Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book! I was really looking forward to this book and I was not disappointed. I really liked Maya as a character and loved following her journey! I would definitely read more by this author. And I would recommend this book to pretty much any young adult!

“The moment when Maya Gera, California farm girl, books it from here all the way cross-country, to the city that never sleeps, the place dreams are made of. My dreams, at least. In New York. And for once, it’s not just me making up stories. This is real.”
How Maya Got Fierce by Sona Charaipotra is as fresh and fierce as the title implies. The LitBuzz Hive is well acquainted with Sona through ClubHouse, and I am absolutely tickled to be able to read and review such a remarkable novel for an equally incredible and kind person and author such as Sona. How Maya Got Fierce is a truly unique and refreshing YA Contemporary novel with a great lead character—Maya—and a storyline that’s charming, inclusive, and made me feel like I was a part of Maya’s close-knit family and community for a few hundred pages.

After being sent off to Cow Camp in New Jersey, for the summer, Maya is tantalizingly close to NYC and her dream employment: Fierce magazine. Her cousin’s girlfriend is employed in the Fashion Closet for the magazine, and after a Sunday afternoon, Maya’s dream seems even more attainable than they had in the hot garlic-soaked sunshine back in Gilroy, California. As the daughter of immigrants from India who have established a small empire in the farming community, Maya is caught between what is expected of her, and the writing dreams she longs to fulfill at Fierce. Family obligation crossing with a heart’s desire is a big theme in How Maya Got Fierce, and Maya comes face to face with her cousin’s lesbian relationship, as well as finding out that swoony Ranbir is more than the heir to the Dhillon wine estate.

“Ever imagine what it would be like?” he asks, his head resting atop mine, his voice so soft I have to snuggle closer to hear. “If we could just do what we want, chase our dreams? I can almost see us here next year, college and the chaos of it, the freedom…”
After landing in New Jersey, there are just a few missteps and mishaps that lead Maya to a once in a lifetime opportunity for a seventeen-year-old that even as level-headed as she is, Maya cannot pass up—consequences have no place when a teen’s dream is on the line and success is within her grasp. The heart of this storyline lies in the tangled web of lies Maya needs to maintain in order to keep her dream job, keep her family happy, and even manage to keep the guy. Sona Charaipotra masterfully evokes so many beautiful cultural references and makes them relatable for all readers. Family problems and the obligations that come with wanting to honor where you came from but make your own special mark on the world is truly a problem that transcends cultures for many of us.

Even though it seems a bit of a reach to think that at just seventeen Maya has the writing chops and the maturity to handle an assistant editor position at a renowned publication, it’s easy to see how some immaturity could be overlooked due to the conviction of Maya’s voice and the freshness and inclusivity of her ideas. Performative ally-ship and racism within established company hierarchies are some of issues that Maya faces and tackles head on. Giving a voice to Maya in this way also shows that the ideas of the younger generations not only deserve to be heard but should be elevated. The idea that Sona Charaipotra gives voice to is that everyone deserves to be heard and certainly the next generation of free thinkers,—is an idea that which we should all take note.

“The energy here feels like a little revolution, like the power and passion in this room could change the way future generations look, feel, and think. It thrums through my veins like too much caffeine, and I can’t wait to be a part of it all.”
Sona Charaipotra’s newest release is not your average finding herself in the big city kind of young adult novel. How Maya Got Fierce is as bold and vibrant as the title implies. Full of diversity, inclusion, family values, and the meshing of old-world tradition with new-world modern living, How Maya Got Fierce should be on your radar and definitely deserves a place on your shelves. Congrats to Sona on a fabulous new release, due out soon!

Huge thanks to Netgalley, as well as the author and Feiwel & Friends for sending me an ARC of ‘Long Story Short’ in exchange for an honest, unbiased review!

OVERALL, I loved this! Super fun and easy read with nice representation.

THINGS I LOVED:
- Maya. I really loved her determination and hard working characteristics.
- Xander and the rest of the Fierce team. I wish they added some other characters other than Maya's bosses and Xander (like some more writers maybe?) because that would have been so fun to read about
- The Indian culture. I loved seeing so much of Indian and Punjabi culture, it made me so happy since I was being represented myself.
- The plot. It could be predictable at a few points, but it was so entertaining once it picked up.

THINGS I DIDN'T LOVE:
- Ranbir (the love interest) was a bit more plain than I would have appreciated. I loved Xander (a side character) much more.
- The pacing at the beginning and end was a bit weird, but everything else was great.

I highly recommend this book, and I'll be looking out for Sona Charaipotra in the future!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced copy of this book to read.

I enjoyed this YA book, with some magazine/publishing sector in the mix! I like Charaipotra's writing and perspective.

Enjoyed this young adult book that is set partially in Gilroy, California. Appreciated reading about this area, the struggles of farm families, and trying to live your dream when it does not fit with your parents narrative for your life.

A fast read with an interesting plot. Sona Charaipotra knows how to keep a reader engaged in her writing.

This was a super fun reverse-Younger story—I loved the conceit of the protagonist being mistaken for someone older than she is and being forced into a very serious, very full-time job! The themes of visibility in media, growth, and empowerment were all moving and well-drawn, and the story was so fun and satisfying.

How Maya Got Fierce was a quick read with a lot of heart. It follows Maya as she goes to a farmer's camp and stays with her estranged cousin. I rarely read books where the main character loves fashion. The premise and character reminded of early 2000s movies and tv shows, The focus on the magazine also aided the nostalgia, I loved this aspect of the novel. Not often do you see a brown character at the center of these stories. This is a novel of self-discovery and family relationships. There is first love as well, which is a big point of the narrative. I did not particularly care for the romance in this. It was cute and I liked the support they provided each other, so I would say it depicts a healthy relationship. I loved the discussion of having women of color in the fashion industry. The family relationships were also interesting because they focused on career expectations, building/continuing a legacy, and the presures put on the self as a result. I know this book will mean a lot to brown girls who share Maya's background. I would definetely recommend this for readers who love early 2000s movies/tv shows, fashion, and complex family relationships.

How Maya Got Fierce by Soni Charaipotra follows Maya, who leaves her family's garlic farm in Gilroy, CA the summer before her senior year of high school to spend it at an agricultural camp - nicknamed Cow Camp - at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. Maya is struggling with the pressures of inheriting her family's farm against her own desires to work in fashion journalism. When she gets the opportunity to intern at Fierce Magazine, she takes it and runs. Before she knows it, she has to confront her own dreams and how they fit into the dreams that her parents have laid out for her.

This YA coming of age novel totally captured my heart! The own voices Indian-American representation provided support for Maya's voice and strength throughout the story. Maya, along with her friends, family, and love interest, were such fun characters and I loved going along with them on their adventures as they worked to break out of their own traditionally structured lives. There's also queer rep that was authentic and genuine. This story was sweet and fun, and even though not all of it was entirely realistic, I loved the idea of getting the chance to chase your dreams.

I thought this was a fun story and the comparisons to the tv show Younger (which I loved) were fair ones.

Maya knows her future and she knows it isn’t up for debate. Her parents have a garlic farm and Maya will run the farm some day (like it or not). Maya begrudgingly goes along with her parents’ plans and tries not to wish for more. Things change the summer before senior year when they send her away to cow camp. Yes, cow camp. A lot of teenagers from her area get sent there. It’s step one in the family plan.

Maya is excited to find her crush is there too but his ex girlfriend is there too.

Maya is also very pleasantly surprised when she finds out her cousin’s girlfriend works at her favorite magazine Fierce. Her cousin actually got Maya a subscription to the magazine when she was ten and she’s been reading it religiously ever since.

One day, her cousin’s girlfriend takes Maya along to help out on a project at work. Just being at the magazine’s head quarters is amazing but what eventually happens is even more so.Maya applies for an intern job but accidentally gets hired for an actual job. By the time she realizes this, she’s fallen in love with the idea of writing for the magazine. She knows that lying about her age is wrong but she wants to hold onto the job for as long as she can. She figures at the end of the summer she’ll have to go back home regardless.

I enjoyed this story. It was fun but it was also interesting to see Maya trying to tackle some real issues at the magazine. It was good to see her get to discover dreams of her own.

I really enjoyed this story. I really enjoyed Maya's voice and how she navigates her experiences. I laughed and I felt my feels, I also loved the romance that she experienced too. I completely adored this book and I have recommended this book. It was in one of my recent posts as well!

I'm sad because I didn't like this one as much as I thought I would. I think I'm aging out of the YA contemporary genre. However, I do think other readers will love this book - I did like Maya a lot as an MC and the fact that she learns how to navigate her way through NYC.

Reading this book in the same month that I watched Ms Marvel was like a double shot of fireworks and fun. A book featuring Desi characters from the unglamorous garlic capital of California, where usually no one stops except to get gas? Bring it!

For me, this book was also a double shot of wish-fulfillment. If you can buy a competitive, fast-moving boss in the fashion media world accepting a seventeen-year-old for a full-time job by accident, then the book will work.

Because one thing Charaipotra does is make it clear that though Cinderella got to the ball, she had to work hard for her jump from PA to princess. Along the way we get to know Maya's family members, and of course there is a cute guy. Maya cheerfully throws herself into the ninety-hour-week crazy that is the media life she always wanted, and watching her excel is just plain fun.

I enjoyed the book from beginning to end, and I hope we get to see a lot more that celebrates diversity and success.

I love an implausible situation as much as the next reader, but this takes the cake. I didn't even see how Maya would get out of the bananas job she got herself into without absolutely destroying any contacts, and I have read quite a lot of YA. And while this has some romance, Charaipotra focuses on the family relationships first and foremost, which makes this story feel realistic and comfortable. Thanks to NetGalley and Feiwel Friends for an early read in exchange for my honest review.

I initially picked this book up because I read a review mentioning The Bold Type, which is my favorite TV show of all time, and this book definitely did not disappoint! I could clearly see the inspiration, but it was so wonderful to read this representation with a protagonist who looks like me and I could relate to a lot more. I previously didn't know a lot about agricultural communities in the country, so that was a really interesting community to learn about through this book as well.

How Maya Got Fierce turned out to be a quick and fun summer contemporary for teens and young adults alike. While this book took some time to set the stage, I was really able to appreciate that later on as I really felt for the characters in this story.

I really loved the representation throughout this story. Coming from New York, I can’t say I know much about the agriculture industry, so having a story around Desi families and farming was really interesting. In the first half of How Maya Got Fierce, we really get to know the characters and how their families’ businesses impact their lives in so many ways.

But then there’s Maya’s adoration for journalism and Fierce magazine, and these two worlds came together in such an unlikely, yet wonderful way. As I read, I wasn’t sure how this book would end off, but it was better than I expected.

A lot of what made the pace pick up for me was wanting to know how Maya would untangle her lies. I do think a little bit of suspension of disbelief has to go into reading this given that Maya’s pretending to be almost ten years older in a position that would have required past experience, but for the messages that came out of this book I feel like it was worth it. We all have stories to tell, and from so many unique perspectives. When I started my first job, I was encouraged to ask why we did the things we did at the company – since I grew up around technology, my perspectives were embraced, knowing that I could have ideas that could change things for the better. Maya was able to do this too, but by sharing the stories of populations that were less often heard.

There was definitely some second-hand stress trying to figure out how Maya would pull it off, and you can definitely feel that through her. But her passion for the magazine really came through as she strived for better representation in the magazine, and despite some of the questions I had about the odds of this kind of situation happening, the overall message of this book made it so worth it.

When I say this book has my whole heart… At every turn, I couldn’t help but fall in love over and over again at its wonderful storytelling, adventure, and representation.

Let me start by saying I am a Central Valley girl. When I learned our main character Maya was too? Instant connection. There is something unique about growing up in the Central Valley, and it’s hard not to feel an instant kinship with someone you meet who is also from here. That’s what it felt like meeting and getting to know Maya.

While she’s Indian and I’m Latina, and she’s 17 while I’m 26, we’re both brown girls from the middle of California who want to see people like us represented and our stories written and shared. Oddly, that’s why I ended up going into journalism in college, something I could easily see Maya doing (her dreams were very much discussed in the book, but there was no definitive plan by the end, so I can only guess!). I guess what I’m trying to say is I saw so much of myself in Maya and it was so, so special.

As for the story itself, it was definitely an exciting one! Going with Maya on her wild adventure into working at her favorite publication under strange and high stake circumstances was really fun and I am very pleased with how Sona was able to navigate that and come up with a solid ending.

I also loved getting to know more about Maya’s culture. I guess it was sort of kismet that I randomly watched (and then rewatched) the first 5 episodes of Ms. Marvel before diving into “How Maya Got Fierce.” I was able to understand a bit more about her culture, and even certain words, rather than just gloss over certain things or have to pause reading to look them up. Granted, most stuff was explained with context clues, but it was nice nonetheless.

My favorite character was easily Shenaz, Maya’s cousin’s girlfriend who becomes Maya’s fashionista fairy godmother. I just loved how much she was there for Maya while Roop was working and dealing with her own family issues. I don’t know, Shenaz just spoke to me and I love her and wish I had her to be my fashionista fairy godmother.

I’d genuinely have to say the only thing about this book that I was very unsure about was Maya and Xander’s relationship. The whole thing has a weird vibe but more importantly, there’s the whole illegality of it. Maya is 17 while Xander is I’m assuming at least 20. And this is acknowledged over and over by Maya, especially once she’s technically becomes his boss, adding in another element of wrong. I was able to sort of move past it as Maya simply having a crush, but then it’s clear Xander also returns those feelings and once he figures out Maya is 17, it doesn’t change anything. They even kiss. And her lightly pursues her. If we take away all of that, and bump up Maya to 18, it’s still feels weird having anything romantic between them. I would have so preferred a friendship or sibling dynamic between the two because when that’s all that was on the page, those two were magic together.

Other than that, I fully enjoyed this book. Every other character relationship and dynamic was interesting to me and moved the story along nicely. It was a breath of fresh air and I look forward to more from Sona Charaipotra.

Maya's parents have her whole life planned out: after she completes her junior year, she'll go to a college with a strong agriculture program, then get her MBA, and finally return to run the family garlic farm in California. To start her on this path, they have enrolled her in a summer program in New Jersey, where she will live with cousin and make connections with other future agriculture leaders. The only problem: Maya wants to work in magazines, like her beloved Fierce Magazine. When she arrives in New Jersey, she learns her cousin's girlfriend actually works at Fierce and, through that connection, is able to apply to an internship at the magazine. Doing the internship will mean dropping out of the camp and lying to her parents, but that seems a small price to pay for living her dreams.

Through a set of unusual circumstances and mistaken identity, Maya is hired -- but as a full-time editor, not an intern. She drops out of camp and jumps into the new role, and her work is embraced by her new boss and others at the magazine. But even as Maya is loving her job, and gaining so many new experiences, she wonders how long it will be before her boss -- or her parents -- discover her lies.

This was an enjoyable and thoughtful novel. Maya is a compelling and engaging main character, and it is terrific to go on her journey of self-discovery and growth. What makes this story really work is that the author never lets Maya off the hook -- she continually grapples with her choices, and the impacts they have on those in her life, even as she is achieving her wildest dreams.

Highly recommended!

I’m moderating a panel with Sona for BookTalk and I really appreciate being able to read this before the panel. Thank you so much to the publisher !!