Thank you to Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am always a big fan of reading stories about POC and I loved the way Spanish was seamlessly interspersed in between English. It was unapologetically foreign and I loved that.

I was drawn to the synopsis of the book, specifically the following part: "When the club’s activities seem to fall further on the side of nefarious, Sol and Ethan must come together to uncover what’s really going on, and Sol begins to understand that fitting in is just as hard as being yourself, sometimes even harder." However, I didn't feel like we saw that Sol and Ethan came together to uncover what was really going on. To be honest, they just got together and that was it. I didn't feel like there was any character development which made the book quite static.

I will say that I enjoyed the club and what it was up to but I would have loved a reason as to why they did the things they did - was it for political reasons? Historical reasons? If these reasons were provided, the book would have felt more polished. I also felt, with the title, that there would be more history involved?

I absolutely powered through this book at incredible speed. The characters were incredible and vibrant and settled right into my heart while I was reading. The characters and the way they were written is what really stood out to me.

Despite the incredible characters I found myself lacking interest in the story itself - the characters held me through but the story was a little flat for me.

I was really interested in the premise of this book and it was a mix of highs and lows for me. I enjoyed some of the aspects of the plot and the character development, but ultimately was left with a feeling of wanting more. The secret society aspect of the story was okay, but I wish more time had been spent on character development as a whole.

What worked for me: the premise was interesting. The characters were likeable and I felt like I was invested in Soledad"s story. Also, the cover is fantastic!
What didn't work: this story just kind of fell flat for me. I wanted more of Soledad and her family's story and less of the history club/secret society that just felt improbable.

Historically Inaccurate
Author: Shay Bravo
Genre: YA Multicultural
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ • ✨/ 5
Reviewed: Maya

Soledad ‘Sol’ Gutierrez is trying to survive college after her mother has been deported to Mexico and begins the unorthodox initiation process to join a history club. I really enjoyed the diversity in this book and I thought it was very well done. There was a really honest conversation about labels and not conforming into a singular label, which was beautifully written and not like anything I had seen in any other book. The characters, especially Sol, were well-written and all had unique traits. I loved how Sol wasn’t anywhere near perfect because it allowed for the readers to connect more with her. I would have liked to have seen more of Anna’s life because although she was an important character, her story was only brushed over which was disappointing. What didn’t work for me was the lack of action and plot. I found the book to be very slow-going and I didn’t have the drive to keep reading it. The storyline and the plot felt very flat and slow, until the last 20% of the book when it became too rushed. I think the book overall needed to have more action so that it could have been more engaging. I would recommend this book for fans of slow-paced novels rich with diversity and contemporary feels.

Huge thanks to NetGalley, Wattpad Books, Smith Publicity and of course Shay Bravo for providing me with this free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is set for the 29th of September, 2020.

This review will be published on the 26th of May, 2020 on Goodreads and Instagram. The links will be added once the review has been published.

I just finished “Historically Inaccurate” by Shay Bravo. I received this book as an ARC through NetGalley. This book is not necessarily something I would pick up for myself in a bookstore or library. It’s a work of realistic fiction, and I’m more of a sci-fi, historical fiction, horror fiction gal.

This story takes place in California where our main character, Soledad, is in the middle of her freshman year of college, all while dealing with the sudden deportation of her Mexican mother by ICE agents. Due to this major life event, Soledad has become somewhat of a loner. She decides to join a history club on campus after her parents and her best friend suggest getting out of the house would be good for her. The history club becomes way more than Soledad bargained for, and she ends up breaking into a house to steal a fork as a club initiation. This minor felony leads Soledad to meet Ethan and sets up the rest of the novel.

I would give this book a 3 out of 5 stars. The plot was somewhat interesting, but the character development left much to be desired. I was often at a loss as to what characters looked like. Ethan, one of the main characters, didn’t even get a description until halfway through the book. There was also a lot of ambiguity around the sexual orientation of characters. I’m all for LGBTQ+ lit, but the way this was written almost felt like it was thrown in as an afterthought.

My BIGGEST complaint about this book was the grammar and word omission errors. I must have encountered 30 mistakes throughout the book, mainly word omissions, which really threw off my reading flow. I’m by no means the grammar police, but if a book is about to be published, it really should be edited way better than this one was.

This book is a good read if you like realistic fiction. It has a great Latina main character, and it’s nice to read books where the cast isn’t all white people. There’s a lot of Spanish in this book too, which made it feel more authentic to Soledad’s Mexican heritage.

An ARC of this novel was sent to me by NetGalley for reviewing purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really felt that this book fell short for me.

I really wanted to like Historically Inaccurate, but honestly it wasn’t for me.

The novel follows Soledad Gutierrez, a college student who is dealing with the aftermath of her mother’s deportation. In an attempt to meet new people, she joins the history club and find out that their initiation process is a little different than other clubs. In order to be a member, she has to break into the oldest house in her town and steal a fork.

The premise of the book sounded super interesting. I really liked the historical motifs that were scattered throughout the novel. I also adored Ethan and the way he respected Sol in their relationship. He doesn’t push her and lets her do things at her own pace. He's honestly such a little cinnamon roll.

But I do have few issues with the book, one being that some of the conversations are in Spanish. Most of her conversations with her father (which I think are the most important ones in the book) are in Spanish and I couldn’t understand what was being said. Though I could piece some parts together (shout out to my amazing high school Spanish teacher Mrs. Rose and google translate), most of the conversation flew over my head. I know that Sol’s identity is very important in the novel, but there was this huge language barrier between me and Sol and I couldn’t get past it.

Another issue is the representation within the novel. I love that this is a POC book and is very inclusive towards other sexualities. I also really appreciated the scene with Sol dealing with microaggressions because it’s honestly a huge problem that minority groups deal with on a daily basis. However, I don’t think it was very clear on the sexuality and races of the other characters. I think that if you’re writing a book that stresses the importance of representation and identity, it should be clear on that with the other characters as well, not just the main protagonist.

Overall, despite having some flaws, I feel like Historically Inaccurate has a lot of potential and offers an important perspective on the LatinX community. It sheds a lot of light onto the ramifications of what happens when families are separated and the ones who are left behind to pick up the pieces.

Thanks to Smith Publicity for providing a digital ARC of Historically Inaccurate in exchange for an honest review!

This book was so much fun! A secret prank society? A diverse cast of characters? Enemies to lovers? Beautiful. Wonderful. Iconic.

I want to talk about how this book manages to be a) diverse b) diverse without being diverse for diversities sake. YA-lit continues to become more and more queer & racially diverse which is super incredible (love us for that) but also leads to a lot of minority characters being written either as stereotypes or indistinguishably from white cis/het characters. Every character in this story had their own unique identity and personality and there was literally a conversation about characters trying to figure out labels because of how hard it is to stereotype and classify the inbetweens of straight and gay (which is a conversation I don't think I've seen in any YA books before and as a part of that in between I've had it at least once a month so loved that).

So yeah! This was fun, original (but also wonderfully tropey), and the best kind of diverse.

Soledad “Sol” Gutierrez is just trying to keep her life together after her mother’s deportation to Mexico. As if holding down a part-time job and full course load weren’t enough, Sol decides to join the history club at her Californian community college. But the club comes with an odd initiation process: break into the oldest house in town and steal a fork…?

A little unorthodox, sure, but Sol is determined to get into the club. There’s just one problem: Ethan Winston, the grandson to the owners of the house and the one person (literally) standing in her way. When the club’s activities seem to fall further on the side of nefarious, Sol and Ethan must come together to uncover what’s really going on, and Sol begins to understand that fitting in is just as hard as being yourself, sometimes even harder.- Goodreads

I wanted to like this book. Sol was an engaging character that had a whole lot of personality and backstory. But she couldn't save this read no matter how much I liked her.  

The problem that I had with this book is by 40% I had no idea where the story was trying to go. Was it going to move in the direction where Sol tries to get her Mother back to the States? Was the club some kind of secret organization prepping students to commit big heists? And why was Sol not questioning anything? I felt lost and it was frustrating. 

Although my questions did get answers,  I felt that there wasn't a clear direction. There is nothing wrong with build up but make it make sense. 

I really enjoyed reading Sol (and the cover is freaking gorgeous) and was disappointed with how the story was going and it caused me to lose interest. 

Overall, 

2 Pickles