Review: Seven Days of You by Cecilia Vinesse

Seven Days of You by Cecilia Vinesse
Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
Publication Date: March 9th 2017. 
My rating: 5 stars. 

Sophia has seven days left in Tokyo before she moves back to the States. Seven days to say good-bye to the electric city, her wild best friend, and the boy she’s harbored a semi-secret crush on for years. Seven perfect days…until Jamie Foster-Collins moves back to Japan and ruins everything. Jamie and Sophia have a history of heartbreak, and the last thing Sophia wants is for him to steal her leaving thunder with his stupid arriving thunder. Yet as the week counts down, the relationships she thought were stable begin to explode around her. And Jamie is the one who helps her pick up the pieces. Sophia is forced to admit she may have misjudged Jamie, but can their seven short days of Tokyo adventures end in anything but good-bye?

I’ve come across a handful of books this year which have completely taken me by surprise, I’m pleased to say Seven Days of You was one of those books. I remember reading the blurb a few months ago, thinking it would be the sort of book that I would enjoy and although it did take me a while to get into initially, on my train back home I was completely hooked. Vinesse goes above and beyond in creating a gorgeous read in the wonderful backdrop of Tokyo. I’m one of those readers that love to read books set in different cities; it makes the wanderlust within me want to come out in full force. And Tokyo really is one of the least expected places that I would have thought I’d want to go visit. But reading Seven Days of You really changed all that, it was clear to me that Vinesse really went all out with her research into Tokyo, the places she describes that our MC Sophia and her friends visit, the modes of travel and even the food, made me feel as if I was right there with these characters and I enjoyed every single moment of finding myself lost in Tokyo.

It’s sometimes hard to believe that this book is only set over seven days, as Vinesse packs in so much into this great book, it focuses on friendship, yearning, young love and having fun and adventures. Our characters Sophia, Jamie, David, Caroline and Mika had a lot going on, Sophia was moving back to the States, something she really didn’t want to do, having made such great friends over here and Jamie was on his back to Tokyo, having spent the last three years studying abroad. There was an underlying tension between Jamie and Sophia that we didn’t know a lot about, we didn’t know why Sophia wanted to avoid Jamie and it also seemed like there were a lot more secrets amongst this group of friends too. I really liked this mystery aspect of the story, of course I wanted to know what had happened between Jamie and Sophia all those years ago, because it was clear that there was something between them now and they only had seven days left together and so I really just wanted them to make the most of it. I loved the build up of discovering what had happened between Jamie and Sophia, and watching the way the group dynamics quickly changed in the last few days that Sophia had left here. Some of the secrets that emerged along the way I also weren’t expecting, but they contributed to the heartache along the way and making Seven Days of You more of an emotional read for me, which I enjoyed rather a lot. I enjoyed the carefree attitudes that Vinesse gave us in our characters, how Sophia although making some mistakes along the way, which I understood, really tried to make the most of her last week in Tokyo. It was about discovering yourself, having fun and making the most out of life. Sophia was a character who I adored, she had a lot to deal with, but I appreciated the little nudges she got along the way, how her family played a pivotal role in her life and the development of this story. She was a character that I could easily relate to having moved around quite a bit myself when I was younger, but she was also a character that you couldn’t but help want to do well and get the most of life. So you could say that I was a big fan of the turn of events in this book. The rest of the characters also bought so much to this beautiful story, Jamie and his curly hair definitely bought all the swoons, he quickly became one of my favourite characters. David, Mika and Caroline were also a complicated bunch, but were just so unexpected in their actions, that I loved having them pop up as I never knew what could happen next. I also need to mention Sophia’s family, every family has their ups and downs and so I really appreciated that despite some of the misunderstandings, they were there for Sophia.

Seven Days of You had everything that I love when it comes to reading, it had a wonderful setting in Tokyo, characters that had such complicated friendships, but withstood no matter what and the development of one of my favourite relationships to date. Vinesse’s writing and story building was wonderfully done that I really didn’t want this book to end at times, I would totally be up for a sequel too (pretty please) for me there could more development to come from the ending that we’re given. Seven Days of You has quite easily become one of my favourite reads of the year, I highly recommend everyone giving this book a go, you will not regret falling in love with these characters and gorgeous story.