Daunis Fontaine lives on the cusp of two worlds: the Anishinaabe world of her father and the other world occupied by her mother. She finds a home in both, though seems closer to the Native side. She has family there, and friends. She is invested in them and their culture. Her culture. She is as white as her mother, however, and sometimes finds it difficult to to fit in because of her skin color.
Jamie Johnson is new to town and falls in easily with the hockey crowd, becoming friends with Daunis’s brother, Levi. Daunis falls for him, quickly, but he’s acting suspiciously. After witnessing a murder, Daunis is drawn into an FBI investigation into the selling of meth among the different Native populations in the Upper Peninsula and into Canada. Her uncle, David, was also involved in the investigation and he died in suspicious circumstances a few months earlier. She is very smart and observant, and knows all the stories and secrets of the town.
The sense of community is wonderful and warm. Daunis finds family and friends in everyone, it’s so interconnected. She has support everywhere, for whatever she needs. And goodness, she’s going through a lot. First, the death of her uncle, which left her mother shattered and her grandmother in an assisted living facility because she had a stroke in the aftermath. Then, another death of someone close to her. She’s floundering, her Normal changing to the New Normal, and then to the Newer New Normal, as life does sometimes.
Between school and her new obligations, as well as grief and general stress over life, Daunis has trouble balancing everything. Her mind is constantly on the investigation and discovering new secrets about her tribe and her people. She is written out so intelligently and every other character has such a personality. I admire Daunis so much. She’s so strong and smart, throughout the story. She makes mistakes and she’s beautiful. Her connection with her community is something I admire and am deeply jealous of. I’ve never had a community, hardly even a family I could rely on. For her to have so many people on her side is enviable.
I was so intrigued by everything. I couldn’t think of where the story was going to go. It has so many possibilities and so much heartbreak. It’s full of angst and I love it. It’s also full of joy and community and healing and more hurting, too. About halfway through the book, I started to pick up on who was involved in the meth operation. I had my suspicions before then but they were confirmed at about that time.
I loved all the facts and stories Daunis shared about her people and the intersection between her mother’s family. It really helped to draw me in and entrench me in her thought process and motivations regarding the meth investigation, especially, and her feelings for Jamie, as well as her loyalty to her family, particularly her brother.
I didn’t mind the fake dating trope, though found the result too predictable. Also, it felt like Daunis just shrugged off her trauma, especially towards the end. This could be because of the large time jump at the end, where we fast forward into the aftermath and her future, skipping past much of the emotional recovery. I also would like a pronunciation guide to the language. Some of the words had this guide, as explained by Daunis to Jamie or someone else, but an intro or some extra bits after would be helpful, in addition to a glossary page. I was able to figure things out by context clues but having the information on hand would have been nice. The copy I received was an e-galley so I don’t know if, in its final printing, this was included.
There were also a few story lines that could have been fleshed out further. For something that I considered a big deal, we didn’t get to see any of the process behind the decision, only the result. Except not really the result, just the news on the decision made, not how it would impact Daunis’s life. And though Daunis was motivated by grief and the deaths of those closest to her, I felt her reactions could have been deeper, full of more feelings. Maybe her determination to help with the investigation tamped down on her grief a bit and made her more distant to her feelings. Or maybe her way of thinking and her cultural upbringing changed how she processed grief and loss.
Jamie Johnson is new to town and falls in easily with the hockey crowd, becoming friends with Daunis’s brother, Levi. Daunis falls for him, quickly, but he’s acting suspiciously. After witnessing a murder, Daunis is drawn into an FBI investigation into the selling of meth among the different Native populations in the Upper Peninsula and into Canada. Her uncle, David, was also involved in the investigation and he died in suspicious circumstances a few months earlier. She is very smart and observant, and knows all the stories and secrets of the town.
The sense of community is wonderful and warm. Daunis finds family and friends in everyone, it’s so interconnected. She has support everywhere, for whatever she needs. And goodness, she’s going through a lot. First, the death of her uncle, which left her mother shattered and her grandmother in an assisted living facility because she had a stroke in the aftermath. Then, another death of someone close to her. She’s floundering, her Normal changing to the New Normal, and then to the Newer New Normal, as life does sometimes.
Between school and her new obligations, as well as grief and general stress over life, Daunis has trouble balancing everything. Her mind is constantly on the investigation and discovering new secrets about her tribe and her people. She is written out so intelligently and every other character has such a personality. I admire Daunis so much. She’s so strong and smart, throughout the story. She makes mistakes and she’s beautiful. Her connection with her community is something I admire and am deeply jealous of. I’ve never had a community, hardly even a family I could rely on. For her to have so many people on her side is enviable.
I was so intrigued by everything. I couldn’t think of where the story was going to go. It has so many possibilities and so much heartbreak. It’s full of angst and I love it. It’s also full of joy and community and healing and more hurting, too. About halfway through the book, I started to pick up on who was involved in the meth operation. I had my suspicions before then but they were confirmed at about that time.
I loved all the facts and stories Daunis shared about her people and the intersection between her mother’s family. It really helped to draw me in and entrench me in her thought process and motivations regarding the meth investigation, especially, and her feelings for Jamie, as well as her loyalty to her family, particularly her brother.
I didn’t mind the fake dating trope, though found the result too predictable. Also, it felt like Daunis just shrugged off her trauma, especially towards the end. This could be because of the large time jump at the end, where we fast forward into the aftermath and her future, skipping past much of the emotional recovery. I also would like a pronunciation guide to the language. Some of the words had this guide, as explained by Daunis to Jamie or someone else, but an intro or some extra bits after would be helpful, in addition to a glossary page. I was able to figure things out by context clues but having the information on hand would have been nice. The copy I received was an e-galley so I don’t know if, in its final printing, this was included.
There were also a few story lines that could have been fleshed out further. For something that I considered a big deal, we didn’t get to see any of the process behind the decision, only the result. Except not really the result, just the news on the decision made, not how it would impact Daunis’s life. And though Daunis was motivated by grief and the deaths of those closest to her, I felt her reactions could have been deeper, full of more feelings. Maybe her determination to help with the investigation tamped down on her grief a bit and made her more distant to her feelings. Or maybe her way of thinking and her cultural upbringing changed how she processed grief and loss.