Water Moon

Starred review from October 1, 2024

Hana and Kei meet at the sole intersection of their disparate worlds: Hana's pawnshop in Tokyo, where the lost can sell their regrets. Hana is desperate to solve the mystery of her father's disappearance, and Kei can never resist a puzzle. He is a man of science, while Hana's anime-inspired fantasy world breaks all the rules by which he has lived his life. He can't resist the mystery of her, and she can't help but charm him into being part of her dangerous quest, even though she knows it will end in bitterness and betrayal--unless the magic has one last impossible gift to give them both. Hana and Kei can't help falling for each other in spite of the tangle of secrets and lies pulling them together and tearing them apart. VERDICT Readers who have been swept up in the cozy charm of Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee will fall hard for the mix of magical realism, fantasy mystery, and star-crossed romance in this novel from Sotto Yambao (The Beginning of Always). Highly recommended.--Marlene Harris

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 30, 2024
Yambao (The Beginning of Always) delights with this gentle portal fantasy about a quaint mystical pawnshop from another realm that poses as a Tokyo ramen restaurant where customers can exchange their regrets for peace of mind. It’s Hana’s first day as the pawnshop’s new manager after her father, Toshio, retires. Instead of being excited for her new role, however, Hana awakens to find the pawnshop ransacked, the door open to the outside world, her father missing, and a regretted choice a customer pawned the day before stolen. Hana must track down the missing choice or face punishment from the Shiikuin, the mysterious entities who control her world. In the midst of this chaos, a physicist named Keishin walks in off the street looking for some ramen. He offers to help Hana hunt down the missing choice, leading them on a quest through a bizarre magical world. Yambao’s inventive setting pushes the limits of common fantasy tropes, and her thought-provoking exploration of regret, choice, and free will resonates. This whimsical tale will have readers riveted.

Starred review from October 15, 2024
Hana is dreading her inheritance: taking over the pawnshop, a magical place where people from our world come to trade away their regrets and leave at peace with themselves. Then her father disappears and takes an important item with him. The terrifying creatures who rule Hana's world give her an ultimatum: in just a few days, she needs to give that item back to them, or her life will end. With an unexpected ally at her side--a human physicist who wanders into the shop just as Hana discovers it ransacked--Hana plunges into her world and all its furthest corners to find her father and figure out why he was willing to betray all the values he taught her and flee from his duties. Despite the occasional plot hole or simplification, readers will be utterly drawn in to Yambao's excellent, vivid novel, which is powered by its enchanting setting. Our two protagonists race through a lush world of pure wonder and romance--kites made of wishes that become stars, origami that holds time in its folds, and a night market in the clouds--in this lovely, cozy fantasy reminiscent of Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea (2019). This book is charming, fresh, and difficult to put down.

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