Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

I was a little disappointed with this book.  The story had so much promise; it starts in 1986 with Henry Lee standing outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown.  The new owner of the hotel, which has been closed for years, has discovered property that once belonged to Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II.  Henry, a Chinese American, thinks of his childhood friend, Keiko Okabe, and her family, and wonders whether any of their property is there.  It goes back and forth between the present and the past, telling how the two became friends in spite of the prejudice of Henry's father.   It could have been a really great book, but it was predictable and overly sentimental, and not that well written.  I rate it 3 out of 5, because in spite of my comments, I still enjoyed the story enough to finish the book.  It was my 19th book for the New Author Challenge 2010.