This a cute YA story, about a high senior named Jimena whose family immigrated from Peru when she was three years old. After an incident with police from a party she throws on the roof of apartment building. After the police knock at the door of her home Jimena's mother becomes very nervous. Jimena notices the change in her mother's disposition, and she asks her mother what the problem is. Jimena then discovers that she is an undocumented immigrant, and that she is not the US citizen she believed herself to be. Jimena's mother lives in fear of being found out by the police and being deported back to Peru. Finding out that she is not a citizen brings a halt to Jimena's plans to go to college because the Dreamer Act has not been passed by Congress, so it is very difficult for undocumented people to go to school.

After speaking to a lawyer Jimena comes up with the idea of getting married so she can file for citizenship. To be a citizen she must marry a U.S citizen, and Jimena decides she must get married. Jimena confides in her best friend Vitaly who's family are Russian immigrants, about doing online dating and finding someone to marry. Jimena then starts to date and starts a fake relationship with Blue in hopes of getting married near her 18th birthday.

I really found this story interesting because I happen to know of people who have gotten married for citizenship. As a New Yorker, I know people who really want to stay in the United States and do what they can to stay here. This is a nice story that focuses on the stresses that some immigrants, and why the Dreamer Act is so important for children who are. brought here as children.
I give it 3.5 stars
I thank Netgalley, Macmillian Publishers and Henry Holt and Co (BYC)

Thank you to #NetGalley, Goldy Moldavsky and the publisher of the book for the eARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Jimena is 17 and loves her life in New York City! When Jimena finds out that her and her mom are in the US illegally she is determined to marry someone so she can get her green card and stay in the United States. Even better she knows the perfect person, her best friend and next door neighbor, Vitaly. Vitaly has his own plans for the future and getting married at 17 is not one of them. What is Jimena going to do?

A wonderful YA read that is sometimes a look into how scary life can be for members in our communities. It was a little weird to think of two 17 year olds getting married, but understandable given the circumstances.

Just Say Yes dives into the topics of the DREAM Act and what it means to be undocumented in the US. Told through the lens of a senior in high school, we really get to see the kind of impact this undocumented status has on teens who were brought to the US when they were so young, they don’t remember the country they came from.

Jimena, the main character, has her world torn apart by the revelation that she is not, as she had grown up assuming, in the country legally, a fact she only learns the day before her senior year starts. Seventeen years old is one of those ages where you feel like you’re growing up and know a lot of things, but you actually don’t know a lot still, and I feel like Moldavsky wrote Jimena very realistically in that regard. Jimena’s plans to try to fix the problem of her undocumented status swing wildly from faking her age and dating random guys on a dating site to hopefully get married to trying to get anyone willing to marry her to do the part.

And the whole time, her childhood acquaintance/neighbor/classmate Vitaly has had a front seat to it, since he’s the first one she opens up to about the news that turned things upside down. Jimena’s relationship with Vitaly was definitely one of the cutest parts of this whole book, considering the fact that a good portion of this book is pretty heavy due to the subject matter. I love how Vitaly and Jimena both open up to each other and understand each other. That freaking PowerPoint made by Vitaly was the sweetest thing, ahhhhh. And that he went with her on her dates to chaperone from outside the cafe. And they hung out after all of those and got closer and made each other laugh. The tension between them, mixed with the angst of their will-they-won’t-they dynamic, made for a romance I rooted for.

I loved the romance, although I will say this book is first and foremost Jimena’s story; I love what we do get of Vitaly and the backstory she learns about him and his different facets made him precious, but since this is first person POV, we’re in Jimena’s head the whole time. She’s a teenager for sure and makes mistakes and doesn’t think things through properly all the time, but my heart really hurt for her in the situation she was in. She’s dealing with so much stress and fear, and it stressed me out too. I loved getting to see her perspective on her situation change as she grew over the course of the book/her senior year. Jimena’s initial anger toward her mother for putting her in this situation smooths out as she comes to understand how much her mom sacrificed and has always tried to do what was best for her daughter. The language barrier aspect also hurt my heart; it’s a common immigrant family experience, I think, and it makes me sad that the US doesn’t really make it easy for children of immigrants to hold onto this central aspect of their heritage through language.

The friendship Jimena has with Sofia and the way it’s changed by Jimena’s new secret was done well, and I loved the eventual developments after she tells Sofia (honestly made me cry).

I have mixed feelings about that epilogue because of the open-ended questions on it (understandable, given their ages, but it didn’t really give closure since we don’t really get to see Jimena and Vitaly as an actual couple), but the second to last chapter was really adorable (all the scenes with Jimena and Vitaly are pretty darn cute).

Thank you to Netgalley/Henry Holt and Co. for the ARC!

3.5 stars rounded up.

if you want to see the brokenness of our immigration system (in 2007, but still now in 2024), but also read a YA romcom, this book is the perfect fit for you! there were certain anachronisms for the time but i honestly think that a teenager would not notice so that's fine. it's hard to make a marriage of convenience plot feel good for a 17-y-o (and there were parts of it that made me uncomfortable!), but this book pulled it off.

this could be good in HS libraries.

This is my third book from Goldy Moldavsky and I always look forward to new books. This one was different than the others. This one was a cute YA romcom. This cover is just too cute!

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the story was really cute and the chemistry between Jimena and Vitaly was so good.
This was definitely a slow burn but it was worth the wait.

I did not realize that this was a YA book when I picked it up & honestly I was a little turned off when I realized the main character was a 17 year old girl looking for a husband for a green card marriage. But I’m glad I stuck with it because A) of course a 17 year old would think her green card marriage idea was flawless & would have no problems and B) I fell in love with Jimena and Vitaly.

This book is set in 2007 so I don’t think some of the references will make any sense to teenagers today (but felt PERFECT to this 30-something teenager who graduated in 05). But 2007 was the perfect year for this book to be set because I don’t think it would make as much sense if it were set today.

The only thing I didn’t like is the fact that Jimena’s mother kept the fact that they were not in the country legally from her until she was 17. Did she not think her daughter would want to go to college, live a life?

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) and NetGalley for an electronic Advanced Readers Copy of this book.

Jimena Ramos is excited for her senior year of high school to start. Her best friend Sof and Jimmy, as she's called, are planning on applying to UCLA and moving across the country from where they grew up in New York City. But then her End of the Summer party is busted by the cops, and while she gets off with just a warning, her mom tells her something she never knew - she's undocumented.

Jimmy's life turns upside down, she doesn't see a future for herself if she can't go to college or get a non-under the table job. She concludes that the only way to get freedom again is to get married. .She confides in her neighbor and friend Vitaly as she embarks on a quest to marry in order to get a green card.

Just Say Yes by Goldy Moldavsky is a fun read about a serious topic. It delves into the horrible situation some kids find themselves in, with families divided and the threat of deportation to a country that they never knew. I enjoyed reading it and while I didn't learn anything new, it was an entertaining way of delving into this topic.

I absolutely adore this book! It is like “The Proposal”, but in young adult book form.

“Just Say Yes” follows Jimena Ramos, a seventeen-year-old who had no idea she was undocumented. The quickest way to get her green card is to find an American to marry. Her best candidate: Vitaly, her next-door neighbor and friend. But Vitaly has his own plans for the future. So Jimena tries online dating…only she can’t stop thinking about him.

I appreciate how this book not only focuses on teenage love, but also how difficult it can be for undocumented teens trying to go through the immigration process in the United States.

Within the first chapter, Jemina discovers that she is not a legal citizen. Her resilience and determination to overcome one of the most difficult times in her life is what made me love and admire her character so much. While I cannot relate to her situation personally, I understood her devastation and how badly she wanted to be a normal teenager. I couldn’t help but root for her.

I really loved Jimena and Vitaly’s slow development from neighbors-to-friends-to-lovers. They are so so cute and absolutely perfect for each other! I wish the ending was more drawn out so that I could bask longer in their coupledom because I could not get enough of them.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

I enjoyed this story very much. It opens up the conversation of how much more the US needs to do in relation to immigration.

Although it was a smaller plot point in this particular story, it also a discussion of note surrounding how egregious it is that someone can be of a specific profession in their home country and then not be “allowed” to be such here in the US, even when it is a profession hurting for more people (i.e. teaching)

I thought a long time about how to rate this book. I don't just hand out 5 stars, and the truth is, this book was flawed. There was a strange plot hole in the last scene, and there were a few occurrences throughout that were simply unlikely to happen.
That being said. I do think this book , I honestly could not put this down. There are obviously a lot of books that are well written and hold my interest for a long time, but this was different. I honestly had to keep reading, and rereading passages after I'd finished.. I haven't felt that kind f pull to a book for a much longer time than I'd realized.
What I somewhat realized over the course of the book was that this book does not fit its cover. That might be a cliche way of putting it, but based on the first image you see and even the description, it might be easy to assume that this is just a standard rom-com, and it's honestly being marketed that way, which in some ways I think led to some of the strangeness that comes across in the actual novel. The truth is, although there are of course moments that are funny of lighthearted, this book is so much more than that (nothing against rom-coms, I love them, but that is label just does not fit this book). Even the ending, though hopeful, is ultimately still full of the uncertainty. It is NOT a happy ending. No one should be forced into the position that these characters are in, even if it is the best possible outcome given the circumstances, and all of them have had to make sacrifices to even reach that point. I honestly believe that if this was marketed differently, it would receive much more attention than it currently is.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Henry Holt and Co. for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Set in 2007, JUST SAY YES follows Jimena as she discovers that she and her mother aren't US citizens and tries to find a way to remedy that--namely, by trying to get married. This is a quick, enjoyable--but also important--YA story. While the topic itself is heavy, Jimena remains a relatable character to follow with a fun voice, dealing not only with a solution to her problem, but also regular seventeen-year-old girl things like love. Vitaly, her neighbor, helps her out with her dating scheme to find a husband, and seeing their friendship evolve was adorable; I also appreciated the conversations between the two of them about immigration. Like I said, the story is fast-paced and relevant, but does a great job of balancing important immigration topics with Jimena's teenage personality. I'd highly recommend this one to YA readers; at 21, I'm a little older than probably the intended audience, but there was still a lot to glean from Jimena's story.

I was worried that the story would trivialize marrying for papers and turn it into silly rom-com tropes. However, the author does approach the topic with the necessary nuance that this complicated reality is for so many undocumented teens.

The FMC has to deal with a lot right from the beginning! It would be hard to trust anything after the shock of finding out she and her mother are in the United States illegally. I don't think I have read a book with this plot before and I really liked reading about it because of the real impact and effect this has on people in our own world. The romance was very sweet and I liked seeing their interactions with one another.

It would be fucking devastating to find out that you're NOT a legal citizen of the country you've known to be your home for more than a decade of your life. I don't know anything about immigration aside from the general it's-WAY-deeper-than-it-seems observation, plus a few stories from family who have experienced the process of it all.

Jimena Ramos's, the MC in Just Say Yes, head basically explodes when she finds out that she's undocumented. She thinks (and does) things that seem kind of insane, but given her situation, my train of thought would probably be similar to hers. I appreciated how she very much came off as a teen in distress (which is what we were promised!), though this made her not-so-likeable at times. She gets a free pass for the most part, though.

The other characters are pretty alright, and they acted in ways that I found to be realistic given the situation. Vitaly's sweet and sympathetic -- he was a great love interest for Jimena. We also have Blue, who's passionate and firm, who shows Jimena the political side of things.

I did like this book for what it was. Did I wish that it were even deeper and more mature? Sure. But it was a nice read overall if you're looking for something short and sweet but also political. (Oh, and another minus one star for the ending. It was way too rushed and incomplete, IMO. Otherwise a good read!)

This book has a great blend of lighthearted, heartwarming teenage mischief and romance along balanced with serious issues faced by many teens in this country. Coming of age story with high stakes but still very grounded. I The characters were loveable. I think the pacing could have been a bit better but it didn't take from my enjoyment of the story.

“Will You Marry Me.” - everytime Jimena asked Vitaly this I was giggling and kicking my feet. These characters were a breath of fresh air with a unique, comical, but serious storyline. The writing was easy to follow, and it was easy to get sucked into the story with how likeable our characters were.

"Just Say Yes" was charming, romantic, and humorous without appearing to mock or trivialize the challenges faced by Jimena and her undocumented immigrant mother.

Instead, its light-heartedness serves to highlight Jimena's similarity to the "average" and "legal" American teenagers, showcasing her resilience and determination.

Jimena's strong-willed, confident, and humorous nature endeared her to me. The dynamic relationships she forms with other characters, shaped by her personality, make it impossible not to cheer for her success, no matter how initially absurd it may seem.

These seemingly whimsical choices, upon closer inspection, reveal the desperation to avoid deportation and the accompanying fears and anxieties.

Not a great book, but it had its moments. I felt like there were some minor things that just didn't make sense to me, like when its mentioned that Jimena and Sof like to shoplift, why was that added?? The part where Jimena is getting to know Blue was overdone, I wish that had only last like 2 chapters. I also felt like this would've been better in a college setting instead of high school. Jimena didn't seem 17 and there were things done/mentioned that sounded more like a 19-20 year old. The ending had some really sweet moments that bumped this up from 2 stars to 3.

I love that this book is so raw and honest about the plight of a teen who is faced with realizing their who life is a lie. Jimena knows very little about her home country in fact most of her life has been spent here in America, but when one nights bad choices leads to her learning a big secret the whole life that Jimena thought laid before her is swept away. Being an undocumented kid in America is a scary thing. You find out you essentially you have no home. Your old country is not one that you really identify with and the dreams of college and any type of future outside of under the table jobs is just gone. Marriage is really the only way you can possibly get any of your old life back without going back to a land you don’t know and don’t call home in hopes to reenter the country legally. I love that this book shows how scary that is. And how even though Jimena’s dates are a bit funny that the situation itself is one that is a real issue and one that we should be looking into. I think that this is a great book to start conversations, and I love how the book ended. Thank you for bringing this issue to light, and telling Jimena’s story.
Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.