Nicolena Reads

Read August 2026

You ever just want something different? I had this on my holds for a month or two and somehow I missed my turn. Well, ok, that’s not exactly true. I didn’t check my email and my hold came up and was subsequently cancelled but… somehow I missed my turn! I wanted to read something that was giving Ghibli and this book seemed like it fit the bill, so I used my endless credits on Amazon and spent nothing out of pocket for the Kindle edition.

What is it about? 

Hana works with her dad at a pawn shop that has a ramen restaurant storefront. People are almost spiritually drawn here to trade in a memory for peace. The types of memories people are trying to part with are usually tied to regret; with a simple symbol of that regret, they can walk away as if the mistake never happened. Hana is set to take over the pawn shop when her dad retires but when she wakes up for her first day, the shop is ransacked and her dad is missing. She notices that one of the choices that had been pawned is also missing, which is a huge problem because losing one could cost her everything.

Keishin is a scientist who believes what is proven to be true. He was abandoned by his mother at a very young age and since then he has been searching, a little bit for her but also for purpose. He walks into what he thinks is a ramen restaurant only to discover it’s a pawn shop that has recently been robbed and wants to help by calling the police. Hana begs him not to, reluctantly shares a curated version of what she thinks happened, and allows him to weigh in and help her search for her own answers. He’s charmed enough by her to follow along on an incredible journey that challenges everything he thought he knew about how the world works.

What does it have?

• This Could Be A Ghibli Film
• Choice vs. Fate
• How Did I Get Here? Where The Hell Am I?
• Philosophical AF

Yambo really did something for me here! I was highlighting sentence after sentence from page 2 onward. I feel like there’s so much commentary on human nature and relationships in this novel that I could very easily churn out a quick 10 page analysis. Don’t worry, I’m not going to… we’ll stick to my usual review sequence LOL. There is a bit of a love story woven in and, while this wasn’t the aspect of the novel I enjoyed most, I loved that choices and regret were so central to the story. Some of what Yambo said, either through narration or through the characters’ voices, kept bringing me to the dating scene these days where you’ll interact with someone living in (or wishing for someone in) their past. One character is questioned on why she made a decision that she later regretted, and the character says, “For the same reason all fools give up good things. We look at our hands and wonder what we could hold if they were empty.” In context, not commentary on modern dating, but if you’re out there trying to find someone, it’ll speak to you in that way.

Is it worth reading?

Oh gosh yes, for a bunch of reasons! I’ll be recommending this book to people whether they’re looking for something in this genre or not.