Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet

YA fiction 

     The title of Laekan Zea Kemp's Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet could not have been better chosen.  It reminds readers that both can be present in life at the same time because people are complicated and life is complicated.

     Let me digress with an example from my life.  In May 2019 my beloved ❤️ tuxedo cat 🐈 😻 🐈‍⬛️ companion, Joey, was diagnosed with lung cancer.  Surgery wasn't a possibility.  But if I placed an ointment in his ear every night he'd regain his appetite and have weeks or even months of good quality life.  I was able to give him a whole summer, even managing to snag a turkey for a Thanksgiving in July.  I spent just about every moment I could with him--just the two of us loving ❤️ 😍 💖 ❣️ 💕 💘 each other.  For me it was bittersweet because I loved having this extra time with him but knew it would end.  He didn't get worse until two days before the end.  I was with him when his soul left his body.  

     Some parts of the book are like that.  

     "I love my father's restaurant.  Even though his owner's smile I can see that he's grown to hate it.  And even more he hates me being there, following in his footsteps...My friends.  My home.  That's what it is to me.  Everything."

     Pen is determined to spend her working life in her family's restaurant, Nacho's Tacos or to open a next door pastry shop.  She lives to cook food that delights the senses and nourishes the body and soul.  She's created most of the menu items.  But her parents want better for her, better meaning college and professional career.  When they find out she hasn't been going to classes her father fires her.  Her mother tells her that if she wants to live at home she has to go to school...

     ...as if that's going to happen.

     "Once, I was so fed up I tried contacting an immigration lawyer instead.  But three installments later, the guy was $800 richer and I was still at square one.  I went to his office one day to confront him only to discover that he'd disappeared."

     Xander was abandoned by his mother when he was very young.  Then his father sent him to America to live with his grandfather.  For years he's been trying to track down his father, to find out why he was abandoned.  Being undocumented adds precarity to his life.  He's yearning to find a place where he belongs.  When he starts to work at Nacho's Tacos, which is a community sanctuary as well as or maybe more than a place of business.

     "'Is J. P. a criminal?'

     Lucas shrugs.  'What else do you call someone who uses blackmail and intimidation to extort people out of their hard-earned money?  But apparently he can do whatever he wants...'"

     A low life with connections is trying to take down the community's small businesses and gentrify the neighborhood.  Sort of like urban renewal but with even less ethics.  He has his eyes on Nacho's Tacos.

     Readers who enjoy complex story lines and equally complicated characters will really enjoy this fine book and hate to come to the last page.  This is Kemp's debut YA novel.  Let's hope she's working on another.

On a purrrsonal note, I hope that someday I can meet Kemp.  I think we'd really hit it off for three reasons:

1)  In her acknowledgements she speaks of the importance of providing students of color with POC characters.  I think she'd like my labor of love blog the heart, soul, and mission of which is diversity and inclusivity.  Spreading the word is one of my favorite hobbies.

2)  She is a big fan of teens.  "Because they are incredible.  Because they are steadfast in their convictions.  They're passionate.  They're courageous.  They are everything we should strive to be."

Ditto.  It's why I'm putting off dining 🍽 until August to volunteer with Upward Bound.  And it's why I'm working my ass off (5 years down, 1 to go) to get my higher education degree.  So I can spend the rest of my life working with and surrounded by teens and young adults.

3)  We've both worked (in my case am still working) in food service.  I'm really close to my dining friends.  And when my first book is published they'll make it into the acknowledgements.

Jules Hathaway 

     

     

     

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