Five stars is not enough. Rom-coms are hard for me to get into, because so many of them kind of feel sweet and empty: the romance equivalent of those dry Safeway sugar cookies with the cheap frosting and dollar store sprinkles. Like, I'm not denying that they are comfort eating for some people or that they taste sweet, but I personally don't like them and they make me feel empty and kind of sick. NOT THIS BOOK, THOUGH. Seriously, STREAMS AND SCHEMES was everything that I do like in a romance novel. The romance equivalent of eating a molecular gastronomy cookie made with cloudberry mousse and yak butter, or something like that. AMAZING.
The heroine of this book, Valeria, is my absolute favorite. She's a camgirl and she loves her profession, and she is totally sex positive without being cringe. I also loved that she was Mexican and how the author portrayed both the positive and negative sides of what it can mean to grow up in that culture. Also, she SIGNS MEN UP for romance authors' newsletters when they piss her off. Genius.
The hero, Lander, is my new book boyfriend. An intimidating lawyer built like a tree who's a consent king in the streets and a "take it you little slut" in the sheets? We stan. He did the absolute sweetest gestures for the heroine and every time I didn't think I could swoon anymore, I did. He might be one of my favorite rom-com heroes of all time after Callum from MORBIDLY YOURS. I loved him.
These two are neighbors and are aware of each other-- possibly more so than either would suspect. When they get a text message saying that a ballistic missile is coming to DC in less than twenty minutes, Valeria goes to his door and they end up tearing each others' clothes off. And then they find out that the missile was a false alarm, so that last-fuck-on-earth is just hanging between them like a glittery dildo on a string, daring them to make eye contact with their unwanted sexual attraction. This book is so funny and has a lot of heart, and I will absolutely be diving into this author's backlist.
CLEVER CREATURES OF THE NIGHT is such an interesting book, part gothic, part survivalist horror. There's a very isolated and desolate vibe to the book, almost dystopic, and I would describe the vibe as "assemble style gothic": the heroine ends up in a remote area, trapped with a somewhat large cast, all of whom have something to hide, when she goes to first seek out answers about why her friend invited her to a rural Texas house out in the middle of nowhere-- and then, later, why she appears to have gone missing.
The 2.77 rating shocked me because the writing style is fantastic and Mabry did a great job writing an unlikable but relatable heroine. Apart from the somewhat surreal atmosphere and, I guess, slightly anticlimactic ending, the unlikability is the only thing I saw that would even slightly warrant a rating like this. And even so, I feel like I can think of similar titles that didn't elicit a reaction like this.
Personally, I fell in love with this author's writing after reading TIGERS, NOT DAUGHTERS, and knew I would have to read everything else she ever wrote. The MEXICAN GOTHIC comp is honestly fairly on-point, maybe with a dash of SADIE by Courtney Summers. If you're into raw and visceral young adult books, with fierce girls and a hint of tragedy, you'll probably love this book.
This scratched the dark academia itch I've been touting since starting the Zodiac Academy series: girls with cut-out hearts, creepy cults, and town founders with too much time and power on their hands, Hollow Oak is not a safe place for the unwary. Luckily, Luz, a half-Puerto Rican wunderkind who speaks four languages and has a whole J. Crew-inspired closet full of dark secrets, is hardly unwary.
Why Choose? is not normally a genre I gravitate too, but I just loved the academia setting so much. I also liked all the Blackwells, especially Locke (he gives major Lance Orion vibes, so if you stan Blue x Orion, you'll probably love this book). Allister, Nixon, and Everest were all interesting too and I'm excited to learn more about them.
For some reason, I was expecting a supernatural element, but this feels more like a horror movie pastiche. I was reminded of Wednesday, Happy Death Day, Trick 'R Treat, and Scream, in particular. Most of the gore is on the DL, although there's one pretty gory torture scene towards the middle that was very hard to read. It's not integral to the plot, though, so if gore is hard for you to handle, you can totally skip over it without missing anything.
The book ends on a major cliffhanger, with a potentially large twist. I still have so many questions and I'm very excited to have them answered when I read more from this author. What a stellar debut.
Happy Hispanic Heritage Month! While you should ideally read diversely year-round, I'm trying to supporting Hispanic/Latinx authors by reading all of the Hispanic/Latinx-authored books on my Kindle that I couldn't get to throughout the rest of the year.
A TASTE OF SAGE was an impulse buy for me (aren't they always?). I'm a sucker for food-themed books, and the idea of an enemies-to-lovers romance between two rival chefs who both favor the cuisines of their childhood really spoke to me. Also, it's a bit of a workplace romance, too, because when Lumi's business goes under forcing her to job hunt, she ends up being forced to work for Julien.
I was shocked at how low the ratings were for this book... until I got to the halfway mark. You see, throughout this book, recipes are interspersed at key points so you can make the food the characters are talking about-- which is a great touch. Or it was, until one of the characters gets grievously injured in a kitchen and this horrendous accident is followed by... you guessed it. Another recipe.
Talk about tonal whiplash.
I think books like these are actually the perfect examples of situations where illustrated covers don't work. I saw a TikTok (I believe it was by chels_ebooks) that talked about how old skool romance covers were usually a pretty good indicator of the spice level (although not always). If the lady looked prim and dainty on the cover, it was a likely bet that it was going to be a "clean" regency romance. And if the lady was bursting out of her top in the aggressive embrace of the hero, the likelihood of spice (and probably dub-con) goes up in the mind of the person looking at the cover, and they can make their purchase accordingly.
When people look at illustrated covers, they picture light and sweet, so when a book has a cutesy cover but actually has really dark and depressing moments, readers can feel consciously or subconsciously cheated. I feel like a better cover for this book would have been a wooden table with photographs of food, and the table could be covered with chopped herbs. Maybe a picture of a knife in the foreground. I think that would have hinted at the food, the magic-realism, the homeyness, and also a little hint of menace (subconsciously) because of the knife. The illustrated cover here really does not work.
I actually really liked both characters and loved the recipes. I don't think this book is as bad as everyone says it is, but the tonal shift was definitely a game-changer that impacted my overall enjoyment of the book as a whole. But ultimately, the magic-realism, the ode to Dominican fusion, and the premise of two flawed and headstrong characters falling in love ended up saving the book for me. Just go into this book knowing that it gets a little miserable for a while halfway through, and if you or someone you know recently suffered from a bad burn, this could potentially be triggering.
WOW. This was an emotionally draining read. It actually reminded me a lot of some of the epic bodice-rippers of the 70s and 80s, like Natasha Peters's SAVAGE SURRENDER, in how it follows the characters from a young age over the course of their entire lives. I wasn't actually sure how I got a copy of this book because I didn't remember buying it, but then I realized that it was a freebie on Kindle during World Book Day a few years ago.
THE PRICE OF PARADISE is set in Cuba during the late 1940s/early 1950s, pre-Castro (during Batista's reign). At this time, they are having a mob problem. The heroine, Gloria, is the beautiful child of two sweet shop owners, but one day she catches the eye of one of said mobsters, a creep named Cesar Valdes. He makes it his business to court her and SHE'S THIRTEEN by the way. When courtship doesn't work, he has people bash up her parents' shop and kills the birds he gifted her. Her parents are shocked into health problems and Gloria ends up becoming his child-bride at fourteen.
The hero, Patricio, is an escapee from Spain. I believe he came to Cuba to escape Francisco Franco during Spain's fascist period. He lives in relative poverty but ends up making friends with two guys who end up becoming his ride-or-dies. After a period of shoe-shining, he comes to work at a luxury department store, which is how he encounters Gloria: while making a delivery of ceramic animals, he accidentally runs into her and smashes the lot.
The rest of the book is a turbulent sea of pining, danger, murder, double-crossing, triple-crossing, and mob shit. People who don't like books where the hero and heroine spend time with other people aren't going to enjoy this, because Patricio ends up with another woman named Nely for a while and, of course, Gloria is married to her horrible husband. One thing I really admired about this book, though, was how nuanced everyone was. Cesar had a tragic history, his sister, Marita, ended up becoming far more complex than the mean girl she was presented as, and both Gloria and Patricio did some pretty garbage things to each other and to others in the name of love.
Actually, in some ways, this reminded me a lot of THE BRONZE HORSEMAN, with how it used a changing political landscape as the backdrop of a doomed-seeming romance. I thought for a while that this book was going to have a majorly downer ending but this is one of those books where you have to trust the process, even when things seem bleak. TRUST THE PROCESS. That said, I think I would consider this more of a love story than a romance, even though people shelved it as a romance, just because so much of the book had the couple separated and focused on other elements instead.
Still, this was an incredibly powerful and unique read and I think I'll be thinking about it for a while.
I have mixed feelings about anthologies. I like the idea of them in theory but the overall quality hinges on not just the quality of the individual stories but also how they fit and work together. In past collections I've read, there's always one or two stories where I'm like, "Did you NOT understand the assignment?" Happily, that was not the case with this book-- it's one of the few where everything feels cohesive. Gothy, gloomy Addams family-aesthetic Latinx stories? Uhhhh let me go ahead and slam down that YAAAAASS button.
So here are my jotted thoughts and feelings about each individual story, with a respective rating.
The Nightmare and the Lark: ☆☆☆ Chantel Acevedo
This is a Romeo and Juliet retelling with monster hunters and monster sympathizers, replete with a twist. I can see why it was chosen to kick off the collection because it sets the overall theme and tone of the stories to come and hooks you in with a lil' bit of romance, but I found it just okay.
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Donde Esta el Duende?: ☆☆☆ Jenny Torres Sanchez
I thought this one was also just okay, although it's a very different story than the first. Apparently a "duende" is a sort of monster elf creature (and not a cuddly rosy-cheeked one, either!). This has more of a classic horror movie vibe to it, like a 1950s pulp. It also kind of gave me Troll 2 vibes.
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El Viejo de la Bolsa: ☆☆ Alexandra Villasante
I didn't care for this one much at all. It's a very strange story revolving around an entity that kidnaps and eats children who don't finish their meals. The ending was weird and didn't really make sense to me. I get the purpose of vague, open-ended endings but if they're not executed well, they just feel lazy.
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Beware the Empty Subway Car: ☆☆½ Maika and Maritza Moulite
This was almost a good story. I've actually read a book by these authors before and it had similar problems: it tried to get a little too fancy for a story that didn't quite have enough substance to carry it off. I liked the premise-- a lougaru living in New York-- and it had '90s grunge vibes. But I didn't like it.
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Dismembered: ☆☆☆☆ Ann Davila Cardinal
This story was actually really sweet. It's about a girl who inherits her grandmother's house after she is killed in a gruesome car crash. On a completely UNRELATED note (*cough*) she learns that so many people die on the road where her grandmother had the accident that an urban legend has surfaced about the dismembros, body parts that just blob around, searching for their missing pieces. *shudder*
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Blood Kin: ☆☆☆ Ari Tison
This is a story about revenge for the indigenous people of Costa Rica and it involves, strangely enough, panther shape-shifters. Or the legend of them, anyway. *wink* I thought this one was only okay. It kind of felt like it could have been a Captain Planet episode. I just don't think the story was long enough to do its thing. Not a bad book-- again, it was okay plus-- but it could have been better.
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La Boca del Loba: ☆☆☆ M. Garcia Pena
I thought this one was fine. It's an Angela Carter-like story about female rage that becomes carnivorous in its fury. Surreal and very magic-realism-y, but I rolled with it. And I did kind of like it.
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Bloodstained Hands Like Yours: ☆ Gabriela Martins
There's always ONE. This is the story in the book that I really didn't like. It didn't offend me or make me angry or anything like that, I just didn't feel like it made sense (even if I liked the idea of a mummy story where the mummy is targeting this one girl for ~reasons~).
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The Boy from Hell: ☆☆☆☆ Amparo Ortiz
So satisfying. Almost five stars. I want to see this one played out in a full book. Latinx vampires and a kickbutt female vampire huntress who seeks them out with the help of her chaotic good granny? YAS
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La Patasola: ☆☆☆☆☆ Racquel Marie
This is more of a five-star rating in terms of the overall collection than something that really had me obsessing, but it was an excellent short story. I guess it's a feminist spin on a Colombian story of a woman who, after being murdered by her jealous fiance, becomes a flesh-eating monster. So good and it's set in a camp and talks about biphobia and bisexual erasure. SO GOOD.
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The Other Side of the Mountains: ☆½ Claribel A. Ortega
This one was confusing and weird and I feel like it was going for a maybe Tim Burton sort of vibe and it almost succeeded but wasn't quite there. It's about a boy looking for the witch who took his sister into the mountains. Creative but confusing and also kind of depressing.
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La Madrina:☆☆½ Yamile Saied Mendez
This is a story about a girl who ends up encountering the woman who guides the dead to their final place. I rounded up a bit because I liked the ending, but I wanted more from it.
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Sugary Deaths: ☆☆☆☆☆ Lilliam Rivera
I was obsessed with this one and clearly need to check out more of this author's works. 80s nostalgia! Tough girl heroine! Pac-Man! Arcades! Also the premise revolves around a girl getting revenge on a privileged older guy who's taking advantage of her friends. SO GOOD. Love love love.
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Leave no Tracks: ☆☆½ Julia Alvarez
Julia Alvarez is such a big name in Latinx fiction that I went in with really high expectations but this story felt pretty dialed in. I liked the environmental theme and the supernatural element but this one didn't really impress me much. Sadness.
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The Hour of the Wolf: ☆☆☆ Courtney Alameda
I have heard so many good things about this author and even own some of her books (but haven't read them yet). Clearly I need to because this book was pretty good. It served up old school Goosebumps-style horror with skulls and altars and a vengeful wolf. Plus, a strong heroine in her own right.
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So overall this collection was a little bit hit, a little bit miss, and a whole lot of okay. I did discover some new authors I'm pretty excited to read more from, though, so that's something! Also the editors put together a super cohesive collection that was the best of any anthology I've read, so go them on that. I'm honestly super impressed. Would make a great gift for the horror aesthete in your life.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
This is a cute slice-of-life comic about four Black women who are friends. It revolves around their "wash day," or the day they take off to do hair stuff, but each chapter is also a vignette of the other things going on in their lives. One of the women is in a love triangle between two guys and can't choose. One of the women is coming to terms with her grandmother's dementia. One of the women is dealing with an abusive ex. And one of the women has depression. They are quite the diverse group, too. One is Afro-Latinx, one is Jamaican, one is pan. Their stories are set in New York (the Bronx), and I loved the way the city was given its own sort of character, too.
I have two qualms only with the book. One, I wish it were longer! The group chat was hilarious and I loved the portrayal of their friendship. I also loved the gorgeous panels showing the intricate braiding techniques and the detail paid to their clothes. I wanted to know more about Cookie's relationship with her abuela, and how Nisha decided to resolve her relationship catastrophe. The second qualm, though, is how the element of one of the characters' depression was dealt with, though. (I think it was Davene?) I loved how supportive her friend was trying to be when she came over, but telling her to "just be positive" and that she didn't need medication and that it could do bad things to her was kind of toxic. And then she gave her a citrine crystal! NOOOOOOOO. I wish that panel was longer and there had been more closure about that, because the depression portrayal was seriously on point, but nothing really came of it.
Overall, this was really fun. I hope the authors make it into a series because I'd love to read more about these characters and get more glimpses into their lives. Here's hoping!
I'm frequently at odds with popular opinion on this site, for better or for worse (usually for worse). It's not that I'm intentionally contrary, mostly; it's more that I happen to be a big fan of camp and irony, and "mainstream" things aren't really written for people like me, AKA awkward dorks who evolved from precocious to pretentious the way Charmander inevitably becomes a Charizard, but who also aren't quite pretentious enough to throw out their Joel Schumacher movies or tattered V.C. Andrews paperbacks. It's why I like books like, say, I MARRIED THE LIZARD MAN but don't like books like FIFTY SHADES OF GREY. One is a glorious homage to the pulpy 1950s horror films with a dash of Harvest Moon dating sim and the other masturbates harder to the upwardly mobile aspirations of the bourgeoisie than it does the BDSM sex it supposedly (and problematically, I might add) espouses.
Anyway, that's why when I find books like SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND that have low ratings on Goodreads, part of me is like, "You fools! Are we but mere swines turning up our snouts at the pearls that lie before us?" And part of me is like, "Actually, maybe I'm the weird one here, and also, let those that live in pig houses cast not the first pearl." Or something like that. Because SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND is not a perfect read. The time travel is purely whimsical and doesn't really have a lot of scientific bases. And while it touches upon racism and bigotry in the '80s more than books like ELEANOR AND PARK did (i.e. not at all, except when convenient), there's still a sort of whitewashed gloss to the book that never really goes there. Which I think, on the one hand, is actually fine. We read books for escapism and this is YA, so we probably shouldn't traumatize the kiddos with brutal depictions of what bigotry in action could look like in history. And this light hand, for SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND, actually works, because the author manages to get his point across and he does so in a way that feels temporally acceptable, if not necessarily accurate.
The plot revolves around a flamboyantly gay boy named Luis who is going to a Christian school. It's pretty progressive for a Christian school but it still doesn't allow gay kids to go to the dance as couples and Luis is campaigning hard against that, because he wants to attend with his boyfriend, Cheng. He also has a nonbinary best friend named Nix, who tries to reign him in because they have a rather tragic understanding of the limits of what the school will and will not allow. Especially since, back in the 1980s a young gay Black man named Chaz died at the school and basically became a cautionary tale that the teachers decided to use as a fallback for their gussied up "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Anyway, after a failed attempt at subterfuge involving the prom invites (whoops, did I forgot to add pronouns to the invites, thus creating a legal loophole? SILLY ME), he ends up whacked on the head in the drama department (curse you, plywood!), which sends him back to the 1980s. 1985, specifically. Which I might be more skeptical about if 80% of my Timeswept historical romances didn't end the same way. I literally shared one today on Instagram where a female stuntwoman ends up int he middle of an 1800s bank robbery because of some faulty pyrotechnics. A few weeks ago, it was one where this woman bonked her head while falling out of a tree. Head bonkings are the leading cause of time travel, IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW.
Anyway, Luis ends up meeting his favorite teacher (who is in her twenties in this timeline, omg so SWEET), and she believes him about the whole time travel thing because Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is her favorite book, so hooray. She decides that the best thing to do is to grandfather him into the school by pretending he's her tragically orphaned nephew, and it works because nobody has Google to look that shit up (looking that shit up on Google fixes 99% of falsified nephew shenanigans). Since his personality is big and brash, he decides to just be his best gay self while hanging out with the fringe crowd at this school, which includes HIS MOM(!), an artsy girl named Leeza, an adorable dork named Ernie, and the soon-to-be-doomed Chaz(!).
I don't want to say too much about this book because spoilers are foilers, people. But it's actually adorable in the way that some of those low budget YA movies of the '90s were adorable, where even if the story is far-fetched, it's so earnest and enjoyable that you end up coming back to it over and over. This book manages to capture all of the nostalgia of what made the '80s live on in so many young people's imaginations: the thrill of being in the moment, without phones; the over the top catchy beats of '80s songs (I appreciate The Cars shoutout); Tiger Beat; '80s clothes involving ruffles; CHESS KING; bomber jackets; big hair, etc. But it also doesn't ignore what made the '80s kind of awful, and it hammers home, in a really subtle and kind of quietly tragic way, how so many kids of the '80s and '90s had to wait a very long time to grow up and come out, in order to get to be their true, authentic selves.
The ending is beautiful and perfect and the scenes with Luis discovering his mom as a teen and seeing so much of himself in her actually made me tear up. I think it's easy for kids-- especially teens-- to forget their parents are people with actual hopes and dreams, and seeing his mom before she grew up, and seeing so much of himself in her, was such a powerful, beautiful moment. Luis is everything I love in a narrator-- he's willful and difficult, but he's also very funny, and even though he's shallow and a little selfish, he's not an inherently bad person and part of the story is watching him grow, as well. This is another cool thing about the book because a lot of the times, when an author writes a queer book, I think that there's an expectation that the queer character has to be flawless, acting as a sort of ambassador for whatever color block on the Pride flag they're representing, so seeing a queer character who gets to be imperfect and who gets to do so in a really fun way is fun and exciting and actually ended up making him feel really well rounded and interesting. I liked that he could be a bitch. I can be a bitch, too, so that made me really relate to Luis. I also liked the fact that he was Cuban, and how the author touches upon some of the inherent misogyny that can appear in some Latinx households, and how working past that (in the case of Luis's mother) can take a lot of effort and introspection.
Is this book for everyone? No. But if you like camp and catty narrators and John Hughes movies, I think you're going to love this book. I know I did. It's also a clever subversion of the bury-your-gays trope. Netflix seriously needs to make this into a movie for the promposal and the "Drive" scenes alone.
THE HACIENDA has been on my to-read list ever since I learned of its existence. As someone who is a huge fan of old skool gothic novels, this sounded like it was going to be everything I loved about the genre, infused with Mexican history and culture.
Beatriz's father was killed as a traitor during the overthrowing of the Mexican government. After that, she and her mother were left at the mercy of distant relatives, who resented their presence and treated Beatriz cruelly for being too dark. When she meets Rodolfo and he proposes marriage, it seems like a dream come true: he has the fair good looks of the upper-class and runs an agave plantation that is used to make pulque. San Isidro is so massive that there is plenty of room to send for her mother and have the two of them live happily ever after.
But pretty soon it becomes obvious that a traditional ending is not in the cards. Beatriz sees and hears what appear to be apparitions and there is a darkness, a coldness, that runs through the house. Her new sister in law, Juana, does not appear to care for her, and there are terrible rumors about her husband, Rodolfo. The only one who can help her is a priest named Andres, but he has secrets as well. If Beatriz is unable to fix what is wrong with the hacienda, her life might be in terrible danger. But so might be everyone else's, too.
So this was really good. The writing was beautiful and spare and I thought the atmosphere was amazing. Cañas did a great job staying true to the classic gothic formula, and there were scenes in it that scared the shit out of me. I liked all the characters I was supposed to like and hated all the characters I was supposed to hate. The ending was fantastic, too. My only qualm was that the characterization was a little bland. I guess I was hoping for more nuance from some of the characters. Beatriz and Andres felt pretty interchangeable as narrators. It sure was great for a debut, though, and I honestly thought it was a lot better than MEXICAN GOTHIC (it's weird that they're being compared so much because they have totally different writing styles and HACIENDA runs circles around MG, in my opinion).
CUBANITA is a cute, sassy coming-of-age story about a girl named Isa. Isa is the sort of YA heroine I love-- she's not perfect, she's not particularly good or bad. She does good and bad things, and makes tons of mistakes, and reads like, well, your average teen girl. What makes this book extra interesting is that it is a) sex positive, b) about a Cuban-American girl who is struggling to come to terms with her dual identity, and c) actually affords Isa tons of agency, not just in her sexuality but also in standing up for herself.
This came out like fifteen years ago and it seems to have slipped through the cracks, which is really sad because diverse books really weren't marketed as well in the aughts as they are now, which made a lot of people think that they just basically didn't exist. The on-page Spanish, her fun interactions with her family, and the brushes with Little Havana really give this book a fun, unique vibe, and all of the subject matter-- first love, first betrayal, forming your social identity-- are just as relevant now as they were then.
I'm giving this a three because I do think the tone was a little all over the place. It starts out reading like classic (albeit slightly immature) chick-lit, and then towards the end of the book it gets surprisingly serious. I actually liked the second half a lot more than the first, especially when Isa gets some truly epic revenge on someone who wronged her. This really isn't a romance, even though there is romance in it. The focus is really more on a coming-of-age. I think I might have liked it more if the story flowed better and the beginning was a little less rocky.
Overall, though, I thought this was a very fun read and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes edgy chick-lit that dives into real-world issues with heroines who have tons of confidence.
There's a line in here about linoleum roses and ceilings that look like wedding cakes that has stayed with me for over ten years. I had to read this book in high school and for a long time, I didn't like it because the teacher who taught it to me was a total asshole and he imposed his own white man world view over it. To give you an idea of what this man was like, he would make jokes about AIDS and regale us with stories of public urination from his own adolescence (because #PeePranks) and his favorite author was John Steinbeck and he once told us that Jane Austen was an insipid romance novelist and not "real literature." Such was the man who taught us this delicate story about a Mexican-American girl's coming of age.
So, you know, obviously he treated it with respect and care.
I haven't quite gotten over my hatred of John Steinbeck because of this man and suspect it might last me a lifetime, but having just reread and loved SPEAK, I thought it would be nice to give HOUSE ON MANGO STREET another try because I remembered them sharing similar themes. And to my surprise and delight, I ended up loving this book much, much more when reading it and discovering it for myself at my own pace with my own interpretations. It's a beautiful story about a girl living in the poor part of Chicago and trying to find her own interpretation of the American dream.
This weighty book tackles all sorts of subjects: racism, classism, family, found family, abuse, gender roles, sexual assault, the immigrant experience, poverty, and feminism. I loved Esperanza's narrative voice. It's told in a sort of stream of consciousness style and mostly it sounds just like you would expect a very young girl to write, but there's all these beautiful turns of phrase that make it sound like poetry. So in that sense, I guess it's like the nostalgic way that you think you talked as a young adult, but with the poetic adult filter imposed over it. It's very short and easy to read, so if you haven't read this book, I definitely recommend it. It's often sad but it's not without hope and the ending is wonderful.
I don't read a ton of literature now because I read a lot of the ones most worth reading when I was younger (at least, the ones I thought worth reading), but one of my recent projects is revisiting some of the books I read as a teen and seeing if I liked them just as much upon taking a second look. I read LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE when I was in high school and I remember being totally shocked at all the scandalous sex scenes and family drama. In many ways, this is kind of like a magic-realism take on the V.C. Andrews fucked-up family Gothic, with all of its secret lusts, hidden violence, and tempestuous relationships, all lorded over by an evil matriarch who has it in for the heroine and wants to make her miserable.
Narrated by the grand-niece of the heroine, this is a story about a star-crossed romance. Tita, the heroine, is the youngest daughter of Mama Elena, which means that she must take care of her mother until she dies. When Tita falls passionately in love with another man, Pedro, her mother rebuffs his offer and hitches him to her other daughter instead, Rosaura. Pedro agrees only because marrying Rosaura means being close to Tita and he hopes to have an affair with her.
Lots of other things happen too, and some of them are totally crazy. Like, imagine causing fireworks displays and visions of the Northern lights every time you bang (you might be in a Sarah J. Maas novel!) Feelings also get transmitted to food, so depending on the mood of the chef that day, you might find yourself moved to bitter tears (to the point of death) or so desperately horny that you set your bath on fire. This fantastical element keeps the story moving and gives it an interesting, fairytale-like quality that I found fascinating, even though some of the characters made me want to knock their heads together.
If you're new to the magic-realism genre, this is a fun book to start out with. It's short, which makes it easy to read, and has all these fabulous descriptions of rustic Mexican cuisine. The romance is also fun, even if it doesn't really have the sort of HEA romance readers might expect, and has an over-the-top bodice-ripper vibe that I think I appreciate more now as an adult who reads bodice-rippers. Some people might say it's too racy for teens but I disagree-- for some teen girls, this will probably be the hook that gets them into classic literature and shows them that it's not all stuffed shirts and dusty parlors.
I almost didn't buy this book because some of the positive reviews for it made it seem like it was going to be one of those trying-to-hard-to-be-quirky cookie cutter romances that all seem to share the same identical pastel covers and too-plucky-to-be-believed heroines. I am so, so glad that I bought this book anyway because that really couldn't be farther from the truth. THE WORST BEST MAN is like a smart rom-com in book form, only better because, ummm, gratuitous food porn, a smart woman of color protagonist who loves her job and has some pretty important dialogues about what it means to express emotion in public spaces as a woman of color, and an honestly hilarious battle of wills in an enemies to lovers romance that never feels too easy or too mean-spirited. It was just the pick-me-up I needed.
Lina is a wedding planner who was ditched by her own would-be-husband at her wedding several years ago. Andrew, her ex, sent a mystifying text message to his brother, Max, suggesting something he said on their night out was responsible before just, you know, going dark. Even though Lina is super successful in her own right now, she has never forgiven either brother for ruining what should have been the best day of her life, which is why when she ends up landing the chance to make a major career move with the owner of a successful boutique hotel chain, she is not happy to see that the brothers-- and their mom-- are also involved.
As it turns out, Lina isn't the only planner the hotel might want to work with. And since Max and Andrew are ever in competition, they're going to let the best brother-- and planner-- win by working to develop a pitch that will appeal most to the Cartwright hotel chain. At first, Lina is icy to Max and pranks him (including tricking him into eat a very spicy Brazilian pepper at one of their lunch meetings) but it soon becomes pretty clear that Max isn't a bad guy. He's very different from Andrew and he's also very attracted to Lina-- to her looks, her personality, her success, and her vulnerabilities. It doesn't take all that much time for the ice to melt. But the drama that awaits them is much more lasting.
I ended up liking this book a lot. It's the perfect quarantine read because of all the vicarious parties and celebrations. Honestly, the beautiful descriptions of food warrant an extra star alone. The cake-tasting scene and the lunch at the Brazilian restaurant had my mouth watering. I loved how the connection between food and family was brought in with Lina and her family, and its ties to Brazilian culture. Also, all of the in-text Brazilian words! I love it when authors do this; it's fun seeing people speaking their native languages on the page because people do this in real life and it adds a touch of realism. I'm also a huge sucker for books about professional women who love their jobs, and I liked especially how the author wrote about what it meant for Lina, as a woman of color, and how it affected her perceived freedom to express her emotions in public. The story about her work as a paralegal was sad.
I honestly wasn't all that sold on Max as a love interest at first, but I ended up liking him more later on in the story. As other readers have said, there was a LOT of talking in the sex scenes-- to show consent and the importance of communication, I think. It wasn't really my cup of tea, but I think I just don't really like it when humor and sex are mixed. I read another chick-lit recently, CRUSHING IT, that did this also, and I didn't really like it there, either. Some people do, though, and I think this is just a matter of personal preference. For me, I thought the sexual tension between the couple and their banter were the best parts, and it was the moments where they opened up and talked about their feelings despite all of their emotional walls and barriers, that really made me swoon.
Anyone who enjoys fluffy romances with fiercely intelligent heroines who love their jobs, have a dry sense of humor, and encounter plenty of drama that won't require you to suspend your disbelief will really like this book. I said on Twitter that I think it would make an excellent movie and I stand by that.
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN BITTER AND SWEET is a tough book to rate and I waffled between three and four stars because there were some things I really liked and some things that I didn't like quite as much. (For the record, three star reviews are the hardest to write because how do you say "yeah, I liked it, but I didn't REALLY like it and here's why?") This is the story of two Latinx teens with very different problems, who come together because of food-- and oh my God, the food descriptions are one of the best things about this book, because food is one of those things that sparks joy and brings people together and the author perfectly captured the emotional experience of eating something that your parents taught you how to make, and watching your loved ones consume something that you prepared with love.
Pen, the heroine, wants to work in the restaurant business. She doesn't want to go to college. Some people might not like this but I actually did because college isn't necessarily a path for everyone, and sometimes it's better to go to a school to study the trades, and I think it's nice for kids to see rep where other paths are explored.
Xander, the hero, is an undocumented immigrant who is searching for his father, and he's currently living with his grandfather while also lying low. He meets Pen when he's hired to work at a restaurant, cash under the table. They end up becoming friends and then, maybe, something more? Guess you'll have to read to find out. (And you should.)
I liked how the struggles of each character were represented although, like another reviewer, I was a little surprised that Pen could afford to live on her own on a fast food salary in a nice-ish apartment. I thought this was set in Texas(???) and from what I understand, Texas real estate is almost as pricey as California, so I wasn't sure if this would be feasible. It certainly wouldn't be here (in California). There were also a LOT of plot strings and it felt like a lot of them were resolved pretty hastily in the last act, and I think part of that might have been because of the time spent on developing the romance (which didn't really work-- their connection felt forced to me, you might disagree). I also felt like the subjects of depression and (CONTENT WARNING: self-harm) were pretty glossed over, which surprised me because this was compared to the book I AM NOT YOUR PERFECT MEXICAN DAUGHTER, and even though this explores the same themes of how depression can manifest as anger (something that REALLY isn't talked about enough), I didn't feel like that comparison was very fair to either book because this book didn't feel quite as developed in terms of fleshing out characters. (IANYPM is one of my favorite young adult books, so I may be biased.)
BETWEEN BITTER AND SWEET is definitely a YA for older teens because of its focus on what happens after school and also because of some pretty grim content, including an evil loan shark type character who is very terrible and some scenes of police discrimination. Nothing is over the top and everything is handled with care, but I think it will be intense reading for some (even though it serves a purpose). At the end of the day, this is a story about making mistakes, forgiving family for being imperfect, and how the things that can make a community vulnerable can also make it strong in times of need. And also, of course, FOOD.
I would definitely read more from this author. (Also, the author's note at the end was very sweet. Read it.)
So far, AMERICAN LOVE STORY is my second favorite romance in this LGBT+ series featuring PoC love interests. AMERICAN FAIRYTALE was a DNF, whereas AMERICAN DREAMER was the crown jewel in this series that was just shy of perfection. AMERICAN LOVE STORY sits at a solid three-star rating, smack-dab in the middle. There were some things I loved about it, and other things I didn't as much.
Our two love interests are Patrice and Easton. Patrice is an immigrant from Haiti who works as a professor at Cornell. He's a political activist and has a huge following on Twitter. Easton, on the other hand, is white and rich and works as an ADA (assistant district attorney). They had a hot hookup once but then things fell apart. Now they're getting back together but their relationship is already on the rocks: Patrice is outraged by police stops in the area targeting men of color, and Easton doesn't want to rock the boat and compromise his position by making too much noise. They dance around the issue, but as the relationship-- and the stops-- get more serious, something has to give.
I thought this book did a really good job talking about racism-- institutional racism and racism at the individual level. The microaggressions from Easton's family are a disgusting reminder that sometimes white people need to seriously reevaluate the vocabulary they employ when talking to PoCs and break out of their toxic mindsets in the way they think about and view people of color. The police stops were also really well done. When Patrice got stopped, my heart was in my throat and I was ready to cry. It was so intense and could be potentially triggering for some readers, I think. I loved Patrice's Tweets on Black Twitter, and how supportive the department head was in his passion for change.
The things I didn't like-- honestly? The relationship between these two. In book one, I could see where Jude and Nesto were both coming from. Here, I could see where Patrice was coming from. But even though Easton acknowledged his privilege and tried to do better, I felt like his fallback decision was to not do a thing. Standing silently by while his parents insult his boyfriend and only getting involved in the stops when his boyfriend was targeted by them were not the best ally or boyfriend behaviors (I mean, even when his boyfriend's young friends were targeted, the man still didn't hustle). It also really upset me when one of Easton's friends tells Patrice to stop being so "sanctimonious" and "angry." Calling black people "angry" is always a serious microaggression, but especially when it's justified, and I actually felt a little sick in side when Patrice apologizes to Easton. It felt wrong.
I'm giving this a three because parts of this book were done really well, and I loved Patrice as a character, but I really didn't care much for Easton as the love interest and unlike Jude from book one, I don't really feel that his character arc developed quite as significantly. Also-- the whole thing with Brad?? Where was the comeuppance for that? At least the Karen of the first book got publicly castigated and shamed, and had to go on leave at work. Unless I missed it, Male Karen wasn't really dealt the shaming he deserved here. But the difficult issues of police bias and racism themselves were handled really well here and I loved how the author dedicated her book to the protestors, and Patrice, and Ari and Yin are great. The author seriously needs to make a young adult/new adult spin-off about those two, I'd pick it up in a heartbeat. They are so pure and adorable. So even though there were things I didn't like, I really can't be mad. There was a lot to like in this book and it kept me reading.
Also, for more resources about Black Lives Matter and how to get involved, please check out the website blacklivesmatter.com.
The first book in this series, AMERICAN DREAMER, was so good that I immediately zoomed out to grab all the other books in this series. It was a laundry list of everything I love in fiction: positive friendships, loving families (well-- for the most part), food and foodie culture, diversity(!), and a slow-burn romance where the focus is on the building of the relationship rather than a purely sexual need.
AMERICAN FAIRYTALE... is not that. Camilo is a social worker, which is awesome, and when we meet him he's at a charity event, where he meets a billionaire who casually throws down $10,000 for a plate at the event. They have sex in a bathroom before returning to the event. And then... it kind of gets boring?? One of the things that made AMERICAN DREAMER such an intense read for me was how real Jude and Nesto felt. I know people like them in real life. Even though the book was set in NY, SF has a food culture scene just like that, and I got to drool over the book while enjoying my foodie adventures vicariously through the story. It was passionate and interesting and emotional, and the villain of that story added some pretty desperate conflict to the pacing and plot.
I just don't find billionaires all that relatable. And while I will read billionaire romances on occasion, there has to be more to appeal than just "wow, he's commanding at sex and has a fuckton of money." Because I already have the t-shirt for that. In fact, I have many t-shirts. And they're all full of holes. I also didn't really like Milo as much as I liked Nesto. Part of that was maybe because the plot didn't seem to focus quite as much on his passion for his work, like Nesto's story did, which hooked me in from the beginning and didn't let go. I'm definitely going to continue with the series, but I think I'll be skipping this one, as I'm just not all that interested in Milo or Tom.
When I was really struggling with my depression as a young woman, someone trying to comfort me actually said something to me that made me feel about a thousand times worse for a really long time. She said that people with depression were "deep, sensitive, caring people" and that we cared too much about others and didn't spend enough time caring about ourselves. It made me feel like trash, because I didn't feel sensitive or caring. I felt angry all the time-- mostly with myself, but with others, too. I just despised myself slightly more than I did the things and people around me. I walked away from that person hating myself a little more that day, because it was like, "Oh, great, so not only am I depressed, selfish, and hateful, I'm not even feeling depressed in the way that I'm supposed to."
It really messed me up.
And while it's true, some people with depression are outwardly caring and compassionate, it is also a condition that can make you incredibly self-absorbed through no fault of your own. I don't think enough people really talk about the different ways that depression can manifest. Sometimes it's a deep feeling of despair that feels like persistent sadness. Sometimes it's emptiness. Sometimes it's anger. Even though I understand why so many readers felt put off by Julia as a narrator for her snarkiness and her attitude and her explosive, confrontational rages, I actually related to her more closely than I have related to any other YA character in a long time because the way she behaves is actually a lot like how I did as a teenager. I can understand that if someone doesn't like themselves, it can be hard to like them as a person. Mental health disorders, especially depression, can be incredibly self-centered. When you feel bad inside, it's really hard to muster the energy to care about others, and Julia is so consumed with her pain that it does make her seem selfish, but she's actually in desperate need of help.
Julia has a lot on her plate. Her perfect older sister just died and her parents are grieving. Olga, the sister, always related to their parents better than Julia did. Olga knew what her parents expected and was only too content to deliver. Julia, however, doesn't subscribe to the traditional beliefs that her parents have brought with her from Mexico. She doesn't like cooking, and she doesn't want to get married, and she has a lot of thoughts about Catholicism and conservative values. She wants to go away-- far away-- to college, and eventually, become a writer. The gulf between her and her parents feels very wide, and even though her parents try to demonstrate their love, they do it in a way that Julia perceives as them ignoring her own wishes and desires, and Julia, with the dreadful, self-consuming weight of her own depression, does not have the means or the will to breach the gulf.
And sometimes, the pressure of trying to fulfill so many expectations, with the crushing threat of failure looming over her head, just makes her feel like she's about to explode.
This is just such a great book on multiple levels. The portrayal of depression, as I said, is incredibly relatable. I loved that the author had Julia's depression manifest as anger, because I think it shows how many teens acting out might do so because of hidden problems that aren't quite so obvious. Meg Medina did something similar in YAQUI DELGADO, with the heroine retreating into herself and acting out because of the depression that bullying at school brought on. I also really liked how the author wrote about Mexican culture, and how there were parts of it Julia really loved, and parts of it she tried to distance herself from, and this becomes especially clear when Julia's parents send her to Mexico to make her feel better, and Julia begins to question her own privilege and the way that she has misunderstood some of her parents' intentions. It reminded me a bit of the PATRON SAINT OF NOTHING, where a character goes to the Philippines and it cements his identity by making him more aware of his roots while also making him realize how much he had to learn about his own culture from his biased perspective of it living in the United States.
There are so many great conversations and dialogues that are brought up in this book. Sexual abuse. Suicidal ideation. Depression. Pleasing and disappointing your parents. Being the first in your family to go to college. Mental health. Cultural identity. Immigration. Fear of deportation. Family sacrifice. Privilege. Miscommunication. The divides that can arise between generations. Family values. Compromise. Dating. Socioeconomic status. And just-- so much. It's a mature young adult book that isn't afraid to tackle tough subjects with finesse, and everything, from Julia herself, to the way mental health is discussed, to the way Julia and her parents relate to their own culture, and how their cultural identity was influenced and shaped by living in the United States as immigrants, and how age and generation influenced that shaping-- it was all so brilliant, and the ending was satisfying.
I did see some people complaining that there is a lot of Spanish in this book-- and yes, there is. Most of it you can probably guess from context, though. I'll admit to being biased: I speak Spanish as a second language, so I knew most of the words, and the ones I didn't, I was able to look up or guess. I really liked it, though. I think it adds a lot of depth to the book, and it sounds like the way people around me talk in real life. Spanish speakers living in the U.S. dip in and out of English and Spanish, slipping back and forth depending on which word or phrase comes first, and I really don't think the book would have felt so comfortably natural without all the Spanish words and phrases. Some of them are actually quite cheeky, or lewdly insulting, so if you look up the words, you may find yourself quite amused.
I loved this book. I wish it had come out when I was a teenager, as I would have loved it then, too.
I don't think I'd gotten more than about fifty pages in before I put the rest of the series on hold at the library. AMERICAN DREAMER is such an amazing book, and there is so much about it that I really enjoyed. To start, it's a romance between the owner of a Caribbean fusion food truck and a children's librarian. Are you swooning yet? It's also infused with a love of books and good food, the importance of friends and family, and the desire to make your dreams real (but not, obviously, at the cost of love).
I wasn't expecting this book to take a sledgehammer and start whacking me in the feels. Nesto's story behind his food truck OuNYe (a play on ounje, the Yoruban word for "nourishment," and NY) was so touching and I loved how emotional and nostalgic he got over food. The moment he enters town, though, he starts getting harassed by a "Karen" named Misty, who seems determined to shut down his dream at all costs.
Coincidentally, Misty has also been bullying Jude (messing with his food, denying his budget requests), the librarian. Jude's big dream is to set up a mobile library for kids living in rural or low-income areas. His story of how he became a librarian actually made me cry, and his backstory was so hard to read (what is it with books about gay men named Jude always making me cry). He's been fucked up by his family, and it's given him trust issues, so even though he's attracted to Nesto, he's hesitant to get into a relationship.
AMERICAN DREAMER, in addition to being a fantastic story (romance aside), is also a great romance. No "gay for you." No "wow, anal sex is so easy and you can just go without lube!" sex. No exploitative hookups that magically turn into love without any sort of chemistry or relationship footwork. The attraction between the two of them is instant, but the relationship progresses at a slow, believable pace, with all of the usual pitfalls that plague new relationships, like miscommunication, broken promises, past histories, etc. Nesto is probably the most like me, personality-wise (stubborn and hard-working and focused), so when the inevitable falling out happened with Jude, it was hard not to side firmly with Nesto because I got it. Tragedy is hard-going alone, and when someone makes a promise like that, you expect them to keep it. Help, I'm crying.
My only qualms in the book were that some parts were a bit of a slog. Some of the scenes between Jude and Nesto felt repetitive, even though I understand that it was to build up their relationship. I also really wanted to see Misty get more of a comeuppance than she did. That ending was not satisfactory, and fucking around with people's food is a pretty serious offense. I never really understood why she was going after Jude, and came to the conclusion that she's one of those intolerable bigots who hate the LGBT+ and people of color with equal hateful fervor. Either way, I was out for revenge.
Anyone who likes romances that highlight other cultures, give good food porn, and focus on relationship building over sexual content (although there's some of that, too), will love this book. Reading AMERICAN DREAMER gave me the same rush that watching Million Pound Menudid: it's a success story rooted in how food brings people together, wrapped up in Afro-Latinx culture, and tied off with a cute bow of romance. I'm diving into the next book immediately.
It's always a little stressful picking up a book that all of your friends have loved because it's never fun being the first person to hate on it, but luckily I didn't have to worry about that with FURIA, because I loved every moment of it. I don't even like sports, so the fact that a book about soccer kept me engrossed from start to finish is really testament to the author's abilities to tell a moving story.
Camila is a Palestinian-Argentinian girl living in Argentina. She comes from a family of soccer players and she plays soccer too, but she does it in secret knowing her family might not approve. Her life gets even more complicated when her childhood crush comes back to visit his hometown, only now he's a famous soccer player in his own right, and Camila feels a sense of inadequacy when he's around, struggling to reconcile his newfound fame with the boy she remembers.
This is the type of YA I love. It's a book that tackles tough subjects without sounding like it has an agenda or coming across as heavy-handed. And wow, there is a veritable LAKE of tough subjects in here: abusive parents, managing to parental expectations, feminism, women's rights, setting limits and expectations in relationships, and standing up for your dreams. Also, romance.
Let's talk about the romance, too, actually. I normally hate YA romance because it comes across as too forced (done for the clicks). This is the perfect example of a relationship that zaps you with its perfect chemistry while also portraying consent, realistic goals, and the idea of setting boundaries. As frustrating as it is to have such a prolonged will they/won't they, I felt like all of Camila's concerns were 100% valid and I loved that she wasn't willing to shelve her dreams to become what society expected of her. Diego was a doll, though. One of the best YA love interests ever. I swoon.
Definitely read this if you love YA with strong female protagonists!
I bought this a while ago when it went on sale purely on impulse because I was so intrigued by the title. It's one of those titles that tells a story and makes the reader wonder: "Who is Yaqui Delgado and why does she have it in for ME?" But it's actually the main character, Piedad "Piddy" Sanchez that Yaqui hates. As with most things in the girl universe, it all boils down to jealousy and a boy. Piddy has always been a good girl, but as the bullying intensifies, her grades begin to falter and she starts cutting classes, fighting with her mother, and behaving more and more recklessly.
Speaking as someone who was bullied in high school, I can say that this book really hits deep. Some readers I saw were disappointed that we never found out the "reason" that Yaqui was a bully-- but honestly, does there need to be a reason? We already learned that the bullies figured Piddy was too full of herself and resented the fact that guys found her attractive. While I understand that there are gray areas, it was kind of refreshing to see a book that completely focused on the victim of the bullying and didn't make any sorts of apologies for the bullies themselves.
YAQUI DELGADO ticks all the boxes of what makes a great YA story for me. It deals with tough subjects in a nuanced way that never feels preachy. Piddy acts and talks like a real teen and the author allows her to make the mistakes that a real teen would. A few people didn't like the fact that Piddy fought with and disrespected her mother, and all I can say to that is COME ON. Being a bratty teen is practically a right of passage. I know I was a huge pain, and honestly, it's refreshing to see a book where the kid blows up at the 'rents, but it's clear that they still love each other despite everything.
I also liked Piddy's mom, and her story as a single mother. It was a really interesting take on what it means to be an adult making mistakes while parenting, and I think it captures that kind of poignant, heartbreaking moment when a kid learns that their parents can be weak and don't always have all the right answers to life's tough questions. All of the supporting characters were really great too, like Joey, Lila, and Allen. I like that each of their characters had an unexpected turning point.
If you're tired of the cookie cutter YA books that look at high school through Disney Channel glasses, mosey on over to this book and give it a read. I know I'm tough on YA as a reviewer, but I think it's important to really focus and laud the books like this one that take serious risks. It was so good.
Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨
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