Genre ~ romantic suspense
Featuring ~Ā debut, kidnapping, steamage, erotica ~ FF & MFM in book 1, very minimal steamage in books 2 & 3, infidelity
POV ~ multiple 3rd person
Series ~Ā The Tokyo Trilogy (must be read in order)
My rating ~ 3.5ā
My review: Ripples in the Waters by Lake Kawaguchi
Our main characters are:
Yumiko is a teenager that’s been kidnapped due to her father, Iguchi’s, business dealings.
Tomoko is a lonely, unappreciated housewife who cheats on her husband with a much younger fella, Ryo, which leads to an even more erotic encounter.
Takeda has been fired and is having a tough time coping. He hasn’t told his wife, but still pretends to go to work every day.
It took me a minute to keep all of the Japanese names straight, but once I did I started to see how the main characters lives were intertwining. I could definitely tell that the author has some experience with Japanese culture as the customs and scenery were well written.
Overall, this was a pretty good debut. Luckily I have book 2 queued up as everything is not tied up and there are some loose ends.
Book blurb:
“Ripples in the Waters by Lake Kawaguchi” traces the sexual road trip of the lonely and neglected Japanese housewife, Tomoko, and the young, vibrant and spontaneous college girl, Ai, who is her counterpart on that riveting and sensual journey. It also introduces us to the depressed and suicidal CTO, Takeda, a “sarariman” who, having been made redundant, has lost his raison d’ĆŖtre and is trying to shield his family from the financial fallout of his social humiliation. Finally, readers can enjoy a suspenseful drama set in the underworld of Japanese organized crime where the fates of Shoko, an ambitious yakuza girl, and Yumiko, daughter of a liquidity-stricken CEO, become entangled in interesting ways.
My review: No Medicine for Falling in Love
The installment begins 5 years later.
Our formally kidnapped teenager, Yumiko, is now CEO of her own company and sets her sights on her employee.
Our now single and no longer bored housewife, Tomoko, is working with Yumiko and Atsuko, Takeda’s wife.
We meet Linda who is fascinated with Tokyo and takes a 3 month sabbatical from her teaching job in Denmark to visit. I found it funny that she made this decision based on a book she was reading, which happens to be this authors first book Ripples in the Waters by Lake Kawaguchi: The Tokyo Trilogy, part I. Tanaka is introduced as her love interest.
Overall, a good addition to the series. This one is lighter on the steamage front and goes more in depth on each characters life. Again, Japanese culture knowledge is evident. I’m looking forward to seeing how it’ll all conclude in Serenade of Souls: The Tokyo Trilogy, part III.
Book blurb:
“No Medicine for Falling in Love” takes place five years after the first volume of The Tokyo Trilogy. Tomoko has left her husband and living on her own, she is now working for Yumiko who in turn has become CEO of a lifestyle company. While Tomoko is flirting with Yumiko’s new female secretary, Yumiko herself is initiating a steamy office romance with one of her young male employees. Unfortunately, professional headwinds are blowing her way because she stood her ground against an influential but sexist politician, Mr. Kuroda, hellbent on harassing her after being rejected. Hoping to get some help in her brush with Kuroda, she reconnects with her old yakuza friend, Shoko, who has advanced to the powerful position of senior advisor to her clan boss. This proves to be no trivial matter, and Shoko learns just how dangerous powerful men can be when they feel slighted. A new character, Linda, is introduced. She is a middle-aged Danish high school teacher who is having a midlife crisis after her children left the nest, leaving her and her husband to experiment with an open relationship to save their failing marriage. She decides to visit Tokyo on a working holiday with the hidden agenda of experiencing the erotic underworld of the megacity firsthand to infuse her life with new passion. She gets employed as a hostess at an upscale Roppongi bar called The Library where she encounters several high-ranking Japanese VIP club members, one of whom is the Foreign Ministry Press Secretary, Tanaka. Surprising even herself, she gradually falls in love with him, and her erotic agenda turns into a classic romance with Linda baring her soul and being almost transformed by the other-worldly power of true love.
My review: Serenade of Souls
This installment begins 5 years later, so 10 years total from when we first met most the characters.
We already have a great deal of background information on each character, but here’s a quick recap:
Shoko is now head of the mafia.
Linda is having regrets about ghosting Tanaka, so she gets in touch with him again. Would he even want to see her after all this time or has he moved on?
Yumiko is still involved with her love interest from the last book.
And finally, Ai and Ryo from book 1 make another appearance.
Overall, I had a fine time reading this series. All of the main characters stories are wrapped up in a good way. It has some romance, some organized crime and is very much a character driven story.
Book blurb:
In “Serenade of Souls”, the final installment of The Tokyo Trilogy, most of the love stories started in the previous volumes reach their suspenseful conclusions. Another five years have went by, and Shoko is now the oyabun, or clan head, of the Hashimoto family. Her attempts to revamp and rebrand the crime syndicate as a slick and modern corporation meet with resistance, and unrest is brewing within her organization as a conspiracy to topple her is unfolding. Linda for her part is back in Tokyo, but she now faces competition in her attempts to win back Tanaka’s heart. She confides in Ai, her old colleague from The Library, who in turn gets back in touch with her ex-boyfriend, Ryo, whom she broke up with in volume one. Finally, Shoko is not only faced with an insurrection, she also has to make a choice between her two former roommates, Kenji and Masayoshi, who are both vying for her romantic attention.
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