I love a rom com and appreciated the unique premise of The Truth According to Ember! Ember stressed me out a little bit but I'm happy everything worked out in the end. Looking forward to reading more from this author!

The Truth According to Ember
Rating- 3.5⭐️/really enjoyed
Genre - Rom com/ contemporary romance

Thanks @berkleypub for the digital copy - this is out now🙌🏻

This was a solid debut! I loved the cultural bits about Native Americans and am always a sucker for good food in a rom com. The writing and setting were both descriptive without being flowery, and the pace was between medium to fast - what I prefer in a romance. Steam was light for those concerned about open door versus closed door. Overall, I'd definitely read more from this author in the future.

I thought this was a wonderful debut and I loved the culture added in!! This was the perfect romcom because I had my lol moments. This book also covered some heavier topics, which I thought was well done and not just thrown in there. I'll be looking out for Danica's sophomore novel!

I really wanted to love this book. The concept is great, and I enjoy supporting debut authors. I liked it—I truly did—especially the second half, when the pace picked up. However, it lacked the depth I was craving at the time. I just wanted a bit more.

Read this if you’re looking for a story that proves you can achieve anything you set your mind to, where formal education holds little weight in the real world. Or read it if you’re in the mood for a story about a hot mess finding love.

I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley, thank you to them. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

First, I want to say how great the second half of this was. This book is the exact level of messy I do like. Ember was absolutely a hot mess, but I was rooting for her! The romance was nice as well and I liked them together. They had good chemistry right away in my opinion and the more they were together, the more I really liked their relationship. This isn't quite 5 for me simply because it took awhile to get going for me, and some scenes dragged a bit long. But overall, this was a great romance!

I cannot deal with the amount of lying in this book…I just came out of another romance with lying. I unfortunately did not vibe with this book at all. Which is a shame honestly but alas. Maybe it could work for some people and to that I say try it. Maybe I’ll try the author’s sophomore novel.

This was such a fun romcom! Our female lead was funny, and I liked the journey she went on through the story. I was so incredibly stressed every time she lied and had to juggle all of her stories. I definitely hit my peak, so if she told one more lie I may have exploded. Mostly because I knew it was going to be a mess when she was caught. It ended up being a great story of self discovery and growth. And the romance was great of course.

I'm so happy to be able to read Indigenous romance with more stories being published (Nava's being the first traditionally published!). We need stories of Native people falling in love with each other and living contemporary lives. I also think the romance genre, allows us to explore Indigenous topics and issues in a new way. Can't wait for more from Danica Nava!

I was excited to dive into The Truth According to Ember because of the Indigenous romance angle, but unfortunately, I found myself frustrated throughout the story. The constant lying became overwhelming; honestly, it wasn't even that clever. Ember's lies seemed more like a plot device to move the story forward, but it felt like it needed to be more authentic and engaging.
The lack of chemistry between Ember and Danuwoa only added to my disappointment. Their connection could have been more genuine and compelling, and I struggled to see what would make their relationship work. While I understand the book's central theme is facing the consequences of deception, the constant web of lies overshadowed what could have been a fascinating exploration of identity and love.
The pacing also felt off, with too much focus on the lies and not enough on character development or real emotional connection. Ultimately, I couldn't fully invest in Ember's journey, leaving me wishing for a more substantial, more meaningful plot.

I can’t continue with this story, Ember just lies and lies and lies and I can’t root for her. I don’t have an interest to see where this story goes and I’m so upset about it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange of my honest review.

Ember has been turned down from a lot of jobs, so…she decides to get a little creative with her experience and race/ethnicity. And it works – she lands a perfect job. But after a meet cute with the hot IT guy, Danuwoa, she realizes that maintaining those “lies,” while also trying to develop a real relationship, is a bit fraught. And then…between a coworker catching the two in a compromising position and using that to blackmail Ember, family problems (her troublesome brother is back and just can’t seem to get his life together), and trying to figure out how to compromise her own life/personal goals with some of the “untruth” pickles she’s gotten herself into, things are really about to come to a head for Ember. Can she handle all that and manage to save her relationship with Danuwoa (the one very true thing she’s got right now)?

Ok, let me just get this out of the way first. If I’m being honest, lying as a plot point stresses me. Like, a lot. To the point where I usually steer clear of it. However, I had seen good reviews and wanted to give this a go. So, it’s a tough sell for me from that start, just to set expectations here at the beginning. That being said, the stress of this plot, the corporate blackmail and lying, truly is soooo stressful. And it’s not just the external stuff. The author parallels it (nicely, as far as writing and character development), with Ember lying to herself too. It applies to her interactions with both her brother and what the actuality is of the feelings between her and Danuwoa. And it extends, deeply, into her work thinking too. She keeps saying “just this one more thing and it’ll go away” to herself and I just…how does she not see that eventually she’s crossed so many work legal/ethic lines that being fired for dating a coworker would actually be the better outcome?? Like some of the stuff she’s doing has legit legal consequences, not just a workplace HR issue. I know she felt like she was between a rock and a hard place, but it was just difficult to swallow. On that note, I just don’t love the extremity of her “I don’t need to ask for help” – not just in her, but really in any characters that have this trait to an extreme – because there were multiple people she could have gone to for help, not even all with power imbalances to overcome either, and she chose to just dig herself deeper and hope it would go away. Overall, not my favorite type of character.

And yet…I didn’t dislike Ember herself. I actually found her “hot and cold” on Danuwoa, her (low key deserved) grudge holding her back from forgiving her brother, the general direction and situation of her life/job, etc. was all super relatable. She’s prickly and unsure, but her heart is in the right place and her frustrations are all based in very real unfair life situations, and that’s so real. Ember’s entire storyline was a really unique coming of age. One that highlights taking life one step at a time, making (and being proud of) achievable goals, and remembering you have a community around you (even if that hurts/has tough memories sometimes too), so you don’t have to do everything alone. It’s accessible and, again, super relatable, in a way that not all romcom leads’ stories are. For real, the ‘learning to ask for help’ piece alone was really impactful, and an important lesson for many to learn. I thought her general arc was fantastic. On the other hand, our male MC, Danuwoa, was a bit flat. Maybe too easy? He’s a cinnamon roll, which I love, but he could have used maybe just a bit more depth? There wasn’t anything wrong, necessarily, I just felt like, for how good Ember’s character development was (and really, her brother Sage’s as well), his was lacking something.

Last couple thoughts. There was an absolutely hilarious poking at corporate and professional culture BS. Like, how degrees and connections are required for basic level jobs that with reasonable training, literally anyone can competently do (even without the degrees and definitely without the connections). Lolz. Also, the authors note at the end is stunning. Seeing where Nava pulled from her own experiences to craft this story, and seeing where the fire and heart and fight for a happy ending that Ember had was crafted out of, adds such power to the messages in the narrative you just finished. The messages were already strong and necessary, so the added emphasis and strength was extra in the best, intense, way.

I’m coming away from this a fan of Nava’s writing and definitely interested in more! While some tropes/plot devices weren’t my personal favorite, the effect of the whole overcame that (which possibly makes it even more impressive).

I was unfortunately not a fan of this book and ended up dnfing. I just couldn't get into the story. I think I'll return to this at a later date but for now, I am closing it and hoping I'll like it later on.

I really enjoyed reading this romance, but the amount of lies that Ember, the main character, kept on telling was a lot! The anticipation of how it would blow-up and then how they would resolve things was too much for me as a reader. If anything, reading this story showed me that I always prefer honesty in my characters. On the plus side, the characters were likeable and I did find myself rooting for them to get together from their meet-cute!

A very cute debut! I loved the characters, they felt very authentic. It was hard to read about the mistreatment that Ember faced at her job because I felt so bad for her, but I thought it was realistic. Girlie was stressing me out with all the lies though! But I like how she wasn't perfect and worked to overcome her issues and it wasn't just magically fixed in the end.

I wanted to love this but found myself really struggling with this one. The constant lies got to be difficult to read and the romance was too secondary for me to find it believable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book and while I did enjoy parts of it Ember and her lies stressed me out!!! I understand her reasons for lying on her resume and kudos to her for being quick to learn on the job, but she kept lying about EVERYTHING to everyone and bringing people in to help keep her lies from being uncovered. And I was anxious to see when it would inevitably blow up in her face.

Happy to see an indigenous author enter the romance scene. I'd call this a "coming of age" romance. It could be classified as womens fiction but the romance is just central enough.

This was such a fun romcom! The plot moved fast and the cast of characters was so relatable. While all of Ember's lying (even the little white lies) made me so nervous for her, the author deftly kept me on the edge of my seat, and emotionally engaged. So important in a romance! Ultimately the payoff at the end was so satisfying and if you love a good grovel, this one has a great one! While I would have loved a few more moments of emotional connection, The Truth According to Ember was a great read!

Thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy!

I read this book in 4 hours, so it's certainly a quick, engaging read. I enjoyed Ember as a protagonist, although she is also the source of almost all of her problems. I think her initial lie is justifiable, but it quickly devolves from there. We don't ever really get an explanation for her long list of lies by the end of the book, so it feels like there's a bit of a maturity problem, which is juxtaposed against Danuwoa's personality and maturity level. This was a good read, and I'm happy to read Native romances by Native authors and will definitely seek more of those out!

Really enjoyed this debut from an Indigenous author! I wish the pacing was a little different and all of the lies started to feel a little silly (which is the plot but I wish she wouldn’t have started lying about small things) but super funny and readable. Can’t wait to see what’s next

Romance loves to build triumphant outcomes out of terrible decisions. And Danica Nava’s contemporary THE TRUTH ACCORDING TO EMBER (Berkley, paperback, $16.99) stars a heroine who makes more bad decisions than most.

Ember Lee Cardinal’s route out of her dead-end bowling alley job feels like an impossible climb. After hundreds of job applications and not a single interview, she impulsively checks the box marked “white” instead of “Native American.”

Suddenly Ember breezes into a job as an accounting assistant, where she meets a superhot I.T. guy named Danuwoa who smells like lavender and wears his dark hair long. But lies have a way of turning on the teller. Now she’s working overtime for the moody chief executive, scrambling to hide her relationship with Danuwoa from H.R. and being blackmailed by a colleague who saw them together. Ember’s always prided herself on being the steady, independent one in her family, but now she might have to do something unprecedented and ask for the help she needs.

It’s the details that really bring this book to life: the zip-lock bag Ember puts over the can of beans in the fridge, the shock of going from plunging clogged toilets to working in pristine corporate offices, the way Ember and Danuwoa have spectacular sex and then fall asleep with their pinkies entwined. It’s funny and messy in the best way, and I was rooting for Ember even as she dug herself deeper and deeper.