I was intrigued by the synopsis for this novel and the fact that it was own voices for Mexican rep plus it originated on Wattpad. I think some of these Wattpad books can be really hit or miss but I wanted to see for myself anyway since it sounded like a unique plot.

I think the parts that were the strongest for me were the parts about Sol's family and how the deportation of her mother has affected them as well as her experience as a young Mexican woman in the states. While I feel this could have been explored in much more depth and detail, it was great to see this being portrayed in a book, especially in Y/A. I also liked the writing style and the banter between the characters felt natural and the friendships were believable, especially the one between Sol and Carlos. I love when books have platonic relationships between a male and female character and it stays that way so this was cool. Plus we have a diverse set of characters with none of them feeling like a 'token', which I always appreciate.

The things I felt could have been improved however, was mainly the pacing and how little actually happened in the book. The whole idea was meant to be this shady campus History club which takes over Sol's life but she barely spends time with the members of the club or has meetings? Sure, there are a few encounters sprinkled throughout but it just didn't feel as urgent and important as the characters made it seem. I think these parts could have been expanded upon and written better to make this more believable. It was a good idea in theory but the execution was quite poor if I'm honest. If you go into this book thinking a lot happens, you'd be disappointed as it chugs along very slowly and there are quite a few unnecessary interactions and scenes as well as some straight up questionable moments which didn't sit right with me.

Overall, I feel like this book could have benefitted from a lot more editing and tightening up of the story as a whole, I wish the club for example actually had more of an impact than it did and the characters had more depth and time to shine. Historically Inaccurate is an easy read but ultimately disappointing so I couldn't really recommend this in good conscience.

A high three-star rating:
I didn't have any expectations reading this book which I think is the best way to go into it. This is a fun, inspired, quick and easy read with diverse characters and a unique plot.

So, what did I like?
- Firstly, anything to do with hazing/college initiations I love. I think as someone from the UK, the idea of this happening is something that I have only seen in movies so I find it fascinating to read about. I really liked how the book opened up right in the action and there wasn't all this dump of info before the story got started.
- I thought Shay's writing was hilarious. From the first chapter, I was laughing at the interactions between Ethan and Sol. They were both so quick-witted and it made me laugh a lot.
- I loved Sol as a character. She was strong and brave but also had a vulnerability I will never understand as not being someone a part of her minority. But I loved how these social issues were discussed in a lighthearted way.
- The plot and pacing started off amazing, but around 60% it did drag.

I think my biggest issue with this was that, as someone who doesn't speak any Spanish, I found my eyes glazing over with the interactions between her family. I just couldn't understand anything that was being said and I wished the author had included a translation for not Spanish speakers. This for me ruined the flow of the story and I had no idea what was happening between the interactions with her family and this was an area I was particularly interested in.

Overall, a good book with a good message. I will always support Wattpad authors and I wish Shay the best of luck!
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Soledad Gutierrez is trying to keep it together after her mother's deportation. She joins her community college's history club in hopes of boosting her resume, but the club seems to be a little more than just history. To be initiated, she must break into the oldest house in town and steal ... a fork? While doing so, she meets the owners' grandson, Ethan, and the two of them get to know each other and try and figure out what this club is really about.

I requested this book because the cover was pretty, and had no idea what I was getting into. I still don't get it. I would have liked more on Sol and Ethan's relationship or even more on Sol and her parents. The club storyline is really nonsensical - she spends most of the novel uneasy with what members have to do to join, but never actually says anything to anyone besides Ethan; it doesn't make sense that these kids would willingly break the law to join a "history club"; and the storyline was resolved way too quickly to say that she built it up the entire time like something truly terrible was going to happen. I didn't not enjoy this book - but it's not something I would return to to read again.

The cover is absolutely beautiful.

I loved the premise of this story in terms of Sol's family dynamic. Although Sol is in college, this read is definitely YA along the same veins as Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Ultimately this story had great set up but I felt as though the characters were lacking and the plot was lacking as well. It feels like a bunch of scenes that don't really form a cohesive plot.

I did like Sol as a narrator, though. The writing was decent and fun and the banter between friends made me recall my college memories.

I received this book through NetGalley.

While I do like YA literary fiction/coming of age stories, this novel felt a little flat for me.

I liked the family dynamic and the experience that Sol is going through; a lot of young people are no doubt experiencing something similar and so in that way woulf probably find it quite relatable.
I also liked some of the more existential discussions between the characters and the general comments on life and the diversity of individual experience.

However, I didn't feel that the characters were very substantial. I know when people are young and in college they are still 'finding themselves' and working out who they are, but there was so much of the characters and plot that felt glossed over.

There didn't really seem to be any reason for the characters to join the history club or to participate in the activities. There wasn't anything that really substantiated why they might be happy in their lives and rebelling in some way.

I felt like Historically Inaccurate real potential, but just could have been a lot better.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book, specially because the main character is latina, but i was somewhat disappointed. I’ll start with the aspects I did like about this book:

It was very interesting and heartbreaking learning what it’s like having a family member deported. A lot of families in the USA have to go through this, and I feel the author really made the reader understand the situation Sol was going through.

I also loved Sol’s relationship with her parents. Even if her family was separated, they still made it work and it was very heartwarming.

Now I’m jumping into the aspects I didn’t like about this book. This part contains (minor) spoilers:


I didn’t like how dull the description of some characters was. I had a hard time picturing a lot of Sol’s friends and the people she met at the history club.

Speaking of the history club, Sol mentioned how the club was taking over her life when in reality she had only mentioned being to three meeting; taking into account that the first two were welcoming parties and the last one was to announce they would be having a group trip, I don’t really think this was an issue. I thought the book was going to be about the club, but it really didn’t have a clear theme so I found it boring in certain parts.

When a book has characters that speak in a language different than the one it is written in, I think the author should provide a translation for the readers. Sol constantly spoke Spanish with her best friend and her parents, but the author didn’t provide any form of translation for the readers. While I speak Spanish I do consider this is necessary. Sol spoke in Spanish with her father for about two pages, and those were two whole pages some readers couldn’t understand.

There were also a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes. I noticed other reviewers mentioned this too.

Now my biggest problems with this book:

One of the black characters in the book mentioned how he doesn’t want to join the club because once people join, they have to do dares that often result in illegal activities. This characters mentions how he is more likely to be shot and killed if found doing something illegal, AND SOL JUST DISMISSES HIM. She says he won’t let anything happens to him and that they won’t give him an illegal dare and the leader of the club promises too. After saying this they still send him into a museum telling him he has to stay after closing time and avoid the guards. It honestly didn’t sit right with me.


While Sol was out with one of her friends who is a lesbian, she mentioned how she wondered if people thought they were dating when they went out together. It bothered me that the author mentioned this about a queer character, when Sol hung out even more with her boy best friend but didn’t once mentioned how people might’ve thought they were dating. Just because someone is attracted to the same sex as you it doesn’t mean they like you.

Ethan kept using the pronouns “he/him” when talking about Anna. I honestly didn’t understand why he was doing this and there wasn’t an explanation provided. If it was an attempt to hint that she is trans, it was done very poorly because misgendering someone is not acceptable.

And finally, the description mentions how Sol and Ethan will uncover why the club seems to get involved in several illegal activities when doing the dares and why they have a lot of money provided by the club’s founder. They don’t really uncover this themselves. Someone else files a police report and they are just there in the aftermath of the events.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am always a big fan of reading stories about POC and I loved the way Spanish was seamlessly interspersed in between English. It was unapologetically foreign and I loved that.

I was drawn to the synopsis of the book, specifically the following part: "When the club’s activities seem to fall further on the side of nefarious, Sol and Ethan must come together to uncover what’s really going on, and Sol begins to understand that fitting in is just as hard as being yourself, sometimes even harder." However, I didn't feel like we saw that Sol and Ethan came together to uncover what was really going on. To be honest, they just got together and that was it. I didn't feel like there was any character development which made the book quite static.

I will say that I enjoyed the club and what it was up to but I would have loved a reason as to why they did the things they did - was it for political reasons? Historical reasons? If these reasons were provided, the book would have felt more polished. I also felt, with the title, that there would be more history involved?

I absolutely powered through this book at incredible speed. The characters were incredible and vibrant and settled right into my heart while I was reading. The characters and the way they were written is what really stood out to me.

Despite the incredible characters I found myself lacking interest in the story itself - the characters held me through but the story was a little flat for me.

What worked for me: the premise was interesting. The characters were likeable and I felt like I was invested in Soledad"s story. Also, the cover is fantastic!
What didn't work: this story just kind of fell flat for me. I wanted more of Soledad and her family's story and less of the history club/secret society that just felt improbable.

Historically Inaccurate
Author: Shay Bravo
Genre: YA Multicultural
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ • ✨/ 5
Reviewed: Maya

Soledad ‘Sol’ Gutierrez is trying to survive college after her mother has been deported to Mexico and begins the unorthodox initiation process to join a history club. I really enjoyed the diversity in this book and I thought it was very well done. There was a really honest conversation about labels and not conforming into a singular label, which was beautifully written and not like anything I had seen in any other book. The characters, especially Sol, were well-written and all had unique traits. I loved how Sol wasn’t anywhere near perfect because it allowed for the readers to connect more with her. I would have liked to have seen more of Anna’s life because although she was an important character, her story was only brushed over which was disappointing. What didn’t work for me was the lack of action and plot. I found the book to be very slow-going and I didn’t have the drive to keep reading it. The storyline and the plot felt very flat and slow, until the last 20% of the book when it became too rushed. I think the book overall needed to have more action so that it could have been more engaging. I would recommend this book for fans of slow-paced novels rich with diversity and contemporary feels.

Huge thanks to NetGalley, Wattpad Books, Smith Publicity and of course Shay Bravo for providing me with this free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is set for the 29th of September, 2020.

This review will be published on the 26th of May, 2020 on Goodreads and Instagram. The links will be added once the review has been published.

I just finished “Historically Inaccurate” by Shay Bravo. I received this book as an ARC through NetGalley. This book is not necessarily something I would pick up for myself in a bookstore or library. It’s a work of realistic fiction, and I’m more of a sci-fi, historical fiction, horror fiction gal.

This story takes place in California where our main character, Soledad, is in the middle of her freshman year of college, all while dealing with the sudden deportation of her Mexican mother by ICE agents. Due to this major life event, Soledad has become somewhat of a loner. She decides to join a history club on campus after her parents and her best friend suggest getting out of the house would be good for her. The history club becomes way more than Soledad bargained for, and she ends up breaking into a house to steal a fork as a club initiation. This minor felony leads Soledad to meet Ethan and sets up the rest of the novel.

I would give this book a 3 out of 5 stars. The plot was somewhat interesting, but the character development left much to be desired. I was often at a loss as to what characters looked like. Ethan, one of the main characters, didn’t even get a description until halfway through the book. There was also a lot of ambiguity around the sexual orientation of characters. I’m all for LGBTQ+ lit, but the way this was written almost felt like it was thrown in as an afterthought.

My BIGGEST complaint about this book was the grammar and word omission errors. I must have encountered 30 mistakes throughout the book, mainly word omissions, which really threw off my reading flow. I’m by no means the grammar police, but if a book is about to be published, it really should be edited way better than this one was.

This book is a good read if you like realistic fiction. It has a great Latina main character, and it’s nice to read books where the cast isn’t all white people. There’s a lot of Spanish in this book too, which made it feel more authentic to Soledad’s Mexican heritage.

An ARC of this novel was sent to me by NetGalley for reviewing purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really felt that this book fell short for me.

I really wanted to like Historically Inaccurate, but honestly it wasn’t for me.

The novel follows Soledad Gutierrez, a college student who is dealing with the aftermath of her mother’s deportation. In an attempt to meet new people, she joins the history club and find out that their initiation process is a little different than other clubs. In order to be a member, she has to break into the oldest house in her town and steal a fork.

The premise of the book sounded super interesting. I really liked the historical motifs that were scattered throughout the novel. I also adored Ethan and the way he respected Sol in their relationship. He doesn’t push her and lets her do things at her own pace. He's honestly such a little cinnamon roll.

But I do have few issues with the book, one being that some of the conversations are in Spanish. Most of her conversations with her father (which I think are the most important ones in the book) are in Spanish and I couldn’t understand what was being said. Though I could piece some parts together (shout out to my amazing high school Spanish teacher Mrs. Rose and google translate), most of the conversation flew over my head. I know that Sol’s identity is very important in the novel, but there was this huge language barrier between me and Sol and I couldn’t get past it.

Another issue is the representation within the novel. I love that this is a POC book and is very inclusive towards other sexualities. I also really appreciated the scene with Sol dealing with microaggressions because it’s honestly a huge problem that minority groups deal with on a daily basis. However, I don’t think it was very clear on the sexuality and races of the other characters. I think that if you’re writing a book that stresses the importance of representation and identity, it should be clear on that with the other characters as well, not just the main protagonist.

Overall, despite having some flaws, I feel like Historically Inaccurate has a lot of potential and offers an important perspective on the LatinX community. It sheds a lot of light onto the ramifications of what happens when families are separated and the ones who are left behind to pick up the pieces.

Thanks to Smith Publicity for providing a digital ARC of Historically Inaccurate in exchange for an honest review!

This book was so much fun! A secret prank society? A diverse cast of characters? Enemies to lovers? Beautiful. Wonderful. Iconic.

I want to talk about how this book manages to be a) diverse b) diverse without being diverse for diversities sake. YA-lit continues to become more and more queer & racially diverse which is super incredible (love us for that) but also leads to a lot of minority characters being written either as stereotypes or indistinguishably from white cis/het characters. Every character in this story had their own unique identity and personality and there was literally a conversation about characters trying to figure out labels because of how hard it is to stereotype and classify the inbetweens of straight and gay (which is a conversation I don't think I've seen in any YA books before and as a part of that in between I've had it at least once a month so loved that).

So yeah! This was fun, original (but also wonderfully tropey), and the best kind of diverse.

Soledad “Sol” Gutierrez is just trying to keep her life together after her mother’s deportation to Mexico. As if holding down a part-time job and full course load weren’t enough, Sol decides to join the history club at her Californian community college. But the club comes with an odd initiation process: break into the oldest house in town and steal a fork…?

A little unorthodox, sure, but Sol is determined to get into the club. There’s just one problem: Ethan Winston, the grandson to the owners of the house and the one person (literally) standing in her way. When the club’s activities seem to fall further on the side of nefarious, Sol and Ethan must come together to uncover what’s really going on, and Sol begins to understand that fitting in is just as hard as being yourself, sometimes even harder.- Goodreads

I wanted to like this book. Sol was an engaging character that had a whole lot of personality and backstory. But she couldn't save this read no matter how much I liked her.  

The problem that I had with this book is by 40% I had no idea where the story was trying to go. Was it going to move in the direction where Sol tries to get her Mother back to the States? Was the club some kind of secret organization prepping students to commit big heists? And why was Sol not questioning anything? I felt lost and it was frustrating. 

Although my questions did get answers,  I felt that there wasn't a clear direction. There is nothing wrong with build up but make it make sense. 

I really enjoyed reading Sol (and the cover is freaking gorgeous) and was disappointed with how the story was going and it caused me to lose interest. 

Overall, 

2 Pickles