Publisher: Penguin Teen Canada, May 11th, 2021

Format: ebook

Pages: 432

Rating: 4/5 stars

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Celebrated author Sarah Kuhn reinvents the modern fairy tale in this intensely personal yet hilarious novel of a girl whose search for a storybook ending takes her to unexpected places in both her beloved LA neighborhood and her own guarded heart.

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? 

My Review:

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.