3.5 stars rounded up.
Natasha is a Jamaican Immigrant in the country illegally. Daniel is a Korean American, desperate to find himself and get away from his parent's expectations. They meet randomly one day on the streets of NYC, and Daniel is convinced that he can make Natasha fall in love with him in a day.
I went back and forth between three and four stars with this one. I liked Natasha's story: Her deportation dilemma & family issues. But the insta-romance was too cheesy, and Daniel's character was a little too much of a hopeless romantic for me to care about his feelings. And despite them having some cute moments, I don't think Him and Natasha would last in an actual relationship. I wasn't convinced that their chemistry outweighed their differences. I do like that Natasha was a logical realist. She wasn't immediately swayed by his charm. She was annoyed by his crappy poetry & even called out his silly idea of falling in love with someone you barely know.
I also liked the little side pov's from other characters they interacted with. (Except that stupid lawyer and his assistant. I almost knocked off a star for that. 🙄) the realistic open-ending was very fitting. Daniel's family issues felt a little flat compared to Natasha's and I never felt like he had any real problems. His beef with his brother felt unresolved. (I still want to know what really happened at Harvard??) I feel like I would have loved this book 10 years ago when I was naive about love and didn't know any better. The idea of fate and falling in love in the span of days isn't exactly a bad trope. It's just one of those things that you either love when it's done well, or hate when it's not. I just wish Daniel wasn't so cringe. Then maybe this could've been a five-star read. Maybe. Should I watch the film? I feel like I would enjoy it more than the book, so I might give it a shot.
You can find this book at your local library, on Amazon, or wherever books are sold.