French Cup: A Neighborhood Story
Summary:
In Tokyo, a neighborhood is seeing the tail lights of its local industry fading into the distance. Gentrification is moving in, replacing secretly LGBTQ owned shops and restaurants that have populated the block for decades. New developers are buying buildings and demolishing them left and right as owners can't afford inflated rent. The symbol of this erasure is a giant, modern hotel that went up three months ago.
Nearby, the little coffee shop and micro live house French Cup is struggling to survive. New owners, two drag queen best friends, bought the business after their mentor and former owner of the shop passed away three years ago. Serving Starbucks dupes and fresh French pastries, it serves as a community center for the often closeted LGBTQ community to gather, offering drag hostessed Bingo nights and showcasing local and LGBTQ live acts on a small stage.
When a new and handsome face shows up at French Cup, he's immediate news. The two best friends compete for his eyes at first, but when they find out he is to begin work at the new hotel monstrosity and is from the foreign corporation that built it, controversy spreads in the neighborhood. Worries launch into distress calls, and the neighborhood association is in an uproar.
As more businesses fall, a Romeo and Juliet flavored love forms, and the two sides must come to a favorable conclusion or go to war.
Note: this book is rated Mature due to the kind of jokes in the book. There are no other kinds of adult situations.
