This was a very enjoyable book with big themes but handled with a soft touch. It's about mothers and daughters, about how one event can hold you back later in life and how you can ultimately get out of your own way. I enjoyed all of the characters in this story and think they felt like fully developed characters which made the situations they were in feel authentic and not 'movie of the week-ish.' It was a reminder that we will all face challenges in life and even though they are often not of our own making, we each have the power to accept and move forward.

Mika in Real Life tells the story of a woman in her mid-thirties as she desperately tries to be good enough for her daughter she placed up for adoption years ago. The story addresses many difficult subjects including grief, trauma, and assault, while also twisting into a whirlwind romance. In doing so, the novel paints a real-world - one with the terrible and the great, where characters can be multifaceted and make, sometimes poorly, complicated decisions that you won't always root for. The novel holds love, familial love, and love for oneself front and center, demonstrating how important it is to allow people to care for you as you are, and how it is to recognize the good within yourself.

Mika in Real Life is a book with lots of depth and heart masquerading as a light contemporary fiction read.

Mika is 35 and her life is a bit of a mess. When the daughter she gave up for adoption 16 years ago calls her out of the blue, Mika takes stock of her life and decides the best course of action is to fake a better life.

What starts out as kind of a silly plot line transforms into something much deeper. Author Emiko Jean deftly covers issues like transracial adoption, sexual assault, parental expectations, mother-daughter issues, and growing up. She writes with emotional awareness, but it never feels too heavy. Her characters were flawed and real, but I really connected to them.

I absolutely loved Tokyo Ever After and couldn't wait to read another book by Emiko Jean! TEA was a YA novel so was even more excited for Emiko's adult novel debut

Mika in Real Life is a quick page turner - one you won't want to book down!. Full with deep emotional depths and humor it will keep you wanting more. Mika Suzuki is a self declared mess, but watching her reconcile her life with what's happened and what she wants it to be is inspiring. The relationship she has with her daughter Penny was so beautiful and then to add the layer of Thomas, her adopted father brought the story full circle. The writing is transportive and captivating. Mika in Real Life is not to be missed!

Thank you to William Morrow & NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this digital ARC

Jean's novel starts with a cute premise - a biological mother creates a fantasy life to show the daughter she gave up for adoption - but takes a serious though humorous look at what happens when a single incident sends your life off track and explores how you can get back to what you thought you'd lost. A fantastic read.

This book is a roller coaster of emotions, in all the best ways, as it examines what makes a person who they are. I don’t like spoilers, but relationships between parents and children, at all ages, are explored. Embracing mistakes and trauma, allowing ourselves to heal from that, and forging a new path to happiness are at the center of this story.

When she was just 19, Mika found herself pregnant and not in a place in her life to have a baby, so she placed her for adoption. Since then, Mika's life has not gone as she had planned it to go. And then one day she gets a call from Penny - the daughter she surrendered 16 years prior. Penny and Mika begin to talk regularly and instead of sharing the truth about her life, Mika concocts the life she wished she had. But then, Penny wants to meet her and Mika isn't sure how to bring her into this fake life she's created. Plus, there's Penny's adoptive father, Thomas - someone who Mika begins to develop feelings for. Mika must determine what is real, and if there's a way to end up with everything she's always wanted.

Though I appreciated the story and relationship between Mika and Penny, I found this whole book to be incredibly predictable so it wasn't as fun to read as I'd hoped. I also felt the storyline between Mika and Thomas was a bit too neat and tidy and would've preferred that to not be included at all.

However, It was beautifully written, I love the references to Japanese culture, and the friendship between Mika and her best friend Hana was so much fun to read. I found Mika herself to be not as likeable as a character - but the others surrounding her were really wonderful. All in all, a good book, but not my favorite.

This book will be featured on an upcoming main show or Patreon episode of Reading Through Life podcast.

Emiko Jean wrote a novel laced with many emotions. A birth mother, Mika, is,reunited with her daughter, Penny. However, Mika creates many lies about her life that eventually back fire on her. Penny also confronts Mika with her relationship with her father. Mika does make a lot of missteps, but she does try. The most valuable lesson to take away is always be yourself. Trying to fake who you are is a disservice to everyone, including you. The author gets the teenager actions and commentary right on par as well as the cultural aspect of Japanese society. My favorite character was Hana because she is a true friend and scrapes away at Mika’s fake veneer.

I loved the concept of this one! Struggling 30-something is contacted by the daughter she gave up for adoption 16 years ago.
However, I felt like the characters exceeded ‘quirky’, and went into ‘foolish’. It’s really hard to root for someone when the relationship they are royally messing up is with their 16 year old child.

This book was far more than I was expecting. The initial set up is that Mika, 35 years old, had given a baby up for adoption 16 years prior. That child now comes calling and wants to get to know Mika. The catch is that Mika’s life isn’t exactly where she wants it to be. So instead of being honest Mika lies to her daughter, Penny. I assumed the whole book would be a follow through or breakdown of the lies but what really happens is you get to know Mika. Her backstory, that or her parents and then you also get to know Penny and her adoptive father. The relationship were well written, I really loved the infusion of Japanese culture and there’s even a hint of steam. I definitely liked this more than I thought I would. Would recommend for a quick read that covers a number of subjects: family, trauma, finding your true self. Rumored as a GMA book club pick and I can see why.

Mika in Real Life is a charming book about a woman in her mid-thirties who is reunited with the child she gave up for adoption sixteen years before. Mika has been in a holding pattern, never really launching since college, due to fear from past experiences. She receives a call from her biological daughter, Penny, which rocks her world and forces her to examine her life and what she hasn't done with it. At first, it's a little juvenile, with her fabricating a life for herself, but then the novel goes deeper. We start to understand what has held her back.

The characters in this book are incredibly likeable and sometimes complex. Especially Mika's fraught relationship with her own mother and how it's colored her experiences as a child and adult. She begins relationships with her biological daughter, Penny, and her father, Thomas. Penny's mother passed away recently and it shook their family. Mika's parents emigrated to the US from Japan when she was 5, so they have vastly different experiences. Penny was adopted by white parents in the midwest and has questions about her identity/culture. Mika in Real Life examines what it means to be a parent and daughter and how it is to be separated from one's culture or country. How do we move on from trauma and accept and empathize with others as they truly are? I really enjoyed this very readable and relatable novel, which ponders deeper questions.

Thank you William Morrow for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

As a college student Mika gave her baby up for adoption and has been struggling in all areas, with her parents, her love life, and her work. Nothing in her life is going like she had hoped. One day the now 16 year old daughter calls Mika and wants to come and meet her. Mika quickly tries to carve out the life she’s always wanted, one that her daughter could look up to, but things don’t go as planned. This book explores the mother/daughter relationship, friendship, love, and finding yourself along the way. I loved it! Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow for an early copy. Out August 9.

Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean was an enthralling read. I found myself thinking about these characters at odd times of the day. They may have all been fictional characters, but they felt like real people and I wanted them to find happiness. This is the kind of wonderful book that I’ll go around telling everyone about. I’ve already told my local public library to order this right away.

Honestly, I was blown away by the depth of the story and characters, and impact this novel had on me as I read it. I went into it expecting a semi-fluffy summer read, but was left having cried in multiple points, and feeling so attached to the characters.

Mika is 35 years old, and extremely dissatisfied with her life. She lives with her best friend and can't seem to hold down a job, or maintain a romantic relationship. When she was a Freshman in college, she became pregnant and gave up her baby for adoption, and her life has been a mess ever since. The main plot of the book revolves around Mika dealing with Penny, her bio daughter, reaching out and becoming part of her life.

Mika makes the choice to lie about her life, and has to deal with the consequences of her lies when the truth comes to light, in addition to dealing with a growing attraction to Thomas, Penny's adopted father.

As I said, this book shocked me with it's depth, and how well the author balanced all of the issues and characters Mika has to deal with, she has a troubled relationship with her own mother, and trauma from experiences in college, that all come to a head. How she deals with these issues, and finally confronts her past, and moves on from it was very well done, and satisfying for me as a reader.

I highly recommend this book and appreciate receiving an electronic ARC from Book Club Girl, William Morrow, and NetGalley for review.

I enjoyed "Mika in Real Life" for the most part. Learning about Mika, her daughter, Penny, and other assorted characters was interesting and kept me wanting to stay with the book. The latter part of the book was just okay - romance blossoms and not being a fan of romance books, I lost interest.

Emiko Jean's new novel, Mika in Real Life, follows Mika at age 35 when the baby she gave up for adoption 16 years ago unexpectedly returns to her life. Penny's appearance forces Mika to take stock of her adult life and forgotten childhood dreams, her tenuous relationship with her own mother, and what it means to be a Japanese American.

Jean is able to grapple the tough stuff of life with such ease and humor that the story never feels too heavy or weighed down. With a writing style that draws the reader in and never lets go, Jean examines difficult topics such as motherhood, acceptance, grief, and trauma with appropriate depth.

I lost count of the number of times I found myself laughing on one page at the characters' foibles, only to be hit with a beautiful nugget of truth about life on the next. This is the first of Jean's novels I have read, but I am positive it will not be the last. Easily one of my favorite books of 2022 so far!

Thanks to William Morrow for the free book.
This is a beautifully written book about mothers and daughters, adult friendship, adoption complexities and what it means to be a happy adult. I fell for Mika and her flaws right away. She felt so real and relatable. This book tackles complex situations - Mika is contacted by Penny, the daughter she put up for adoption sixteen years before. From there, the book spirals into what this relationship could be like, with lots of missteps along the way because that's life. Jean didn't hold back and captured the raw emotions between characters when they messed up or were changing and growing. I was so impressed with how much she made me feel for each character in this story. I think this story can also be appreciated by parents and what it means to be one, especially when you're child is on the cusp of adulthood. (Not close to this yet, but it gave me a lot to think about) I think Jean captured the nuances and complexities of all these situations so well without overwhelming the reader, and this is a book that I will be thinking about for a long time. I recommend going in knowing that this is a book about people and their imperfect lives and letting Mika, Penny, Tom and the supporting characters immerse you in their journey.

Mika in Real Life took me on an emotional journey. As someone who is adopted, yet has no real chance of finding my birth mother, Penny and Mika's story is one that is unexpectedly emotional. And a domestic transracial adoptee as well! While it's not dual POV and only tells Mika's story, I loved Mika's character. How the past has a way of coming back to us and asking questions. Her own feelings of guilt, anger, and sadness as she remembers giving up Penny and her feelings, were heart wrenching.

But where Mika in Real Life excels is how universal Mika's feeling is. How there's this temptation for wanting our lives to be better than they are. To cover up our own insecurity, and how much we want to be able to live a life that is different than ours. Who doesn't feel that way sometimes or always? So while Mika's mistakes and lies are born from this place of wanting to not disappoint the people we love, it becomes instantly relatable.

A beautiful novel that seeks out what life is really all about.

Mika gave her baby up for adoption 16 years ago...that baby has grown up and seeks out Mika and wants to get to know more about her birth mother. We follow these two and feel their insecurities, their desires and longing for belonging.

Perhaps one of the things I liked most about this book was all the Japanese references. My aunt is Japanese and I recall my cousins constantly calling her "Okaasan". In fact, my cousin named her daughter Mika, which is the most darling name for a little girl! I love when books are able to show a meshing of cultures. I have seen that a lot in my aunts and cousins life as she cooks amazing food for us at family dinner, sets up girls day dolls, and shops for us when she visits Japan!

This is a heartwarming book yet recognizes the complexities of individual lives, much like each of our own. We all have our own doubts, concerns, problems, desires, vacancies, hopes and dreams. This book seeks out these ideas for Mika and her daughter. So well done!

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advance e-copy.

Everything Emiko Jean touches is gold! I adored her YA Tokyo Ever After series and was excited about the opportunity to read an adult book of hers. I really enjoyed this title. The main character is both lovable and relatable on her journey to find herself. I was sucked right into the plot in the first few chapters and finished this book quickly. I look forward to more from Ms. Jean!