Book on CD performed by Joy Osmanski
3.5***

CJ Katsuyama never seems to meet her Type-A mother’s expectations. She’s not super smart, or talented at music, art or sports. She’s not a leader at school. She does like helping her aunt Hannah at the family flower shop, though she doesn’t buy into Hannah’s “magic of flowers” theories. Still, she shows a knack for creative and distinctive arrangements. But then her mother decides to sell the shop to the descendant of the racist man who swindled her grandfather out of his property by taking advantage of the USA’s policy to intern Japanese Americans during WW2. Now CJ is fighting mad and determined to make a difference.

This is a charming YA novel about family, social justice, friendship and loyalty. There’s also a little romance thrown in.

CJ is a pretty mature teen. Although she frequently doubts herself, she usually follows her inner compass and makes solid decisions. Of course, this is a young adult novel, so there is bound to be some of the drama typical in teen life – prom-posals, mean girls, cliques, attractions based strictly on looks, best friends who maybe aren’t anymore. There’s also an LGBTQ relationship in the mix; I liked the way CJ handled this.

On the other hand, I was not thrilled with how the author handled CJ’s pregnancy. Not at all sure that needed to be part of the story.

Joy Osmanski does a fine job of narrating the audio version. Her diction is clear, and she sets a good pace. The only difficulty is that there are several flashbacks, and at first, I didn’t catch on and that confused me for several chapters until she went back to it. That isn’t the fault of the narrator, however. But I think I would have been less confused if I had been reading the text rather than listening. ( )

This did a spectacular job of looking at history and how it's so often white-washed and rewritten. Alas, it wasn't particularly gripping. ( )

3.75/5 ( )

There was a lot going on in the book. I really felt for CJ - she was just this huge ball of teenage tension and angst. Reasonably so. I sort of wonder if there was too much going on? This sort of felt like Dear Haiti, Love Alaine for me, in that I feel like parts of the book weren’t touched on enough in favor of adding one or two more plot points. CJ’s emotional conflict was written in a way that made her very easy to empathize with, and that helped the book for me. ( )

CJ is Japanese American. She works in her aunt's flower shop and finds that she's good at making floral arrangements. However her mother things it is a waste of time and money, since the shop, Heart's Delight, is losing money and there's a hefty offer to buy the building. However, the offer is from the same family that purchased it for a fraction of its worth in the 1940s when Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps. It took forever for CJ's ancestors to accumulate enough money to buy it back.

CJ, her aunt Hannah and her friends formulate a campaign to save the store. However, more comes out about the McAllister family whose name is on hospitals, civic buildings and CJ's high school. He was racist and earned his wealth on the backs of the Japanese. Now, CJ and her friends want the school renamed to the Japanese owner of the land before the McAllister's bought it.

There is also CJ's uncertainty about romance and her friend Emily's romance with Brynne, who snubbed her once when they were 13.

This Time Will Be Different is a great book about standing up for what you believe in, giving people second chances and rethinking your feelings about love. Plus you get to know what flower names mean. Enjoy. ( )