As a 12th grader, she\u2019s unable to avoid inquiries about her post-graduation plans. But Emiko, who lives in a small coastal town in British Columbia, is doing her best to deflect any talk about her future. Rather, she focuses on her shifts at Aunt Mitsuko\u2019s caf\u00e9, festive celebrations like Obon and New Year\u2019s Day, treating people to her homemade meals and baked treats and, most excitingly, orchestrating romances for those around her. Emiko proclaims herself a \u201cmatchmaking GENIUS\u201d; one of her recent targets, Aunt Mitsuko, even got married. But not all the romances go the way she envisions. And when things go awry, Emiko must confront her shortcomings as well as the impact of and motivations behind her actions. Ultimately, the flawed matchmaking protagonist turns a welcome new leaf. Uegaki imbues her spin on Jane Austen\u2019s Emma with interesting details of Japanese culture and dramatic hallmark high school experiences. Although the plot beats (some with twists) hit the right notes, the lackluster characterization and narration make it hard for readers to feel invested in the romantic entanglements and Emiko\u2019s arc of growing self-awareness. The supporting cast surrounding the Japanese Canadian central characters contain some diversity in race, gender, and sexuality. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a 12th grader, she\u2019s unable to avoid inquiries about her post-graduation plans. But Emiko, who lives in a small coastal town in British Columbia, is doing her best to deflect any talk about her future. Rather, she focuses on her shifts at Aunt Mitsuko\u2019s caf\u00e9, festive celebrations like Obon and New Year\u2019s Day, treating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}