A lovely read about first love, family, and friends. Val has had a lot of loss in her young life. She is interesting and relatable, as are her friends and her family. I kept reading for the story, and I loved learning more about Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean cultures, including the different lion dance interpretations. The book is a visual treat. The illustrations are beautifully rendered, and conveyed a lot of the subtext for the novel. (As an older person, I found the black text on lavender in the ghost scenes difficult to read at times. I wanted to resize the font.) The cover design is a beautiful piece of art on its own - the illustration and the font work well together to draw a potential reader to the book. While aimed at teen readers, readers of all ages will enjoy this book. It was a perfect read on Christmas Day. (I was given a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)