“Mono no aware—it’s a Japanese phrase expressing a love for impermanence, the ephemeral nature of all things.”

Finally FINALLY I could read this one! Finally one of my libraries had it in their collection! dances

In this book we meet a girl named Izumi, or Zoom Zoom, who is in the last year of high school and just having fun when she finds out about her dad. He is not just any dad though, he is the crown prince of Japan. Yep. That makes Izumi… crown princess. Yup! I loved that and I also had a laugh at how dedicated Izumi’s best friend was at finding out all she could about the dad. This girl!

Izumi was such a fun character and I loved following her as she tried to find out all about her heritage. About who she was. About Japan. About her family. I loved seeing her try hobbies. It was great that she was learning Japanese. I mean, she fully went for it and I just adored her. She also has her own homework to think of, especially later when she stays longer, but she is dedicated and takes it all very seriously and I was just proud! I loved the little things she did for people, like help out Akio’s mom. She was such a sweet person.

I loved that we got a lot of glimpses of Japan! It was so fun, it is still a dream of mine to visit Japan. Though given my allergies (cannot eat soy/tofu and a lot of other things) along with how expensive it is, I think I will just keep on dreaming and reading books like this! So I can at least get a glimpse of it all. Kyoto. Tokyo. And more!

Since I watch anime/j-drama/play games with Japanese dub, I was just in stitches when Izumi went Oppai Oppai Oppai. I was like OH no girl. Oh no.

The romance between Akio and Izumi? LOVE LOVE so many heart eye emojis in here. It was your typical grumpy – sunshine trope. Izumi all bubbly and sweet, Akio all grumpy and broody. But as the story continues we see a different side to Akio and I loved it. I loved seeing them connect and bond and get closer and yes, yes, I was hoping for kisses! But I also knew that challenges would be ahead. After all. Akio is Izumi’s bodyguard. She is the princess. While she lives in a progressive time, it is still not something that is just OK like that. I wasn’t too happy with how things went when X happened. But later things got better again and I am happy that they finally had a talk.

I also had a laugh at the part when Izumi goes to the US, her dad comes to check in on her, and how he and Izumi’s mom proceed to go into full flirting mode. Haha, love never died between those two, as we already witnessed throughout the story. Izumi’s mom keeping that book + poem + some other things. Izumi’s dad keeping orchids and other things. It was adorable.

The friendship between the girls, well we don’t see much as Izumi is in Japan for most of the book, but we do see some and I loved it! These girls were so sweet and adorable and I loved their bond and how they could talk about anything and everything. Noora was especially my favourite.

Izumi’s cousin? I just didn’t like him from the start. I don’t know, something was off about him. He gave me serious vibes that my ex-boyfriend also had. Slick, slimy, weasely. Not to be trusted despite how kind he may seem. I also didn’t like how he treated his bodyguard. No dude, it is not cool if you stand outside of someone’s toilet and talk to them like that. Maybe if she was family, but as employee/employer? Eww. No.

The Shining Twins? Please, I hope by all that in the next book they are magically kind or just disappear to some other part of Japan. LORD.

But I was very confused about the ages. I thought for sure Izumi was like 14-15, but then her friends drove a car and they were all the same age, so I checked the blurb, she is supposed to be 17? OK. Sure, I guess that works, I can remember that I acted a bit like that at times too when I was 17. But then there is the constant drinking! But she lives in the US and also goes to Japan. US is 21 and Japan is 20. She confesses to having schnapps and drinking, but how is she buying that? Does she have an older friend? A fake identity card? And why did no one ask her about it in Japan? She keeps getting champagne and sake (even at a bar!!) and such and I was just like, wait a moment, she is a minor. Hold on. No one questioned it. Everyone was just like, FINE. That is not how that works. I am not against alcohol, I just think it is an odd thing. If she was older I wouldn’t have minded, but now it stood out.

But all in all, this was such a fun book! I could talk about it for ages! I am so happy that I finally had the chance to read it! And now I just need to hope that the library will be getting book 2 as well! crosses fingers I would recommend this one to all the lovers of royalty YA with a dash of humour and romance~