Secret Keeping Sakura (The Kami no Sekai Series, #5)
About Secret Keeping Sakura (The Kami no Sekai Series, #5)...
Mieko thought she knew her mother. She was wrong about almost everything. When Ume Uchida dies suddenly of a stroke, her only daughter returns to their small seaside hometown to handle the funeral and sell the house. But the cherry blossom tree in the front yard — the one Mieko used to talk to as a kid — starts talking back. And it has a suggestion: before you sell, find out who your mother really was. What follows is a quietly devastating treasure hunt through a life lived in secret: pre-dawn fish runs with retired sailors, a subsidized ramen hour for the elderly, afternoons tutoring kids at the library, and a locked desk drawer holding the kind of truth that rewrites everything.
Guided by a sakura tree that has watched over eighty years of families, heartbreak, and quiet acts of love, Mieko unravels the layers of her mother’s hidden generosity — and the tragedy that shaped it all. A woman who became so good at keeping secrets she couldn’t stop, even when the secrets were beautiful. As the petals fall and the drawer finally opens, Mieko is left with a question bigger than grief: what kind of life will she choose to live now?
Secret Keeping Sakura is a tender, bittersweet story about mothers and daughters, the lives we hide from the people we love most, and the moment you realize that starting over might be the bravest thing you’ve ever done.
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy / Cozy Fantasy
Publication Date: October 12, 2016
Series: The Kami No Sekai Series, Book #5
Chapters from Secret Keeping Sakura (The Kami no Sekai Series, #5)...
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Secret Keeping Sakura – Chapter 1
“She was such a wonderful woman.” “So caring. Everything she did was infused with love.”
Read NowSecret Keeping Sakura – Chapter 2
“It’s been a long time, Sakura.” Mieko brushes her hand on the cool, rough bark of my trunk, her fingers catching along the dips and cracks.
Read NowSecret Keeping Sakura – Chapter 3
I have no idea what I’m doing or why, just that my favorite cherry tree has sent me on a mission to get to know my mother better. To the...
Read NowSecret Keeping Sakura – Chapter 4
“I don’t get it,” Mieko says, sitting at my roots, her back pressed against my trunk. The sun is setting, the warm tones of the clouds casting a salmon pink...
Read NowSecret Keeping Sakura – Chapter 5
My back pops as I heft the bags of doughnuts and coffee under each arm and make my way down the hill towards the sea. When I was in high...
Read NowSecret Keeping Sakura – Chapter 6
“How did it go?…” Mieko zips past me, the door to the gate banging shut behind her.
Read NowSecret Keeping Sakura – Chapter 7
Refreshed after a nap, I walk to Chie’s ramen restaurant where I drop off the fish and promise to return soon. I wave to the woman running the grocery store...
Read NowSecret Keeping Sakura – Chapter 8
Mieko returns to the house with a box cradled under one arm, drops it at the front door, and then joins me on the lawn. The weather today is pleasant...
Read NowSecret Keeping Sakura – Chapter 9
If Mom had secrets she didn’t want me to know, then there’s nothing I can do about that now. She should have buried them in the backyard, and she would...
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