At thirty-five, Mika Suzuki's life is a mess. Her last relationship ended in flames. Her roommate-slash-best friend might be a hoarder. She's a perpetual disappointment to her traditional Japanese parents. And, most recently, she's been fired from her latest dead-end job.
Mika is at her lowest point when she receives a phone call from Penny--the daughter she placed for adoption sixteen years ago.
 
Penny is determined to forge a relationship with her birth mother, and in turn, Mika longs to be someone Penny is proud of. Faced with her inadequacies, Mika embellishes a fact about her life. What starts as a tiny white lie slowly snowballs into a fully-fledged fake life, where Mika is mature, put-together, and successful in love and her career.
 
The details of Mika's life might be an illusion, but everything she shares with curious, headstrong Penny is honest: her hopes, dreams, flaws, and Japanese heritage. The harder-won heart belongs to Thomas Calvin, Penny's adoptive widower father.
 
What starts as a rocky, contentious relationship slowly blossoms into a friendship and, over time, something more.
 
But can Mika have it all--love, her daughter, the life she's always wanted? Or will Mika's deceptions ultimately catch up to her? In the end, Mika must face the truth--about herself, her family, and her past--and answer the question, just who is Mika in real life?
Perfect for fans of Kiley Rei