4.5* Oh I loved this for so many reasons

- The characters were wonderful, lovable and flawed. They felt real. They were messy teenagers who had good intentions at heart but made mistakes, were called out on them and were allowed to grow from those mistakes.

- The writing was so incredibly easy to read and flowed beautifully. I essentially devoured this in one sitting and despite the raging sunburn I got from refusing to move inside until I’d finished the book, I regret nothing.

- I thought the way this explored history (specifically that of Japanese-Americans and the period of Japanese internment camps) was superb. Not only did it dive into a piece of history I’ve not seen discussed in YA, it did it in a way that was accessible and proved how greatly the past still continues to negatively impact the lives of people today.

- The book touched on so many things from racism and sexuality to money and abortion and yet, it never felt like there was ‘too much’. Everything fit together to create a story that felt organic, without the ‘big’ issues belittling the ‘smaller’ ones.

- I adored the structure of the book, with CJ’s interludes and mini dives into the different faucets of her life and history. It made the reading experience so much fun and added such a fantastic a depth and sarcastic humour to CJ. I’m always a sucker for books that deviate from classic novel structure, so I thoroughly enjoyed these segments.

- The multiple relationships, romantic, platonic and familial, were all brilliantly fleshed out and explored. I loved the explorations of CJ’s relationship with each individual character and amazingly enough, couldn’t point a finger at a favourite as I thought they were all fantastic and important in their own way to the story.

All in all, I just really enjoyed this book. It was diverse (with nearly all the characters being people of colour, the love interest being bi and the MC’s best friend and her love interest being lesbians), funny, enlightening, adorable at times and told through a voice that captivated me from the first page.

TW: racism, homophobia.

By Kate

4.5/5 stars

THIS BOOK!!! There's so much I took away from "This Time Will Be Different" and I'm so thankful I picked it up when I did. I originally received an ARC of this at a local book festival I went to this year and the synopsis instantly captured my attention and I knew I had to pick this up asap. I started reading it a while ago but I didn't have a lot of time to finish when things started to get busy but I'm so happy I finally finished it. Guys! I'm not kidding when I say I need everyone to read this!! It's such an eye-opening and flat out entertaining novel and once I got into it I never wanted to put it down.

My absolute favorite thing about "This Time Will Be Different" is how it handles sensitive topics such as racism and the internment of Japanese-Americans during WW2. I've constantly been on the lookout for books where I can educate myself more as I read, and this book was no exception. I think it handled these topics wonderfully and I'm so happy I now know more about them and got to read from that point of view. Also, this novel was simply funny and entertaining in so many ways. I found myself laughing at least once a chapter and all the characters were fantastic. Every character had their own unique development too and by the end, they had all learned something new about their behavior or social justice issues. I thought CJ was a great main character as well and I adored reading from her POV.

I'm just gonna put this here: Misa Sugiura is so freaking underrated. Her writing style is amazing and so fluid and also she just writes kickass stories. It's that simple. Everyone needs to go follow her and buy her books and read them now because she deserves the world. That's all.

I only have two minor problems with this book. First of all, CJ was sometimes seriously annoying. I'm 95% sure this was intentional and I totally understand the merit of that, but she was still annoying nonetheless. Secondly, there wasn't enough romance! I know romance wasn't the main plot of this novel by any means, but I was thinking we were gonna get some other romance besides just a kiss from what I read on the synopsis.

This book handles family, friends, and self-discovery in a unique and diverse way. Not to mention is hilarious. Please go read this right now!

This book does handle some pretty heavy topics at times! I've listed the trigger warnings that I can think of, but please search online to see if there are more detailed ones if you need to :)

TW: racism, sexism, teen pregnancy, abortion, strained family relationships, the internment of Japanese-Americans during WW2, homophobia.

By Lils