Waiting on Wednesday: When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney

Waiting on WednesdayWaiting on Wednesday is a weekly event brought to you by Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming books we can’t wait to read.

When You Were Here by Daisy WhitneyWHEN YOU WERE HERE by Daisy Whitney

Publication Date: June 4, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Synopsis from Amazon :

Danny’s mother lost her five-year battle with cancer three weeks before his graduation-the one day that she was hanging on to see.

Now Danny is left alone, with only his memories, his dog, and his heart-breaking ex-girlfriend for company. He doesn’t know how to figure out what to do with her estate, what to say for his Valedictorian speech, let alone how to live or be happy anymore.

When he gets a letter from his mom’s property manager in Tokyo, where she had been going for treatment, it shows a side of a side of his mother he never knew. So, with no other sense of direction, Danny travels to Tokyo to connect with his mother’s memory and make sense of her final months, which seemed filled with more joy than Danny ever knew. There, among the cherry blossoms, temples, and crowds, and with the help of an almost-but-definitely-not Harajuku girl, he begins to see how it may not have been ancient magic or mystical treatment that kept his mother going. Perhaps, the secret of how to live lies in how she died.

I’m a fan of Daisy Whitney’s Mockingbirds series, and this book looks like quite a departure. Nice to see her stretch her wings with a different kind of contemporary vibe. It hooked me at β€œLost in Translation meets Where She Went.”

There’s a male protagonist, travel to Tokyo, a healing journey, and even a little dog! Wow, I can’t wait to read this one.

The cover is gorgeous too, and looks wistful and tone appropriate. The tag line on the cover says “How to live, how to die, and how to love with your whole heart.”

Add When You Were Here to Goodreads

What book are you waiting on this week?

Ornament

19 thoughts on “Waiting on Wednesday: When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney

  1. I’m really looking forward to this one! It sounds like my kind of book.

  2. I haven’t seen this one before and I’m not sure I’m going to read it but I hope you enjoy reading it…Nice pick!
    Come check out my WOW post.

  3. Sunny says:

    I have this on my TBR as well! Hope you get it πŸ™‚

  4. Samantha says:

    I really love ya books with a male narration. Sadly there are few compared to the amount of ya that is published each year. I will definitely be checking this out. Great pick! πŸ™‚

  5. This one does sound compelling…thanks for sharing!

    Here’s MY WOW POST

  6. Its interesting to see a guy solo on a YA book that is not shirtless. Good WOW!

  7. BermudaOnion says:

    That looks like a good one!

  8. Anna says:

    This sounds lovely. I sometimes have a hard time with contemporary fiction, but I love the summary. Please check out my WoW. Thanks!

    Anna @ Wandering Librarians

  9. Thanks for visiting my blog. πŸ™‚

  10. Tammy Sparks says:

    I love anything that has a setting in Japan, so I’ll be reading this one for sure. Great choice, Lucy!

  11. Ohhhh Daisy Whitney is coming out with another book? That’s fantastic! I’ll definitely have to check out this one, it looks awesome! Great pick, thanks for sharing!

    Anna @ Literary Exploration
    My WoW

  12. Kelley says:

    Oh my, this book sounds sad and heart-tugging! I haven’t heard of it until now, so thanks for spotlighting it this week! πŸ™‚

  13. This book looks so good, I just added it to my TBR list! πŸ™‚

    Alice @ Alice in Readerland

  14. I haven’t read the author’s Mockingbird series yet, but this one sounds pretty intriguing! We need more male POVs, and a trip to Tokyo sounds good to me. πŸ™‚ Such a lovely, unusual cover, too.

  15. This sounds really interesting. I haven’t heard of the author before, but for the contemporary genre, this one has my attention. Great pick! πŸ™‚

  16. My goodness that does sounds like an interesting book. Great pick and Happy Reading! Here is my WoW for this week!

  17. kay says:

    I especially love that it is a male protagonist; there’s not enough of them in YA novels!

  18. I don’t think excited covers how I feel about this book! I am so super excited to read it, especially as it has a male protagonist and it’s set in Japan. June seems so far away…. hahaha. Great pick!

    My WoW

  19. hayy6747 says:

    Wow. This book sounds amazing, and possibly really really sad. Great pick!

    Halee @ Confessions of a Book Addict

    My WoW

Leave a Reply

(Enter your URL then click here to include a link to one of your blog posts.)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.