This book was wonderful for so many reasons. I am also Chickasaw and have lived my whole life in Oklahoma. I love how the author portrays Oklahoma in a way that isn't often known, such as the art deco First National Building and the alien looking Devon Tower really do exist in downtown Oklahoma City. Ember is a 25 year old woman who has had a difficult life, growing up poor and raised by a relative when her parents left her and her brother. Despite this, Ember is optimistic and wants to have the best life she can. Her goal was to attend community college to become an accountant but her money saved was wasted by her brother. She decides to lie a little on a job application and is shocked to get hired. At work, she meets Danuwoa, a handsome Native American man. Unfortunately it is against HR policy to date a co-worker. When they are seen kissing on a work trip, Ember's lies begin to catch up with her.

The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava was an okay read for me. I was really excited especially after hearing Emily Henry rave about it. It felt very middle of the road for me. The writing was okay, the character development was a little lacking but not horrible. I really wish there was more of a focus on the character development, though. It felt like it got pushed to the back burner for the romance.

Unfortunately... I had to DNF this book after getting about 60% in. Nothing hurts more than saying that, but truthfully I felt no pull from this book. I did not feel it was well written or the characters were fleshed out.

So much of this book is about Ember working in corporate America and I just... did not think that was interesting at all, especially when she was given a promotion to a job she did not want. Originally, Ember wants to be an accountant but then she gets a random promotion as an executive assistant. I cannot express enough how uninterested and bored I was with this plotline :/

The romance also felt so forced to me. Woman sees man. Woman thinks man is hot. Oh! They both work together. Forbidden romance I gues? Idk, I just did not feel the chemistry whatsoever between these two and it hurts me so bad that I didn't enjoy it!

What a lovely, big-hearted romance! The Truth According to Ember follows a young woman who finds love at the office – even though she had to exaggerate on her resumé to do it.

Ember Lee Cardinal is in a pickle. Her brother’s been incarcerated, and when he missed his hearing, their family savings were spent on bailing him out, using the cash Ember needs for college--she's halfway through her associate’s degree. Tired of not hearing back from any of the jobs she applies for, she decides to pad her resumé out a bit – and lie about her identity. She hides her Chickasaw heritage to pass for white.

So when the Oklahoma City company Technix thinks she’s white, she gets an interview for an accounting job, and is accepted. She lies about her experience, but vows (to herself) to pay attention and learn quickly.

Definitely distracting is the bank’s gorgeous IT guy, Danuwoa Colson, who’s also native (he’s Cherokee). But their company frowns on fraternizing, so there’s no way they can pursue their love further. But the heart wants what the heart wants, and it isn’t long before it becomes impossible for Ember and Danuwoa to resist their mutual attraction. When a colleague finds out they are are together, they must decide whether or not to fight for what’s really important.

I loved Ember. I loved her flaws, I loved that her lies come from a good place but end up making things complicated. Her voice is punchy and real and unique, and she’s one of the best heroines I’ve encountered in 2024. Danuwoa is a handsome cinnamon roll. And I loved, just loved, the way the book tackles racism and corporate culture. More of this, please.

The book is a spicy, sparky piece of work that utterly glows. It has a wonderful, easy pace to it that makes the story easy to dig into. Pick up The Truth According to Ember - you won’t be sorry.

At first, I thought either this was self-published or there was not a single comma in this book, but it turned out my app’s font was set to an accessibility feature that replaced all the commas with a double-space. I wanted to really love this long overdue plot; indigenous romance is few and far between, I liked Ember’s voice and stream of conscious narrative, but even with commas, I felt the breakneck speed of the narrator driving the pace of the plot, and for me, the lack of breath and space lessened the impact of Ember’s keen observations (about herself, about people, and about the beauty and grittiness of Oklahoma) and insights (about microaggressions, stereotypes, and Native/American culture).

Ember, a self-professed liar, is sick of working at the bowling alley and barely making ends meet. She had to drop out of community college and abandon her dreams when she used her tuition money to bail out her younger brother. She applies for–and gets–an entry-level accounting job, where she learns about Quickbooks and GAAP by Googling. The cute IT guy is a perk in addition to the $50K a year salary, but the position comes with institutionalized racism, sexism, and nepotism. Is the stress of a do-not-fraternize dating policy and the risk of all her lies being found out worth the money and corporate position?

In an early scene, Ember is interviewing for an an entry-level accounting position, and on her way out of the office suite, a potential new co-worker makes a comment about the attractiveness of the cute IT guy who Ember had a meet-cute with in the coffee shop before the interview. (He is clearly the love interest). Such commentary would not fly for a woman from male coworkers, and the casual potential harassment / sexism was surprising and off-putting. I put this one down at 10% complete and did not feel compelled to finish… and then read another 7% … and then did get sucked in and finished. Ultimately, the author uses a will they / won’t they, forbidden romance to tease the action, along with hints about Ember’s brother’s troubled past before a big reveal about what he did…. these felt a bit contrived, but also, the gimmicks fit the character and voice.

I did especially love the details of growing up as a member of the Chicksaw Nation, feel like I learned how to make fry bread, appreciated the authentic use of Chicksaw words, and have a better understanding of Native American culture and experience from reading this novel, so, mission accomplished, and yay for more space for stifled voices not yet heard, or not heard from enough.

I do think more careful editing would have helped, there was not a lot of nuance and there were several typos and instances of repeated use a word *vary your vocabulary is an edit I give to a lot of writers I’ve edited). I associate Berkley Romance with very high caliber books, and think they have done this unique new voice a disservice by provided stronger editorial support for this debut author.

I received a free advance reader’s edition of #TheTruthAccordingToEmber via #NetGalley, courtesy of Berkley.

Ember Lee Cardinal wants more from life than just barely getting by in Oklahoma as a Chickasaw tribal member. Although she works hard, and is studying to be an accountant, when her brother gets arrested for DUI while driving her car, then skips bail, all her savings disappear to pay for the bail and retrieve her car. When she tries to apply for a better-paying office job, she is ignored or rejected when she checks the "American Indian" box on job applications. So she fudges and checks "Caucasian", because she is that as well. That's when she gets a job as an assistant accountant at Technix, and where she meets Danuwoa Colson, a Cherokee IT specialist. She and Danuwoa are attracted to each other, but because of the no co-worker dating policy, it gets complicated. And with additional office politics, including a blackmailing CEO's nephew, a pregnant executive assistant whose maternity leave puts Ember in her place, and various family issues, Ember finds herself lying more and more in an effort to make things work. Of course things explode, but how they become resolved keeps the book moving. I had trouble sympathizing with Ember as she makes one bad decision after another, and I'm not really sure why Danuwoa is so taken with her. But it is a different take on an office rom-com, and gives the reader a whole new perspective. An interesting read.

You ever try to talk about a book you read in a coherent fashion, and realize that anything you’re about to say is going to either come out garbled, or else just not convey the depths of how and why you enjoyed it as much as you did? That’s how I feel writing this. I read a lot of books, but I think it’s safe to say Danica Nava’s The Truth According to Ember is a contender for one of my favorite reads of the year.

The story follows Ember, who tells a little white lie or two to get her foot in the door as an accountant at a startup in Oklahoma City. There, she meets Danuwoa, the handsome IT guy, and the two hit it off right away. But the lies keep adding up as Ember does her best to avoid being caught for the…embellishments she made to her resume, and to avoid the higher-ups finding out she and Danuwoa are not exactly sticking to the company’s “no dating” policy.

While the idea of a character sustaining a lie (or several) throughout a book can get frustrating in general, Nava avoids this by making it clear exactly what is at stake for Ember if she tells the truth - or at least what Ember believes is at stake. You understand as a reader why she feels the way she does, and why she’s trying so hard to stop things from spiralling out of control, and to keep the truth from coming out. What matters is when push comes to shove, Ember is refreshingly direct with people, further driving home for the reader why she feels the way she does.

As far as love interests go, Danuwoa is the type of sweet, cinnamon roll man that the best book boyfriends are made of. Kind, funny, hot, but like Ember, he also stands his ground when it really matters. Though we don’t ever get his point of view, there’s never any doubt in how he feels about Ember. Their chemistry is some of the best I’ve read recently, with an organic friends-to-lovers buildup, and enough steamy moments that I actually broke into a sweat at one point over a single line of dialogue.

It’s also wonderful to have a traditionally published romance by a Native American author about Native American characters, even if it’s shocking that this is the first of its kind, all the way in the year 2024. OK maybe it’s less shocking than it is disappointing, but I am glad we have it now. There’s so much to be said for how it shows the different ways Ember and Danuwoa experience the world as Native Americans, and the way cultural and social elements are woven in throughout, unflinchingly, and without over-explaining things (Google is, after all, free).

The Truth According to Ember is a delightful debut novel, and I eagerly anticipate whatever Danica Nava puts out next. She’s made a loyal reader out of me.

The Truth According to Ember is out on August 6. Special thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advance copy for review purposes.

Unfortunately, I did not finish this book. It's seemed like a good romance, but I lost interest after reading 20% of it.
It had more to do with me realizing that I don't really like romance novels then the book being bad (which it wasn't).

I would still recommend this book to anyone who loves the romance genre.
The characters were great, the story and dialogue believable and the writing was good.
I did get a little annoyed by the main character, Ember, lying in situations where I feel would have been fine to just be honest instead.
Also, the whole office/accounting theme isn't really my cup of tea, which was probably one of the reasons that I stopped reading the book.

However, I have to say that it's refreshing to read (and see) an Indigenous novel in the romance genre. It is the main reason for which I wanted to read it, and I look forward to finding more light Indigenous novels like that in the future!

(Since I didn't finish this book, I would have preferred not to give a star rating but since I have to, I gave a 2.5 stars rating, however, like I said previously, I would definitely recommend this book to any romance reader.)

⭐️⭐️⭐️½

I liked this book, but I had some mixed feelings about it. I really enjoyed Ember and Danuwoa’s chemistry and connection. They had something special and I wanted more of them. This book felt a smidge leaning towards women’s because it felt a bit more focused on Ember’s experiences and journey with work and family. That’s not to say the story wasn’t good, but the parts about the job felt like there were unnecessary details. Those spaces could have been filled with more scenes building romance.

I could not get on board with the constant lying. I understand why she lied at first to get the job, but all the other ones after that? It made her feel immature, in my opinion. And then the giving in when she was being blackmailed - I wanted to shake her.

This was enjoyable and I want to read more by this author. Getting to read a romance about indigenous characters is something I want more of.

Steam level: 🔥🔥🔥

I enjoyed this book, but I agree with some of the other reviewers that since this novel is being marketed as a rom-com, the romance took a back burner to Ember's character growth. While I enjoyed watching her character develop, it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

I want to start out by saying that while this didn't work for me as a romance, Nava does an amazing job weaving micro aggressions and difficulties of being Native (and the joys of it too!). And if this was just marketed as a book about Ember's journey, I think this would have been a more enjoyable reading experience for me. But it's marketed as a rom-com and the "rom" in that equation wasn't there for me. The single POV really didn’t work in the romance’s favor. It worked as a women’s fiction story with only Ember’s POV. But I felt like we needed Danuwoa’s POV to sell the romance to me.

Danuwoa is a sweetheart and he made a great MC...but we know next to nothing about him. His backstory is vague and he doesn't have much of a personality. He’s sweet! He’s kind! But that’s about it. There’s not a lot of fleshing out on characterization in her. Mostly because I think Nava would get going in a really interesting story aspect and then drop it completely.

Plus, Nava’s writing is okay and I didn’t judge it too harshly because this is a debut. But the writing was kind of awkward at times. There was a lot breaking the fourth wall that I thought was weirdly placed. And, while I appreciate Nava taking the time to combat stereotypes and her dedication to clearing up misunderstandings about indigenous peoples, a lot of it was thrown in at random and had nothing to do with the story? Like throwaway lines that weren’t relevant and were only there to say “this misconception is wrong”. It felt so out of place. Probably because I wanted less of that and more expansion on the characters themselves.

Which…I liked Ember! I think she’s funny and I felt such compassion for her because she’s a little lost on her journey. But the lying was (I think) supposed to be a funny bit and just got tired after awhile. The Big Lies about her heritage and experience were great. But the little white lies for no reason stopped being funny and quirky pretty quickly into the story and I don’t feel like we ever really got a reason *why* she lied about nonsensical things. Or maybe I just missed it because I was so frustrated? Not sure.

I appreciate what Nava was doing here and I do think Ember’s journey of self discovery is worth reading. I just don’t think this is really a romance. More…gen fic with a romance sub plot.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would. I didn’t like the fmc, like at all. Everything felt very immature and the dialogue was also vague and overall boring.

What a perfect read! I loved Ember and Danuwoa (oh Danuwoa, what a hottie!) and seeing how they'd end up together. Ember has to grow a lot in this book and it was so satisfying watching her learn from her mistakes. I loved the workplace romance and how each character was well rounded and developed.

Finally an indigenous romance novel! I really enjoyed it. We get the life of Ember making herself someone outside of the reservation. Her constant lies that only Danuwoa could see through. I understood why she lied so much but NOT saying it’s okay. When you come from a small community everyone knows everyone! It’s a drastic change from moving outside the rez to the city. I think that Danica Nava did a really good job of telling how it is for most indigenous people making that change going into what most feel is a whole new world. Everything was there that was relatable the family dynamic, the relationships, and growing as a person.

This was a good debut romance and I loved that this was written by an Indigenous author! It follows the fmc Ember in her unsuccessful pursuit of a job. She decides to put white as her ethnicity on the job application instead of native American and that leads to her getting her dream job. She meets the mmc Danuwoa who is also indigenous and they like each other but don't really go for it because of work. They later start to see each other secretly though Ember hides a lot of stuff from him. There is also a blackmail plot from one of Ember's coworkers and lots of secrets that blow up for everyone.

I thought the romance was so cute and Ember and Danuwoa were perfect for each other. I liked the diversity in the book the native American culture and how it influenced the main characters. I thought the character development with fmc was a good one and felt bad when things blew up in her face. The book touched on racism and discrimination the fmc faced and what other indigenous people face in the white-dominated workforce. There were a few slow times in the book and I think the pacing wasn't always the best but I really enjoyed the romance and I'm interested to see what the author writes next. Thank you Berkley Romance for this arc.

Really enjoyed the book, the fmc went though a lot and it helped her grow in the end, and the romance was top tier, absolutely loved the couple. 10/10 would recommend!

First treat: this is the first Native American rom-com published by a major publisher. It was a treat and an eye opener and a bonding experience for me. She dealt with racism, sexism, micro aggressions, cultural appropriation and so on. But it was all there in support of the story. Never preachy. Second treat: this book put the comedy back in rom-com. I found myself laughing out loud, bothering my family! Oh well, their sacrifice was in support of greatness. The cast of characters highest point goes to her crazy wonderful roommate, Joanna.

Strangely enough, Ember wants to get a better job than plunging stopped up toilets at the local bowling alley. Her brother skipped bond thus losing all her money for college. And she just can’t get break. Ember tries to be truthful but that has gotten her 37 job rejection notices so she decides to tell a few little lies and half truths. After checking the Caucasian box and representing helping her friend with taxes as past accounting experience, suddenly she gets a job offer. But in the face of further bigotry she keeps having to spin more tales.

You know it is all going to blow up on her but the story developing with coworker, hunk(!) and fellow Native American, Danuwoa,- that story is quite nice and steamy. There’s lots of funny banter between characters and within Ember’s internal dialogue. The interplay with her Auntie and her brother is both universal and uniquely Native American. As are her relationships with everyone from white co-workers to her best friend Joanna to her hilarious interactions with the old-man bowling team.

This is a masterful and fun first novel and I look forward to more from her. Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A spellbinding debut. It’s entertaining, tense, and brimming with a sizzling chemistry, got a perfect indigenous representation and a swoony romantic story. I’ll be recommending it endlessly.

DNF at 10%.
I’m super sad, because I LOVE the Native representation, but the writing style was not working for me.

Loved the Native American representation, but this book was basically a self imposed miscommunication trope and I hate those.