The Sun is also a Star: Nicola Yoon

Natasha is an intelligent young woman whose belief in science is absolute. Her dream is to go to college and have a career in a practical and fact-based field. She doesn’t have time for love, fantasy, destiny or fate but as she has only 12 hours left in New York City/America before she and her family are deported back to Jamaica, Natasha might have to rely on any help the universe might offer her. She tries to make a last-ditch attempt to stay in the country but what she doesn’t bank on in her last hours is bumping into a quirky, cute boy and falling for him hard. Daniel has always been the responsible one. The second son of a Korean family who loves him but has made him live in the shadow of his more successful older brother. He worked hard and strove to make his parents proud. When his brother Charlie messes up his previously impressive life by getting kicked out of college, their parents shift their focus onto him. They expect great things including him getting early acceptance at Yale and studying to be a doctor. Neither idea appeals to Daniel as he would rather write poetry about life and love. On his way to his college interview, he meets Natasha and he is determined to prove to her that love truly exists no matter what it takes. With time running out for them to have the future that they dream of, will the universe interfere and send them down a different path together or are they fated to keep the hand they were dealt while being separated in the process? 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 I loved the setup for this story. Daniel and Natasha are complete opposites but somehow the fact that their lives are shaped both by their families and societal circumstance gives them a common bond. Daniel's sweetness softens Natasha's hard outlook on life while Natasha's pragmatic and strongminded spirit inspires Daniel to stand up for himself. They complement and empower each other as they fall in love. It was a complicated and emotional story that kept me gripped until the very last line. Beautifully written with incredible characters. I highly recommend it.

This novel begins as a simple tale about a girl who believes in science who meets a poet who claims he can make her love him by the end of the day. Natasha has time to kill – she and her Jamaican family will be deported in just twelve hours time – so she explores the streets of New York with Daniel, meeting his Korean family and answering his lover’s quiz. Both characters are funny and likeable and as the narrative viewpoint alternates between them, we learn what it means to grow up as an immigrant in America, trapped between your parents expectations and the prejudices of society. But what transforms this book into something truly special is the omniscient narrator who dips in and out to give us fleeting but powerful insights into the lives that briefly touch our two young lovers: the grieving driver who nearly knocks them over, the bitter and heart-broken waitress who serves them, the conflicted lawyer who tries to help. Unusually for a YA book, we are also given the perspective of both parents, so instead of being allowed to dismiss them as ‘the bad guys’ we are exposed to the pain of their own broken dreams. Nicola Yoon writes with a delicate hand so that whilst the conceit at the heart of the story (just one day to fall in love) might seem far-fetched it felt believable to me. Written with great wisdom and tenderness, this book is not just a celebration of love, it is a celebration of humanity, with all our flaws and weaknesses. As well as being a funny and uplifting story, The Sun is also a Star will help promote understanding and empathy between different races and generations at a time when we need this most. Nicola Yoon should feel incredibly proud of herself for writing this perfect little gem and I cannot wait to read Everything, Everything by the same author.

The Sun Is Also a Star, is a touching story about two teenagers who deserve the chance to get to know each other, but risk having it ripped away from them before it’s even really begun. The novel takes place in New York City, where Natasha is on a mission to save her family from being deported back to Jamaica. On her journey she meets Daniel, who, due to a combination of bizarre and seemingly meant-to-be moments, notices her from afar and feels that he must get to know her. Over the course of their day, Daniel tries to undermine Natasha’s belief that both love and fate aren’t real, and that science explains everything. It’s a beautiful read, consistently making me want to laugh and cry, and question my own opinions in regard to how the universe works. Firstly, I’d like to mention that the cover art for this book is absolutely stunning. Upon finishing it, I understood its meaning immediately: that every second, different people, things and circumstances are all brought together, and they clash to create an outburst of consequences that have a huge impact on the rest of our lives. We make hundreds of decisions every single day, and each of these decisions leads to a different future where hundreds of more decisions lie. The outcome depends on which route we take. The cover and the novel, both encourage readers to think about everything they do with an open mind, and to be careful with how we effect other people’s journeys. Leading on from that, I love how every event in the novel was interlinked with another, how every person we were introduced to either had a hand in how Daniel and Natasha’s lives played out, or vice-versa. It shows how even saying one kind (or rude) word to a stranger can influence them to make a huge life-changing decision. The novel also dealt well with racism and how young people cope with having extremely prejudice parents. Daniel’s father’s disrespect towards Natasha and his embarrassment, I felt was written incredibly well and worked towards giving the characters more dimension. It’s realistic to write, not only about two characters who are both considered minorities in Twenty-First Century America, but who also don’t conform to the stereotypes placed on them. Daniel’s issues with his Korean parents wanting what’s best for him instead of what makes him happiest, and Natasha’s father wanting what’s best for himself instead of what’s best for his family, gives them common ground which many readers will be able to identify with. Yoon portrays realistic family dynamics in showing that they are complicated and hardly ever perfect. Although I loved The Sun Is Also a Star, the reason I’m not giving it five stars, is that it was a little hard to get into. I think this was because the chapters started off very short and kept switching perspectives, however I understand that this was necessary to get the whole concept across. More into the middle I began to enjoy the short chapters because they gave us access to what each character was thinking in any particular moment. Something else that bothered me, was Natasha’s personality. As brutal as that sounds, she was a bit hard to like because of her pessimistic nature and how rude she was to Daniel at times, but as the story went on and he warmed her heart, she was much easier to read. The ending was absolutely amazing – so amazing that it brought tears to my eyes for literally no reason! I wholeheartedly recommend this book as it really can change your entire viewpoint on the world and our day-to-day lives. 4 stars to Nicola Yoon’s, The Sun Is Also a Star. Brilliant.

I love a YA love story, yes they can be a little Insta-love, but they are great, you can get lost in a fabulous book for a few hours, and when you look up, all is right with the world! This story is about a girl called Natasha, who is basically living in NYC illegally, her parents moved to America from Jamaica and never returned, they have been working, but a silly mistake by her father has now brought the authorities aware of their situation and the family are now being deported back to Jamaica. Natasha is obviously very upset by this, she came to America when she was very young so she thinks of it as home, she has never even been to Jamaica and has no desire to go there again, her school and friends are here, and she is looking forward to going to college, so she finds the one person that she thinks may be able to help her stay, a lawyer. Daniel is our other MC in this book, he is a Korean American boy, who is legal. His parents moved to the US many years before he was born. His parents are very strict and like him to be as Korean as he can. Daniel is about to go for an interview for a place in Yale, somewhere he doesn’t particularly want to go, but his parents (mainly his father) have pushed him into it, Daniel wants to be a poet. A ‘meet-cute’ happens, and the two meet and decide to spend the day together, Daniel does not know about Natasha’s situation. I loved the fact that this was not only told in dual POV, but it also goes into the background of some of the other characters so that you can see why they are the way that they are (if that makes sense) Because Natasha is Black and Daniel is Korean I loved the way that they explain their different cultures etc to each other, and that it wasn’t just fluffy ‘I love You’s’ in fact Natasha doesn’t believe in all that, she is a science geek, it is actually Daniel that is a hopeless romantic. I LOVED the ending, it was done so perfectly, i’m not sure if I would have liked it any other way! 🎧🎧 – Narrated as always beautifully by Bahni Turpin with Raymond Lee and Dominic Hoffman who are 2 new narrators for me, but made this book sound so good.

The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon is the story of two teenagers, Natasha and Daniel, who meet on a day that could change both of their lives. Natasha’s family are undocumented and are being deported back to Jamaica that night, but she is going to do everything in her power to keep her family in America. Daniel is on his way to an interview for medical school at Yale, but becoming a doctor is something his parent want not him, once he walks into the interview he feels that his life’s path will be set in stone. At the beginning of the book Natasha mentions that her mother always says that “Things happen for a reason” and this is a theme which is carried throughout the book. We see the impact of things which happen to others; the train driver who found God , the insurance actuary who lost his daughter, the lawyer who is having an affair with his paralegal. These things, although apparently inconsequential to Natasha and Daniel, have a profound effect on their lives. The connection between Natasha and Daniel is wonderful and comes across as very natural. They are two very different people, different backgrounds, different cultures and also very different in how they see the world. But all of this works, they compliment each other beautifully even though they may not always agree on things. Even though the book is set over only one day everything between them is believable. I think this is a book that needed to be written, it has many subtle messages that needed to be put out into the world. Nicola Yoon has done a wonderful job of addressing issues such as race and immigration, she did not shy away from it at all. It all comes across as believable and well informed. What more can I say? I loved it!

I loved Everything is Everything and so decided to read this. I got into it the more I read. The characters were convincing and it was interesting. I feel like it would be a good read for a teenager.

Another amazing book I loved that the story was a simply about a girl who loved science and believed that everything that happens has a scientific reason behind it, along comes guy who wants to try and convince this girl that he can make her fall in love with her by the end of the day and that it has nothing to do with science but fate and the way that they feel. The girl has nothing better to do with her day and its a really fluffy read that does get a little deep but it wasn't too much for me to handle so I thought it was brilliant. I found myself really absorbed in the characters lives and i was hoping and praying that everything would work out. Nichola Yoon writes this brilliant because there is the perspective of both he girl and the guy but there is also the perspective of the universe which is a great touch. Nicola Yoon approached the subject of different race and cultures brilliant and it was done softly she didn't say that oe was better than the other and because she was doing it from young people's eyes the problems where something that you could understand. I will read ANYTHING that Nichola Yoon publishes I love her work !!!

Despite going in with high expectations, I still found myself pleasantly surprised by just how much I enjoyed this book! Romance is not normally a genre I particularly enjoy, but I've been making an extra effort to give books like this more of a chance, especially if they come very highly reviewed as this one did. Nicola Yoon has been on my radar for a while, so I was excited to finally give her work a try! The words on the pages felt as fresh and vibrant as the front cover, and it was really unique despite focussing one one of my least favourite types of relationship - insta-love. Yoon's approach to this book was very unique. There were two main POVs, Daniel and Natasha, but there were still snippets of fact and other character POVs that kept the story flowing and provided a different perspective. I really liked the way this book was structured and the length of each chapter especially because it felt like a really quick read and stood out from others as well-written, contemporary and buzzing with both energy and intensity. Natasha and Daniel were really great characters, I liked the book's focus on racism between minorities and immigration (Natasha is an illegal Jamaican immigrant about to be deported and Daniel, of Korean descent, is being forced to live the 'American dream' by his parents who had it harder) which is something rarely covered in books. I have to say though, despite throwing in lots of other distractions along the way, the insta-love still made me eye roll just a teensy bit. Especially as Natasha was so dead-set against it! Some of the quotes in this book are clever and a little cute, but a fair few of them could be pretty vomit-inducing for most of the reading public. As the book was focussing on such serious issues, I really wanted to believe that this story could happen. But it struck me as . little too cringey to be feasible. Of COURSE Daniel is a poet (and boy, do we know it). Of COURSE he sees 'signs' and 'fate' in the most mundane of things. Of COURSE Natasha goes along with it and doesn't report him for stalking her like that. Of COURSE love wins all, even though they have only known each other for a day! Yeah, it definitely felt like a marmite book to me, but it won me round!