The Truth According to Ember ended up on my reading list because of social media. When the ARC was released author and reviewer folks who I follow were promoting it because they liked what they were reading, but also it is a romance by and about Native people published by a mainstream publishing house (in this case, Berkley). While I didn’t receive an ARC, I was interested enough to keep an eye out for publication, and once that happened, I immediately placed myself on the holds list with my library system.
I am pleased to say that I am happy with that decision, and glad to have read Danica Nava’s debut novel. Once you read the author’s note this is obviously a write what you know scenario, which gives the story a lived-in, highly detailed reality that can often only come through from having been in the scenarios. Danica Nava is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and works as an Executive Assistant in the tech industry, which lines up with the background and trajectory of her lead, Ember.
From Goodreads: “Ember Lee Cardinal has not always been a liar—well, not for anything that counted at least. But her job search is not going well and when her resumé is rejected for the thirty-seventh time, she takes matters into her own hands. She gets ‘creative’ listing her qualifications and answers the ethnicity question on applications with a lie—a half-lie, technically. No one wanted Native American Ember, but white Ember has just landed her dream accounting job on Park Avenue (Oklahoma City, that is). Accountant Ember thrives in corporate life—and her love life seems to be looking up too: Danuwoa Colson, the IT guy and fellow Native who caught her eye on her first day, seems to actually be interested in her too. Despite her unease over the no-dating policy at work, they start to see each other secretly, which somehow makes it even hotter? But when they’re caught in a compromising position on a work trip, a scheming colleague blackmails Ember, threatening to expose their relationship. As the manipulation continues to grow, so do Ember’s lies. She must make the hard decision to either stay silent or finally tell the truth, which could cost her everything.”
The Ember we meet at the beginning of the book is tired, and fed up, and feels like she’s running out of time. She makes some choices, and then makes some more choices, and the lies and half-truths start to snowball. For Nava’s sake I hope her own story wasn’t filled with even half of the lying and obfuscating that Ember does because it was A LOT and put me on edge. But I also could empathize with it, with the emotions that swirled around in Ember’s heart that made lying to everyone (including herself a bit) feel like the only choice to keep moving forward. I was also delighted by her humor and heart, and how well those things were seen by Danuwoa and how having someone who gets you and is in your corner can be what you need to start fully living your truth, whatever the consequences.
This one isn’t perfect for me, I wish we had Danuwoa’s POV (this is told in 1st person singular) because how we see him is colored by how enamored Ember is, meaning that he kind of sits at the too-good-to-be-true category the whole way through. There are times when Ember comes across as even younger than her early twenties, and her seeming inability to stop lying aggravated me. As a debut it suffers a bit in the telling instead of showing category as well, but not so much to have me round down instead of up to 4 stars.
Bingo Square: Free (Replacing Fanfic).