Book Review: Rain by Amanda Sun

American Katie Green has decided to stay in Japan. She's started to build a life in the city of Shizuoka, and she can't imagine leaving behind her friends, her aunt and especially Tomohiro, the guy she's fallen in love with. But her return is not as simple as she thought. She's flunking out of Japanese school and committing cultural faux pas wherever she goes. Tomohiro is also struggling—as a Kami, his connection to the ancient gods of Japan and his power to bring drawings to life have begun to spiral out of control.

When Tomo decides to stop drawing, the ink finds other ways to seep into his life—blackouts, threatening messages and the appearance of unexplained sketches. Unsure how to help Tomo, Katie turns to an unexpected source for help—Jun, her former friend and a Kami with an agenda of his own. But is Jun really the ally he claims to be? In order to save themselves, Katie and Tomohiro must unravel the truth about Tomo's dark ancestry, as well as Katie's, and confront one of the darkest gods in Japanese legend.

*Minor spoilers for Ink in this review.*

Rain is the second in the Paper Gods series. I read and enjoyed the first book, Ink when it first came out last year. To be completely honest with you, I picked up the series because the covers are just so gorgeous. I mean, just look at it! But then I found out about the concept and I was hooked. The main character is American Katie who moves to Japan where she meets not one, but 2 extremely sexy boys. Of course, they both have their magical secrets and in this book we find out how their secrets intertwine. Shit goes down!

My absolute favourite part about this book is how fast it went. I felt like there was always something exciting happening whether it involve the magical ink or their love lives. Now, as you probably expected, there is a love triangle involved in the story. I personally felt like it added a lot to the story and there wouldn’t be much without it. However, the execution didn’t work for me. The characters and their emotions could have been portrayed more thoroughly. I could let all this go though because I felt like the characters had an excuse to fall in love because of the magic involved.

Also, this book is set in Japan. It was literally so beautiful! Amanda Sun’s writing has some kind of edge that makes the world ten times better in my head. Or that could just be me… But I’m going to believe that it was the writing. The were also pictures! YAY! The water colour images brought the whole story to life. Not to mention that they were just gorgeous as well.

The one thing that really pissed me off was that it was all so predictable. I could probably figure out how the book would end within the first few chapters of the book. I love the whole idea of the story a lot but I don’t think I actually love the story. I’m hoping that the next book will blow me away because it has so much potential.

I do still recommend this book though! If you love Japan, magic or love then this book is for you. Ink comes to life and so does the story. Huge thank you to Harlequin Teen for sending me this ARC/review copy!

Do you love seeing authors being more diverse with their settings? Do you think that a love triangle can be done right?

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