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The Sun is Also A Star

"If he keeps talking I will love him, and I don't want to love him.  I really don't.  As strategies go, it's not my finest."
The Sun is Also a Star, by Nicolay Yoon, is the story of a girl who falls in love with a boy the day she is to be deported from America.  It's a very sweet story about fate and love and the way the universe lines things up for us.  We follow 17-year-old Natasha and Daniel as they spend the day...just one day...completely falling for each other.  This day also happens to be Natasha's last day in the US before she and her family are deported to Jamaica.  
This book was a bit sappier than what I normally read, and that's perfectly fine.  I enjoyed the romance.  I met may husband way back in 1999 when I was just 17 and fell head over heels for him immediately, so I'm a bit of a sucker for teenage romance.  This story made me feel all nostalgic and gave me plenty of warm fuzzies.  Don't go into it thinking it's all rainbows and sunshine though.  There are plenty of bumps in the road.
The cultural aspect of this book was very interesting.  Natasha's family is Jamaican and in America illegally.  Daniel's family is Korean and immigrated legally.  It was interesting for me to read about characters that were faced with immigration challenges as it's not something I know an awful lot about on a personal level.  
The book also touches a lot on how our family shapes us but doesn't define us.  Both Natasha and Daniel have issues with their parents.  Both are desperate to create and hold onto their own identities and make a place for themselves in this world.   

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