Sophia had seven days left in her "home". She had seven days left to spend with her best friends. She had seven days until her whole life changed and not necessarily for the better. As her world is falling apart, a person from her past resurfaces in her life and knocks her even further off balance.
I guess that's why I'd made this stupid countdown. Because I wanted to hold on to the time I had left here. Because I wanted to separate good-bye from all the moments - all the better moments - that came before it. It was my own little scientific experiment, to try to contain that one second when everything I cared about would suddenly vanish.

I am a sucker for a broken character, and Vinesse gave us a bunch of them in this book. First and foremost, Sophia. Poor Sophia! My heart really went out to her. She was searching for "home" and just when she thought she found it in Tokyo, her mother's job forces her to relocate yet again. And while she is dealing with the move, she finds out that her friends have been keeping secrets from her. But, it's not just her friends who have been hiding things from Sophia, her sister, who had been distant the entire summer, drops a bombshell about their father. During this cataclysmic series of events, Jamie returns to Tokyo. Jamie, who was Sophia's best friend. Jaimie, who Sophia crushed on. Jamie, who broke Sophia's heart, and she in turn, broke his. So, yeah, Sophia is dealing with a lot, and I really appreciated that Vinesse did not make it easy for her. Sometimes it was tough standing by as Sophia tried to work it all out, but she came out better on the other side because it was difficult.
This is a black hole. Or this week has been, anyway. Every second was longer than just a second, you know? And I mean that in a really good way because I love the idea of black holes. The idea that all of this space and time isn't really fixed, that we can change it.

Jamie was quite wounded too. As his story is slowly revealed, we learn that Jamie was hiding big and important parts of himself. But together, he and Sophia are able to feel "home". I bet you noticed I keep putting home in quotation marks. It's because the author made the idea of home a part of the story. Is home a place, a person, or a thing? This idea of home is explored by both Sophia and Jamie, as he is returning from a three year absence, and she is preparing to leave. I really enjoyed this aspect of the story, as I was totally able to relate.
What I was going to say is, I never really felt like I belonged anywhere. I always felt like I was half in one place and half somewhere else. Like I was never exactly where I should be. Except - now. Except being here, with you.

In-between all the drama, there were a lot of fun parts. Most of them involved another very important character in the book: Tokyo. Tokyo is on my bucket list, and reading this book just increased my desire to visit. Vinesse painted a glorious picture of the city from the sights and sounds, to the food and entertainment. I really felt Sophia's attachment to the city and I could clearly see part of what Sophia would be missing.

What do I wish this book had? An epilogue! I so needed an epilogue. I have read endings like this a million times. That traditional, contemporary, open ended thing. I know it's supposed to allow me, the reader, to decide what happened next, but I hate that! I want the author to tell me. I just need closure, it's who I am.

Overall: Super cute romance filled with love, loss, and hope for things to come.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher on netgalley.

so much of this story was demented in the ways you would expect of hormone addled expat teenagers in a foreign country. maybe it could be attributed to my very boring, sheltered teenage life and the fact that I'm now 38, but I found these characters difficult to relate to in the ridiculous throes of their unbearably stupid decision making skills. they also really didn't relate well to one another the vast majority of the time. they were mean and petty and then condescending and then self absorbed and yet they were all best friends and some were in love?

I'm giving it 3 stars rather than 2 because I feel like probably this IS what teenagers are like and I thought she captured the living in a Japan as a teenager pretty well. but honestly I want to give it 2 because I didn't really enjoy it.

What a whirlwind seven days!

Sophia is leaving Tokyo after four years. She only has a week left, as the countdown on her watch constantly reminds her. But before she has officially left town, who should return after four years? None other than Jamie Foster-Collins. Once friends, the two had an intense falling out right before he left for boarding school in the States.

Against her better judgement, Sophia finds herself drawn to Jamie. She attempts to avoid him, acting all nonchalant, trying to enjoy her remaining time in Tokyo with her two best friends Mika and David. But then something happens and the only person Sophia feels she can turn to is Jamie. She still does her best to keep him at arm's length, but her resolve quickly breaks down.

Sophia and Jamie share an intense connection, but, like the old adage says, all good things must come to an end. Apparently. *cue eye roll* Because I didn't want this to end! Seven days wasn't long enough for me! (And it was actually less time that these two crazy kids were together!)

As interesting as this concept was, I sincerely hope it's not officially the end for Sophia and Jamie...

This one was okay, but I didn't find anything special about it. It is the story of high school aged Sophia as she is about to leave Japan, where she has lived for a number of years, and head back to the United States. Former friend Jamie, with whom she has had a falling out, returns to Japan a week before Sophia leaves and the storyline has them mending their friendship and developing a new relationship.

The characters and storyline were adequate.

Sometimes comparisons really sink a book...I probably would have enjoyed this more had it not been compared to Stephanie Perkins and Jenny Han - that set my expectations really high!

This was just ok for me. I wanted there to be more about Tokyo and what it's like to live there as an American teenager. I didn't love the characters and the ending was disappointing.

Captured the emotions of leaving your friends, going through transitions in high school, and young love so thoroughly and realistically. I felt like i was part of the group (and do in fact want to hang out with them) and cheered for Sophia to make the right decisions with and about her friends.

Interesting concept, likable characters. I just hate how it ended. The storyline would have been much better served with an epilogue-- I hate the uncertainty.

DNF @20%

I thought this book would be a light fluffy contemporary romance similar to Anna and the French Kiss. I've been looking for something like that to be quick and get me out of a slight slump. I read a lot of fantasy and every once and awhile these are a nice break. And while it does sort of have the same vibe, I think I may have outgrown the genre of "light, fluffy contemporary romance". I wasn't really interested in how the romance works out, and I couldn't bring myself to finish this book. I don't think it's terrible by any means, though there are probably better contemporary romances out there. I did think a lot of the characters were annoying, particularly the main character being very immature. Again, this may be due to my growth as a reader. I just did not have any interest in them. The setting, which was one reason why I picked up this book (I haven't found many books taking place in Japan) was done okay for what I read. Many readers who have finished the book commentated that it should've expanded more on the setting, so it may be that she has a decent start at the beginning but later forgets and focuses more on the plot. The main character, Sophia aka "Sofa", attends an American/English speaking school and has English speaking friends, so I can see how the setting may be lost easily.

Overall, I would recommend if you like the genre, but maybe skip it if you've read too many of these or do not normally read them. It doesn't appear to be anything different.

I received a free eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Seven Days of You takes a cute and emotionally charged story and puts in the amazing setting of Tokyo. I loved not only being transported into the story but to another country as well.

I loved many things about this book. Most of all the setting. I have every subscription box under the moon, Japanese snacks, Japanese noodles, Japanese toys, Japanese cosmetics,...but I’ve never been to Japan. It’s definitely something on my bucket list. So there were things they talked about that I completely recognized. Whether if it’s from watching Anime or trips to Japantown in San Francisco. I loved how submersed in the setting I felt when reading the book. I felt like I could picture all the different places in my head and would get excited like a tourist. Ohhh I know about how you are supposed to wash for a shrine! And so forth. It was fantastic.

I also really really loved the friendships. In all their complicatedness. When the story starts out with characters it a twinge of familiarity. I can’t say they are exactly like anyone in my friends group in high school but there was something about the dynamic. It might not be exactly the same characters but the dynamic definitely felt like typical high school.

I loved the high running emotions of Sophia. She is moving from a place that she loves, from friends she loves and from the familiarity of the the things she does. Of course you should be an emotional mess. So everything that happens around her feels ten times worse because she is already in the emotional turmoil. Plus she is starting to see things that she decided not to see before, especially with her family. It’s an emotional roller coaster of seven days.

Sophia and Jamie. They hooked me the night they spend all night out together. Running all over the place. I like how the are getting re-acquainted and re-understanding each other after being separated for so long. It’s not all ups for them either. Again Sophia’s personal turmoil does have an impact, which it should. It only makes sense. I really like how their romance is played out. Although there is a part where I’m like, seriously Sophia what are you doing!

I really enjoyed the book. I love different settings like this and just all the emotions.

Great romance with great characters and a great storyline. I look forward to more from Vinesse.

So much of what the main character of Seven Days of You, Sophia Wachowski, experiences in her last week in Tokyo before moving back to the States for her senior year, is steeped in what it means to be an international student in Asia. It’s a love letter to Tokyo and to the international student crowd.

Sophia doesn’t want to be leaving Japan, especially right before her senior year. She finally has her first ever real best friend, and a boy friend who she wants to be a boyfriend. At the same time, Jamie Foster-Collins is coming back right as she’s leaving. Jamie who used to be one of her good friends in eighth grade. Jamie who she now hates because of what happened before he left.

First of all, this situation. I can’t tell you how many times I experienced it through my entire high school life. The coming and going of friends at a blink. The feeling that most of the kids in my school were all fancy or rich diplomat’s kids. The freedom of being a teenager in Asia where you’re able to sort of do whatever you want because transit is easily available and cheap, and it’s not that dangerous to be out all night.

And yet at the same time, there’s also a feeling that your life is not your own because your entire existence could be uprooted at any moment by your parents’ careers. All of this combines to create a heady, frantic push-and-pull in your life. It’s heightened by being a busy, electric Asian city, and heightened even more when you are in your last week in a place you’ve called home for so long, like Sophia.

What I loved most about this book was how much it captured that feeling. There’s an authenticity to the experience that I think Cecilia Vinesse captured so beautifully. I really hope that people were able to get that while Sophia and Jamie wander the streets of Tokyo at night, marveling at things for the first and last time.

I know that there were some reviewers that found Sophia and her friends a bit immature. There is definitely a lot of drama, a lot of Shakespearean switching of partners. But for me, this all felt very real. Even though they have a lot of experience in a big city, they’re all so caught up in their own issues, and they’re high school students dealing with the constant loss of friends and place.

Honestly, though, I do understand why people didn’t identify with Sophia’s voice. Even though I found her funny and witty most of the time, there were moments when the characters made whoppers of mistakes that I would get exasperated over. It was realistic, but sometimes too much so?

My other issue with this book was that there really wasn’t enough Tokyo. I wanted Sophia to go EVERYWHERE, not just the very touristy areas. I was really hoping for more little haunts, so I was a little disappointed that the characters mostly ended up staying in pretty recognizable neighborhoods.

My favorite parts of Seven Days of You were the romance, and the family moments. Sophia’s sister Alison is dealing with a heartbreak after her first year in college, and she and Sophia have been butting heads all summer. They live with their mother, while their father lives in France with a new family. I’m not going into that part too much, but the family thread just worked so well in this.

And the romance. Oh how I wish we had more of Sophia and Jamie together. It’s bittersweet and wistful, but also realistic. There were definitely swoony moments, and the ending totally slayed me (PLEASE GIVE ME MORE!).

THE FINAL WORD:

I’ve been waiting for Seven Days of You for a long time because, like the main character, I also attended high school at an international school in Asia. I’ve always thought it was an experience that would make a great YA novel. So while it got a little too dramatic at times, Seven Days of You was a good debut that spoke to me as a former international student, and as someone who likes funny, witty characters. I’m looking forward to reading more from Cecilia Vinesse.

More like 2.5 Stars.

Sophia has one week left in Tokyo. One week to cram in everything she loves about the city and also spend as much time with her friends as she can. When someone from her past decides to make his reentry the same week she is leaving, Sophia is left wondering if her leaving will be overshadowed by an old friends arrival and also, just what exactly does this mean for her?

Jamie and Sophia used to be friends. Really good friends. Until Jamie does something that hurts Sophia badly. He then leaves Tokyo for boarding school in the US and the two get no resolution. That is until Jamie comes back. The two of them find themselves drawn to each other and revealing what went wrong.

This story is just a huge book of misunderstandings. And also lack of communication. Set in a beautiful locale, I expected the author to use it more to help shape the story. Instead, she tells us what it is but doesn't show us. On top of that, we're thrown random Japanese words throughout the book almost in an offhand sort of way. Like the author forgot it was supposed to be set in a foreign country and went back and added those later.

As for the characters, they were ok. I disliked about half of them and the other half I just tolerated. I still could not tell you why some of them were friends. They were horrible to each other - lying, backstabbing, etc. I don't understand why Sophia was soooo in love with David - he was kind of an ass. But Sophia also was on the side of immature so maybe that was it... And then Jamie was like a lost puppy - adorable at times and then like something you need to nurture.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. That beautiful cover didn't help. I didn't hate it but I also didn't love it. It was just okay. Nothing really memorable unfortunately

For a more in-depth review check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IKDYX3ilIg&t=4s

Sophia has only seven days left before she leaves Tokyo. She has to say good-bye to her whole life. Sophia will miss her best friends, her crush, and the city that has been her home for the past four years. The only thing she won't miss is Jamie Foster-Collins; the boy she shares a painful history with and who is returning to Tokyo after three years just in time to ruin Sophia's last week. However, as Sophia and Jamie reconnect their feelings begin to change and Sophia soon realizes that he may be be the thing she misses most about Japan.

I liked many aspects of this book. Sophia was a great YA romance character and I thought she and Jamie went well together. Their relationship was cute and all sorts of swoony. I thought the setting was wonderfully well down. Vinese did a great job of making Tokyo come alive. However, I never warmed up to Sophia's friends or family. They seemed almost cartoony in their selfishness and they weakened the entire novel for me. This is a great book if you want a quick, fluffy read but beware of unlikable secondary characters.

Sophia got seven bitter sweet days to say good bye to her life in Tokyo. Of course things couldn't say good when she finds out that Jamie is back and thing get complicated. Now her feelings are pretty much as the count down begins learning more about herself, her friends and everything. Not every thing as it seems and shes got plenty of growing up before the move.

I don't think I even read the description of this book when I requested to review it, I think it was the cover that drawn me in. I think that this is the first time I've read a book based in Tokyo so it was interesting reading the different settings and stuff that I'm not used to reading about. I thought it was interesting seeing Sophia's point of view in how she was handling the different situations that were being thrown at her. I've read in different places that this book can appeal to readers who like Anna and the French Kiss and I can agree to that. I really enjoyed this sweet coming of age book and it was a pretty good book.

This book was boring, didn't hold my interest and was uninteresting

About: Seven Days of You is a fiction novel written by Cecilia Vinesse. It was published on 3/7/17 by Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 336 pages. The genres are young adult, contemporary, romance, Japan, etc. This book is intended for ages 15 and up, grades high school sophomore to college level. This novel is the author’s debut!

My Experience: I started reading Seven Days of You on 3/5/17 and finished it on 3/19/17. This book shouldn’t take me that long to read but there are so many books I want to read that the decision to stick one is really tough. Anyway, this book is an interesting read. In this book, readers will follow the point of view of Sophia aka Sofa Wachowski, a junior at T-Cad, an English speaking international school in Tokyo, Japan. She is one of among many classmates at the school where they often relocate to different countries due to their parent’s career. Sofa has lived in United States, Japan, and France, but was born in Japan. It’s definitely interesting to read about people living in different places.

“I think you choose where you belong, and those places will always be there to remind you of who you are. You just have to choose them.” 55%

Seven Days of You revolves around Sofa having only 7 days left in Japan before having to move back to USA because of her mother’s job. She has 3 best friends to have fun with, Mika, Caroline, and David. She crushes on David for many years. Then Jamie, who used to hang out with the group leave Japan to attend boarding school in USA announces his return. Sofa has some ugly history with Jamie before he left so she’s not too happy to know that he’s back. One of the ugly history was Jamie’s crush on Sofa, got jealous witnessing Sofa flirting with David, and sent a hurtful text about Sofa meant for Mika but Sofa received it instead. Ouch. I know.. But when Jamie comes back, he’s less geeky and more noticeably attractive. In the meantime, Sofa also has other issues to deal with, besides her overwhelm crushing life, she has to come to terms with her long distance father, leaving Japan for good, and the drama with her friends. This book is packed with emotions and drama and figuring out where home is.

“And now that I’d noticed it, I couldn’t un-notice it. I couldn’t imagine paying attention to anyone else if he was in the room.” 64%

I enjoy reading this book. I like how all the different characters from many different countries come together due to their parent’s job. It’s interesting when Sofa couldn’t say she’s Japanese even though she’s born in Japan but how her dad was born in France and her mom was born in Poland, but her mom moved to New Jersey when she was a baby so that makes her American and Sofa has relocated to America for a number of years as well. This technicality is actually interesting to me. I like that the author brings out the experiences of Tokyo in this book. I was born in Vietnam and Karaoke is huge there too. I have been to Karaoke rooms in Vietnam so reading this part of the book brings back memories for me. I like that the author have a mixture of relationships in this book, many of it might be more broken than happy, but it’s what many teens deal with. This book might be too much drama and moody for me, but I still highly recommend the read because this realistic contemporary is closely resemble to real life.

Pro: Karaoke, friendship, romance, language barriers, international school, diverse, easy to read, fast pace, Tokyo Japan

Con: teen drama, teen moodiness,

***Disclaimer: Many thanks to the author Cecilia Vinesse, publisher Little Brown Books for Young Readers, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review. Please assured that my opinions are honest.

xoxo,
Jasmine at www.howusefulitis.wordpress.com

The Education of Margot Sanchez was a total cover lure for me. The promise of a Puerto-Rican family just sealed the deal for me. Lilliam Rivera is a great writer and I foresee a very bright future for her if she continues with such solid writing. Here are some of my quick opinions about the book.

-First things first, Margot is not going to be the protagonist for everyone. She is one angry girl, and she’s not afraid to let out her frustrations. She wasn’t particularly likeable. I thought her constant desire to want to be noticed, and to separate her friends perspective of her from her reality was frustrating to read about. But thinking back, I think we’ve all had our moments as teens when we said/did things to make us seem cooler in our friend group. Being a teenager is HARD and Rivera portrays that beautifully here.
-The Education of Margot Sanchez, as you can probably tell from the title, is Margot’s story of growth and coming-of-age. Like I said, Margot is not the most pleasant protagonist ; she tended to be materialistic and a bit shallow, in my opinion, but we do see growth from her as the story progressed. However, I wished that we had seen her starting to change and realize how awful her behavior was towards certain people in her life earlier on. It would have made a stronger story for me personally.
-Family is at the center of The Education of Margot Sanchez, and it’s messy and complicated, and just a bit sad as well. Her brother and her father frustrated me to no ends, but the characters were so well-developed that even those who were frustrating in their actions were great to read about. Besides complicated family relationships, the book also explored complicated friendships. And there was also a sweet romance with a neighborhood activist who went by Moises. I would have liked to know more about his character to be honest, but I still really liked the glimpses we saw of his personality.
-I really really loved the Latinx culture here too. I think it’s always wonderful to learn more about different people, their lifestyles and their culture. The portrayal read very realistic to me, and I think Latinx teens will love to see pieces of themselves in Margot and her family.
Overall, this was a decent book for me and I’ll be looking forward to reading more from Lilliam Rivera in the future.

So ridiculously adorable and swoony, just like I like 'em!