This Time Will Be Different

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book

For fans of Jenny Han, Morgan Matson, and Sandhya Menon, critically acclaimed author Misa Sugiura delivers a richly crafted contemporary YA novel about family, community, and the importance of writing your own history.

The author of the Asian Pacific American Award-winning It s Not Like It s a Secret is back with another smartly drawn coming-of-age novel that weaves riveting family drama, surprising humor, and delightful romance into a story that will draw you in from the very first page.

Katsuyamas never quit but seventeen-year-old CJ doesn t even know where to start. She s never lived up to her mom s type A ambition, and she s perfectly happy just helping her aunt, Hannah, at their family s flower shop.

She doesn t buy into Hannah s romantic ideas about flowers and their hidden meanings, but when it comes to arranging the perfect bouquet, CJ discovers a knack she never knew she had. A skill she might even be proud of.

Then her mom decides to sell the shop to the family who swindled CJ s grandparents when thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during WWII. Soon a rift threatens to splinter CJ s family, friends, and their entire Northern California community; and for the first time, CJ has found something she wants to fight for.