Book Review: Seven Days of You by Cecilia Vinesse

Pages: 337

Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

Pub. Date: March 7, 2017

Publisher: Little, Brown Books

Source: Publisher for review

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Goodreads says, "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's mother is a professor at Rutgers University, but in recent years, she has been working in Tokyo and in turn, Sophia has spent the last years living abroad, making new friends, and getting used to the local customs.  She has only one more week left in Tokyo before they head back to New Jersey and this whirlwind of a week is made even more complex when Jamie Foster-Collins returns.  She has a complicated history with Jamie who has been gone for three years and now that he's back this turns Sophia's world upside down, not to mention the fact that it makes her last week in Tokyo filled to the brim with drama.  Things escalate quickly in one week amongst her friends and top that with the romantic tension between Jamie and Sophia and you've got yourself a memorable last week in Tokyo.  Cecilia Vinesse's Seven Days of You is a cute contemporary romance set amongst the interesting backdrop of Tokyo and studying abroad.

Sophia is a complex character in Seven Days of You. She's a bit nerdy and sort of collapses with Jamie's arrival.  This irritated me a bit, but I couldn't hold it against her.  I liked learning more of her back story, such as why her dad currently lives in France, what happened with Jamie three years ago, and the other interesting details of her past that are slowly revealed.

I also liked the character of Jamie in Seven Days of You, but I didn't find him as swoon worthy as I was hoping nor did I really feel the sparks between the two of them -- just some serious and awkward romantic tension. So, I was a bit disappointed with that aspect of the story.

The best selling point of Seven Days of You is the exotic setting of Tokyo. It's not everyday that there's a YA book with such a compelling setting; in fact, I think this is the first novel I've read set there, but I wanted so much more from Vinesse. She did an ok job describing the karaoke rooms, various restaurants, the clubs and of course the food, but I felt like it could have been developed even more. But do know that the setting of Tokyo was definitely my favorite part of the novel and because of this, I wanted even more.

I also really enjoyed the fact that Sophia only has seven days left in Tokyo and the author includes a countdown with each chapter. This definitely added to the sense of urgency and the fact that there's limited time, which separates this novel from some other YA contemporaries.  So, while this isn't the next Anna and the French Kiss as many people compare it to, it's still an enjoyable and seriously cute read.