Book Review: I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn

Last updated on November 23rd, 2022 at 07:27 am

All right. I’ll eventually review something else, but, for right now, we’re just going to keep doing cute YA romances. This particular cute YA romance was another binge read, and I enjoyed it a lot. So, let’s review I Love You So Mochi.

Summary

I Love You So Mochi is about a girl named Kimi who thinks she wants to be an artist. Her mother also wants her to be an artist. After a huge fight with her mother, Kimi accepts an invitation to go to Japan to meet her grandparents, who her mother is estranged from. Kimi thinks it will help her discover her future and what she really wants to do. While she’s there, she meets a boy named Akira who promises to help her figure it out. She explores Japan and gets to know her grandparents.

The Good

There are many things to like about this book. I love the familial relationships. Kimi’s connection to her grandparents and her attempts to fix her relationship with her mother are really endearing. Every character showed affection differently which added depth to their characters.

Kimi’s transformation as she figured out what she wanted to do and took charge of her own life was done well. It was great to see her finally accept what the reader could see from the beginning.

The showcase of Japan is also done well. You finish the book feeling like you’ve experienced and seen something. You have a deeper understanding of Japan, which is something I think is really difficult to do with words. It’s impressive honestly. The book is full of great descriptions of Japanese architecture.

The Bad

It’s possible that many, many people would disagree with me here, but the romance was not my favorite. It was cute, but it felt mildly forced. Honestly, I feel like the relationship might have worked better as a platonic friendship. There were parts of it I enjoyed. I loved how they encouraged each other and were so supportive.

I understand why it was specifically a romantic relationship. It was tied to Kimi’s ideas about the perfect romance. She needed an actual romance to help encourage her to live outside of her romantic fairytale world. However, this part of the story also felt strange when connected to the rest of the story. Kimi dreamt about clothes and would be moved when she was feeling inspired. But she didn’t feel like someone who was living outside of reality.

Despite its flaws, I still recommend getting yourself a copy of I Love You So Mochi. It was definitely adorable, and it’s worth it just for the tour of Japan. Once you’ve read it, come back and leave a comment telling me what you thought!

Plus, feel free to check out my other reviews of cute YA romances such as You’d Be Mine and Love and Luck!