Review: I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn

Title: I Love You So Mochi
Author: Sarah Kuhn
Genres: Young Adult comtemporary
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Kimi Nakamura loves a good fashion statement. She’s obsessed with transforming everyday ephemera into Kimi Originals: bold outfits that make her and her friends feel brave, fabulous, and like the Ultimate versions of themselves. But her mother sees this as a distraction from working on her portfolio paintings for the prestigious fine art academy where she’s been accepted for college. So when a surprise letter comes in the mail from Kimi’s estranged grandparents, inviting her to Kyoto for spring break, she seizes the opportunity to get away from the disaster of her life.

When she arrives in Japan, she loses herself in Kyoto’s outdoor markets, art installations, and cherry blossom festival–and meets Akira, a cute med student who moonlights as a costumed mochi mascot. What begins as a trip to escape her problems quickly becomes a way for Kimi to learn more about the mother she left behind, and to figure out where her own heart lies.

This was absolutely adorable.

I Love You So Mochi is about a girl visiting her grandparent’s in Japan for the first time and trying to figure out what exactly her passion is. She also meets a very cute guy who works as a mochi mascot for his uncle’s mochi stand and they develop a romance.

I basically loved everything about this book, except for the main plot of finding one’s passion. It was pretty clear from page one what exactly Kimi’s passion is and the fact that it takes her the entire book to figure it out herself was kind of frustrating. It would’ve been so much more interesting if she actually didn’t have a passion and she spend her time in Japan finding something new she loved and actually discovering herself. Finding out what makes her happy, instead of already knowing but just not connecting the dots yet.

The things I loved most about the book were the family relationships and the romance. I loved reading about Kimi and Akira going on adorable dates, him showing her around Kyoto and just, the way they interacted with each other! So cute! This book definitely had some of the cutest date scenes I’ve read in quite a while.

As for the family relationships, the relationship between Kimi’s mother and her grandparents is very strained, and now that Kimi has chosen to go on another path than the one her mom wants her to go on their relationship isn’t amazing either. Throughout the book Kimi gets to know her grandparents better (I absolutely loved them both, btw!) and learns more about her history, and therefore gets to know her mother better as well. And I loved being able to go on that journey with her.

I also really loved reading about Kimi’s friendships. Kimi has two incredible and super supportive friends by her side that continuously cheer her on and root for her, and every single scene they were in made me smile so much.

But so did scenes between her and her grandparents. And with Akira. Basically, this entire book made me smile a ton and I loved it a lot, and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a cute and heartfelt YA contemporary.

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