heartfelt story about finding herself, and we get to tag along on this journey. This fun read, with some added humor, and some romance was just what I needed. It made me smile way too much (always welcomed). The added Japanese vocabulary was super delightful! I found myself highlighting all the things to reference!

Clean, wholesome, and overall a great read!

Thank you Penguin Teen Canada for the copy of this book.
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Read if you like: cute YA contemporary fiction.
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Rika is a young adult in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and is being raised by her aunt with her two cousins after her mother died in childbirth. She also doesn't know who her father is. Rika feels like she doesn't fit in and struggles to find her sense of self. Throughout the book, Rika searches for clues about her mother so that she can get a better understanding of who she is and her identity.
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I love a YA book that is about a search for ones identity. Rika was a cute and fun protagonist. She was strong and I loved how her temper was portrayed as passion by those that loved her. She loves fiercely and it shows.
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CW: racism, child abandonment, bullying.

My Thoughts:

In a nutshell, this is a feel good romcom/modern fairy tale. It is the perfect summer/Memorial Day weekend read to close out AAPI month, but it could also close out LGBTQ+ month as well as Mental Health Awareness month, so basically, any steamy, humid, too hot to sleep weekend will do as a great incentive to start this book.

The cheesy fairy tale section headings aside, this was a fun story to read. It may not be something I will read multiple times, however, I know the exact kind of readers I can sell this to. See my ladders chart below. However, I am not wild about some things. First, the cover art is unappealing. The color scheme, with the squished title above the hard, odd colored roof line disappears into the sky. The lanterns in the Os are not cute. I also think we have so many beautiful, hapa (Hawaiian for the Japanese term hafu) young adults. I would rather see actual models than illustrations that seem very stereotypically flat. Or if they are illustrations, what about almost 3 D collage types of art like the art on Tokyo Ever After or even the rich colors of Home is Not a Country.

I think after people stop talking about the newest book, then the staying power besides a good story, is a great cover that will pull readers in. The middle reader develops so quickly. A reader may not be interested in this in 6th grade, but a year later or two summers later, this will be the book to read for them, so it is not just about grabbing the readers who are ready this summer, but grabbing the future readers who will come next summer or the summer after that. Of course if this becomes a movie, then the cover will change any way and it won't matter.

Possible ladders or centipetal stacks:
Tokyo Ever After
Counting Down with You
Just for Clicks
A Pho Love Story
Under a Painted Sky different, but it could still stay in this stack
My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life
From the Publisher:
If Rika's life seems like the beginning of a familiar fairy tale—being an orphan with two bossy cousins and working away in her aunts' business—she would be the first to reject that foolish notion. After all, she loves her family (even if her cousins were named after Disney characters), and with her biracial background, amazing judo skills and red-hot temper, she doesn't quite fit the princess mold.

All that changes the instant she locks eyes with Grace Kimura, America's reigning rom-com sweetheart, during the Nikkei Week Festival. From there, Rika embarks on a madcap adventure of hope and happiness—searching for clues that Grace is her long-lost mother, exploring Little Tokyo's hidden treasures with cute actor Hank Chen, and maybe . . . finally finding a sense of belonging.

But fairy tales are fiction and the real world isn't so kind. Rika knows she's setting herself up for disappointment, because happy endings don't happen to girls like her. Should she walk away before she gets in even deeper, or let herself be swept away?

2.5

Thank you to penguin teen for sending me an eARC of this book. I was super excited to get to know Rika, A half Japanese half American girl living in Little Tokyo LA. She lives with her two aunts and her two cousins and always wondered who her parents were.

She has an interesting encounter with Grace Kimura, A famous Hollywood Asian actress which makes her believe that Grace could potentially be her mom.

With the help Of an upcoming asian actor named Henry, they start their adventure of finding clues and discovering if Grace really is her mom.

The beginning of the story was excellent. Rika was such an interesting character and her temper was completely out of control. It reminded me a lot of Kyo from Fruits Basket. I loved the representation with her aunts and the representation of having a mixed identity and what that feels like living in an Asian community. It was really interesting to see the struggles that she face living in a home that from the outside looked very loving but still felt isolating to the main character.

I enjoyed the chemistry between the two main love and trust and I really enjoyed these clues that they were finding in order to find the mom.

Around the 50% mark is when it went downhill. The romance became an interesting because suddenly the characters had things figured out and the romance was solved halfway through the book. Then in the second half of the book The characters decided to stop trying to find the mom and instead try to help Henry the actor be successful in an audition he really wanted. The book just took a really weird turn halfway through

I continue to read because I really wanted to know if Grace is her mom. I was hoping for a really interesting twist at the end that I would not have seen coming but… The ending was mushy, predictable and anti-climactic.

I think it’s a cute sweet contemporary and I still think they’re a lot of people out there who would enjoy it. My favourite parts of the book was definitely the different little Tokyo sites The food and the language that was present throughout the story. I think this book was just trying to do too much and really just need to focus on one or two things. It was trying to be about family, self identity, race, mental health, and more. And because it was trying to take all of this and put it into one, it just took away from other things of the story

I still think a lot of young readers will enjoy it and if you read it I hope you enjoy it to.

From Little Tokyo, With Love is a YA contemporary about a Japanese American girl that has been raised by her aunts who discovers that her mom is a famous actress. The book is a great mix of adventure and self discovery. The book deals with the prejudices she faces as a half-white girl within the Japanese community, the pressures of being an Asian American actor, dealing with the aftermath of family secrets and much more.

Overall this book is a really fun read that is also great at addressing more serious topics in a way that is accessible for younger readers and had me incredibly emotional by the end!

Thank you to @penguinteen and @netgalley for the #gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this book so much! The theme of struggling with identity and community felt really relevant. Rita's struggles with fitting in were super important to read about and were easy to resonate with. The romance was so darn cute and I was obsesseddd!!!!! This was such a great book and I can't wait to read more YA books by Sarah Kuhn.

Quick Stats
Age Rating: 14+
Overall: 4 stars
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 3/5
Representation: 5/5

TWs: anxiety, panic attack, anger issues, racism, some instances prejudice against the biracial main characters

Special thanks to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for an early eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

I loved this book. Was it perfect by any means? No. It was incredibly cheesy, and the writing, while decent, was sometimes lacking, but it was so sweet. This book is the perfect romcom with a whole lot of heart and tackles some really important issues—like race and the identity struggles that come with being bi/multiracial, family, mental health, and the stigmas around mental health and LGBTQ people in Asian communities. I believe the author herself is biracial, lending this book the touch that only an own voices author can.

I loved Rika, and though she sometimes drove me crazy, I saw a lot of myself in her. I’ve also struggled with a nasty temper for most of my life, and I also—especially when I was younger—thought of it as a monster. Rika is different from a lot of YA heroines, and sometimes it does come off a little “I’m not like other girls”-esque, but I really loved seeing such a rough-around-the-edges, hot-tempered girl as the main character.
Henry, too was amazing. I loved his character, and the depiction of his anxiety was really accurate. He was able to be a swoon-worthy love interest without being a cardboard cutout of a character. Their whole romance was definitely insta-love, but it didn’t bother me too much. I was swept up in the chemistry and romance, which I was especially craving since the last book I read was a huge let-down on that front.

Aunt Suzy and Belle felt like pretty two-dimensional characters, and sometimes got on my nerves, and yet I found myself loving them anyway. I adored Auntie Och and Rory—especially Rory—and Eliza too, though I’d have liked to see more of her. Craig was probably the weakest character, and felt wholly unnecessary to the story. He had no real motivation behind his actions, and nothing he said or did felt realistic because of that.

The book was definitely suffocatingly cheesy at parts, but honestly, I kind of loved that about it. I cannot emphasize how much I recommend this book!

Outstanding retelling! I went into this with high expectations and was not disappointed. I enjoyed everything about this from the character development to the very well developed setting to the captivating story. I was hooked from the first chapter. I will be recommending this to every reader I come into contact with.

Rika não sente que pertence a comunidade de Little Tokyo desde criança. Sempre com um comportamento agressivo, ela ouviu que tem um temperamento destrutivo. Por ser órfã e ter duas primas/irmãs que são fãs de princesas e contos de fadas, coisa que Rika não acredita, ela acaba se sentindo cada vez mais deixada de fora. No dia da parada do Nikkei Week Festival, tudo que ela queria era fazer sua demonstração de judô e ganhar talvez uma bolsa para a UCLA. Até que ao levar as primas para a parada, a atriz Grace Kimura acaba pulando em cima dela de modo desesperado e revelando um grande segredo: na verdade a mãe de Rika não morreu, ela é ninguém menos que a própria Grace. Rika então contará com a ajuda do jovem pop star Hank Chen para achar sua mãe e as respostas que sempre procurou. Acontece que Hank parece mais um príncipe e Rika não quer ser salva.
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Minha primeira experiência com a escrita dessa autora e eu estou tão feliz por ter me arriscado nessa leitura. Com uma narrativa fluida e divertida, Sarah Kuhn trouxe uma protagonista bem marrenta que esconde seus sentimentos e um protagonista que a apoia sem querer passar por cima dela. Isso tudo sem esquecer de trazer assuntos importantes como a representatividade asiática no cinema e meios de comunicação e o preconceito que os asiáticos americanos e meio asiáticos sofrem dentro da própria comunidade.
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Nika é uma protagonista muito forte e que ama incondicionalmente e de forma feroz. Ela fará de tudo para proteger a família mesmo que isso signifique se ferir no processo. Ela carrega o estigma de ser filha de uma gravidez precoce e por isso sofre preconceito.
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Henry é um mocinho que tem suas próprias questões sobre ser perfeito e a expectativa de também ser considerado "mestiço" o que ocasionou uma grande expectativa por parte dos seus pais.
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O romance entre os dois acontece de forma bem natural e eu acho que encaixou bem dentro da narrativa, mas ele não é o plot principal do livro. Em From Little Tokyo, With Love vamos encontrar uma narrativa sobre família, preconceito e novos começos.

Rika is a fierce, independent, and strong. However, she is also lonely and her attempts to tamp down her softer side is heartbreaking. Also, Rika's feelings of otherness because she is half-Asian and half-white, and her feeling like she doesn't quite belong in either culture is a major part of the story. That representation and struggle is important to see in YA books, as I don't think I've read too many, or any, that address that in such a major way.

I loved the various storylines that were woven together seamlessly. Rika's relationship with Henry was sweet; her search for her potential mother was emotional & exciting yet frustrating; and the story of Rika's family and their own issues with the community's acceptance really fleshed out the themes of the book. I also really loved that a fairytale narrative was incorporated into this book, with an "once upon a time" story appearing every few chapters that summarized Rika's journey.

Overall, a sweet read with great rep!

Seventeen-year-old Rika doesn’t believe in fairytales. Her two cousins, who she was raised with, are named after Disney Princesses: Belle and Aurora. Rika has never felt like she fit in anywhere. Her mother died in childbirth, and never knew her father, so she was raised by her aunts. Rika is half Japanese, so she has never fit in with their traditional Japanese community. She’s even too aggressive in her judo classes, with a reputation for biting a boy. Rika’s life changes when she catches the eye of Grace Kimura, the most popular rom-com actress, at a parade. That chance meeting makes Rika question the story behind what happened to her mother. Along with Hank Chen, a hot young actor, Rika goes on a hunt around LA to find her mother.

I loved the fairy tale aspects of this book. Rika’s family was obsessed with fairy tales. Her cousins were named after princesses, and they constantly watched romantic comedies. Since Rika didn’t feel like she belonged in her family or community, she didn’t think she deserved her happily ever after. Once she met her prince, Hank Chen, her life turned into the rom com she never expected.

A big theme of this story was fitting in. Rika didn’t feel like she fit in with her family, since she wasn’t a sibling, and she didn’t fit in with the Japanese community since she was only half Japanese. Rika felt like she was the only one to experience it, but then she learned that everyone feels left out at some point in their lives. Even the people who seem to get along with everyone wherever they go, don’t fit in everywhere. It’s easy to think that a problem is unique to yourself, but once you talk about it, you can learn what you have in common with everyone else.

From Little Tokyo, With Love was such a fun rom com!

Thank you Penguin Teen for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is Sarah Kuhn’s first book and I can confidently say that I will be continuing to pick up whatever she releases! I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

What I loved:
- representation! Not only is there racial representation, but there is also LGBTQ+ representation! Our MC Rika is Japanese and white, and her love interest is Chinese and Filipino. Her aunts are lesbian, and one of her sisters is pan sexual.
- issues on the page. I love that Kuhn addressed many things on the page, like stereotypes and color issues, and even struggles people that are biracial face. In this case for Rika, she is too white to fit in with the Asian community and too Asian to fit in with the white community. While this isn’t a struggle I personally face, I have many friends who struggle with this exact issue so it really spoke to me.
- an MC with anger issues! I have been a reader for 10+ years, and have to say it was incredibly refreshing to see an MC struggle with it. Especially a female MC!
- the romance between Rika and Henry is *chefs kiss*. I absolutely loved their sweet romance. Henry is a new top favorite cinnamon roll character!

This is my first time reading a Sarah Kuhn book and it won’t be my last! I love how this author incorporates a wide range of people from pansexual cousin to lesbians aunties within Japanese community. The main character, Rika is half Japanese and half white. Of course she’s entitled to her anger and pain - she doesn’t know her mother. The story is about self discovery, family dynamics, personal growth and acceptance. I love how author uses the way the 2 main characters ‘hunt’ for Kira’s mother as relationship blossoms between Henry and Rika. On the surface he definitely comes off as stuck up and self absorbed but we find out why. I highly recommend this own voices book to high schoolers and young adults.

I’ve said it once (at least ten times) and I’ll say it again: contemporaries and I aren’t the best of friends. But the synopsis had the word fairytale in it, which meant I went weak. Again. But I’m happy I read this, because it was very much a lovely modern fairytale contemporary story*!

*adjectives are my strong suit. for better or for worse.
Rika is biracial: half Japanese, half white/ She doesn’t quite fit into the Japanese community of Little Tokyo, yet she also doesn’t fit in with white girls. She’s hot-tempered, and loves dark Japanese folktales far more than the fuzzy, sappy Disney movies her cousins are named after. Watching her slowly come to terms with the vulnerabilities she tries so hard to hide while also not losing her red-hot spark was a great experience. Her character was written in such a believable way too! I never felt that she was angry as a “unique personality trait” or that her character arc was forced in any way.

Henry is biracial as well, half Filipino, half Chinese. I absolutely adored the way he and Rika connected over their shared experiences of not being totally one thing, not fitting in, and yet coming to terms with their own identity as an individual with a mixed background. I totally resonated with this aspect of the book, in case you couldn’t tell. Also, Henry is just adorable! In the process of letting Rika drag him all over Little Tokyo in search of her mother, he learns to deal with his own identity crisis and struggles.

Which brings me to my next point: community is such a powerful thing, and in the COVID pandemic it’s been so hard living without it, or at least not on the same level it was before. But truly, this book portrayed the Asian community (specifically the Little Tokyo Japanese community) as being both flawed and inextricably tied together in such a beautiful way. The concepts of strong friendships, blood family and adopted family, and romance without any caveats were honestly the starring roles in this book. That was the heart of this fairytale: the power of relationships and how important they are to an individual.
As much as I enjoyed certain pieces of this book, others just fell flat for me. Some might be bothered by the sheer amount of rom-com coincidences but I actually loved them! They felt naturally unnatural if that makes sense. However, with that being said, I did find myself feeling a little bit impatient with the plot. It often felt like we had tread through certain conversations before: like okay Rika, we get that you have a temper!! We don’t need you to think about it constantly or tell Henry about it every other minute! It also felt that the actual events lagged just a bit. I wasn’t as invested in the details of what was happening the way I wanted to be, unfortunately.

I also think that this book could have been just a bit shorter. There were some great moments for Rika, some great moments for Henry, and some fantastic moments that really captured the spirit of the modern fairytale. The addition of Rika’s two aunts and her cousins Belle and Rory doing their best to support her but at times not understanding her, was handled really well. However, sometimes the dialogue felt forced, stilted, too much “rom-com” for what it was worth. It’s the same with the plot: in movie form, the amount of unnecessary scenes wouldn’t have been bad! But when I’m reading, I’m a bit more impatient. Which…might just be a me problem come to think of it.

So that’s it! I know that this might not be the most descriptive of reviews, but I honestly believe that the strength of this story lies in its characters and messages.

This was a really sweet story about feeling like you don’t belong then finding yourself.

I really loved this Own Voices story set in Little Tokyo in LA. Sarah Kuhn described this fictionalized Little Tokyo so perfectly that it really felt like I was there. I could picture all of the shops and restaurants perfectly.

All of the characters in this book were so lovable. They were all so unapologetically themselves, even if some of them didn’t realize that right away.

I think this book would be a great read for anyone that ever struggles with self doubt or feels like they don’t fit it.

This was a special kind of fairy tale 💕

Why is it always the books that absolutely tear me apart in the best possible way that I have the hardest time trying to review?

This was my first book by Sarah Kuhn and needless to say, it will not be my last.

Rika has always been an outsider. She’s half-white in the majority Japanese American community of Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. Following the her mother’s death in childbirth, Rika was raised by her aunts. Rika is unlike her sisters (cousins). She has a propensity for anger, which has been attributed to her white father and has given Rika the reputation of being difficult and not Japanese enough.

During the renowned Nikkei Week Festival, Rika (literally) runs into the famous Japanese American sweetheart Grace Kimura, who she realizes may actually be her mother…damn those aunties and their lies! With the help of Grace’s co-star Henry (also biracial: Filipino and Chinese), Rika decides to uncover the truth about her mother and track her down.

I LOVED Rika’s character. Yes, she’s been labeled as angry and difficult, which is at odds with traditional Japanese culture as the author addresses. But let’s be honest, she knew virtually nothing of her parents and being biracial automatically puts you as an outsider. As someone who also is biracial, Rika’s anger and pain was so much of what I endured throughout my life. Rika is too Asian to be white, and too white to be fully appreciated by the Japanese American community.

I also loved that the love interest in this book was biracial but differed from Rika. Henry is Filipino and Chinese he touches on the complications that exist even when you have two cultures within the same race such as colorism (love when the colorism issue is on page…so freaking important!). Henry is a cinnamon roll after my own heart. His public image comes off as a bit self absorbed, but as you get to know him and his circumstances, you realize that there’s more to Henry than what’s on the surface.

One of the other things that I loved in this book is the way queerness within the Japanese American community is addressed by the author. Rika’s aunts are lesbian and have been together for decades. While their queerness has been begrudgingly accepted (for reasons), that isn’t to say that they did not struggle to be accepted in Little Tokyo. Furthermore, one of Rika’s sisters is pansexual, and she faces a lot of the same prejudices as her mothers.

I could honestly keep gushing about this book. I didn’t even get to all of the adventures that Rika and Henry embark on while looking for Grace, but I’m just going to stop here.

This book is incredible, and y’all really just need to read it. And if you're a crier, have the tissues on deck.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.

FROM LITTLE TOKYO, WITH LOVE is another homer from Sarah Kuhn. I envy Kuhn's ability to write across genres and for so many different target audiences; I can only wish I had that kind of skill. While I would never equate the experience of growing up bi-racial and Asian-American and Jewish-American, there are some cultural similarities in terms of parental-figure expectations and relationships that definitely have me the feels, even as an adult, reading this novel about a young woman struggling to find her place in a spot between worlds. Being a teenager is hard enough; being a teenager being pulled in as many different directions as Rika... yeesh.

One of the things I continue to appreciate most about Kuhn's writing is that her heroines live imperfect lives, as all of us do, but all of them, even those as conflicted as Rika, get to experience joy in a real and beautiful way, even if it's not a way they expected. Because life is surprising and weird but it's also wonderful. And it has a way of reminding us of that last when we least expect it.

Rika Rakuyama isn't enough of anything... isn't Japanese enough to truely fit in to the Little Tokyo community in LA; isn't white enough to not be stereotyped by the "Becky's" who come in to her aunties restaurant and want the "authentic" Japanese experience; isn't demure enough to be the perfect girl; and despite being raised by her aunties as one of their own and as a sister to their two daughters, doesn't quite look right or have the same interests to feel like she's truely part of their family. However, after a haphazard meeting with rising movie star and dancer Hank Chen before the Nikkei Week Parade and a disruption during the parade involving Rika, her world is turned upside down. The fact that her aunties never talk about her mom or that there wasn't a funeral starts to finally piece itself together. With the help of her new friend Hank, who might not be as infuriating as she thought, they work to find out what really happened to Rika's mother, and along the way, she might even find out that she is already enough to be happy and loved, kaiju temper and all.
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From Little Tokyo, With Love is a swoon worthy story of not only of first love, but of self love and acceptance. I think that everyone can relate to Rika's journey, because at some point we've all felt out of place. This book was fun, light hearted, and MAGICAL. This is definitely the best book I have read so far this year! You definitely want this one on your summer tbr!