Review: Rain by Amanda Sun

Title: Rain (Paper Gods #2)

Author: Amanda Sun
Published: 24 June 2014 by HarlequinTEEN Australia
Source: HarlequinTEEN Australia
Reviewed: Sapphired Dragon
Rating: ****

My Review:

On reflection I think I may have liked Rain more than I liked Ink, and I adored Ink.  Ink made me want to go visit Japan and learn Japanese but Rain had a different feel to it and I think this had to do with the writing reflecting the main character Katie Greene.

In Ink, Katie is a foreigner and a tourist anxiously waiting for the call from her grandparents to head back home to Canada. In Rain, having made her decision to stay, Katie while still technically a foreigner, and still making the the odd cultural mistake, feels more like a native fighting for her place there and so this is reflected in the writing and the feel.

Because, like Katie, we were now familiar with the Japan of the book and the main characters there in, we got to the heart of the story a lot quicker and were held in there to the end. Both the Kami story line and the romance between Katie and Tomo weaved together seamlessly and I found myself barely looking up from this tale until the end, which nearly caused my daughter and I to miss our stop of the train the other night.

I liked Katie and found her to be a sympathetic character so cared what happened to her. I liked her heart and her spirit though i do feel, she made some poor decisions throughout the book. I found it harder to get into Tomo's head. I wanted to but sometimes found it a little harder relate to his character.

Overall this is a quick and entertaining read. While sometimes I could see where certain story lines were leading, it didn't nonetheless spoil the the over all enjoyment I had in this instalment and I will anxiously be awaiting book 3!

I give this novel 4 stars.

Sapphired Dragon xx

About The Book:

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