https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6049885461

Very cute debut novel! I enjoyed being inside Ember's brain - it felt like I was reading from the POV of a friend! Def recommend for anyone looking for a sweet romcom that involves a FMC who's trying to balance work, life and family.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was good! I had a good time from start to finish. I have started moving away from romcoms and being more picky with them but this one was still pretty good. I liked the humor through the entire book and yet the author did so well in handling tougher subject matter with respect.

I want to read more OwnVoices romcom after this book. We need more of them in the world.

I'm giving this one up. I was so excited to find a book featuring Native American main character...then I ended up HATING her.
The lies
I can't.

Ember isn't going to let life push her around anymore. A few little white lies nets her dream job, but all is good since she's been doing well in her accounting position. But there are the microaggressions of a big corporate environment and she does get a taste of how cruel and racist the world can be.

When she meets the hot IT guy, they have to keep their relationship a secret because of the company's non-fraternization policy. I really liked these two together but I wasn't a big fan of them hiding things. Ember is good at blurring the lines of right and wrong.

I really liked this #OwnVoices rom com. It took me to a new place and new people that I have not experienced before and I liked that. I also liked the realism of how Ember justified her actions and learned from them as well.

Overall, a satisfying rom-com and very nice debut.

Did Ember stress me out with all her lies? Yes. Would I wholeheartedly recommend this one? Yes.

The premise of this one was absolute perfection. It was simultaneously a social commentary, with Ember resorting to identifying herself as White on her job application instead of Native American to finally get an interview, while also being utterly chaotic, given the fact that Ember builds her application on bending the truth. Part of the (highly entertaining) stress of this book was seeing what Ember would lie about next. While you want to give her a good shake, you can't help but sympathize with her.

I absolutely adored Ember and Danuwoa's dynamic. First, it must be said that Danuwoa is charming (and hot) as hell and I absolutely loved him. But what I loved even more was how wonderful the couple's chemistry was. I was rooting for them from start to finish, and it was so satisfying when Ember stopped trying to ignore her feelings and finally allowed herself to pursue happiness with Danuwoa.

The supporting characters in this one were absolutely lovely, but a special shout out goes to Walela and Sage. Walela was an absolute icon, I was so obsessed with her. While I was so angry with Sage on Ember's behalf, he won me over so quickly with how sweet his interactions with Walela were.

Overall, I highly recommend checking this book out, and I cannot wait to read more from this author.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book.

I was so looking forward to the Native American representation in this book, and while I enjoyed the cultural aspect of it, everything else… I just didn’t. Ember acted like a child, and it was disappointing to read about a woman who was essentially a pathological liar. The writing was juvenile, and I had no idea why the MMC liked Ember.

I really enjoyed this book/audio!!!

I know it’s labeled a rom com but it’s so much more? Ember really took center stage as she matures and grows up and faces all these challenges - from familial issues to work/college related.

I would say ember is just a girl 😩 haha. But she’s in her 20s trying to just do it without any help. She ends up at a job she’s technically unqualified for and starts snowballing lies.

Eventually we know how it goes, and the lies fall apart. But even though Danuwoa is the romantic interest… he didn’t really do much for me. He was drawn to her and wanted to be with her. But nothing stood out about him.

So I would classify this as almost a women’s fiction with some romance. I would recommend it to anyone who loves a quirky silly FMC still trying to find her place in the world especially as a Native American. 💖

While I didn't love this one, I didn't hate it. I enjoyed the premise and the secondary characters and well as Danuwoa the hero. It's just that Ember spent most of the book driving me insane. I think I would have liked it more if we hadn't gotten some of Danuwoa's point of view. I mean I get why she did what she did to get the job. But the other lies she kept telling didn't sit right with me. I started liking her back the last few chapters. But I will read more by the author. As I want to read more books with Indigenous authors and characters.

Thank you so much to Berkley Romance for a copy of this!

I am not sure how we made it to 2024 without ever having a contemporary romance starring a Native American but also written by a Native American. I truly hope that this opens up to other Native American authors to get published because we need more.

This was such a cute romance that I found myself laughing quite a bit at Ember's antics. I do not understand how she could get away with what she got away with for so long! When she first met Danuwoa he was onto her from the very beginning but he never really pushed her or questioned her. I know some reader friends said they had such anxiety of the juvenile actions Ember's were doing which understand how it could be hard to read but it did not bother me. I think because as a reader you know everything will eventually come to light and it all did spill out.

I did feel like like the romance came out of left field. I truly loved Danuwoa's character and loved the relationship he had with Ember but there was no flirtatious build up. It was just like oh I like you, let's kiss and then it happened. He was such a good guy and sometimes I thought that he was too good for Ember but at the same time they just worked so well together. Also the time they were in the supply closet WHEWWW.

I also really enjoyed any time the side characters were featured. I loved Ember's best friend/roommate Johanna. I thought she was hysterical. I also loved Danuwoa's sister as well as the time they were at the bowling alley.

I am looking forward to reading more from Danica in the future!

Check this book out if you are looking for a mildly spicy workplace romance filled with off the wall moments!

4.5

While I really enjoyed the love story in this book (obviously), I really loved watching Ember come into her own. Her emotional arc as a character was so satisfying, and I really appreciated her growth. Looking forward to reading what Danica writes next!

I'm excited about more Native rep in romance novels, but I had a tough time with this one.  Most of the plot tension is driven by Ember being a pathological liar, which meant I found her ridiculous and unlikeable, and Ember's idea that she would be fired if she dated a coworker, which was just dumb.

This book is first person present tense POV, and Ember is not someone I can easily empathize with.  She has terrible judgment and makes mistake after mistake, digging herself into a deeper and deeper spot.   She lied to get her job, and she went on to tell more lies, and make mistakes at work, and make poor assumptions, and tell more lies to cover up the mistakes, and I think it was meant to be funny, but I never found it funny.  I cringed so hard I could barely keep reading.  I'm so busy cringing at all the bad decisions that I can't even focus on the romance.   I found I didn't care at all if she hooked up with Handsome Dan or  not, I just wanted her to stop making bad decisions.

The entire “oh no we can’t date because we are coworkers” theme was ridiculous. The HR rep never specifically said there was a “no dating policy” and it annoyed me every time Ember thought it or mentioned it.  

In addition to all that, Ember herself has gone NC with her father, and is completely fed up with her brother, <b>because THEY keep making bad decisions</b>.  So she has no patience with other people making bad decisions, while she continues to make her own bad decisions.  That makes her a hypocrite as well as an idiot, which means I found her completely unlikeable.  (I have no idea what Danuwoa saw in her - he's kind, funny, sexy, easy-going, and has his financial shit together - he could be with any woman he wants, why does he choose this particular hot mess of a woman??)  And that means I could not enjoy this book.  I really need to LIKE the protagonists in a romance novel.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced, uncorrected copy of this book.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group for providing this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Overall Rating: 3.5 / 5 (rounded down to 3)

I would recommend this book to those that are fans of work place romances that take time to highlight the injustices for minorities in the corporate world.

Overall I found this to be a very fun and easy to read book where we dive right in to Ember’s life as she’s trying to make it out of her low-paying and unsatisfying job at a local bowling alley. She makes a plan and executes it to a land a job as an accounting assistant, stretching the truth to help ensure her resume looks great. As she’s learning on the job she finds herself growing close to Danuwoa, despite the no dating coworkers policy. She quickly moves up in her job and finds it harder to manage the lies she has been telling to survive the corporate environment.

My biggest issue with this romance was it felt a bit too fast paced for me. With how quickly Ember’s life was changing, it became hard for me to feel the chemistry between her and Danuwoa and it became hard for me to connect with how she felt as she moved up in her job. The banter between the two of them did have me rooting for them but it did feel a bit like a “love at first sight” situation and that trope is not for me. Also, while I haven’t worked at a start-up company, I have worked in corporate environments so it was hard for me to grasp her getting the higher position in such a short time.

Despite that, I really enjoyed how the author handled the topics of navigating work environments that are white male dominated. Ember was a force to be reckoned with and learned to really find herself and her voice. It was empowering to watch moments where she stood up for herself and others rather than just trying to brush off racist or sexist comments. Her growth was neat to read, especially when it came to how the major conflict wrapped up.

**Many thanks to Berkley and Danica Nava for an ARC of this book provided via NetGalley!**

"It it always better to speak the truth...unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar." - Jerome K. Jerome

Ember Cardinal may not be an EXCEPTIONALLY good liar yet...but let's just say she's been getting a LOT of practice lately. Working in a bowling alley is pretty far from her dream job...but at least she's got her buddy Joanna as a boss. As a Native American, she's had her fair share of trouble getting her foot in the door, and she hopes that taking accounting classes at the community college will be the first step to getting her foot in the door somewhere worthwhile...and get her FAR away from plunging toilets. Frustrated with the rejections she has received after identifying herself as Native American on her job applications, she decides to check the box marked "White" one day and see if it makes a difference (and she MAY also have exaggerated her past experience, saying that she actually COMPLETED a degree and worked as an accountant for the bowling alley...but in for a penny, in for a pound right?)

So when she gets a phone call asking her for an interview for an accountant's assistant job at an IT start up, Ember can hardly contain her excitement. The small fact that 90% of her application is fabricated? Well...it can all be smoothed over with a FABULOUS interview, right? Ember does manage to ace the interview, hide her junky car from her co-worker's eyes, and finds out she will be getting a salary exceeding 50k - and the stars seem to finally be aligning. Throw in a budding flirtation with the smart, handsome, and charming IT extraordinaire Danuwoa, and she's nothing short of elated. But when the CEO's executive assistant decides Ember would be the perfect candidate to take over while she goes out on maternity leave, Ember is under even MORE pressure to keep up the ruse that she knows EXACTLY what to do. With the tasks piling up, and some toxic men in positions of power at the company on a quest to trip her up (AND spoil her potential office romance with Danuwoa) can Ember manage to keep ALL the balls in the air...AND get the guy? Or will her elaborate house of cards tumble to the ground, leaving her right back where she started...only without the reference OR the romance?

This is Danica Nava's debut, and first off, I LOVE to see this sort of Native American rep in romance. Nava mentions its importance in her author's note, and it truly cannot be overstated. She even includes a glossary at the back of the book with some of the words used in the book, which was MUCH appreciated by a reader like me...although it would have been nice to know about while I was reading rather than discovering it at the end. Although I never truly know if some of the racist epithets and insults hurled at the characters are REALLY as commonplace and as aggressive as they are portrayed to be in a book like this (from random interactions in a bar, for instance) I usually try to give the author the benefit of the doubt and assume there are really people out there that are just that vocal about their prejudice.

But as much as I appreciated some of the themes in this book (primarily, the role that discrimination bias plays in the hiring process, which IS appalling) I spent far too much of this book rolling my eyes at the unfocused, juvenile, and senseless behavior of our 'can't stop lying, even when I'm trying' MC, Ember.

Sadly, so much of this book read YA to me SOLELY for this reason. I kept having to remind myself this character was in her 20s, because to be honest, she had all of the common sense of a heartsick, impetuous teen. I know this is part of the point, but it was hard to believe that everyone at the company would BELIEVE Ember at all based on the sort of flimsy, slipshod excuses she would give as to why things weren't done or done properly, and that NOBODY would question some of the basic knowledge she was lacking. Not only that, one of her coworkers who HARDLY knows her essentially wants to give her a promotion after she worked for the company for about 15 seconds. Not to mention that promotion is to not just be ANY Executive Assistant, but one to the CEO!? Granted, this is a small-ish start up tech company...but as an admin myself, I can tell you that most 20 somethings with no C-Suite administrative experience wouldn't just be handed a job like that...even temporarily.

And then there's the ENDLESS cursing. If Ember wanted to save up enough money to buy a new car, I'm pretty sure all she had to do was keep a swear jar in her bedroom for a year and she'd be able to buy a Bentley. There are examples of this on nearly EVERY page, and after a while, it just got to be a lot. I get that she's young (ish) but as someone hoping to move up in the professional world, I think some of the best advice I could give her would just be to focus on building her vocabulary. Ember also has a PROBLEM with her allergies, and basically implies that cats are the devil MULTIPLE times. I mean, I have allergies...and allergies to cats, dogs, and the like. And what do I do? I take....allergy medication when needed. The fact that Danuwoa's CAT was almost a dealbreaker for her on more than one occasion was just a bit silly. Her allergies weren't life-threatening: her reaction was just bonkers and frankly, over the top...and as a cat lover, let's just say it rubbed me the wrong way.

There's also just the odd juxtaposition of Ember being, at times, such a hot mess...and Danuwoa being NEARLY perfect from start to finish. I don't mind a bit of 'too good to be true' in the male MC in a book like this one, but I guess it was hard to believe that these two would actually WORK as a couple. It's rare that I say this, but I WANTED there to be more conflict on Danuwoa's side...or maybe even a time where EMBER was considering giving HIM the brush off for one reason or another. The fact that she acts so completely head over heels for him at all times just took away some of the realism: even the best guys have flaws, or things they do to 'give you the ick' (as I think the kids still say.) This just felt like a missed opportunity to give his character some much needed depth and personality traits beyond his dashing good looks, IT smarts, and fondness for Peter Gabriel. (I mean those things ARE all swoon-worthy to some extent...so I get it!)

The last third of the book also went a bit off the rails for me. It's hard to discuss without spoilers, but let's just say the comeuppance wasn't aimed at the parties I expected...and that left me feeling a bit unfulfilled as a reader. Sure, a bit of penance was required...but some people sort of got off scot-free, and I just didn't want that for them. At the end of the day, Ember DID get the job and ostensibly learned a lot there...but again, no spoilers here: you'll have to evaluate the end of her journey on your own. After a such a strong stance against the blatant discrimination she faced initially, it almost felt like backtracking for Ember's story to end the way it did...and in a world that already is stuck in the past on these issues, I couldn't HELP but want more for Ember (and all of us!)

And while I can't tell you whether or not Ember learned her lesson FULLY, I can leave you with this:

You should never, EVER underestimate the underhanded brilliance of ANYBODY who works in IT.

3 stars

“I’m pretty sure this is a bad idea.”

The Truth According Ember was a story of what can happen when all those little white lies you told start to add up. Ember is twenty-five years old living paycheck to paycheck after her younger brother skipped out on bail and she lost the money she had saved to continue her college classes. After not even receiving a call for an interview after the umpteenth job application, she and her bestfriend Joanna come up with the idea to check the Caucasian box instead of the Native American one and fudge her credentials a tad bit. Lo and behold, she gets called in for an interview, lands the job and even finds herself soon promoted. However, the lies are starting to snowball and that little interoffice HR rule about not allowing romances, seems more like a suggestion when Ember and the IT guy Danuwoa have chemistry impossible to ignore.

I was just Ember Lee Cardinal, a sometimes liar, but mostly an overall good person.

This was all told from Ember's pov and in a way that readers are on her running thoughts ride, this isn't typically my personal favorite writing style. I started to feel it lead to overly describing on focuses I didn't care about anymore and thought paced in a way I started to find exhausting, if this style doesn't bother you, though, your mileage will vary greatly from mine. I also thought this had more of a New Adult chik-lit feel but for Ember being twenty-five, all of her pop culture references felt pretty dated (yes, I know about those quirky youngin's that love older movies (Say Anything) but all the references were like this). For the most part, Ember is a character you're going to root for, even when some of her white lies will start to have you stressed out and yelling for her to stop. Starting from a place unprivileged, she tries to out play a system that wants to keep her locked out of it. There's definitely confronting racism, sexism, and nepotism moments in this.

Being caught kissing him in front of the CEO’s nephew was the absolute worst thing that could ever happen.

Danuwoa comes into the picture pretty early, they have one of those relationships where Ember's always somehow embarrassing herself in front of him and telling him obvious lies to make herself look better (she's borrowing the car, not the owner of a 1996 holding on by a thread Toyota). Even though we don't get his pov, it's easy to read that he likes her and, mostly, finds her obvious lies amusing. However, I found the romance fairly weak, this is more Ember's new adult, coming into my own, slice of life story. For the vast majority of the story, Danuwoa is a paper doll, it's not until around 70% that we get a deeper look at his character and background, he has a younger sister he cares for because his parents died. He's the acts perfect, looks perfect interest for the heroine that I, personally, didn't find had much substance to his character make-up. They go on a work trip where suddenly, there's only one bed!, and we get a feeling required hot bedroom scene and from there you'll get all the buzz and bullet point words and phrases that stands in for emotional depth romance.

This all started because I just wanted to be an accountant, damn it.

The latter half is about Ember talking about how important this job is to her and thinking about how that HR rule about not dating could ruin things but inviting Danuwoa up to her floor for a hot quickie because her boss is supposed to be gone an hour, it just didn't fit right and felt ignore previous character building in favor of hot scene, so I guess, again mileage may vary. Danuwoa also proclaims once how important the job is to him but he's more of the “doesn't want to be a dirty secret” and wants to just come clean to HR. It, of course, all blows up in Ember's face, the romance and job lies, and we get Ember learning some life lessons and what she really wants out of life.

There's some family life issues going on for Ember, relationship with her brother, father, and community that I enjoyed, I found myself wishing this just would have been made a contemporary fiction coming of age and left out trying to add enough romance to get a romance tag. The relationship between Ember and who became a bit of a work mentor, Natalie, was one of my favorite relationships in the book, that friendship would have been great to see grow. Also, Ember learning to ask for help from her community and getting a talking to from her Auntie felt like it could have been a great heart of the story.

The writing style of riding Ember's thoughts, created a pace I started to find exhausting and along with a romance I didn't find myself invested in, had this not hitting the right mark for me but I also think there was some great coming of age and cultural issues threaded into here that definitely hit right.

These characters were so much fun and showed the struggles of trying to just get in the door. Once there it’s not as glamorous and it’s just a job anyone can do so why was it so hard to get an interview without marking the white box.
Ember kept telling little lies and some that she didn’t need to tell but she was projecting an image of herself. I Didn’t like a lot of the self important bros she worked with. As an auditor i cringed with all the stuff they said to her as she was just trying to do her job.
I did enjoy her relationship with Danuwoa the IT guy. Wish she wasn’t scared to have a real go at it before some silly antics but she doesn’t want to lose her first job.
She also has some family conflicts with her brother that are causing stress. Her roommate and bestie is hilarious and has no filter.

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley and the Berkley Besties program.

This is a zany story that follows Ember as one little white lie on her resume snowballs into more lies than she can keep track of. Some of them are innocent, while others start to get serious and impact her life, relationships, and even her new job. I didn't have an issue with her fibbing about her ethnicity on her job application. I know that is a real thing that happens and I wish companies would stop asking those demographic question. None of that actually matters when it comes to job performance. I had an issue when she started lying about her cat allergy and continues to lie about completely stupid stuff and then lies about stuff she knows is unethical but does it anyway. I know it was supposed to add an element of humor to the book, but the humor didn't always hit. It felt like she kept making a bigger mess of things instead of trying to straighten things out.

The author did a great job capturing the various types of aggressions that one experiences in an office environment. I've never worked at a start-up but I've worked in the corporate world for almost 20 years and have certainly experienced or seen misogyny and other types of questionable behavior during my career. Ember was really naïve and lacked experience, so I kept hoping she would ask someone for help or mentorship, even if it were Danuwoa. The two of them had great chemistry first as friends and then as a couple. If she were going to trust anyone it should have been him. It is addressed in the book why she has a hard time asking for help, and that makes some of her decisions and actions make more sense as we approach the end of the book.

I'm so glad that Berkley published this Own Voices Rom Com, and I hope to see more of them in the future.

The Truth According to Ember is delightfully entertaining while also holding precious space for the visibility of Native Americans. I absolutely loved this debut and am so excited to see what will be next for Danica Nava because she totally slayed with this book.

Can a meet-cute involve baby vomit and lies? Apparently so. When Ember Lee Cardinal, love her name, gets tired of trying to get hired for countless jobs only to be turned down because of her ethnicity, she decides to tell a little white lie that she's white and what do you know, gets a job in the corporate nightmare jungle where microaggressions and even more lies await. And when she meets the perfectly charming and disarmingly sweet Danuwoa, Ember is about to go through a whirlwind of love, lies, and maybe even. . .the truth.

This book was wonderful and while I am not in the minority that so desperately needed and needs representation in literature - especially the romance genre - I still appreciated the dynamics, the diversity, and the culture that was brought to startling life within these pages. I will definitely be tuning in for whatever else Danica Nava writes in the future. I highly recommend it, it's so so so good.

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

5 ⭐️ I don’t normally rate romcoms this high which is really saying something about how much I LOVED this book. This is a Native American romantic comedy with so much funny banter and tension and a forbidden work romance. If you want a fun spicy corporate workplace romance, this is it!

The romance was so wholesome and cute. I was giggling and kicking my feet A LOT! 🤭 I love this man. Dan is top tier book boyfriend material.

The author has a way of sucking you into the story I literally felt like I was the main character and was getting so much anxiety from her lies. She had me sweating 😅 It was also a hilarious with little crumbs of shrek and the emperors new groove. Iykyk

I’ve never heard of Native American food but the way the author wrote about it has my mouth watering 🤤 I want a friend corn burrito and fried cinnamon bread so bad now! I would love to learn more about the indigenous culture and would love to see more from this author and other indigenous authors. 😊

If you took anything from my review let it be this. Pick this book up right now! 👏🏼

✨ Review ✨ The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava, narrated by Siena East

Thanks to Berkley, PRHAudio and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

Okay. First, a big kudos to Nava for doing the work to get an Indigenous romance published. There are so few out there that this is a huge!

Ember's struggling to get a job in an office and so she lies on applications that she's white (not technically a lie, her dad is white) and that she has an associates degree in accounting. When she gets an interview and a job at a fancy tech start up though, and meets the hot IT guy, the lies continue to pile up.

I don't love stories built on lies and miscommunication and even though the IT guy picks up on many of these lies early, it's not my favorite romance trope/tool. But with that said, I love the ways this represented Indigenous culture and shope Indigenous people existing in the modern world. Nava sets out to carve space in the romance genre for Indigenous peoples and she nails it.

I also appreciated how this book grapples with the struggles faced by Ember and others like her moving into the corporate world. Similar to first-generation students struggles in higher ed, Ember has to figure out how to navigate new spaces and expectations. While this sounds decidedly unromantic lol, I love how she blended this in with Ember and Danuwoa's romance. The cast of side characters was also a delight! I'm back for whatever she writes next!

🎧 The audio was great. It brought me right into the story and I admit that I never went back to the print book!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: f/m contemporary romance
Setting: Oklahoma City
Length: 9 hours, 8 mins
Pub Date: August 6, 2024

I was so excited to read this book because I loved that both main characters are Native American which you just don’t see much of in romance. Kudos to Danica Nava for bringing these characters and their history to the page.

But while I loved the diversity of this romance and the cover which is gorgeous, the storyline wasn’t enjoyable for me. I could understand why Ember created her first line to get a better paying job and to start an actual career, but the lying just became too much and prevented me from really liking and supporting this character.

I liked Danuwoa and his relationship with his sister was super sweet but he wasn’t enough to carry this story past all of Embers lies and craziness at the workplace.

I do hope that the publication of this novel will usher in more Native American characters in romance!
Thank you for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.