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This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura

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This Time Will Be Different

by Misa Sugiura

Narrator Joy Osmanski

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Length 9 hours 23 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“This Time Will Be Different was a pleasure to listen to, although the story wasn’t all sunshine and daisies. Seventeen-year-old CJ works with her aunt at their family-owned flower shop in California. She’s not sure that she believes in flower magic or romance, but CJ has a knack for choosing and arranging stems to suit any occasion. She loves what she does, but her mother is less than impressed with CJ’s lackluster academic performance and floral “hobby.” This book explores the pressure of living up to parents’ expectations (whether its to be heterosexual or high-achieving), rejecting the model minority stereotype and white saviorism, reparations for families of interned Japanese Americans, and normalizing abortion. It even hits the spot with a little romance. This Time Will Be Different is a symphony of complicated teen life. ”
— Mary • Raven Book Store

Summary
About the author

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.

Romance YA Fiction

Misa Sugiura’s ancestors include a poet, a priestess, a samurai, and a stowaway. Her first novel, It’s Not Like It’s a Secret, was the winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for YA Literature. Her second novel, This Time Will Be Different, was the HarperCollins Children's Books Lead Read. Misa lives under a giant oak tree in Silicon Valley with her husband, two sons, and three cats. Visit her online at www.misasugiura.com.