by Kristen B.

Sometimes, a quirky book comes into your life at just the right time. Water Moon was that book for me recently, during a high-stress time. It’s a delightful, cozy sort of fantasy set in a Japanese-inspired mythology, and it feels like an anime show that could air on a Saturday morning.

As the story opens, Ishikawa Hana is ready to take the reins of her family’s pawnshop when her father retires. It’s an unusual shop; only people who need it can find it, sitting tucked next to a popular ramen restaurant. The shop allows people to bargain away their greatest regrets. Kei is a nuclear physicist who is in Japan to work on the Super-K conductor looking for neutrinos. He’s in Tokyo for ramen – and hoping for a little wish fulfillment. Kei stumbles into the pawnshop and finds Hana standing amid ransacked wreckage.

Hana’s father has disappeared, on the run from mysterious figures who collect the regrets that are bargained away every month. The Shiikuin have no mercy for those who stray outside their roles. Hana’s father, Ishikawa Toshio, seems to have stolen one of the regrets, which take the shape of brightly-colored birds, and fled. When Kei wanders in looking for ramen, he immediately offers Hana all the help he can.

Hana then introduces Kei to the world on the other side of the puddle, where magic has its own rules that run counter to everything Kei thinks he knows. The two adventure through dreamlike sequences in a rather episodic manner, which made me think it would be a great animated show. They visit Hana’s grandmother’s tea house, explore the floating Night Market, and experience falling through a paper door and being folded like origami, among other memorable vignettes. All the while, Hana and Kei try to stay one step ahead of the cruel monsters on their trail.

While they are running and solving puzzles, Hana constantly tells Kei that things are not what they seem. The two have an instant connection and spend the course of the story falling in love while being sure they can’t be together. Hana is engaged to a childhood friend, and Kei is from our world, not hers. But, the story wonders, what is the price of happiness? What duty do we owe to how things are “supposed to be?” How do you set aside expectations so you can truly live your most authentic life?

All these weighty questions are wrapped up in spare, lovely prose and a fast-moving plot. You keep reading to find out how they escape the next pickle, always looking for Hana’s missing parents – and the answer to how you get to be with the one you love. Things might not be as they seem, but the resolution is wonderfully, romantically satisfying.

Water Moon is available from HCLS in print and as an e-book and e-audiobook on Libby.

Kristen B. is a devoted bookworm lucky enough to work as the graphic designer for HCLS. She likes to read, stitch, dance, and watch baseball (but not all at the same time).