Sometimes a book just doesn't work for me, no matter how much I would have wanted otherwise.

Let's start with the positive:

- The cover art is goooorgeous! It caught my eye very easily with the colour scheme and cute poses of the main characters.
- Indigenous representation: This was my first indigenous romance book, and I loved all the references and descriptions of the food, culture, and community. It also addressed the racism and discrimination that Native Americans face every day, which added depth and authenticity to the story.

Now, what didn't work for me:

- All the lying: It was hard to understand Ember's motivation behind her lies—not the fake CV to get the job (which isn't a spoiler, it's in the book description) but all the other small stuff. Extreme people pleasing, perhaps? Anyways, I just kept sighing throughout the book!

- Ember as a character made me feel anxious 😂: Her actions and decisions often left me feeling on edge.

- The most toxic workplace: The unacceptable and often illegal behaviour from management and other people in the company was overwhelming. I realise this might be a reality for more people than I know, and it is set in a country with very minimal workers' rights, but wow, this was a lot!

- The writing style: It didn't work for me. It was hard to keep up with the timeline of events, and I didn't feel any emotional connection to the characters.

- Lack of romance and comedy: The most important one—there wasn't enough romance and comedy for me in this romcom.

Despite my somewhat heavy criticism of this book, I'm glad I read it. As the author said in the afterword, "To write us in the pages of a love story, where we were never allowed to be—except as caricatures or stereotypes to help non-Natives along their journeys—is powerful." And I'm glad that readers have a better choice to read diverse romance stories that wouldn't have otherwise.
3/5 ⭐

Disclaimer: I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 56%

Firstly, I did not like this writing style at all. It was just pure rambling, felt incredibly shallow and made all the characters come across as young and immature.

Secondly, it was way too corporate. I knew it was an office based workplace romance, but by 30% that's all that happened, the setting hadn't changed, there was way too much detail about the job.

This is described as a romcom, but I have yet to come across anything funny. I am desperate for good banter between Ember and Danuwoa!

And the lying! I was obviously expecting it based on the blurb, but there was too much of it. It was mostly pointless, made me dislike Ember, and had me too anxious to enjoy the story.

I was really looking forward to this indigenous romance, but unfortunately there was nothing to hold my interest here - the story, the writing style, and the lack of humour in a book described as a romcom all let me down

so hot. so lovely. i enjoyed every second and was compelled to pick this up after seeing it all over social media. they were not lying!!!! i implore everyone stop what they’re doing and start this book immediately (or wait til it comes out!!)

I’m not sure how to rate this book because there were parts of it I really enjoyed but I really struggled to get past Ember and her constant lying - it drove me nuts. A cute romance with a swoon worthy male main character. Great representation and I hope to see more romance books by Indigenous authors published in the future.
3.5 stars.

The Truth According to Ember is a debut romance novel by Danica Nava told from the perspective of Ember. Ember Lee Cardinal is desperately looking for a job but she gets rejected for the thirty seventh time so decides to lie on job applications. Ember doesn’t disclose she is Native American and ends up getting her dream accounting job. Danuwoa Colson works at the accounting firm as the IT guy and he has insane chemistry with Ember. The only problem is their job has a no dating policy and they get caught in a compromising position on a work trip.

This was enjoyable and I was anticipating this in the first place because it is the first traditionally published Native American romance book. The writing was good for the most part although I did start to notice the multitude of exclamation marks. The romance was sweet and there was good chemistry between Ember and Danuwoa. The sexual scenes were done well and I can see Ember and Danuwoa working in a real relationship. My only issue was the lies got a bit too much even if I could understand why she had to lie.

I absolutely loved this book’ it’s a shame but ethnicity plays such a role in our careers both good and bad and it was so enjoyable to find a book that touched upon that! I feel so many people are going to relate to this title and I cannot wait to bring this to our readers!