Tokyo Dreaming is a wonderful addition to Izumi’s story. Though I loved Tokyo Ever After more (which is common for me and sequels, read my Tokyo Ever After review), this still holds a special place in my heart. Tokyo Dreaming gives us a glimpse into Izumi’s life as she learns to blend her two selves. Just like any other major life change, when we settle down into everyday life again, we start to grapple with how to reconcile our two selves from before and after the event. I love Tokyo Dreaming because it doesn’t let us get swept up in the whirlwind of excitement of becoming an overnight princess and a happily ever after, it’s about the challenges that came after a major life change and a major change in family dynamic. In this sequel, we’re allowed to see Izumi and her family struggle with their new normal. We get to see them decide how they want to find their voice and build their lives.

After Izumi learned her father was the Crowned Pince of Japan, she became a princess overnight. Now, she’s finally settling into her life as a princess when she overhears that the Imperial Household Council refuses to approve the marriage of her parents, Izumi pledges to become the picture-perfect princess to make up for her mother’s lack of status. Unfortunately trying to be someone you’re not isn’t all it’s cut out to be. As Izumi starts to become what everyone wants her to be, she starts to lose herself in the process. In the process of giving her mom and dad a happily ever after, will she lose her own?

Tokyo Ever After was one of my favorite reads of 2021. It was the first book I’ve ever read where the Asian American protagonist went to the country where her parents are from and is accepted. Izumi may not have been fully accepted easily as the princess of the nation, that always has to come with struggles, but she was never questioned on whether she was Japanese. Izumi was able to go to a place where everyone looked like her and everyone accepted that she looked like them as well. I cried a lot.

As a mixed race person, this is a magical phenomena I could never imagine for myself, but inside this series, I’m able to dream. Tokyo Dreaming picks up from Izumi learning how to exist in Japan in the previous book and allows her to begin her life where her heart is. It is a delightful extension to that dream that Tokyo Ever After made possible for me. It helped me imagine what that could be like and I never want to let it go. This series takes The Princess Diaries, one of my favorite movies as a kid, and gives it back to Asian Americans. Tokyo Ever After gives us our magical princess story and Tokyo Dreaming gives us our princess life.

Tokyo Dreaming is a delightful follow-up to Tokyo Ever After. Though I adored the first much more, I loved how we got a look into how the reconciliation of past and present could come together for the characters. We didn’t just get a happily ever after with the first book, we got to see how they can build lives they love together. It was beautiful.