Loyalty is delighted to welcome Yamile Saied Méndez and Lilliam Rivera to celebrate the paperback release of Furia! This event is free to attend and will be held digitally via Crowdcast. Click here to register for the event. You can also order a copy of the book on our website to be automatically added to the registration list, and there will be an option to snag the book during the event.

A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB YA PICK
Recipient of the 2021 Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Medal

One of BuzzFeed's Must-Read YA Books of 2020
A Best Book of the Year: Cosmopolitan * Kirkus Reviews * SheReads * New York Public Library

“An engrossing #OwnVoices novel.”
—PopSugar

“This book will set your dreams on fire . . . It’s fabulous.” 
— Reese Witherspoon

A powerful contemporary YA for fans of The Poet X and I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter set in Argentina, about a rising soccer star who must put everything on the line—even her blooming love story—to follow her dreams.

In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan lives a double life.

At home, she is a careful daughter, living within her mother’s narrow expectations, in her rising-soccer-star brother’s shadow, and under the abusive rule of her short-tempered father.

On the field, she is La Furia, a powerhouse of skill and talent. When her team qualifies for the South American tournament, Camila gets the chance to see just how far those talents can take her. In her wildest dreams, she’d get an athletic scholarship to a North American university.

But the path ahead isn’t easy. Her parents don’t know about her passion. They wouldn’t allow a girl to play fútbol—and she needs their permission to go any farther. And the boy she once loved is back in town. Since he left, Diego has become an international star, playing in Italy for the renowned team Juventus. Camila doesn’t have time to be distracted by her feelings for him. Things aren’t the same as when he left: she has her own passions and ambitions now, and La Furia cannot be denied. As her life becomes more complicated, Camila is forced to face her secrets and make her way in a world with no place for the dreams and ambition of a girl like her.

Filled with authentic details and the textures of day-to-day life in Argentina, heart-soaring romance, and breathless action on the pitch, Furia is the story of a girl’s journey to make her life her own.

Yamile (sha-MEE-lay) Saied Méndez is a fútbol-obsessed Argentine American who loves meteor showers, summer, astrology, and pizza. She lives in Utah with her Puerto Rican husband and their five kids, two adorable dogs, and one majestic cat. An inaugural Walter Dean Myers Grant recipient, she’s a graduate of Voices of Our Nations (VONA) and the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Méndez is also part of Las Musas, the first collective of women and nonbinary Latinx middle grade and young adult authors. Furia is her first novel for young adult readers.

Lilliam Rivera is an award-winning author of the young adult novels Never Look Back, a Pura Belpré Honor winner, Dealing In Dreams, The Education of Margot Sanchez, as well as the Goldie Vance series for middle grade readers. Her latest works include a young adult science fiction novel, We Light Up the Sky, for Bloomsbury (Oct 2021) and a graphic novel for DC Comics, Unearthed: A Jessica Cruz Story (Sept 2021), both named “Best Books of 2021” by Kirkus Review and School Library Journal. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, the New York Times, and Elle, to name a few. Lilliam lives in Los Angeles.

Please note Loyalty has a zero tolerance policy for harassment or intimidation of any kind during this virtual event.

Yamile Saied Méndez and Lilliam Rivera for FURIA