An interesting story of an undocumented immigrant who came here to be with her parents as a child, and stayed. How she navigated a world without the appropriate papers, and through hard work and determination ended up becoming a Wall St executive, all while trying to hide her past and lack of legal status….and the emotional toll all of that took in her life.

Oh, what a story, and I bet she's not the only undocumented person to have a story like this. Her story brought me to tears and her strength and determination to live the American dream made me realize how easy I have it.

overall this book was very interesting and a wonderful story to be told.
But i felt as if this book could have used some heavy editing to make it a lot more readable and an enjoyable read.
It was an interesting life story non the less and worth a try if you are interested!

It's difficult to understand someone's life until you walk in their shoes. After reading the author's live come to life in the pages of this book. I am blessed I did not have to go through her hardship in high school and college. She has come a long way. It's too bad the current political situation will become even harder, who are following in her foot steps. To understand the immigration landscape, this book should be required reading. All the bad luck for her parents comes down to their dreams and aspiration to make a better life in the land of milk and honey, also known as the United States. It's not so bright when reading this book, though. The fear the author had to live through is rough and mind boggling.

I commend Julissa Arce for her drive and intensity, she has every right to be very proud of her accomplishments while under constant stress and at risk of deportation. Since she mentioned her intention to write a follow-up book, I wish she would have stuck to the roadmap indicated by her subtitle here; but instead she continued past her Wall Street career when the story became as all-over-the-place as her life struck me as being (multiple failed startups, weird religion involvement, random and short-lived commitments to various philanthropies). It's cool that she was covered in Elle magazine, I would've liked to have seen excerpts. I could end my review right here and be fine, but I do have many thoughts about why I didn't like this more.

Arce is a competent writer, but comes across as rather immature and rash to me, i.e., her residual issues stemming from missing her quinceañera, and the extent to which she waxed on about the significance of her tattoos. While I did not like how self-involved she is, I get that that's part and parcel of the memoir genre. But omg this made me chortle: "Over the course of 2015, I would have hour-long conversations with some of the most recognized producers in Hollywood and meet with some of the most iconic business leaders in the United States. Every single one of them was intrigued by my story." It's hard to mock someone who survives such an epic journey, for coming across as self-congratulatory; but there are many successful memoirs out there about how great people are, that do not grate.

Fibromyalgia is a terrible illness that is stress-related and tends to target a profile that Arce personifies - Type-A female in 30s; but to me she seems woefully uninformed as to its proper treatment. I found other contradictions as well, like how much she's sacrificed and how hard working she is, but then she doesn't know how to cook rice? And instead of going back to work after she gets her green card in the morning, she takes the entire day off to celebrate? Not only that, but she calls her newly unemployed husband at his temp job and makes him leave early too? That doesn't strike me as very professional.

There were several interesting aspects of her unique life that I really wish she had addressed. Her loneliness for example, it seemed she craves a loving relationship with a spouse but can't help prioritizing her family members. It would have been interesting to learn when and how she found religion - her prophet Jim Laffoon of "Every Nation" faith is quoted as saying that EN is part of God's plan to retake the world from the devil. Hmmm, ok. I wonder when she found religion, and what her family made of EN or how it aligns with Mexican Catholicism. She mentioned she's not the only Hispanic woman at Goldman Sachs, but she doesn't tell us how they interacted or why they didn't. Furthermore, there has long been a stereotype that Latinas (like Asian women) are subservient and submissive, and I'd be interested to hear her address that; but I'm not sure she's even aware of it aside from acknowledging how naive and sheltered she was and detailing (to a cringe-worthy extent) how long she was taken advantage of by such and such an ex.