Welcome to Thursday Quotables! This feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week.  Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines will be, and you’re invited to join in! Hosted by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies.

“I’ll never be good enough for Japan. I’ll never belong there.” “You are my daughter,” he says evenly, fiercely. “You belong with me.”

Well for one, we all know about my issues with father figures so in truth this made me super envious to have a relationship like this with someone I could consider my father. Despite everything that Izumi went through growing up, and then in Japan when she was learning how to navigate being a princess, the main reason she wanted to go was to be with her father. She didn’t know who he was growing up, and then finding out that he’s the Crown Prince of Japan was super surprising. Almost too good to be true, yeah? But that line up there, despite the awkwardness of having to get to know one another, Mak showed Izumi that no matter what anyone says, he wants her in his life.

I also picked this one because it also reinforced the thought that if Mak knew about Izumi, he wouldn’t have not kept her out of his life. I know why Hanako did this and I don’t have any qualms about it, but imagine their lives if everyone knew about one another? Of course, if that happened, we wouldn’t have this amazing book – or at least not this version of this story – and a lost royal is always a super fun trope to read.

There are so many quotes I could have picked in this novel because I resonated with the majority of the book. I went for familial relationships this time around, since I feel like that’s one that I don’t usually discuss as often. And since family is so important to me, I always appreciate seeing either healthy or budding relationships between parent and child.

Crazy Rich Asians meets The Princess Diaries in this irresistible story about Izumi, a Japanese-American girl who discovers her senior year of high school that she’s really a princess of Japan.

Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in—it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, northern California town. Raised by a single mother, it’s always been Izumi—or Izzy, because “It’s easier this way”—and her mom against the world. But then Izzy discovers a clue to her previously unknown father’s identity…and he’s none other than the Crown Prince of Japan. Which means outspoken, irreverent Izzy is literally a princess.

In a whirlwind, Izzy travels to Japan to meet the father she never knew and discover the country she always dreamed of. But being a princess isn’t all ball gowns and tiaras. There are conniving cousins, a hungry press, a scowling but handsome bodyguard who just might be her soulmate, and thousands of years of tradition and customs to learn practically overnight.

Izzy soon finds herself caught between worlds, and between versions of herself—back home, she was never “American” enough, and in Japan, she must prove she’s “Japanese” enough. Will Izumi crumble under the weight of the crown, or will she live out her fairytale, happily ever after?

I need to post my review for this soon… more like WRITE the review because it’s been a minute since I read it and I know I have all these positive thoughts to convey. I just loved this book! Can I just leave it at that? No? Fineeee…

Have you read this one yet?