Blog Tour Review: The Tokyo Bicycle Bakery by Su Young Lee

Hi all!

My name is Chiara and I am a bookworm!

I have another wonderful book for you today that I received for free so I could provide you all with an honest opinion of it. Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources and the author, Su Young Lee, for providing me with a copy of the book.

The Tokyo Bicycle Bakery by Su Young Lee

Goodreads

Publisher: Independant

Date Published: 20 August 2020

Format: e-ARC

Pages: 238 pages

Genre: Romance, Travel, Food, Japan

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2

Blurb

Fluttering cherry blossoms, gorgeous kimonos and sweet and sorrowful love.

For cake-loving college girl Hana, Japan was the romantic destination of her dreams. With boyfriend Jin she planned an exciting new life in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. But when she finally arrives after months of planning, Jin isn’t there.

Hana is left broken-hearted on a rainy Tokyo street. Jin left no note. One day he just walked out of classes and disappeared.Hana begins her new life alone. Watching cherry blossoms fall into the Tokyo river. Working hard and delivering her lovely home-baked cakes by orange bicycle. Then she meets handsome young farmer Hikaru, and glimpses a new way forward – in an alien place where she doesn’t know a soul.

The Tokyo Bicycle Bakery is a sweet romance with a hint of magic realism. It’s a perfect book to carry with you and read on holiday or weekends.

My Thoughts

I found this a very sweet and illuminating read. I love the Hana’s journey and evolution through out the book as she travels from South Korea to Japan to find her boyfriend and ends up making a whole new life for herself.

And I so want to try her recipes. They sound amazing and so delicious! I wish I could bake, but I’m really not good at baking sweat treats.

I thought that Hikaru, the young farmer who delivers fresh fruit and vegetables to the grocers that Hana works at, and Hana were so sweet from the first time that they met. A lot of potential there … and a lot of blushing. They are so supportive of each other all the way through and called on each other in times of emergency.

Jin, on the other hand, the main reason our character traveled to Japan in the first place, was more absent than I would have wanted. I wish we’d seen more of him. I think he added a lot to the story from the small parts he was in.

I had a few problems with the story. While reading it didn’t seem like the story was taking a while to get going, but in hind sight it probably did. And I found some of the prose to be a little flat. It reminded me of some critiques you find scribophile. ‘Show, don’t tell’. A lot of her writing was ‘she did this’, ‘she did that’, or ‘he did that’ I would have like a little more description in the book.

Overall I would recommend. A good read, perfect for readers longing to travel and see the world.

I hope that you like my review and like the sound of the book. Remember to check out other peoples stops on the tour in all these places.