Lauren (lololovesthings)'s Reviews > The Truth According to Ember

3.5 stars.

I liked "The Truth According to Ember" by Danica Nava, but sadly, I didn't LOVE love it like I hoped I would. That doesn't mean it's bad, though! We NEED more Native stories, especially in the romance genre! I am so happy this book exists! I will say, this book is laugh-out-loud funny. Nava clearly has a vibrant sense of humor and utilizes it to the max here. I laughed throughout this story! Besides its humor, this book's biggest strength is its exploration of racism, microaggressions, outward aggressions, and how Indigenous Americans are still treated as less than by some people in society and corporate America. It feels like all characters in books lie at least once or twice, little white lies, you know? But Ember... Ember lies about literally *everything* going on in her life or anything having to do with her, even tangentially. Some people will enjoy reading about a character who can't tell the truth to save her life, watching how little white lies snowball and become her entire personality, but I felt pretty stressed the entire time I read this book. I will admit, it was frequently fun to see how Ember would dig herself out of the next hole she dug herself in, but fun in a "wow, I am glad that's not me!" kind of way, which is still nerve-wracking. Ember's first lies are completely justified. Everyone lies on their resume, everyone beefs up their qualifications, and since she was not getting any snags on her resume and needed a job to better her situation, can anyone blame her for exploiting racists and clicking "white" on her job applications? Despite her mounting lies, Ember is a good person who just wants people to look at her differently. She is fiercely loyal, fastidious in her beliefs, funny, sassy, smart. The romance between Ember and the equally sweet, kind and cute Danuwoa is a slow, slow, sloooooow burning office romance I enjoyed exploring. There is a good balance of steamy, sweet, and important here. Great debut by Danica Nava!

Thank you to NetGalley, Danica Nava, and Berkley Publishing Group for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.