Seven Days of You by Cecilia Vinesse

Published by Hachette Children's Group on September 13th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Fiction, Friendship, Love & Romance, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
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Sophia has seven days left in Tokyo before she moves back to the States. Seven days to say good-bye to the electric city, her wild best friend, and the boy she’s harbored a semi-secret crush on for years. Seven perfect days…until Jamie Foster-Collins moves back to Japan and ruins everything.

Jamie and Sophia have a history of heartbreak, and the last thing Sophia wants is for him to steal her leaving thunder with his stupid arriving thunder. Yet as the week counts down, the relationships she thought were stable begin to explode around her. And Jamie is the one who helps her pick up the pieces. Sophia is forced to admit she may have misjudged Jamie, but can their seven short days of Tokyo adventures end in anything but good-bye?

Sophia thinks she knows what to expect from her last week in Japan. Moving from continent to continent is nothing new for her. But she wasn’t expecting Jamie to come back into her life. Jamie – the boy with who she has a secret complicated history and an impossible future with. The countdown to her flight is on but just because things are ending in Japan doesn’t mean Sophia’s Japanese adventures are over.

Seven Days of You is an interesting book for a lot of reasons. Set in the fast paced city of Tokyo, the novel focuses on Sophia’s last week before moving back to the US. Whilst she’s used to moving this time is different.  She has to say goodbye to the best friend she’s ever had, the boy she’s been hopelessly and unrequitedly in love with for years and to Japan itself. With Jamie arriving back in Japan just before Sophia is about to leave it seems like a sign that things are not meant to be. Especially with their history. But when in contemporary YA did love ever go smoothly?

There was so much I loved about this book. I liked the awkward relationship drama which interfered with her friendships and romances. Despite this usually being due to misunderstandings or other classic romance drama tropes it worked in this novel. Sophia was fun to follow because she is somewhat naive but in a believable way. Her friendship with Mika was sweet yet not without it’s complications.

And the romance? Writing a romance which goes from hate to something more with a timeline of just seven days isn’t an easy feat. The journey Sophia and Jamie go on is adorkable – they are the perfect combination of awkward and adorable. Their beginnings may have been rocky but their relationship rollercoaster wasn’t quite as tumultuous as I was expecting. Don’t worry – despite Sophia being so anti-Jamie at the beginning there are plenty of cute and fluffy moments to keep the romantics sufficiently satisfied. Jamie the quintessential book boyfriend with his sweet, dorky, not-quite-a-bad-boy thing going on. Their chemistry was great and had me championing them at every page. Together they are super kawaii!

There is a nice vibe of this novel with Sophia finding her place in the world despite everything changing so quickly. She feels like she doesn’t have a home and her life is in a state of flux. Her parents added some interesting dynamics to this book and I liked how her family (especially her sister) supported her story yet they had to deal with complications of their own.

Japan is an interesting place to set Sophia’s book but I didn’t get an overwhelming sense of the setting. There were mentions of ramen and karaoke but it felt like it could have been set anywhere without a huge amount of change. And whilst the Japanese lover in me wanted it to be a bit more culturally involved, the setting wasn’t the point. This book delivered a well written engaging story about life, love, family and change.

Seven Days of You is such a sweet story. This is a book where you know when (although not necessarily anything else) the story is going to end from the start – there is quite literally a countdown till Sophia leaves – but once you get there you wish there was more (I’m not usually a fan of epilogues but I finished this book DESPERATE to know what happened next!). The beginning, middle and end of Seven Days of You was perfect for Sophia’s story and I had so much fun experiencing her last week in Japan with her and her friends.

Many thanks to Hachette Australia for the review copy.