Audio. Everything within and in between by Nikki Barthelmess

Narrated by: Frankie Corzo

Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins

Release date: 10-05-21

Publisher: HarperAudio

YA Fiction

To review

Maria, Ri, lives with her grandmother. Study hard, get into Yale or something, and live a better life than they did. She is also white passing and her grandmother thinks this is another great thing that will help her in life. They never spoke Spanish around her either and Ri knows nothing about her Mexican roots.

Ri did have this blind faith to her at times. Sure her grandmother was hard, but she genuinely wanted  a better life for her grandkid. Not having to work from dusk to dawn, not having people look at you like you might snatch their purse. But she also neglects that Ri might want other things and go make her own choices.

Which brings us to her choices. People tell her that this one guy might not want what she wants. But she thinks they are idiots. Sure, you are a teen, and sometimes they think with their lower parts. Then she tries something, and does not understand why her friends thinks that is a bad idea. I can't say I liked how she made everything into something else. Oh and last her mum, blind faith in the mom she has not seen for dunno, 12 years? If your mum loved you she would have come back, maybe listen to bitchy grandma for once.

So a bit too many bad choices, I can take some, but I had to agree with grandma, and dang that made me feel old. Can't blame it all on being a teen, I would not have tried cocaine is all I am saying.

But it is a journey book, you have to make some damn stupid mistakes to see what truly matters, good friends, family and love.

It also deals with some hard subjects when she is trying to find out who she is.

But I enjoyed it. It was a fast listen. A good read

Good narration. This was my first time listening to this narrator, and I would listen to her again. She did a great job with different voices and had the right feel of things

For Ri Fernández’s entire life, she’s been told, “We live in America and we speak English.” Raised by her strict Mexican grandma, Ri has never been allowed to learn Spanish.

What’s more, her grandma has pulled Ri away from the community where they once belonged. In its place, Ri has grown up trying to fit in among her best friend’s world of mansions and country clubs in an attempt try to live out her grandmother’s version of the “American Dream”.

In her heart, Ri has always believed that her mother, who disappeared when Ri was young, would accept her exactly how she is and not try to turn her into someone she’s never wanted to be. So when Ri finds a long-hidden letter from her mom begging for a visit, she decides to reclaim what Grandma kept from her: her heritage and her mom.

But nothing goes as planned. Her mom isn’t who Ri imagined she would be, and finding her doesn’t make Ri’s struggle to navigate the interweaving threads of her mixed heritage any less complicated. Nobody has any idea of who Ri really is - not even Ri herself.