Love Among the Sakura - Book Review

  Author P. J. Sanchez-Urcuyo has written a contemporary love story set in Japan that has a twist of time travel. The novel, Love Among the Sakura, opens with a prologue in which the Goddess Nyemah from the Thezulian galaxy, is searching for Tafui M’Kale, the warrior queen. She must convince Tafui to return to Earth and restore her relationship with her declared mate, Crown Prince Soichiro. The Goddess has decreed that the two must wed. Only their union can save the galaxy. The two extraterrestrials had been sent to Earth in past lives but had not bonded.

Soichiro is now the CEO of a vast empire that he owns, Toshibana Co., in contemporary Japan. He and several of his cohorts know that they are aliens from the planet Zelania. He understands the Goddess’s decree and is willing to try to cause Tafui to fall in love with him. Unfortunately, he has been unsuccessful in the past two attempts to connect with her, once in 1603 in Japan and again before the Civil War in New Orleans. Tafui’s memory of these encounters has been erased, but Soichiro remembers them with trepidation and longing.

In order to reestablish a relationship with Tafui, Soichiro has arranged an exclusive design and contemporary authors symposium and has invited the company Tafui works within the United States to participate. Tafui is a beautiful, dark-skinned African woman, who is highly intelligent and extremely independent. Tafui tries to avoid him and his advances. She hates the public’s attraction to him and the paparazzi that follow them. Is she playing hard-to-get, or does she truly mistrust his intentions? 

In order to introduce Tafui to high society, Soichiro convinces her to attend the Prime Minister’s Masquerade Ball. Against her wishes, she agrees to allow his personal assistants to teach her protocol and social expectations. She is fitted with appropriate clothing and jewelry for the ball but hates the idea of being part of Japanese high society. The reader will see subtle, but obvious comparisons and parallels between the author’s protagonists and some of the tabloid reports of Prince Harry and Megan.   

            The author’s inclusion of high-end merchandise branding, popular song lyrics, Japanese terminology, and historical references enhance the story. Graphic romantic scenes leave little to the imagination. The author assures the reader that Book II of the series will contain more of the back story and the future of the romance.