Like for me, I felt like it was her mom giving a passive dismissal of what happened to Mika and her assault. Every OTHER supporting character, however, from work colleagues to ex-boyfriend alike, not helped to support Mika, but to add depth and breadth to the narrative. The plot is oh my gosh- it was stupid to be really honest but I deeply understand why did it happen and where did it come from Mika, it was all part of her journey to find her true self. Nope, she lies and when Penny and her father come for a visit, the lies threaten to bury Mika and her relationship with Penny. It was like they did their part rightfully and properly in complimenting the whole story, the book, and Mika.

That said…I don’t have those experiences myself, so I’d listen to other reviewers over people who have had those experiences over me. The daughter of strict, traditional Japanese parents, she has never really lived up to anyone’s expectations, least of all her own. While I think the romance element could have been left out, I still appreciated Mika and Penny’s journey as mother and daughter and would highly recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by Sura Siu and Andi Arndt. I especially connected with the vulnerabilities and challenges of motherhood and found so many touching moments within the story. Hiromi was tough, her character was like a catalogue of stuff you hate but I love Mika’s take on her mom; every mother is a first timer for their first kid, and how their relationship grows toward the end was both devastating and uplifting to me.

Jean gives us authentic characters, a lot of laughs, and a chance to see our own relationships—with our mothers, our children, and ourselves—in a new and refreshing light.

However, I did appreciate that the deception plot only lasted half the book; that was unexpected and I was fully prepared to have it last the entire book and not be revealed/fall apart until the end. She has over three years of experience writing on fashion, beauty, and entertainment and her work has appeared on Looper, NickiSwift, The Sun US, and Vox Magazine of Columbia, Missouri. Mika in Real Life follows Mika, a 35-year-old Japanese-American woman who gave up her daughter for adoption when she was only 19.A refreshing and spot-on depiction of Japanese Americans exploring their heritage, with appeal far beyond female Asian readers. Mika desperately wants the relationship with her daughter that she never had with her Japanese mother.

Penny announces that she has spent her birthday money on a flight to Portland to meet Mika, visit her home and attend her big gallery opening. Emiko Jean is the author of Tokyo Ever After, which was the Reese Witherspoon YA pick for July and a NYT bestseller. Wonderfully written and compelling, Emiko Jean perfectly captures the essence of the parent and child bond; the intensity, fear, sacrifice, constant change, grief and inadequacy you feel as a part of your heart walks around outside your body. The story on Motherhood was so touching, as we see Mika make the difficult decision to put her daughter Penny up for adoption, and later build a relationship with her as a young adult.Her friends help her in this but also then help her to develop her ability to “do Mika”, to be her authentic self, and especially to reconnect with the art practice she lost at college. My only quibble with any of the characters is that Penny's voice felt a bit younger than her 16 years, but since Emiko Jean comes from the YA world, that could be the reason. With warmth, humor, and heart, Mika in Real Life explores the challenges and complexities of mother-daughter relationships in their many different forms. But the first one is the main one; it isn’t too graphic, but it also doesn’t shy away from the fear the character feels in that moment. Exploring motherhood, interracial adoption, identity and past wounds, it had more depth to it than I originally anticipated.