Thank you to @bibliolifestyle and @williammorrowbooks for the gifted copy of Mika in Real Life! New in paperback on August 8th, this novel is an excellent summer read.
Though it explores some heavy topics (first generation immigrant experience, adoption reconnection, sexual assault, fraught mother daughter relationships) the tone is refreshingly lighthearted.
The plot went in unexpected ways, sometimes unrealistically so, but I flew through the pages and couldn’t help but root for Mika in her journey of confronting her trauma and having her postponed coming of age.

“How mothers see their daughters as echos, as do-overs, as younger versions of themselves who might have the life they didn't or have the same life as they did, but better. But children aren't second chances, Mika realized with a start. It was unfair for Hiromi to believe her desires should live inside Mika. Children are made to take a parent's love and pass it along.”