Book Review For #FilipinoFriday: “Be Careful What You Wish For” by C. P. Santi

Title: Be Careful What You Wish For

Author: C. P. Santi

Description:

Ana is in a rut.
For years, she had been focused on trying to carve out a niche for herself in a competitive, male-dominated, scientific world. On her 32nd birthday, she finally takes a step back and realizes her life is . . . boring. With a little prodding from her friends, she decides to shake things up. She vows that this is the year she’ll finally capture the heart of Daniel Sato, the research associate she’s secretly loved for ages. 
So she makes a birthday wish—to finally fall in love with someone ('with' being the operative word). 
But then, she hadn't counted on crossing paths with hunky and opinionated actor Ken Nakamura. 
Be careful what you wish for—Fate always answers—even if it isn't exactly the answer that we were hoping for. Find out how even the best-laid plans go awry when the paths of two very different people suddenly collide.

Purchase Links:

Amazon | Buqo | Smashwords

You can also add this to Goodreads.

My Thoughts:

So this will be my third post in participation for #FilipinoFriday courtesy of Ms. April. I’m really getting a hang of it, doing this kind of write-up. Probably because I’ve never done one before, even during my college days. And for this post, it’ll be the first one that I’ve written for C. P. Santi’s novel. I loved the Japanese setting, probably because I have a certain degree of fascination to anything Japanese-related. That’s one reason why I included Japan as a dream travel destination in the future, alongside South Korea and London.

I’m familiar with most of the Japanese terms and phrases used in this novel because of watching lots of Japanese anime, a few of J-dramas, and recently, some tokusatsu shows (though I would only mention some of the series I’ve watched from the Super Sentai franchise). This novel gave me another Japanese feel that I’d really come to love. It gave me a tour to some parts of Tokyo that I would only hear from anime or dramas. I think that’s one reason I rated it in Goodreads to 5 stars.

But it wasn’t just because of the Japanese aspect found in the novel that I rated it that way. I love the way the story was told. It was truly a journey on finding yourself in the midst of feeling hopeless because of over the right age. Or at least I would really call over 30 as over the right age for marrying. Although Koreans still consider it young, though. I mean, some of them usually got married at the age ranging from 31 to 40.

Anyway, back to the topic. Ana really went all the way to change her life, despite the bad start that she and Ken had. Well, he did help her achieve the life she never knew she wanted. She just doesn’t want to admit it at first. I like her fiery attitude—at least most of the time. And it’s what made Ken fall in love with her, just because she was completely different from the usual female companions and acquiantances he was accustomed to. You see what love can do to two completely different people in a matter of time? That’s what happened to Ana and Ken. Despite the cultural and personality differences, they really managed to worked it out. Of course, setting aside the whole slightly rocky and completely insane set-up (in my perception) that made them fall in love like this.

There was one part of the novel that I actually cried—but not that much. I was lying down on the bed facing my right side while reading this on my phone. So imagine my surprise when I actually felt my right eye releasing a teardrop or two during the part where Ana and Ken had a really messed-up situation due to a misunderstanding. More so during the event at Budokan. Seriously, I don’t know if I should sympathize with them or just do something to actually drill everything in their pretty thick heads. Trust me, both of them have that kind of head. I guess that’s what made them argue most of the time.

Honestly speaking, I’d love Yoshi for a friend. I mean, he’s kind of cool. Just don’t let it get into his head or I guess I’ll be sorry sooner or later. But then, I admit his character here was really fun. A really supportive friend, if you ask me. Though his support might come a bit… surprising. Then there’s the trio—Jon, Tessa, and Kaye. Though Jon reminded me more of a college friend I had. Tessa was the kind of girl best friend I wished I had before, especially during my high school and college days. And Kaye—she’s pretty much like an older sister figure to me that I wished I was or I had.

This novel wasn’t the typical Japanese drama, though honestly, I could see hints of both Japanese and Korean romance themes in it. Or maybe that’s just me. You could agree or disagree to it. Most of the reviews from Goodreads that I read about this novel usually compare this or contradict this to a josei mange. As for me, I can’t really compare it to anything like that, possibly because I’ve never read a josei manga before. For a first timer reader of C. P. Santi’s works, this really gave me a lot of feels. It’s truly beautiful. I hope I’d have a chance to read her other works next time.

Last note: I was listening to Kuraki Mai’s “Time After Time ~Hana Mau Machi De~” while writing this review. I don’t know why I decided to add that little info.

About The Author:

C. P. Santi is a Filipina author based in Tokyo, Japan. Wife to an engineer / indie songwriter and a full-time mom to two energetic boys. She loves cooking and baking, enjoys feeding people, gorging on chocolate, watching J-doramas, belting it out in the karaoke box, and running around the house playing tickle tag. She also loves dreaming up stories about the people she meets.

In another life, she is also an architect and academic.

Author Links:

Blog: http://thejapayukichronicles.blogspot.jp
Twitter: https://twitter.com/arkiCpsanti
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CPsantiauthor?ref=hl
Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/cpsanti
Instagram: https://instagram.com/arkicpsanti/