(Audiobook)

Insightful but some times too stereo typical. Fun listen, following along with a young teen woman as she navigates several divergent worlds to make it in her own. Dealing with differences in language, culture and ideals inside her own family and out might be hard enough on it's own, but being a love struck teenager can amplify these challenges...and it does for our heroine here.

A fun read, some funny and poignant flashes inside 'latino', 'hispanic' (or whatever you want to call it) culture in the U.S.A. but feels a bit overdone as an overarching theme for the whole book and frankly a tad too 'victimish' for me.

Read excellently by Almarie Guerra, doing the different characters, accents and even languages with the right amount of gusto.

I "read" this book on CD. For me, it had a very good plot line, however, I felt it was very drawn out. The book seemed to go on forever. Not helping the fact, the narrator was very whiny and did not seem to give the characters separate "voices" so it was hard to tell who was saying what at times. Again, I really enjoyed the overall theme of the book and feel that with a lot more editing, this could have been a real winner.
*I received this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )

3.5 Stars

Interesting, well written story about a very important, relevant topic. However, it sputters out towards the end. ( )

This is beautifully-written young adult contemporary realistic fiction.  The title comes from a line in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (Act 1, Scene 4).  Alma is an undocumented Mexican immigrant about to start her junior year at a smaller city high school in Georgia.  Evan is the nephew of the state's U.S. Senator, a country-club boy about to start his senior year and a star on the school's soccer team.  They meet and fall in love.  (And while sexual assault is another theme in the book, Alma's and Evan's relationship remains chaste.)  Complications ensue as Alma and her extended family are threatened by increasing enforcement of immigration laws.

I can't even begin to describe how much I liked this book.  The characters felt so real, especially Evan's troubled cousin Whit, the senator's son.  I cared about what was happening to all of them.  The romance felt honest, and the issues this book tackles are thought-provoking.  Definitely a book to recommend, to both young and older adults.

This is the debut for author Marie Marquardt.  She is a college professor who earned a doctorate in the sociology of religion while visiting the churches of Georgia’s Mexican immigrants (and such observations come to play in this book).  She is co-author of the nonfiction Living Illegal: the Human Face of Unauthorized Immigration, and co-founder of El Refugio, a hospitality house for families of immigrants held at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia - both of which appear in this book.

Audiobook narrator Almarie Guerra adds a lot to this book.  Her voice for Alma sounds just as I would imagine the "real" Alma would sound, and she is perfect with accents for other Latino and Southern characters as well.

No matter what side of the immigration issue you are on (and for what it's worth, living where I do, I am not particularly on the side of undocumented immigrants), this is a book worth reading and discussing.  I will be purchasing a print copy for my library's collection.

© Amanda Pape - 2016

[I received this audiobook through the Early Reviewers program.  It will be added to my university library's collection. This review also appears on Bookin/ It.] ( )

I was sent this audio book for an honest review.

Young adult book dealing with issues from immigration, government, gang violence as well as the normal teen issues of sex, pregnancy, drinking, drugs, love, friendships and family. Well written and done with class. It brings to light the huge amount of distance our country needs to deal with prejudices among races. Definitely something I would suggest for a young adult. ( )