carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life

I received an advance reader edition of this book from Random House Children's Publishing and Net Galley for the purpose of providing an honest review.

This book was a solid 4 star read for me. I thought the author did a wonderful job with a difficult topic. The book was well written and I thought that the characters felt authentic.

Laila is a teenage girl that finds herself thrust into a new life. Her family has been relocated to the United States after her father's murder. Laila must learn to navigate school and her family's new status quickly. She must learn to fit in with a new set of rules because every social aspect of her life has been turned upside down. Laila learns a lot of things about the reality of her father's rule and what type of leader he really was. She does make some American friends and begins to fit into American society. She also spends time with someone from her country, Amir. Amir is not someone that she would have spent time with back home but she learns a lot from him here.

This was the kind of book that made me think. Laila did not know what kind of ruler her father was. Are there cases like that in life? How would the sheltered family of a dictator actually know what was going on? Laila finds herself in a completely different social environment and actually does fairly well. I wonder if I would have been able to adapt so easily. I think one of the main things that Laila learns is to start questioning the information being given to her.

I would definitely recommend this book for really just about any reader. It is a YA book but I found it to be a wonderful read and let's just say that I am way beyond the YA category. I plan to read other works by this author.