I know I'm shallow, but I was mainly attracted to Midori By Moonlight because of the cover: moonlight, cupcakes and a cute outfit on the illustration! Also I love the title and the book is set in San Francisco, one of my favourite cities.
Fortunately, the book is just as cute as its cover. Midori moves from Japan to marry Kevin, an American she met out there. Unfortunately, Kevin reignites an old flame at his and Midori's engagement party, leaving Midori both heart-broken and stuck in San Francisco without a visa.
Desperate not to return to Japan - obsessed with US culture, Midori had planned to stay in San Francisco forever - Midori calls a Japanese friend of Kevin's, Shinji/Sean, who, as luck would have it, needs a room-mate.
Midori still has the problem of finding a job without a visa. She wants to be a pastry chef, but soon resorts to working in a "hostess bar". And of course she can't tell her parents - not about the lack of a wedding, the living with a strange man, and certainly not her job - they never wanted her to go to the US in the first place (although they did want her to get married and had been in the process of arranging a marriage for her when she met Kevin).
I loved this book. More like a fairy story than a realistic portrayal of the illegal immigrant experience (I doubt many illegal immigrants have it as easy as Midori), it's charming, sweet, funny and gripping and Midori is lovely and I was rooting for her from page one. Plus there's San Francisco, cupcakes and moonlight. I can't wait to read Wendy Nelson Tokunaga's next book.
Rating: 5/5
Like this? Try The Perfectly True Tales of a Perfect Size 12 by Robin Gold
