{ SUMMARY }

Something In Between by Melissa de la Cruz is about Jasmine de los Santos who has always done what her Filipino immigrant parents expected of her by studying hard to make them proud. She has ready to reap the rewards of her hard work in the form of a full college scholarship.

Unfortunately for her, her parents reveal that their visa had expired years ago and she couldn’t attend college and faced the threat of deportation. But Jasmine didn’t want to give up. Because when the rules you lived by no longer apply, the only thing to do is to make up your own.

{ IDEA }

I think the idea for this is what really drew me to the book. There has been a lot of talk in the book community about diversity and the importance of diversity, for which, I wholeheartedly agree. This book had such a unique perspective on the topic, it had something new and not talked about often in books, which I loved.

The focus on immigration was something I could relate with because I am also a first generation immigrant and I could really relate to the situation Jasmine was in. (Although I am here legally and do not face the threat of deportation).

I liked how it talked about the struggles, not only of the de los Santos family to avoid getting deported but how Jasmine worked to fit in with her peers, worked to please her parents and worked to balance the two worlds she was part of. I liked the attention to detail de la Cruz had with how Jasmine’s parents worked in menial jobs, the way they stuck together as a family, how polite Jasmine.

The little things in the book really made it authentic, honest and very moving.

{ PLOT}

Unfortunately, I would say this was my biggest let down. The book started off great and I was quite into it but as I progressed further, I felt the book began to repeat itself. Jasmine and her love interest, Royce, constantly broke up and got back together and it felt after a while that the book was going in circles.

The book is a medium-longish read of 406 pages and I felt a lot of it became irrelevant and repetitive, causing me to lose interest and get annoyed with the story line. There wasn’t much progression and some parts of the story were very dull and blurred together for me.

I will say however, the I did like the way de la Cruz showed the length of the process the de los Santos family had to go through. The court hearings, the papers, the phone calls…all these things added to the authenticity.

But they could have been done in a shorter, less repetitive way to have really, fully captured my interest.

{ CHARACTERS }

I loved the individuality of the characters by themselves.

Jasmine was such a sweet, hard working person and I could feel that coming through the pages of the book to me. I liked her as a protagonist and reading from her point of view was enjoyable. I loved how kind she was and how well she got along with her family, especially her brothers.

Royce was super sweet as well and I liked how different yet similar he was to Jasmine. I also liked how he wasn’t the typical rich kid with lots of meaningless friends and parents who didn’t care. He seemed like a real person and I liked how he, too, had real problems and insecurities.

The one thing that didn’t really work for me was the relationship between Jasmine and Royce. Yes, they were cute and yes, I did like them together. But I didn’t really get ‘the feels’ for them. I wasn’t jumping around in excitement and swooning like I had hoped and expected to, even though Royce was a total sweetheart. But, I did like how ordinary their relationship was and not over the top that you see in some books.  

{ FINALLY…}

I found this book to be very unique, realistic and touching. It was a great story, with minor let downs in the plot, but enjoyable overall! It was diverse, had great ideas and really opened my eyes to the threat that some people face with deportation, which is something I had previously never thought about or questioned. Check it out for sure!

What is a diverse book you are currently reading or planning to read?