Jaya and Rasa. a Love Story

Recommended Fiction Book List for the 2019 In the Margins Book Award

Jaya's 17, a transgender Gujarati outsider who detests wealth, secrets, and privilege, though he has them all. Only thing 16-year-old Rasa has is siblings, plus a mother who controls men like a black-widow spider. Neither one of them has ever known real love or family. Not until their chance meeting one sunny day on a mountain in Hau'ula.

Author: Sonia Patel
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
Published: 09/19/2017
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.10h x 5.90w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781941026861
Audience: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2017
Booklist 09/15/2017 pg. 61
Voice of Youth Advocates 12/01/2017 - Recommended - Better Than Most
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2018 - Below Average, With Minor Flaw

About the Author
Sonia Patel knows teenagers inside and out. As a child and adolescent psychiatrist, trained at Stanford University and the University of Hawaii, she has spent over fifteen years listening to and understanding the psyche of teenagers from all walks of life. She's also been a teenage girl herself, growing up on Moloka'i as a first generation Gujarati-American.
As a writer, Sonia is passionate about giving voice to the underrepresented youth she treats. Her YA debut featuring a Gujarati-Indian American teen, Rani Patel In Full Effect, was a finalist for the Morris Award and was listed on YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults and Kirkus' Reviews Best Teen Books of 2016. Her second YA novel, with a Gujarati-Indian trans boy and a mixed ethnicity girl, Jaya and Rasa: A Love Story, was selected for the 2019 In the Margins Book Award Recommended Fiction Book List. She chose South Korea as the setting for her third YA novel, Bloody Seoul, because of her extensive treatment experience with Korean and Korean American teens on Oahu (and her love for the Korean gangster film genre).
Watch Sonia's video for the Child Mind Institute, where she speaks about her experience with anxiety and depression, and the words of wisdom she would tell her younger self.