Happily Ever After is a phrase that I have always loved ever since I was a little girl watching Cinderella. Feel free to read more about my love for Cinderella here and here. So you would be shocked to when I tell you that I didn’t automatically assume that Tokyo Ever After would be the same type of story. I was pleasantly surprised as I listened to this story.

Izzy is growing up in Mt. Shasta, CA (I affectionately referred to it as Hippy Town in my head the whole time), but she feels lost. She has her group of besties, being one of the few none white kids in an all white town takes it toll. Japanese American kid with no dad, and wanting to know more about her life; I can understand that feeling. So when one of her friends finds a random guy’s name with an affectionate note the search to figure out if it actually her dad. And in a shocking twist it is. If I’m being honest I was actually hoping it wasn’t. But then the icing on the cake, her dad is actually the Crown Prince of Japan.

From here our story begins to mirror The Princess Diaries (wasn’t sad about it) and we follow Izzy as she discovers her family and her heritage. She has some problematic cousins who try to make life harder for her, but who doesn’t. Throughout the book the reader has the ability to learn about Japan’s history, which I loved as an amateur history buff myself.

I’m not going to talk about the happily ever after that Izzy finds because that would give away most of the story in my opinion, but if you know how the Cinderella ends I trust you to figure it out. One thing that I was happy was that Izzy got both of her happy endings, in love and family. I’m very eager to listen to the sequel Tokyo Dreaming when it comes out at the end of this month.