I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn

Publisher: Scholastic
On Sale Date; May 28th 2018
Pages: 320

Kimi Nakamura is a teen who loves fashion and making her own designs. Her designs are anything but boring, they are bold and colorful and make her friends stand out in a crowd. Her mother doesn't like this though, as she thinks that Kimi could better focus and concentrate on her future and the fine art academy she is accepted in for after the summer.
But then something happens; a letter arrives from Kimi's Japanese grandparents from her mom's side, who invite her to spend the springbreak at their house in Kyoto. Altough her mother is not fond of the plans, Kimi decides to go, and soon finds herself on a plane headed to Japan.

In Kyoto she lands in a world of everything that is cool about Japan. The first thing is a Japanese market, where she meets Akira, a med student who also works at the market in the mochi stand of his family. With him she explores Kyoto and falls in love with the city..and with him. At home with her grandparents, she leans more about Japanese culture and about her mother, and this leads her to a room in her grandparents house that is full of the most amazing fabrics, and a dress that isn't finished yet. With her grandmother, they finish the dress that was meant to be for her mother, and Kimi figures out that the art academy isn't where her heart lies, it't in fashion and back home she makes the plans for her study after summer.

This is a very sweet and kawaii story that is set in Japan, something that already makes it  different then most YA books. The storyline was entertaining and fun, and just what I expected of it! The author has been in Japan I guess or did a great research because everything was so right about the setting, like you could just imagine every scene, especially in the end when Kimi and Akira visit some Japanese shrine places. The romance between Kimi and Akira was vert cute and the rest of the characters of family and friend where also nicely potrayed, but the best thing about this book is definately the main character Kimi and the setting; beautiful Japan!