THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!! 

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Hello sassy people!
Today I’m gonna talk about one of my new favorite books, from one of my new favorite authors: Overruled by Emma Chase.

I loved this book really much for multiple reasons.
First of all, I loved Stanton and his personality. He is the perfect mixture of nice and mischievous. When we meet him, he is an 18-year-old boy, about to go to college, who just found out that his high school sweetheart is pregnant. He is prepared to give up on his life goals to be with her and take care of her.
His girlfriend insists on him going to college and getting his law degree, while also insisting on trying an open relationship, so he can enjoy life in college, while she stays at home, in Mississipi, raising their daughter and going to nursing school.

After that, we jump 10 years and Stanton is a defense attorney in a big firm in DC. His daughter lives in Mississipi with her mom and they both continue on their open relationship status, meaning that when he is home, they are together, but while in the city, they both have other relationships. His current relationship (which is more a friends with benefits than a committed one) is with Sofia Santos, another defense attorney in his firm. They’ve been “together” for 6 months when he receives an invitation to Jenny’s wedding.

Stanton is shocked and decides to go back home to get Jenny back. His life plans were all of a sudden destroyed and he is out of his mind, screaming at Jenny over the phone. So when he realizes that screaming will not work and that Sofia is great at placating him in those moments, he asks her to go with him.
What would you think if the guy you like, or at least enjoy “spending time with”, asks your help on getting the love of his life back? I would be horrified and doing it seems like a painful and horrible situation. But Sofia is strong and decides to help her friend, and this is an amazing aspect of this book, we see how they are friends even more than lovers, and that friendship shows throughout the whole book.

Now, if all of this wasn’t already amazing, there is a cherry on top of this delicious cake: Sofia is BRAZILIAN! For those of you who don’t know, I’m Brazilian and I just loved to see a good (amazing actually) representation of my country. Sofia is strong, bold, strong-minded, who is not afraid to say what she thinks. Her personality is one that I relate a lot to Latinas, fierce and spicy but at the same time sweet and so strong!
I need to have a little venting moment here. I’ve seen a lot of series and a couple of books where there were Brazilian characters, and that always makes me happy, but the happiness ends when the misrepresentation starts. Brazilians do not speak spanish, samba and salsa are extremely different, and for the love of God, I’m tired of books that only mention Brazil to talk about the female leads butt. Okay, the Brazilian stereotype is big butts, but there is a whole lot more to talk about our country and our people. And I am so happy to say that Emma Chase did an amazing, almost flawless job at representing us.
Sofia does not only have the personality but also has the language, the food, the geography, and the life story correct. Through the book we see her teaching Portuguese to friends, making Pão de Queijo on Sundays, which becomes a tradicion in their group of friends later in the book (also on the next ones), and at a later point in the book, having a short conversation in Portuguese.
She talks about her family, how they got out of Brazil and how her household works, how they value education and hard work because if there is one thing that is Brazilian is hard work, we might seem relaxed, but we work a lot for our goals.

One detail that I need to talk about is the reality of Brazil that she expresses here. Sofia talks about her mom, how she lived in Pará, and scaped to Rio de Janeiro, but only learned how to read when she was 16, learning from Sofia’s father. I will not say that Brazil doesn’t have illiterates, we have high numbers, but so do a lot of countries, while Brazil is 20%, the U.S.A. is 10% (according to the “2013 UN Human Development Report). My country is not just poor, it is not a war zone, people don’t escape Brazil because it is a hostile environment, people leave for better opportunities, just like I believe people in the United States do too. There is no country with no poor people at all, and I love my country and it makes me sad that that is the image other countries have of it. We have poverty, but we also have warm and happy people, we are animated and welcoming, and always excited to learn about other cultures and to welcome foreign people.
So even though what Emma writes in her book is one reality, it is not the only one, and I feel the need to defend my home because, despite it all, it is wonderful.

The quote above made me really truly happy, all through the book I thought the only thing that would make it even more perfect would be if a Portuguese word showed up, just one tinny detail that would make the story even more believable. So when, on the final stage of the book, we get a whole conversation, I was ready to include this author in my top 3 authors list.

Now, I can’t let this go… but it made not much of a difference and is a mistake that I can forgive, but there are two grammatical errors in the text. When translating the word way, instead of saying: “if they did what I wanted” they said, “if they did my path” which does not make much sense in Portuguese. And a small error in the plural of the word “iria”, which should be “iriam”. But despite this, the book was pretty much flawless and made me truly happy.

Now, I wrote about Sofia before, in my “7 Female Characters In Male-Dominated Jobs” post and I cannot write about this book without talking about the strength of this character, and how she fights for her job, how she fights to prove herself and how she succeeds. She is a role model for females on how to be strong, fearless, and fierce. She is a defense attorney on a big firm, handling male idiots as clients, working with a lot of male colleagues, answering to a male boss. Even though there are more and more female attorneys, there is no denying that it still is a male-dominated field.

And Sofia talks about it, which could not make me happier. About the struggle, about the harassment, about being strong, fighting, and appreciating what the women that came before her did, how it affects where she is right now, but how the fight is not over.

And now for the grades I give this masterpiece…

So, I guess that was all I loved about this book, if you remember something else I didn’t mention here, leave it in the comments, if you’ve read this book, tell me what you thought. 

Well, that is all for today, I hope you like this post, hope you enjoy these books if you decide to read them. Feel free to leave your opinion about it in the comments and I will see you next time! 

Bye sassy people! 

• I know that some comments I make about decent guys on my posts are the bare minimum a guy should do, so no, they don’t deserve to be treated like gods for doing the minimum, but at the same time, I’ve read a lot of sexist books and I appreciate authors who make characters that can serve as role models and examples of how a decent guy acts and what a loving and respectful relationship looks like. I believe we should always encourage these authors and bring attention to the ones that still write sexist characters and stories. 
• I make a lot of comments about sexism and healthy role models in books, but a lot of times these characteristics don’t make the book a bad book and definitely don’t make the author a bad author. Please never shame these authors and these books for these comments, I simply feel that we need to have awareness of the less than ideal situations some books bring us, and not use the romanticized problem as examples of what a relationship should be. Most of these authors are still amazing and the content they write doesn’t reflect directly with their personal views and opinions. Always make sure to respect and be kind to everyone, even while criticizing their content. 

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