Salana Livingston did everything right, from taking her multi-vitamin to kneeling before bed to say her prayers every night. She followed the path her parents had planned before she was born, never questioned the role until the day a bus-load of sweaty kids from the Bronx got dropped at her parent’s horse farm.Tiago Alcazar knew a life of hard knocks. An incarcerated father, a missing and … and strung-out mother who left him to rely on his aged grandmother for most of his life.
Tiago runs the mean streets of the neighborhood that raised him, living hand-to-mouth, everyday a gift, if he can just make it.
Burdened by a world that only wants to see her as perfect, Salana finds her greatest confidant in a boy society has labeled as worthless. Their paths cross too many times for their stubborn hearts to deny the connection, but can the delinquent and the debutant defy the odds and overcome the social constructs that condemn them?
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5+ stars and a 2018 top read!
A privileged girl from Connecticut crosses paths with thug from the NYC projects and they fall in love, but Salt and Tiego’s story is so much more than that. They both suffer in their own ways and in each other find solace. Their love is raw and all-consuming and stays with you long after you finish. Salt is a beautiful tale of a real New York City only Mara White can write.
How can you write a review for a book that is basically the most beautiful thing you have ever been able to experience?
I literally just finished reading and I’m crying and I don’t even know why. The ending was wonderful and it was perfect. I just feel so connected to Tiago and Salana.
From the beginning the author introduces two characters that immediately grip your soul. I feel in love with them instantly. When they hurt, I hurt. When they were happy, I was happy. I was so invested in their lives. I rooted for them so hard. Especially for Tiago. Being born with less of chance to succeed because of where and who he was born to. Seeing his daily struggles, all of it was so touching. Understanding his behavior and the people he grew up around it was all like a in The Heights 101.
Salana Livingston is the opposite of Tiago in nearly everywhere. They basically had nothing in common but that didn’t matter to them. It was like the world stopped when they met and it was just them. In that moment I knew this book was going to be way beyond whatever I had expected. Salana basically has everything she could want in life. On paper the couple would never work but they actually do. They work so well. Their differences is what makes them so perfect, they learn and grow with them help of each other.
I’m sorry if this review isn’t really making sense but my emotions are all of the place and I’m just trying to get through to you guys just how much the book touched me.
Mara White’s writing has the perfect flow. Nothing ever felt forced or I never felt like anything didn’t make sense. It comes across straight away that the author has a deep understanding of where Tiago is coming from and got his life. She explained everything so well and made me feel like I was in the Heights myself. The description was so brilliant I could literally visualize myself in Tiago’s tiny apartment in the sweltering heat. The characters were so layered and with every chapter we got to know them even more and with every chapter a piece of my heart was lost to them.
I’m so sad to have to the end but that’s the beauty of reading. You never know when I story will change your life and affect you the way Salt did to me. I really really hope others read this book because I truly truly believe it’s is one of a kind.
I originally read this book about nine months ago and LOVED it so much! I was looking back and noticed I forgot to leave a review which, I hate that I forgot because Mara White deserves so much praise for this story. So I re-read it and did it all in one sitting….well I did have a few breaks. Lol
This is a beautifully written story about Salana Livingston and Santiago ‘Tiago’ Alcázar, two people who met by chance, not realizing how their stars were really a part of the same constellation. They first meet at the tender age of sixteen and know that their worlds couldn’t be anymore different if they wanted it to be.
Tiago grew up in the bad part of town in Washington Heights living in a rundown building that was polluted and full of drug addicts and people not wanting to better themselves. It was The only place he ever knew because his grandma raised him when his parents abandoned him for drugs and the consequences that came of them. He too would find himself falling in the same footsteps of his father.
Salana came from a well to do family of affluence and never wanted for anything…except maybe to find herself. She was sent to live abroad and got to a birding school in Switzerland where she would finish high school and then go on to a University and ultimately medical school. She was to follow in her father’s footsteps to become a doctor.
I love that Mara took us on their journey where they would come together and then be separated because of life and social standing. They’d eventually find themselves and know who and what they truly were to be. Mara wrote these very complex characters that we got to see change and grow into incredible people. This story will be with me always, it resonated deep in my soul. “Be the salt of the earth and you will become the light of the world.” These are words to live by. I definitely felts so many different emotions, it laughed, cried….boy did I cry, but I fell in love with this couple. You definitely want to read this story.
My first taste of Mara White’s breathtakingly captivating writing came from her forbidden and taboo romances Maldeamores & Malentendido, which are still two of my favorite books to date! These stories not only introduced me to this incredibly talented author, but to the Heights…a place we revisit in her brand new release about the delinquent and the debutant.
Salt is one of those stories that will captivate your heart and hold on for days to come. Salana and Tiago are an unlikely pair and yet they could not have been more perfect for one another. These two certainly kept me on my toes and I found myself falling deeply in love with them. Just like the author’s past releases this beautiful story captured me whole body, heart and soul. This story was raw and full of emotion. My chest ached and my heart swelled time and time again from beginning to end.
Once again I found myself devouring a Mara White original and loving every minute of it! I started this story late last night and finished it a few hours later. Trust me it was worth the sleepless night! One of my favorite reads ever! Mara White you have certainly outdone yourself with this one and I cannot wait to see what you come up with next!
4.5 “Salt Of The Earth” stars
The struggle between survival & flourish “Delinquent and Debutant” With Heights in NYC as a backdrop.
Mara has quite a hold on this setting and such stories. Her finger is on the pulse so authenticity is guaranteed. She has a knack of baring the nitty gritty with no holds barred, making her an out of the box thinker and narrator. This story was so interesting and out of my realm of relativity, I HAD to pick it up and devour. It’s heartbreaking but hopeful still, if you can allow this. There’s misery and penury and bare sustenance but hope is alongside. Inner city kids have it really rough, we all know this, but reading about it, IN DETAIL, gets graphic in Mara’s capable hands. it forces us to acknowledge and realise the magnitude of the problem these overcrowded cities face vis a vis crime, destitution, injustices, unfair treatments and gang violence.
Santiago Alcazar is a school dropout, living with his grandma in the projects of NYC. His junkie mom abandoned him and dad was nowhere on the scene. His hangout at his corner exposes him to drug dealing, gangs and hustle life. He’s severely struggling and barely manages to keep his head above the water
“His future was dead, the present was where he lived all of the time. Necessity and survival were words that ruled his life.”
On a “Fresh Air Fund Field Trip” he meets Salana, a rich privileged blonde angel, who volunteers and teaches horse riding.
Her-Salana Livingston, equestrian, high school student, darling daughter
Him-a young street punk trying his best just to keep his head above water.
Salana “Salt” is really as essential to this world as salt and is as down to earth as the salt it produces.
Her dedication and objective to contribute to the society is nobel and selfless.
As fate happens, they fall in love. Couldn’t happen more opposite of people
“Salana’s life looked like a Hollywood set, whereas his looked like a public service announcement for the dangers of drug use.
An ache for a different destiny, an alternate ending to the story. But there was no way of getting around who they were—she was born into a life of elite privilege and he, into the cold, hard fist of poverty. ”
The story travels good 10 years later and their chance encounter brings them into each other’s arms.
The story sails smooth but the incessant desire to find herslf and her purpose in life separates them and Tiago decides he can’t give anything except space. So that’s his gift to her.
“Sometimes there aren’t any choices. Life is a minefield. When you’ve got no choice but to go, you just step as carefully as you can.”
Life throws them one curveball after next, but they find sanctuary in their love nest bubble. Blocking out prejudices and judgements.
I loved the premise, the style and the theme. Mara is a gifted & prolific writer. Though underrated and under recognised at most times. Her sensitivity and sympathetic heart bleeds all over the pages and it’s energy transfers to the readers.
I’m her die hard follower and will continue to hoist her flag throughout my reading life