In between learning Japanese, etiquette, and what it takes to be a good Japanese princess, she also finds herself falling for the cold yet dutiful bodyguard assigned to her. When the media discovers her secret heritage, Izumi travels to Japan to join her father to discover who she is and the person that she can be. Tokyo Ever After follows Izumi, an absolutely ordinary Japanese-American teenager who discovers that she is a princess, daughter to the Crown Prince of Japan. I suppose this dream slept dormant within me, because by the time I finished reading the second chapter of Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean, I felt like I was experiencing my wish fulfilment fantasy. When I was a young child watching The Princess Diaries and witnessed Mia Thermopolis, an otherwise ordinary American teenager, become the princess of Genovia, this sparked a childish dream and fantasy: what if I was a secret princess too? Of course, as I grew up, I knew that I wasn’t, but it was fun to dream. I was provided an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review by the book’s publicist. Will Izumi crumble under the weight of the crown, or will she live out her fairytale, happily ever after? Izzy soon finds herself caught between worlds, and between versions of herself-back home, she was never “American” enough, and in Japan, she must prove she’s “Japanese” enough. There are conniving cousins, a hungry press, a scowling but handsome bodyguard who just might be her soulmate, and thousands of years of tradition and customs to learn practically overnight. But being a princess isn’t all ball gowns and tiaras. In a whirlwind, Izzy travels to Japan to meet the father she never knew and discover the country she always dreamed of. Which means outspoken, irreverent Izzy is literally a princess. But then Izzy discovers a clue to her previously unknown father’s identity…and he’s none other than the Crown Prince of Japan. Raised by a single mother, it’s always been Izumi-or Izzy, because “It’s easier this way”-and her mom against the world. Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in-it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, northern California town.

Tokyo ever after book review