Member Review

Hana Ishikawa wakes up on her first day in charge of her father's pawn shop to find it ransacked and her father missing. This is what charming Minatozaki Keishin walks into with an offer to help. Except this isn't a normal pawn shop, and Hana has never seen someone enter it with an offer to help instead of a plea for assistance. In a world where choices are more valuable than anything else, Hana and Keishin choose to follow her father's footsteps in hopes of finding him and what was stolen. But the journey isn't easy, and they both will have to make choices they might not be ready for.

Lush storytelling takes readers on a magical journey across a land of dreams and hope where the stakes are high and the chance of success minimal. Yet there is a thread of possibility that is woven through everything that Hana and Keishin go through that makes this a most relaxing and thought-provoking read. The world is a luscious land of imagination that pulls you into the story as powerfully as the well-crafted characters. You can feel the struggles, desires, and fears that motivate everyone's actions, and you're right there with them as they fight to find Hana's father and the truth of everything around them.

It's a wonderful read that gives you a lot to think about, even as you're pulled forward by a plot that never lets up.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine | Del Rey for the magical journey!