Thank you to NetGalley and HahiPress for allowing me the chance to enjoy the advanced readers e-copy!

Adventure is nipping at Lily's heels as she travels to Japan for a whole year, to live in Tokyo. She's so focused on the picture perfect life she's going to have that she get a true sucker punch when she finds out that her urban host family has canceled and she's been relocated to little town of Ajimu, far away from all socially cool and delightful. Will Lily ever get to see the big city or will she learn to be satisfied with her lot in life and in Japan?

It's always a delight when a YA book surprises you, especially one you weren't sure about to begin with. The premise of this book, a young girl on a journey, Japanese culture, and growth overtones, immediately caught my attention, but it was the characters and the plot that sold me through. With journey stories like these, there can be a heavy romance filter over the plot. This book on the other hand dabbled in a little bit of flirting, but mostly it was about Lily, cozy rural Japan, and friendship.

Lily's growth is punctuated by break throughs with her host family, burgeoning friendships, and beautiful Japanese settings. I adored the descriptions of the school life and the traveling, and the hot springs! The writing gets a little bratty, but she is a teenager. THe plot moves steadily and staunchly, and the dated blog posts really help ground where Lily is mentally and emotionally though out.

Overall, a delightful read, 8/10 for anyone who enjoys YA, Japanese culture, and hot springs.

I really wish I could have finished this book. I barely made it half way through it. The only thing Lily did was complain that she wasn’t in Tokyo. I understand being a teen and being upset that things didn’t quite go how she had planned and been told they would go, but I kept thinking that if I were in her shoes I would just be so happy that I had the chance to study abroad in Japan! Lily complains about everything, including the things she was first talking about enjoying, like food and new experiences. Everything is so negative from her and she didn’t even try to enjoy herself. I understand the disappointment of not being able to go to the first plan, but that she was able to go to Japan and study abroad and have an experience that most people dream of should have been a dream. I’ve seen from other reviews that she turns around but I can’t bring myself to get that far in the story.
My opinions on this book may be because I am now in my twenties and am no longer in the heat of my teenage angst and mindset, but I just couldn’t finish this.

"Sometimes, imagined and reality are different." ~ Loren Greene

This was such a phenomenal, extremely cute coming-of-age story that gave me such a nostalgic/wanderlust feel. I practically binge-read it in one day.

Edokko by Loren Greene is about a 16-years-old, Canadian Lily Jennings who believes she is ready for an adventure away from home (and away from her overprotective parents). She somehow was able to convince her Dad to let her apply for a year-long study abroad exchange program with the World Friends organization. Lily had high expectations for what she wanted her year in Japan to be like. Unfortunately, an unexpected problem changed all that for her. The result: a new ambiance and environment that becomes a real eye-opening challenge for Lily about the reality of studying abroad.

If I was honest with myself, I was not a fan of Lily at the beginning-middle of the book. I found her to be a self-absorbed, narcissistic Princess whose main reason for her wanting to go abroad is to grow her social media presence. Her teenage objection and ingratitude were getting to me. So, I was very delighted that there was a slow character development of all the characters. 

Overall, I absolutely just fell in love with this YA contemporary tale. A 5-Stars Read and I highly recommend this book. As I was reading Lily's experiences in Japan, my mind simultaneously began to wander...I was reminiscing about my own experiences as a student studying abroad for the first time. Like Lily, I also had expectations about the country I was going to, the school I would be studying at, and the people I would be interacting with. It was such a delight to find there was a book that covered this unique experience. I am tickled pink to have learned that this book belongs in the same universe/kind of a sequel and part of the author's Sakura+Maple series banner published by HachiPress. I can't wait to pick up the first in the series, Meet You By Hachiko asap.

Thank you to author Loren Greene, HachiPress, and Netgalley for gifting me with an eARC.

This was so cute. I really fell in love with the characters and their conversations together.

Thank you for the e-arc!

This was such an unexpectedly sweet novel. At times I found Lily to be a really unlikable character, but as her character progressed and changed I found myself really loving her.

I wish we'd had more interactions with mean-girl Hameda, and I'd have loved to find out how Fumiya's first relationship goes, but maybe we'll get more of that in another book (I hope!!!)

This book is definitely aimed at a younger audience. It was still very fun and lighthearted and a great read.

This is a really cute story about a 16 year old girl from Canada who thinks she's going cool and hip Tokyo for a year abroad, but ends up in a small town in Kyushu. It's a predictable teen story but the location and characters give it special merit and if you have any interest at all in Japan you will enjoy this story. Kudos for authenticity and a great introduction to the "real" Japan. I think both teens and adults can enjoy this.

I went in knowing basically nothing about this book, never heard of it before, didn’t look up reviews. I’m glad I didn’t because I think I enjoyed it more because of it.

The main character, Lily, goes on an exchange program to Japan for a year, and a lot happens.

In the beginning of the book I was worried because I didn’t find Lily likeable at all.
But I found out that’s the whole point of this book.
What Edokko is really about is how Lily changes and grows as a person throughout the year she passes in Japan and is enriched by the people she comes in contact with.

Some of the events in the book sound a bit unrealistic and the writing threw me off at times, but overall, I still enjoyed this book.


Disclaimer: I received a copy of Edokko in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I wanted to fall in love with this story when I first read the blurb. I love books set in other countries, with unique cultures and diverse people. As someone with a serious case of wanderlust, I live vicariously through these stories to "see" other countries through the eyes of the characters. I highly enjoyed some of the cultural pieces and locales that are explored in the book. At first it was really hard for me to get into the story, the dialogue and character development felt awkward and fell flat in the first half. Lily, the main character, is sixteen and heading to Japan for a year with an exchange program. It should be every kid's dream! Unfortunately, things do not go as planned and Lily ends up placed with a different family in a small town. A budding blogger, Lily comes off as vain and shallow, caring more about looks and outward appearances and I had a hard time feeling any sympathy for her plight at first. She made some bad decisions, upset a lot of people and got in trouble. She also was not very respectful to the culture at first, such as being respectful to elders and adults, which was confusing to me since she was so in love with the Japanese culture. Lily seems more interested in living out her manga fantasy dreams than living real life. She was a liar, despite calling them "fibs" which in my head showed she didn't quite understand the gravity of her choices and how they effected the people around her. She feels more entitled than anything else, like she should be able to do whatever she wants during her time there. She conveniently escapes any major consequences for her behavior and actions. Then, I reminded myself what it would be like to be that age again going through this and understood some of her natural teenage rebellion a bit more. I also did appreciate her bit of character growth as the story went on and I liked the latter half of the book much more than the first half as Lily settled in with her new family and made friends. Although, it did seem to take her an awfully long time to learn some valuable lessons. I loved being transported to Japan and taking a trip to various places around the country but I felt the ending was too quick and conveniently wrapped up. I would have liked to see Lily have to deal with some consequences with the people around her and have to find ways to make up for it. There are some situations and language that keep this book firmly in YA territory for high school readers and would not be appropriate for middle school readers or younger. Definitely a story many high school readers will connect with and understand, as well as enjoy.

Such a fun read and super interesting. I learned a lot about Japanese culture and what a year abroad that didn't go as planned turned into with a social media presence following you.