I read this for my book club -- wasn't particularly interested in it going in, so not surprised it only earned three stars from me.

It's a one-day-long love story type of thing, all happening on the day before the female lead is set to be deported. Putting aside the fact that whirlwind, "instant" love stories don't do much for me, this book required a HUGE suspension of disbelief when it came to how much happened in this one day. Like, I don't know about you, but I get 24 hours in my days. These guys seemed to get like 85. The main characters were well-drawn and their relationship is something I maybe could have gotten behind if it had been more of a slow burn. And yeah, I get that teenagers feel epic love for someone they potentially just met, but I'm not a teenager anymore so I don't have to get behind it.

I did like the insight into the experiences of Korean and Jamaican immigrants. All the perspective hopping into minor characters' heads felt a little too artsy-fartsy for my tastes, like this book really wanted to be an indie film.

Well written and a good pick if you like this sort of thing, but it just wasn't for me.

This happened to comply with my Year of Expanded Reading goal to read books by non-white and/or non-American authors. Nicola Yoon is a Jamaican-American author married to a Korean American, which shows how she could portray both perspectives with so much nuance and insight.

Date Published: November 1, 2016

Format: Hardcover

Source: Library

Date Read: November 2, 2019

Blurb:

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

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Review

This was a fun trip through NYC with two clearly defined characters as tour guides. Natasha had the most flakiest dad known to mankind; Daniel was the second son who was thrust in the spotlight when the first born son turned out to be a bad bet. I loved these characters both as separate entities and as a couple. They were not complete opposites as the blurb makes the story seem - they just have different ways of handling the individual pressures in their lives. 

I enjoyed the side chapters that delved into the history of topics brought up by Natasha and Daniel and the ones that showed a deeper history of their parents to explain why the parents were the way they were without letting them off the hook for their mistakes in their relationship with their respective children. The epilogue seemed a little too wish fillment/dreamscape, but this is a YA romance so I let it be. 

It's Book Fair time at my kids' school, so I will be working shifts throughout the week. We have a table just for Dave Pilkey books (he's the author of Captain Underpants and Dog-Man graphic novels and my son LOVES his work; I hate the Captain but enjoy reading along with my son when he picks up a Dog-Man book - go figure). 

This week it's all about the graphic novels I picked out from OverDrive to fill the book prompts for some of the holidays in the 24 Festive Tasks game. One graphic novel is coming from my TBR and I am working on finishing a mystery for the game as well.

To finish: A Sip Before Dying for Door 1 (ROYGBIP on the cover)

To Start/Finish:

The Called Us Enemy for Door 2 (Graphic novel written by a Japanese-American author)

Walking Wounded for Door 6 (not revealed yet)

The Best We Could Do for Door 24 (traveling to a faraway place)

*bookish series created by Moonlight Reader

So I passed on the Amazon promotion because I didn't want to get that many books and make my TBR balloon again. A sale like that would need me to be at below 200 books and making a dent in my series reading. 

Print additions

None 

NOOK additions

Nothing 

Kindle additions

Nothing

Library Borrows

Physical:

+1. The Sun is Also a Star by Nicole Yoon (Book club pick for November)

Digital:

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Print read

Nothing

NOOK read

-1. Crazy (Crazy Ella #1) by Eve Langlais

-2. Gone with the Ghost (Murder by Design #2) by Erin McCarthy

Kindle read

Nothing

Library Returns

-4. A Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes

*Total TBR from last week: 292

*Total books added: 1

*Total books read: 3

*Total TBR #: 290

This book is so... bittersweet. For a hot second, I thought it was going to end badly and I was ready to hurtle my e-reader across the room but it ended well so I’m pleased. Some parts resonated with me more than I wanted to (like immigration, regret, dreaming so much you forget to live) and I had to take breaks in case it overwhelmed me. Daniel is a sweetie and Natasha... I just wanted to hug her.