Ever feel like you´re stuck in a fairy tale gone wrong? Celebrated author Sarah Kuhn explores the highs and lows of love and loss in this funny and poignant story of a girl who never thought happy endings were for people like her.
If Rika´s life seems like a fairy tale in the making--being an orphan with two bossy cousins and working away in the family business--she would be the first one to reject that idiocy. After all, she loves her family (even if her cousins were named after Disney heroines) and working at her aunts´ restaurant in LA´s Little Tokyo is kind of fun. Anyway, with her judo skills, half-Asian heritage, and a healthy interest in Japanese snake-girl folklore, Rika is sure she´s more the misunderstood witch than the singing princess.
All that changes the moment she locks eyes with Grace Kimura, America´s reigning rom-com sweetheart, during the Nisei Week Festival. From there, Rika embarks on a wild adventure straight out of a Hallmark movie--discovering the truth about her mother, exploring Little Tokyo´s hidden treasures with a cute boy who happens to be a famous actor, and maybe...finally losing that feeling of never quite belonging.
But fairy tales are fake, and the real world isn´t so kind. Rika knows she´s setting herself up for disappointment, because happy endings don´t happen to girls like her. She can walk away now before she gets in even deeper, or let herself be swept away into heartache. What would a judo-fighting Japanese snake-girl do?