Reviews with content warning for Cultural appropriation - The Truth According to Ember

Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'

The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava

51 reviews

ninebookishlives's review

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funny lighthearted

3.5

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skye_era_books's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I loved this book and cannot wait to read more by this author. This is the first traditionally published Native rom-com!! Everyone deserves representation in all forms, even in silly rom-coms. Danuwoa is an angel and I loved his sister as well. Ember did piss me off a lot throughout the book though (even though that was kinda the point with her lying lol). Like Danuwoa said at the end, it wasn’t that she lied to get her job — that I wholeheartedly understand and agree with — it was continuing to lie to him about the silliest things like being allergic to his cat and lying to her coworkers that she had a boyfriend. Those little lies got annoying really quick.
Besides that, I think this was a fantastic story about a young woman getting herself into the accounting field by any means necessary and finding love.
Danica is hilarious and it really shines through the page. I also love that the FMC was sort of based on Danica’s experience getting into the workforce — she too is mixed race and finally just put “Caucasian” on job applications to finally receive a call back. I hate that so many people have to go through that, but glad that people now have that representation built into a romance book.

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betweentheshelves's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is a fun little rom-com! Though Ember's growing lies did stress me out there for a good portion of the book. The chemistry between her and Danuuwoa spilled off the page, though, and there is just generally a great cast of characters. An enjoyable light read for me after some heavier books.

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thenextbookdilemma's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted tense

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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rosie_valadez's review against another edition

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5.0

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meggiemeggie52's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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lmm0's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Ember Lee Cardinal, frustrated by a string of job rejections, decides to get creative with her applications, lying about her qualifications and ethnicity to land her dream job as an accountant in Oklahoma City. Thriving in the corporate world, she begins a secret romance with Danuwoa Colson, a fellow Native who works in IT. However, when they're caught in a compromising position on a work trip, a manipulative coworker blackmails Ember, threatening to expose their relationship. As the pressure mounts and her lies spiral out of control, Ember must decide whether to keep hiding the truth or risk everything by coming clean.
Although not classified as such, this read extremely YA to me - and I wonder if it's because of the narrator, who came off as whiny and over the top in her inflections, so I can't recommend the audiobook. I appreciated the background provided in the author's note at the end of the book, but the overall story line fell a little flat for me.

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peachmoni's review

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emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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saintgalentine's review

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challenging emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

You can tell this is a debut novel, that tries to pack a lot in a short amount of time. My main issue is that Ember literally commits crimes and things happen so quickly you have to suspend disbelief.

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hannahmichele5's review

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funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I love Danica Nava and I’m so excited for her as THE TRUTH ACCORDING TO EMBER is the first Indigenous contemporary romance to be published by a major publisher!!! Publishers, we want MORE!

I picked this for my romance bookclub and while we all love the author and want to support her, we also ALL struggled with the excessive lying from Ember. She just lied about the dumbest stuff and at times I felt so stressed out I didn’t know if I could continue lol! I also wish we knew more about Danuwoa other than that he was hot. I needed more romance and way less plot!

I do think this is a strong debut and I hope Danica has a long and successful career!

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