What the heck!?  You can’t be serious? I cringed a few times as I read this book, for the main characters were walking blindly.  They lived in fear, they were risking their own lives and the lives of their own children as they dodged not being caught and deported.  Sometimes I wondered if they even knew what complications lied ahead or if the thought of moving backwards was not option so they didn’t consider it.  I was hoping for the best and I feared the worse was headed their way. When would it ever end?

It was sweet when they fell in love and had their first child but when they decided to flee Columbia, the choices that had to be made and their actions totally changed the tone of the book.  They were headed to America, where a better life awaited them, didn’t it?  Entering America, they were beginning their new lives as illegal immigrants, earning money under the table, and “just surviving.”  When the couple started having more children, I was getting nervous.  More mouths, more responsibilities and additional individuals to hide.  The status of their children was now mixed and I wondered, how would that play out when it was time to go back to Columbia.

With the return date on their Visa’s coming up, the thought of returning home doesn’t sound like something they’re ready for.  Do they really have a choice? This was an eye-opening book, as the family makes some difficult decisions which places additional burdens on them.  This book covers a lot of hard topics including racism, alcohol, some sexual assault and animal abuse (small section).  It was definitely a book that got me thinking, a book that I’m glad that I read.   I received a copy of this book over a year ago from NetGalley and Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.  

     First of all, I loved the amazing diversity and representation in this book! I feel like we need more books like these in YA, books that have a lot and amazing representation. I also love how the main character Caleb connected with everyone but he especially connected with the other main character, Adam. This is a book set in our world and shows what types of feelings people have to suffer through. For example, Caleb is an empathetic; a person who feels for everyone yet he also has his own feelings which he doesn’t feel at peace with. Similarly, Adam is also someone that has a problem of being lonely and just keeping it together and not having any yet, he is extremely smart as everyone in this book says. I loved this book! P.S. I love the cover as well my friend wanted to read this book immediately after she saw the cover.

Nick and Norah are both 18, high-school seniors from New Jersey navigating break-ups and the lower-Manhattan alternative-music scene.  Nick is the bassist in a band of ever-shifting names, reeling after being dumped by girlfriend Tris.  Norah has broken up with boyfriend Tal, who dropped out of Columbia to pursue life in a kibbutz in South Africa (who knew that was a thing?).  Tris is at the club where Nick's band has a gig, and she's with another guy.  Nick can't bear the prospect of Tris introducing him to her, which she seems perilously close to doing as she approaches from the other end of the bar, post-set.  Norah, who happens to be standing beside Nick at the bar, provides a spontaneous diversion, as Nick asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend for the next five minutes.  And so, they kiss....

That moment launches a night-long adventure between Nick and Norah, the details of which I won't give away.  This book for me evokes a life stage I can remember well.  A time in young adulthood when a person's musical taste is the ultimate litmus test of compatibility.  Nick and Norah try to suss each other out while also questioning every action and spoken word of their own.  Did I say the wrong thing?  Have I blown it with the cool new person?

It didn't hurt that I enjoyed the musical references.  It feels as though I've had too many books where I'm just not the ideal audience for the book.  For Nick & Norah, I am definitely the ideal audience.  (Well, as a Philly girl who has also lived in NYC, I'd have to give Nick and Norah some grief about being from New Jersey.  It's like, a law.)

Incredibly psyched that Booklikes actually had this, so I could just shelve it instead of adding an edition!  Bracing myself for me next two adds, though...

Robbie seemed off, I wasn't crazy about the art in this, and although it was cute, it was all a little too much in the end.  

'Cuz apparently it's an unwritten rule that Marvel has to get weird about Judaism and Christianity and that mythology...