Seven Days in Tokyo by José Daniel Alvior is a quiet, emotional story about love, longing, and figuring things out while in a new place. I liked the writing—it’s poetic without trying too hard—and the way Tokyo is almost like a character itself.

Some parts felt slow, and the romance didn’t always click for me, but overall it’s a thoughtful, beautifully written read that stayed with me.

🌸 BOOK REVIEW 🌸

Synopsis: Landon's living alone in Tokyo as a British 'expat', Louie's visiting while he anxiously waits for approval on his US visa. Against the backdrop of a misty Tokyo Spring, their precious time together is spent wandering into side streets and coffee shops, sharing unmade beds and plates of food. But as the days tick by, Louie's expectations start to overtake reality and he falls too deeply for a life that's not yet his.


Review: Wow, what an incredible debut! Easily one of my favourite reads of the year so far. Character-based story with an unlikeable MC who has travelled internationally to meet up with a former one night stand. I agree that it is a lyrical, immersive portrait of how some things, however beautiful and profound, are destined to be as short-lived as the cherry blossoms.

5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wow. This was a lot in a short(ish) book.

This is just the tiniest slice of the life of Louie’s life, but we follow him as he explores Tokyo, reconnects with his one-night stand, Landon, the charming English teacher who has made Tokyo home, and searches for the most magical of artisanal flat whites. Louie is such a well fleshed out person, and we see more of him with each connection he makes, from his friend the former hairdresser, to his messy, besotted, not entirely well thought out, longings for Landon.

So we start with Cherry Blossom season, and how beautiful and brief it is, and that is echoed in all of the rest of the story. There is an amazing sense of impermanence, and transience in belonging and relationship and place. Louie is originally from Manilla, but lives and works in New York, and sees it as a distinct place he belongs separate to the rest of the US. There is an ache of waiting for official permission to be in the place you call home. And this is more resonant now than it might have been when this book was being written. While the love interest seems to be the focus of most of the blurbs, what really struck me was some of the more subtle uncertainty and inequality in moving and living internationally.

Tokyo features as a major character, with comparisons made to similarities in New York. It creates a translation between the two big cities to help Tokyo feel more alive and understandable to people familiar with New York, but it worked in reverse for me, as I have a lot more familiarity with Tokyo than New York. While the love interest is the reason for the trip to Tokyo, this book gives so much more.

i wasn’t too sure about this one going into it & based on other reviews but i actually really liked it! quite a short & both sweet and bitter story, i read it quite quickly

if you’re looking for a love story with a happy ending, this is not it - what it is, is a heartbreaking and relatable story of the life’s what ifs, the potential loves of your life you meet along the way and the issues that expats / immigrants face trying to obtain visas for a place that is already their home!

definitely unlike anything i’ve read before but i enjoyed it! the only thing that kind of gave me a bit of an ick is the fact that pretty much every character in this book was either cheating/being cheated on or in an open relationship but feeling guilty about it?? dunno, just thought it was kind of odd and definitely not the way that i’ve read those relationships in other books before!

thanks to unbound & netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review ahead of the book’s publication date!

Seven Days in Tokyo is a dreamy love story about a brief fling that leaves a lasting impact. Set against the vibrant city of Tokyo, the book follows Louie as he reconnects with Landon after one perfect night. The writing tries to be poetic and emotional, but the constant switches between past and present can be confusing. The romance itself doesn’t fully land since Landon isn’t very likeable and it’s hard to understand why Louie is so drawn to him. Still, there are some beautiful lines and a few touching moments about love, loss, and the feeling of being in the right place at the wrong time. A mixed read, but it may speak to anyone who’s ever held onto a short but powerful connection.

Japan has always been high on my list of places to visit and this novel has certainly backed up that desire. The sense of place is perhaps the most striking thing about the novel – the author makes us feel like we are walking the streets with Louie and Landon.
The novel follows Louie as he visits Landon, a man he shared a night with in New York, in Tokyo where Landon lives and works. Both men are immigrants – Landon, a Brit working in Japan; Louie, Filipino working in New York and visiting Japan while his work visa is sorted out.
I was quite interested actually in the visa aspect of the story as I have gone through similar matters in the past. I also think it served well to juxtapose onto Louie’s life that sense of the ‘temporary’. His affair with Landon is temporary, his status in the USA is temporary, even his long-term partner seems somewhat temporary. There is a feeling that everything in his life has that temporary quality and perhaps it’s why he reaches for something more with Landon.
The relationship between Landon and Louie unravels across the course of the seven days, and Alvior is very clever in how he incorporates the cherry blossom season into the novel – they bloom for a couple of days and then suddenly they are gone. It’s very much a metaphor for the relationship which, in the early stages of the novel, is characterised by a kind of halcyon lust and infatuation.
The novel brilliantly captures the concept of fleeting moments versus the budding seeds of something. Louie is clearly more enamoured with Landon than vice-versa, and it is the casual cruelty of Landon that keeps the book grounded in reality. In amongst all of the idyllic location descriptions, and the nostalgic meet-ups with old friends, there is the uber-real exploration of a relationship, or lack thereof.
While we may not like Landon in particular, he does feel real, as do all of the characters and this is less a narrative and more of a character study of two people seeing very different things in the person standing opposite them. I don’t think there’s a person on earth who hasn’t had the exact same experience at some point in their life.
In honesty, I can’t say what I disliked about the book, but I also couldn’t strictly say that it was an incredible read that I couldn’t put down. Like Landon and Louie’s relationship, it felt temporary in a way where people will either love it or feel largely disinterested. I fall somewhere in the middle.

My thanks to Unbound Firsts, via NetGalley for an eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest reivew.

Seven Days in Tokyo is a captivating and heartwarming journey through the vibrant streets of Japan’s capital. The author paints Tokyo with vivid detail, blending culture, romance, and self-discovery into a beautifully paced narrative. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters’ emotional depth and the subtle humor that lightened even the more poignant moments. A delightful read that left me wanting more.

Thanks to Unbound for this e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion! Seven Days in Tokyo was pitched as a romance, but it really wasn't - it was more literary fiction and very introspective so I feel like my expectations for what I was getting into might not have been aligned correctly. That said, the storytelling felt a little choppy. There were some interesting moments and elements about the story we were following - the promise and let down of going to Tokyo, underscored by our main character's visa challenges, but I didn't feel like they ever really paid off because we never got quite deep enough with them. I did really enjoy getting to experience wandering Tokyo through the eyes of this character!

Seven Days in Tokyo is a quiet and introspective romance that sings with longing and shyness and human connection. In their debut, José Daniel Alvior bestows the story of Louie, a Filipino man awaiting his visa renewal in Tokyo, and Landan, a British expat with a coffee connoisseur tendency from his storied past. In just seven days (duh), their reunion shines with naïve love, hope, yearning, and a slowly unfolding love story. Alvior's light-handed touch to prose and dialogue perfectly suits Louie and Landan's tender, burgeoning love. It is lyrical and simple at the same time, a lovely mirror to the lyrical simplicity of Tokyo, which becomes a character of its own here.

However, I feel like a little 'oomph' was required in the pace just to develop the pair's relationship a little quicker. I found myself yearning for more, although perhaps that was the author's MO all along. I also thought there was perhaps a little too much of Tokyo embedded in here – it may exclude those who haven't visited the city, as the references are rather niche. Also, I had to knock a star off because I hated the random mention of how terrible a Chinese-American character was for no reason aside from their accent? Weird flex.

I really enjoyed the Tokyo setting in this story having recently been there, but unfortunately struggled with the story more broadly. I didn't feel the characters and their romance was believable - perhaps not enough development for them – and I didn't think the narrative arc was particularly strong. It's an easy read, and I like his writing style but sadly it just didn't deliver for me. I usually love a story with a quiet plot, but with these types of books, I need to be invested in the characters.

Slow, languid, emotive, descriptive, I could feel myself sinking into this book, time stilling.
Having been lucky enough to have visited both New York and Tokyo I enjoyed the descriptions of both of them.
It reminded me of a winding road with a junction at the end, and I was left to decide which way to turn.
Unusually but compelling 8nnits own way.

This was such a beautiful and unique read, it had me immersed right away with its vivid scenery and characters.

happy belated pub day!

seven days in tokyo is a gentle, introspective novel that explores the quiet ache of longing and the complexity of human connection. josé daniel alvior tells the story of louie, a filipino man passing time in tokyo while waiting for a visa renewal, and landon, a british expat from his past. over the course of a week, their brief reunion becomes a slow unraveling of hopes, misalignments, and unspoken truths.

the writing is subtle, with tokyo not just as a setting but as a mirror to the characters’ inner worlds—beautiful, distant, and full of quiet possibility. alvior’s style is delicate, favouring mood and character over plot, making this a thoughtful read for anyone drawn to stories of identity, memory, and what remains unsaid.

that said, it hurt to see how easy it is to chase someone even when they’re clearly not right for you and louie was no exception.

*thank you to netgalley for providing an advance reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

It was decent but not as intriguing or impactful as I imagined it might be. Still solid, though. I'm sure some people will be more into it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆ (4/5)
Lush, reflective, and immersive. This story unfolds slowly, like a walk through the city itself—full of discovery, longing, and quiet magic. José Daniel Alvior evokes Tokyo vividly, creating a love letter to place, time, and unexpected connection.

I liked this one, though it wasn’t quite what I expected. It’s not a big plot-heavy story, more a reflective look at a short, uncertain moment in someone’s life. The writing was lovely and I thought the way Tokyo was described really stayed with me, especially having travelled there before and loved it. Some of the characters didn’t do much for me, but I appreciated how it explored things like home, identity and being in-between places. I wouldn't read it again, but don't regret the time I spent reading it

A seven day journey to find out if a sudden spark, felt across the world, is truly real, while in Tokyo. There were a few misses with this story. One being the writing style. Just something, I’m not used too.

Thank you to Netgalley for letting me read this book. It was a beautiful exploration of cultures, love, attraction and an exploration of what home really means.

Louie is the main character and this story follows the seven days he spends in Tokyo with Landon, a man he met previously in New York as they see if they can have anything more than a brief relationship. There are a few times when we go back and forth in time to see how they initially met and then back to the present, this was sometimes not clear and took me a minute to figure out where we were.

This is the kind of story where there isn’t a strong plot in the sense of X needing to do a certain thing to achieve Y. This was more of an exploration of different issues through characters, it felt more like we were the main characters confidant or sounding board which was unique albeit harder to be invested in.

An aspect loved was the authors beautiful descriptions of both Tokyo and New York, they were described in such a way that I felt I was right there too, soaking up the atmosphere through the vivd and warming details of not only the landscape but the culture.

An issue I had was that I found that I couldn’t get invested in the romance, the love interest was very unlikeable, selfish and the main characters actions when with him frustrated me. I just felt like I wanted to skip those parts as there was zero chemistry. What I really loved were the side characters, his friendships and what each of them brought to the story, for instance, how the issues of belonging, immigration and the struggles of getting visas were discussed.

Louies situation is very difficult, he is waiting on a visa, stuck in a state of limbo, waiting to find out if he can continue with his current career. Due to this situation it adds a different perspective to his narrative and were experiencing these beautiful landscapes with grief almost as it could be the last time he’s able to be there (for a long time).

Overall I enjoyed aspects of this book but I did feel as though I was let down with the ‘romance’ storyline even if it’s not technically a romance book I still wanted something more. I really loved the beautiful writing and I look forward to seeing what else this author writes!

I just couldn’t get into this. While the writing was beautiful, the plot was dull and the characters were unlikeable for me. Nothing about this was gripping me

It’s not you, it’s me. I think having read loads of shorter translated fiction recently has ruined things for me. This has such potential and I think the title was great, however, I just felt like not much happened (maybe I was looking for something more) than I should have. This book would suit someone who is after something different but they have a fond memory of their time in tokyo