Sakura+Maple 🌸+🍁
Bringing Japan and Canada Together
The Sakura+Maple young adult series was created to further the connection between Canada and Japan. Current highlighted locations are Newfoundland, Toronto, Saitama, Tokyo, Osaka and Oita, with themes of expatriate and study abroad life, teaching in Japan, sweet teen romance and aro-ace issues.
Reading Order
The collection as of May 2021 is composed of two full-length novels and two short stories.
Not all characters appear across all stories - the singular constant character (as of this writing) is Grace, who appears across all four.
Although they can be read in any order, the chronological order of events is as follows:
Meet You By Hachiko (Sakura+Maple Book 1)
The Villain in Your Love Story (Short Story)
E-S-I-D (Short Story)
Edokko (Sakura+Maple Book 2)
Book 1
Meet You By Hachiko
Short Story
The Villain in Your Love Story
Short Story
E-S-I-D
Book 2
Edokko
2008
Hachiko
Grace Ryan is a few months' shy of graduating high school - without ever doing anything worth remembering. A crusade to remake her image before then drives her to connect online with Japanese high schooler Kana, a fellow Tokyo street fashion fan. Grace turns to Kana more and more to help her forget the mess life offline is becoming, as she struggles to navigate changes in her relationships with her childhood best friend and good-friend-turned-boyfriend. Everything comes crashing down all at once in the week before Christmas—and then Kana unexpectedly ghosts her as well. Feeling she has nothing else left to lose, Grace opts to take the search upon herself and sets out on a journey of self-discovery through the streets of Tokyo.
2009
Villain
Grace is ace. So what’s supposed to happen next?
She isn’t sure, and neither is Simon. They say it’s possible to go back to being friends, good friends, after a breakup, but Grace has a hard time picturing what “us” is supposed to look like when it’s all over.
This short story was written for the Quadrangle Collection and will soon be made available to mailing list subscribers.
2012
E-S-I-D
Grace Ryan, fresh out of art school, arrives in Japan to take a year-long post as an English teacher. She's dismayed to be one of just two foreigners in a town of 8,000 people, nothing like the capital city she's just left behind, but determined to make the best of it.
Who would have thought that living the small-town life would be even more intimidating than Tokyo?
This short story was written for Hachiko’s paperback launch and is available for free via the mailing list.
2013
Edokko
Grace Ryan is back in Japan five years later as an assistant language teacher. She thinks she's done the right thing by arranging a homestay in rural Kyushu for Lily, a bright, vivacious Canadian exchange student—unfortunately, as the people of Ajimu are soon to find out, it's Lily's way or the highway!
Embittered by the sudden change of plans when her Tokyo host family backs out at the last minute, Lily isn't ready to settle for rural life, especially when it's complicated by a host family she can't connect with, classmates who hold her at arm's length, and an embarrassing failed romance with a local boy. She'll do whatever it takes to get out of this small town!
Beppu Hells
Rainbow Bridge
Ajimu Map