My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life - Tapa dura

*"Elle's narration sparkles with wit and insight... Cohn's descriptions of Tokyo are fresh and vivid... It's one of those rare books that combines an authentic teen voice with a confident plunge into a fascinating culture."--Booklist (starred review)

"A fun, well-paced novel about family, friendship, and romance... A fun and enjoyable look into the drama of lives of privilege and power."--Kirkus Reviews

"Fans of misery and romance will lose themselves in this modern Cinderella story."--School Library Journal

"A relatable fish-out-of-water story with a lively heroine."--Publishers Weekly

AccoladesBookRiot: 125+ Upcoming YA Books You'll Want on Your October to December Radar, selection (2018)BookRiot: 25 Books for Terrace House Fans, selection Hypable: Winter 2018-2019 movies, TV, and book release dates you can't afford to miss, selectionBustle: 'Evermore' by Sara Holland & 14 More New YA Books To Look Out For In December 2018, selectionBNTeen: New Releases: Curses, Heartbreak, and a Kiss Collection, selection (2018)Epic Reads: 18 Books Set Abroad That We're Living Vicariously Through, selection (2019)

"I'm here to take you to live with your father. In Tokyo, Japan! Happy birthday!"
In the Land of the Rising Sun, where high culture meets high kitsch, and fashion and technology are at the forefront of the First World's future, the foreign-born teen elite attend ICS-the International Collegiate School of Tokyo. Their accents are fluid. Their homes are ridiculously posh. Their sports games often involve a (private) plane trip to another country. They miss school because of jet lag and visa issues. When they get in trouble, they seek diplomatic immunity.
Enter foster-kid-out-of-water Elle Zoellner, who, on her sixteenth birthday, discovers that her long-lost father, Kenji Takahara, is actually a Japanese hotel mogul and wants her to come live with him. Um, yes, please! Elle jets off first class from Washington, DC, to Tokyo, which seems like a dream come true. Until she meets her enigmatic father, her way-too-fab aunt, and her hyper-critical grandmother, who seems to wish Elle didn't exist. In an effort to please her new family, Elle falls in with the Ex-Brats, a troop of uber-cool international kids who spend money like it's air. But when she starts to crush on a boy named Ryuu, who's frozen out by the Brats and despised by her new family, her already tenuous living situation just might implode.
My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life is about learning what it is to be a family, and finding the inner strength to be yourself, even in the most extreme circumstances.