We’re so excited to be a part of the blog tour for The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon! Before I share my thoughts on this story, here are the book details:
The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (Website, Twitter, Goodreads)Published by Random House LCC US on November 1st 2016
Format: ARC
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?
Jaime’s Thoughts
Natasha is a hard facts kind of girl, she believes in science and things that can be proven. She doesn’t believe in dreams coming true or fate and destiny and she certainly isn’t the kind of girl who believes in falling in love in one day.
Daniel is a dreamer. He believes in the things Natasha doesn’t, and he knows without a doubt that Natasha is who he was meant to meet today and he also knows that he was meant to fall in love with her.
There is of course a bit of a snag. Natasha’s family is being deported and she is being forced to leave the country she grew up in and go back to Jamaica. She doesn’t want to go, so she’s desperately doing anything she can to find a way to stay. When she encounters Daniel, and he tells her he’s going to make her fall in love with him she thinks he’s crazy but she plays along.
I’m probably one of the few people who haven’t yet read Everything, Everything. I know. Don’t yell at me because I have serious plans to read it, but I just didn’t get to it because books and time. SO I was determined to get this one read asap and it helped that someone I know told me that it was his favorite read of the year.
I really loved all the diversity in this book. Natasha is obviously an immigrant, as I mentioned above, but Daniel’s family is Korean and his parent’s came to America to earn a living and they have certain expectations for his future and they involve him going to college to become a doctor, not dating a girl he just met and skipping college to write poetry.
I thought that Yoon did a really great job of making this story somewhat light, especially with some heavier topics. I really loved the way we get to know Daniel and Natasha throughout this story… not only do we learn about them through their families, but they share quite a bit through an intimacy questionnaire. The way they are complete opposites of each other, but still have this incredible bond that is forming was really wonderful to see.
I’m going to be honest, I kind of had a love / hate relationship with the way this story was told. It’s done mostly in dual points of view, but the chapters are interspersed with shorter chapters told from other characters to provide some history and backstory. I loved that it allowed us to get to know how and why the characters are where they are in their lives now, but I hated that it kind of took me away for the story building between Natasha and Daniel.
I also have a love / hate relationship with this ending! It absolutely fits this story and how it all goes down… but I desperately wanted more! Don’t get me wrong, the ending totally works, but omg there are parts of me that can’t handle it and wouldn’t mind a bit of a glimpse into the future!
Ultimately The Sun Is Also A Star is about fate and destiny and chance and how those things can impact our lives but it’s also about way more than that, touching on topics of race and family expectations in such a beautiful and realistic way. If you don’t have this book on your TBR pile do so immediately!
Thank you to the publisher for the early copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
About Nicola Yoon
Nicola Yoon grew up in Jamaica (the island) and Brooklyn (part of Long Island). She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA with her husband and daughter, both of whom she loves beyond all reason. Everything, Everything is her first novel.
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