This Time Will Be Different

By: Misa Sugiura

Narrated by: Joy Osmanski

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book

For fans of Jenny Han, Morgan Matson, and Sandhya Menon, critically acclaimed author Misa Sugiura delivers a richly crafted contemporary YA novel about family, community, and the importance of writing your own history.

The author of the Asian Pacific American Award-winning It’s Not Like It’s a Secret is back with another smartly drawn coming-of-age novel that weaves riveting family drama, surprising humor, and delightful romance into a story that will draw you in from the very first page.

Katsuyamas never quit—but seventeen-year-old CJ doesn’t even know where to start. She’s never lived up to her mom’s type A ambition, and she’s perfectly happy just helping her aunt, Hannah, at their family’s flower shop.

She doesn’t buy into Hannah’s romantic ideas about flowers and their hidden meanings, but when it comes to arranging the perfect bouquet, CJ discovers a knack she never knew she had. A skill she might even be proud of.

Then her mom decides to sell the shop—to the family who swindled CJ’s grandparents when thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during WWII. Soon a rift threatens to splinter CJ’s family, friends, and their entire Northern California community; and for the first time, CJ has found something she wants to fight for.

A great binge listen!

Saw that Sugiura's first book, It's Not Like It's a Secret, won an ALA Stonewall award so I read it, loved it, and started following her on Instagram. I was excited to see this book was in the works. It started out a little slow but it quickly moved to a page turner that I couldn't stop listening to. Sugiura weaves YA topics of friendship, relationships, and parent issues in with the deeper subjects of racism, privilege, abortion, teen pregnancy, LGBTQ+, and being a cis, white ally. Then she takes that story and mixes in the history of Japanese internment camps. I kept thinking, "I'm gonna find something wrong with how she's doing this... there are way too many things happening here!" but I never did. The story was so well done that I enjoyed it more and more as it went on. It was pretty genius how Sugiura creates a story that young adults will enjoy while at the same time learning something and thinking critically about what it means to be an activist.

Also, I'm half Korean and I really appreciated the perspective of a half-Asian protagonist. I can't remember ever reading a book with one before.

Finally, I usually prefer books that are read by the author but this one was fine. The narrator does a good job of creating voices that aren't too overdone but help distinguish between the characters. I highly recommend this book if you are going on a road trip or have to pack and clean your house up(what I was doing while listening).

OK for adults, Great for teens

As an adult reader the story felt contrived and predictable. But as a parent of a teenage girl, teacher of teenagers, and former teenager, I do recommend it heartily to young adults. The author does a great job of interweaving important and timely issues into a story that feels relatable, validating, and empowering.

Perfect

Perfect!! A personal look at how we are affected by history...and a cute love story :)

Wow! Just wow!

I absolutely love this book! I really hope for a sequel but there’s not much to continue. It’s so hard to put this book down; wether if it’s because you were left on a cliffhanger or you can’t stop thinking about what will happen in the next chapter. This book is unique it made me feel the emotions CJ felt, the happiness, the sadness, the angriness, every single emotion. Read the book and find out wether if you’re team Shane or Owen! This book made me want to start reading again.

Eh…

The narrator was great but the overall story was mostly dry and not worth 9 hours of my time. The plot was fairly boring and some of the shenanigans where anything it interesting however I will credit that some of the romance in the book was cute. Overall, definitely not a book I would come back and read in the future. It was ok.