Don’t you just love a story that takes you to another land and makes you just about fall in love with it? Well, I do and even if I didn’t want to visit Japan before, seeing it through Fiona’s eyes definitely makes it even more enticing.
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Little Teashop in Tokyo by Julie Caplin.
Grab your passport and escape to a land of dazzling skycrapers, steaming bowls of comforting noodles, and a page-turning love story that will make you swoon!
For travel blogger Fiona, Japan has always been top of her bucket list so when she wins an all-expenses paid trip, it looks like her dreams are coming true.
Until she arrives in vibrant, bustling Tokyo and comes face-to-face with the man who broke her heart ten years ago, gorgeous photographer Gabe.Fiona can’t help but remember the heartache of their last meeting but amidst the temples and clouds of soft pink cherry
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A story about love, photography and self-discovery set amidst a bustling Tokyo and serene Mt. Fuji. This story seriously is a feast for the senses and guaranteed to make you go “Aww.”
The romance between Fiona and Gabe is not quite enemies to lovers but there certainly are some serious hard feelings and past awkwardness to overcome. The story of how they do just that takes them each on a journey of self-discovery and self-improvement too.
Fiona is a sweet main character. Yes, she’s a touch naive. Yes, her anxiety may seem over blown. Yes, she needs more confidence. But you know what? She’s adorable and felt real and I really ended up rooting for her to be successful. I loved how her history was explained. Sometimes the most innocent-seeming of childhood incidents can have very long-lasting implications. Fiona’s mother drove me nuts and if only she’d been a stronger mother, Fiona may have had a different life. Yet, there’s a lot to be said about the paths we choose and the paths we simply end up on. Fiona considers just this when she has to put her past connection with Gabe to compare with her current one.
Gabe is quite the sexy, broody hero. We are given some chapters from his perspective and I wish we’d been able to delve into the Yumi story some more. I felt I could have done with another meaty chapter on that. However, his transformation is pretty well presented from his chapters, from Fiona’s perspective and through his interactions with the indomitable Haruka. He slowly comes back to life, finding the spark in the everyday and the wonder in the extraordinary. When he does that, he’s more fully able to appreciate what Fiona can bring to his life.
The Japanese setting is simply glorious. We get descriptions of exotic locations, traditions steeped in centuries of devotion, food… oh my… the food. We also spend some time learning about the Japanese tea ceremony and the significance of the cherry blossom season. Some may find the descriptions a bit much but if you really enjoy learning about new places and cultures, you may enjoy them.
One of the funnier parts, for me, is when Gabe offers Fiona the chance to try some KitKat and Fiona is introduced to the alternate reality of American candy. Wasabi KitKat??? I’ll pass! Lol. One of my best friends moved to Japan right after college and whenever she comes home she brings me all sorts of ‘odd’ snacks to try. Thankfully, she stuck to the white chocolate with sprinkles version of the KitKat during her last trip. The wasabi bar nuts though… my tongue may never recover!
Overall, I adored this story, the main characters and the Kobashi family who ‘adopt’ Gabe and Fiona. I’d definitely recommend to anyone looking for a little romance in an idyllic setting.
I give The Little Teashop in Tokyo 4/5 espresso shots.
Author Bio
Jules Wake announced at the age of ten that she planned to be a writer. Along the way she was diverted by the glamorous world of PR and worked on many luxury brands, taking journalists on press trips to awful places like Turin, Milan, Geneva, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam and occasionally losing the odd member of the press in an airport. This proved fabulous training for writing novels as it provided her with the opportunity to eat amazing food, drink free alcohol, hone her writing skills on press releases and to research European cities for her books.
She writes best-selling warm-hearted contemporary fiction for HarperImpulse.
Under her pen name, Julie Caplin, her thirteenth novel, The Little Teashop in Tokyo will be published in ebook and paperback this June.
Social Media Links –
Twitter @JulieCaplin
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JulieCaplinAuthor
For more reviews and info on The Little Teashop in Tokyo, follow the blog tour.
Blog Tour organised by Rachel’s Random Resources.
The Cozy Pages 