Tokyo Dreaming (Tokyo Ever After, 2)

We continue kind of where we left off. Izumi is dating her former bodyguard Akio, the press still hates her, and her parents are dating. But when her parents want to get married and some council is saying no, placing a lot of blame on Izumi being an imperfect princess, Izumi is determined to change her ways and help her parents find happily ever after.

Akio breaks up with her because he’s afraid of bringing her down, she starts getting serious about college and eventually falls for her tutor who is rich and comes from a good family so they decide to fake date to make both of their lives easier. She even befriends her twin cousins and help her navigate the press and how to dress. But she’s made some choices that aren’t really too great (like choosing to major in Botany that was ridiculous).

However, her parents finally get approval. Akio decides he wants her back even though Izumi has fallen for her tutor (who in my opinion is the better match and I was so surprised to find that I thought that because I do like Akio).

When her mom has a panic attack Izumi realizes she isn’t the only one pretending to be someone she isn’t and she decides to go back to her old self. She declares she will study literature (honestly this was the obvious choice can’t figure out why it took her so long and it’s an acceptable field of study for royals).

Her parents figure out how to navigate things and Izumi decides she’s team Akio but wants to keep the tutor as a friend.

Anyway, just like the first book, this one really has a lot of nuance as it discusses race, ethnicity and what it means to be who you are. I love how Izumi has an identity crisis because even though she’s fully Japanese she doesn’t feel like she belongs because the culture is so different from America. This book tackles really difficult concepts related to ethnicity and identity well especially for a Ya. This book is about finding yourself and being unapologetically who you are. It’s refreshing and a lot of fun.

One thing I don’t understand is the ending with Noora I suspect she’s getting her own book. I kind of wondered if she did something crazy like get engaged or pregnant. I also didn’t realize in book one that Izumi was so much closer with Noora than the rest of her friends. It felt like they were an awesome foursome but the other two don’t really pop up in this book, which was disappointing.

I do think Izumi needs to give herself more credit. Going to college was the right choice. Yes she picked the wrong major but she easily changed it. Dressing better was the right choice. Being more thoughtful about her responses to the media was a good change too. So it all of the changes she makes in this book are bad.