Well that was unexpectedly emotional. A touching story about the relationships between parents and their children and how parents don’t always get it right but are often just trying to do the best they can. In particular, girls and their mothers often have challenging relationships and relationships are the focus of this story.

Now don’t get me wrong this wasn’t all serious and heartbreaking, it was both those things, but also fun and positive at the same time. Initially, I wasn’t sure about Mika. She seemed a bit feckless but as the story unraveled, it became clear why she was like she was and ultimately her history was heartbreaking, I really did feel for her after everything she had been through.

I loved seeing her and Penny get to know each other!

Although this started off a little slow, I really enjoyed it in the end.

3.5 stars (rounded up)

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers (Penguin Randomhouse) for providing a copy. All opinions are my own and provided willingly.

I started this book and wasn't sure if it was going to be for me but I am really glad I stuck with it as it became a great story hooking me right in.

T/W: Mentions/descriptions of rape, alcohol abuse

TL;DR : With plenty of potential, the book has an intriguing plot that fizzles out less than half the way through, but picks up as it stumbles towards an ending.

'Mika in Real Life' follows Mika, a young woman who had to give up a child she had unexpectedly to adoption. Sixteen years later, her life is a dumpster fire - and her daughter has gotten in touch. After embellishing the truth about her life in Portland, she must carry off the charade perfectly.

This novel takes some time to really get going, but the action ends far too quickly and leaves behind a slightly confused narrative about a character finding herself. The story dragged a lot, particularly as the core crux of its action - pretending to live a life Mika doesn't - ends very suddenly before we're even halfway through the book. The romance, which is quite easily predicted when the characters meet, could have had so much more energy to it throughout the novel, rather than playing out to try and counter the diminishing action. It felt as though the writer wasn't sure where to go after the big reveal and decided to try this instead.

I appreciated that the ending was a little messy. Mika spends much of the last few chapters really attempting to discover herself and create the life she dreams of out of the hurt she's experienced and I certainly found myself welling up on a few occasions. There were moments of real joy and brilliance in this book. I just wish they were more frequent and better connected.

Having enjoyed her YA, I found this to be a little bit of a let-down. It was too long for the story it was trying to tell and could have achieved a much greater impact with less words.

What a beautiful and sweet story about motherhood and self-discovery! I loved it so much.

Thanks NetGalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for this ARC!

Synopsis -

Nothing is going right in Mika’s life – losing her job and even her boyfriend. Even her conservative mother has been forever unhappy with her. But when 16 year old Penny calls her, Mika’s “real” life is about to begin. Penny was the baby she gave up for adoption all those years ago, as a teenager herself and now she is about to come rocking her world all over again.

Review -

The most striking thing about this novel is how realistic the characters are – Mika, her mother Hiromi , Penny and her adoptive father Thomas – all felt as if they are real people and I was one among them.

The author has done a brilliant job of capturing the overall big picture of the life of Asian immigrants in America via her characters. She carefully constructs Mika’s relationship with her mother – giving insights about her difficult childhood, the constant feeling of low self-worth and dissatisfaction instilled into her with the final straw being Mika getting pregnant at 19 - all of these intensify the tension and strain between them.

Once Penny enters Mika’s life, I loved how her emotional turmoil is addressed. Full of guilt and disappointment at having missed her daughter’s life, Mika’s love and longing to get to know Penny was so palpable. I appreciated the nuanced and delicate handling of their initial camaraderie.

I adored this mother – daughter duo and the ways in which the author creates opportunities for building their rapport, bonding and a sense of belonging. Emiko also excels at picturing their identity crisis - linking their Japanese roots, culture and tradition.

Like every parent, Mika ends up making mistakes with Penny, but it is how she amends them is what makes her so special. As Penny begins to develop a connection to her birth mother, Mika would need to confront some ghosts from her past, while balancing her current “real life” at the same time and learn to just be herself.

The ending felt so good, and just right in every way for Mika and Penny.

Drawing parallels between two very different mother-daughter relationships, Emiko has created a wonderful, heartwarming novel which will stay with me for a long time.

I'm now hoping to read the Tokyo Ever After series soon!

I loved the character of Mika, she’s struggling when we first meet her and her life gets more complicated quite quickly. She’s funny, flawed, complicated and seems to make bad decisions, but is all the more likeable for it. This book packs a lot in, but manages to read well and be enjoyable.

I found this quite a compelling read with a lot of various emotions. Basically themed around adoption between cultures (Japanese and American) adding an extra dimension. Lively at times examining relationships within families particularly between mothers and daughters. Intergenerational with different attitudes each of their time and culture lplus coming to terms with the past and present. Quite a bit of anger simmering at times with a touch of despair but uplifted with many positive notes.

I loved this book so much.

The characters felt so real and intriguing, their story was so on point with trials and all the drama added.

What I loved more was the reliability of Mika. She is just that perfect heroine, that is drawn so realistically with flaws and cracks in her heart The Japanese culture that is described in here kept me so intrigued.

I know little about it, but it was so great to see them how they will act in certain circumstances, especially the parents.

There are a few topics that are discussed and handled in the novel and while some are quite unexpected, I think they are done with respect and awareness.

The relationships between Mika and her mother and her, and her daughter were so different and yet so insightful.

And the romance part was my highlight because I’m always rooting for one in my reads.

Heartwarming and beautiful story.

🆓📖Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy through NetGalley

Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean is about family dynamics and identity and a woman finding her way in life.

4.5 stars

This was my first Emiko Jean book, and since reading it I am now so excited to dive into her YA works, because I really enjoyed this. It was touching and emotional, exploring complex issues and relationships in a very tender way that worked so well. I was constantly looking forward to picking it up and getting to know more about Mika and Penny and Thomas and Hana and Mika's parents. Mika was a very likeable character whom I enjoyed reading about, and while romance is a part of this story, the main focus is on relationships between mothers and daughters, and you get to see Mika's role as both a mother, and a daughter. There are a whole host of family dynamics in this story, from found family to adoptive family to blood family, and it shows how each of these can be just as important and impactful as the other. It was a little predictable at times, but overall, I had a great time reading it and I am definitely going to be reading more from this author.

This is a pleasing book to read because everything turns out right in the end. Mike Suzuki emigrated as a small child to the United States with her parents. Her relationship with her mother is not good and is not helped when she gives birth to Penny after being raped. Penny is adopted by a couple who give her regular updates on her daughter. Mike’s life is a mess, losing her job, finding relationships difficult. Then Penny gets in touch and she also meets Penny’s adopted father Thomas. That meeting is not easy and the story is related sympathetically and at times cheerfully.. The book is a good read. The description of the effect of Mika’s Japanese culture is well used. I enjoyed the book and recommend it.

⭐️ 3/5
📍 🇺🇸
🗂 Literacy Fiction
📖 Mika gets another chance to have a relationship with her biological daughter Penny.
👉 NetGalley eARC
✅ I find lots of books are too detailed but I loved that things happened and the reader can follow without any over explaining
🙂 Easy read
📆 August 2022
*Publication Date - 8th September 2022

At thirty-five, Mika Suzuki's life is a mess. He last relationship ended in flames. He roommate-slash-best friend might be a hoarder. She's a perpetual disappointment to her traditional Japanese parents. And, most recently. she's been fired from her latest dead-end job. Mika is at her lowest point when she receives a phone call from Penny - the daughter she placed for adoption sixteen years ago. Penny is determined to forge a relationship with her mother, and in turn Mika longs for someone Penny is proud of. Faced with her own inadequacies, Mika embellishes a fact about her life. what starts as a tiny white lie slowly snowballs into a fully-fledged fake one where Mika is mature, put-together, successful in love and her career.

This is a deep and heartwarming story. Woven throughout we learn of Japanese culture. language and traditions. It also covers transracial adoption, mother-daughter issues and sexual assault., which are written about sensitively. The characters are likeable and well fleshed out. I liked reading how Mika and Penny were trying to get to know each other. This is a beautifully written story.

I would like to thank #Netgalley #MichaelJoseph #PenguinRandomHouse and the author #EmikaJean for my ARC of #MikaInRealLife in exchange for an honest review.

Mika In Real Life by Emiko Jean

Mika is 35 and struggling in her life.
She's just been fired AGAIN when she gets a call from Penny Calvin, the girl who sixteen years ago she gave up for adoption.

Penny has many questions for Mika and for about herself but can Mika answer them as both question Who Am I?

This story really focuses on a Parenthood and Motherhood, which I didn't really realise just how much until near the end of the book.
It focuses on a mother's disapproval and how Mika has lived her life, unhappy with her relationship with her own mother.

It also focuses on adoption and the affects it has on the adopted child, with the questions of who am I and why am I different to my parents, as well as the mother who has given their child up and the adoptive parents.

I found it quite hard to get into the book if I'm honest and didn't relate to Mika which I then found affected how I got through the book, however it then look a turn near the end and I did end up enjoying the rest of the book.
If the storyline attracts you I would still recommend reading it.

I was lucky enough to read this book ahead of publication on the 8th September thanks to Netgalley, Micheal Joseph Random House.

My review will be available on http://www.instagram.com/tracysreadingbooks

This book made me feel a lot of different feelings.. feelings I didn't even know I could feel through reading. And I loved it.
Mika is such a lovely character whose flaws, baggage and feeling's are understandable. I am so glad with how she approached life and how this was perceived as a reader made me want to keep on reading. The capture of a mother and daughter relationship is brilliant and heart-warming.
This book goes into many different topics including motherhood, searching for identity and family and much more.
This is such a heart-tugging tale and one for all romance lovers. I certainly will be buying a physical copy and recommending constantly!

At the age of 19, Hana went with her best friend, Mika, to hospital and held Mika’s hand while she gave birth to a baby girl, Penelope, who Mika then gave up for adoption.

Sixteen years on and Penny has got in touch with Mika after receiving a letter written by her adoptive mother who died a few years previously from cancer.

Penny wants to meet Mika after many phone calls together. Mika is unemployed, living with Hana and no real outlook on life, so she decides to create the life she has always wanted.

We follow Mika and Penny on their exploration of each other, as they talk about their hopes and dreams. Hana is always there, ready for Mika no matter what happens, even if it’s just a hug.

Throughout this story, we get flashbacks of Mika’s past, including her difficult relationship with her mother, Hiromi. As Mika spends more time with Penny, she begins to realise that her mum wasn’t as bad as she thought.

I found I had become deeply involved in Mika and Penny’s relationship, which I hadn’t realised until I found myself in tears near the end of the story. Heartfelt, heartwarming and beautifully written. Complex characters that couldn’t have been easy to write about. A story of friendship as well as hope and love. This was a refreshing change and I know this is one that I will be thinking about for a while yet.

My thanks to Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Oh wow! I'm kinda speechless 🙊

So touching and heartfelt and it covers such a sensitive and complex storyline with such grace. There are so many real and important elements explored that it could have easily felt rushed but it was all balanced so well. For this reason we were able to get to know the characters well and build up a rapport with them. Especially Mika and Penny.

I adored the build up in Mika and Penny's relationship and how they were connecting as mother and daughter. I feel a lot of readers will be able to connect with the characters and empathise with the topics covered. I adored their mother - daughter bond. I believe everything happens for a reason and I think Mika needed things to fall apart before she could find her voice and move on from the past.

I loved this book and I'm so glad there was a happy ending for all involved as I really felt Mika needed that.

Thank you so much to netgalley, William Morrow and Emiko Jean for the e-copy arc xo

Mika Suzuki is 35 years old. She has just been fired and now, out of the blue, the daughter she gave up for adoption 16 years ago is on the phone,
I was instantly hooked by this book, I couldn't put it down!
The story moves quickly with a selection of vibrant characters and flashbacks to the past. I found Mika to be a very likeable character and was immediately invested in her and Penny. I particularly enjoyed reading about Mika's heritage and found the complicated relationships between all the characters really gripping.
There is a lot of emotion in this story, a lot of love but also a lot of loss and although the book feels like quite a light read it does discuss rape and have a darker side to it yet it still felt, overall, heart warming and comforting.

Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin Random House for letting me meet Mika and Penny early. I will also be posting my review on Goodreads, Twitter and Amazon.

I think I’ve at least attempted all of Emiko Jean’s books at this point. Her fantasy didn’t work for me, but her YA contemporary duology is a recent favourite. So when I saw that she was releasing an adult contemporary, I knew I had to give it a go. I’ll be honest, with this book being focused on adoption, I wasn’t sure what I’d expect but what I got was a very well-thought-out, very emotional and enjoyable book.

Just a quick warning before I go into the review but this one will contain some spoilers.

Mika in Real Life follows Mika, a 35-year-old Japanese-American woman who gave up her daughter for adoption when she was only 19. Now her daughter has contacted her. Mika feels like she’s a failure, so she does what she thinks is best. She lies to her so Penny won’t be embarrassed to be related to her.

Usually, I hate when books focus on lying. You always know it’s going to come back and bite them in the ass, which can be cringy and frustrating. I want the characters to get caught out as they deserve what was coming to them. In this book, I felt for Mika. Yes, she shouldn’t have lied. But she was doing so for what she thought was a good reason, and the lying is caught out well before the end. It means you get to see Mika realise her mistakes and work to improve herself. I appreciated that as the reason she lied was because she didn’t like where she was.

I will say that this book needs trigger warnings about child abuse and also rape. This is a major spoiler, but it’s something that I think most people would rather know. Penny was a child born out of rape. Mika never felt like she could report it and that’s partly why she’s so stuck. She gave up on something she loved and was never able to find something she loved as much. As well as that, her parents are somewhat abusive. It’s not quite that she was hit or locked up or anything. But her parents are emotionally negligent. When Mika comes out and admits she was raped, her mother tells her to get over it as bad things happen to everyone- she had to move to the US from Japan when she didn’t want to after all. That scene just hit me, and not in a good way. I couldn’t understand how any parent could react that way when their child admits that to them. But at the same time, that sadly felt realistic. Not all parents are good, and seeing the contrast between Mika’s mum and the type of mum she wants to be.

You can see how this book was very emotional. There’s a lot of talk of adoption, especially of transracial adoption. Penny felt like she was missing out on part of herself being raised by a white family. She still loved her parents and was happy to have them there. But she wanted the chance to be a little more Japanese. Spending time with Mika and her parents, she finally gets a chance to experience some of that. It’s a difficult topic as obviously any adoption is good provided the parents are good, but sometimes just adopting a child from a different culture or race can be damaging. It’s something I’ve seen a lot about online, so it was interesting to read a book about it. Especially one that felt so well done.

That said…I don’t have those experiences myself, so I’d listen to other reviewers over people who have had those experiences over me.

As well as all the emotional contents, this book had some really funny moments. I loved Mika and her friends. They were all good to each other, and it made reading their scenes a joyous experience. As well as friendship, this book also features some romance, and I did appreciate the relationship. It’s a bit of a slow burn, but it definitely felt worth it in the end. There was some good banter, and I’d like to see more.

The biggest aspect of the book that I enjoyed was actually the growing relationship between Mika and Penny. Obviously, Penny doesn’t see Mika much as a mother figure as she had a mum. She was grieving for her mum still in her own way. But they do strike up a close friendship. It was heart-warming to read and I loved it so much. It felt almost like found family, but they were technically already related. That was pretty fun.

Emiko Jean is a force to be reckoned with on the contemporary scene, and I’ll read anything she writes at this point.

A very intense and honest portrayal of mothers and daughters in all their different guises. How we can only do our best according to our own experiences. I enjoyed this but not sure why in parts. Very original and emotional.

Mika had a baby at 16, in her first year of college, and gave her up for adoption. She was a talented artist but after giving birth she couldn't face painting again and changed her major to Business studies.

Fast forward 16 years and Mika is between jobs and living in her best friend Hana's house and money is tight. Her traditional Japanese parents cant hide the disappointment  that their only child is struggling to make her way in life and Mika feels like a failure.

When she recieves a phonecall out of the blue from her 16 year old daughter, Penny, who qants to find out  about her birth mother and Mika  is over the moon. However, ashamed of her life she embellishes the truth about her career and lovelife, which is fine... until Mika and her very attractive adoptive father Thomas decide to come to visit!

This is a  heart-warming, quick read, but does have a darker background with references to rape. It was interesting reading about the elements of Japanese culture that Mika's family try to uphold in America.