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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A Cuban Gilmore Girls. As a cuban in Miami, this story sang to me.
Full review to come but I love this book so much y'all.
Don’t Date Rosa Santos is one of the cutest rom-coms I’ve read recently. I had it on my TBR, but it didn’t become a priority until I found out that the author is a University of Florida Gator alum and the story is set in Florida. As a Floridian and Gator alum, I moved it to the top of my list and instantly requested the audiobook at the library. Thankfully, it didn’t disappoint.
This book was a breath of fresh air. It’s an intergenerational story with a Cuban family, curses, summer romance, college decisions, and a local festival. The story is full of heart, the characters are memorable, the family and community relationship is beautiful (and complicated), and the romance is super cute. I loved the way Moreno explored Rosa’s heritage and the community’s impact on her development. Although the romance was a bit rushed, I adored Rosa’s love interest. He was incredibly sweet, hot (tattoos!) and loved to bake, which made me really happy (I don’t enjoy cooking so I like stories that switch those roles).
Overall, Don’t Date Rosa Santos is perfect for summer. Between the festival and the South Florida setting, I couldn’t help but reminisce fondly about those days when summer vacation was something I could look forward to. On top of the setting, the writing is impeccable and the book's themes (love, grief, complicated families, diaspora) are seamlessly weaved together. I highly recommend this and can’t wait to read more of Nina Moreno’s work.
If you like this book, you might enjoy these other books with a similar tone: With the Fire on High, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, When Dimple Met Rishi, and To All the Boys I've Loved Before.
And if you're in the mood for movies with a similar tone, I’ve got you covered: Always Be My Maybe, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Crazy Rich Asians, Real Women Have Curves (this one has a bit more drama, but the themes are very similar).
This book was a breath of fresh air. It’s an intergenerational story with a Cuban family, curses, summer romance, college decisions, and a local festival. The story is full of heart, the characters are memorable, the family and community relationship is beautiful (and complicated), and the romance is super cute. I loved the way Moreno explored Rosa’s heritage and the community’s impact on her development. Although the romance was a bit rushed, I adored Rosa’s love interest. He was incredibly sweet, hot (tattoos!) and loved to bake, which made me really happy (I don’t enjoy cooking so I like stories that switch those roles).
Overall, Don’t Date Rosa Santos is perfect for summer. Between the festival and the South Florida setting, I couldn’t help but reminisce fondly about those days when summer vacation was something I could look forward to. On top of the setting, the writing is impeccable and the book's themes (love, grief, complicated families, diaspora) are seamlessly weaved together. I highly recommend this and can’t wait to read more of Nina Moreno’s work.
If you like this book, you might enjoy these other books with a similar tone: With the Fire on High, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, When Dimple Met Rishi, and To All the Boys I've Loved Before.
And if you're in the mood for movies with a similar tone, I’ve got you covered: Always Be My Maybe, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Crazy Rich Asians, Real Women Have Curves (this one has a bit more drama, but the themes are very similar).
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A YA novel about a Cuban American family living in Florida. I liked that it didn’t have the angst or whiny tone that a lot of young adult novels have. I liked the main character and other people in the town. Hard to believe she didn’t go to the marina her entire life with it down the street and all but otherwise a good book.
I'm a mess. How is it possible that one book is at the same time heartwarming and -breaking?!
CW:mentions of death of a loved one, death of a loved one, grief, heart attack, anxiety
Rosa Santos is bi Cuban-American teen who lives is a small coastal town called Port Coral. She lives with her abuela and her mother is a traveling artist. Rosa has a big decision ahead of her, where to go to college. Then she meets Alex who is a baker and owns a boat, which is a problem because of the family curse.
This book is a love letter to Cuba and its culture. All of the characters are so unapologetically Latinx. They use Spanish in really natural ways and it made me want to learn it. Also, I just want to visit Port Coral. I can't talk about the rep, so here is one review that I highly recommend to check up: Angelica's review
What I can speak on is Rosa's will to go to Cuba and to experience her culture, the feeling that because you haven't lived in your home country are you enough. It brought me back to a time when I thought the same thing, even when I had visited my home country, I wasn't sure if I was enough because I hadn't lived there.
The love that the three Santos women have towards each other is so clear. They have their struggles like communication and the fact that they have lived in so different worlds. All of these things make their world-views different but they care for each other.
The ending was a little rushed but I still enjoyed it immensely.
I would recommend checking some content warnings as they helped me a lot. That being said, I was still crying my eyes out and get why the story took the turn, but I'm heartbroken.
CW:
Rosa Santos is bi Cuban-American teen who lives is a small coastal town called Port Coral. She lives with her abuela and her mother is a traveling artist. Rosa has a big decision ahead of her, where to go to college. Then she meets Alex who is a baker and owns a boat, which is a problem because of the family curse.
This book is a love letter to Cuba and its culture. All of the characters are so unapologetically Latinx. They use Spanish in really natural ways and it made me want to learn it. Also, I just want to visit Port Coral. I can't talk about the rep, so here is one review that I highly recommend to check up: Angelica's review
What I can speak on is Rosa's will to go to Cuba and to experience her culture, the feeling that because you haven't lived in your home country are you enough. It brought me back to a time when I thought the same thing, even when I had visited my home country, I wasn't sure if I was enough because I hadn't lived there.
The love that the three Santos women have towards each other is so clear. They have their struggles like communication and the fact that they have lived in so different worlds. All of these things make their world-views different but they care for each other.
The ending was a little rushed but I still enjoyed it immensely.
I would recommend checking some content warnings as they helped me a lot. That being said, I was still crying my eyes out and get why the story took the turn, but I'm heartbroken.
This book has been on my TBR list for so long that once my library FINALLY had it ready for me, I couldn't wait to rush there after work to pick it up. Ever since I took a Latin American Literature course for my undergrad, I've loved exploring books that have not only a Hispanic protagonist but also the magical realism and overall feel of growing up Hispanic. Don't Date Rosa Santos gave me both those things and so much more. Reading the book transported me back to my childhood and my teenage years growing up in a Hispanic household. More than that, I felt my grandmother whenever Rosa talked about hers. The prose was beautiful, painting a vivid and colorful picture of life in South Florida. The imagery, the smells - it's like I was back there (well, I am based in Miami, but it's different when you're an adult here and not dependent on your grandmother).
Nina Moreno wrote an ode to South Florida, to Cuba, to diaspora. She wrote of the feeling of knowing oneself to be Cuban even if one was born in the U.S. Of seeing and hearing and smelling Cuba everywhere you look even without stepping foot on the island. Of the urge to know this formative part of your heritage while still respecting the ways that part betrayed your elders. She wrote of the pressure to do better, be better than those before you because of the opportunities they afforded you. Of being grateful for the sacrifices made so you can succeed but also, sometimes, the resentment that you cannot simply succeed on your own merits because they're so closely tied to those sacrifices. Growing up in a Cuban household means walking a thin line between adoration for your culture and respect for the struggles your parents or grandparents endured. But if you're lucky enough to visit Cuba, rather than feeling like a tourist, you feel like home. And that's what this book felt like: home.
Favorite quotes:
"Maybe sometimes going home again could be as simple as listening to a song."
"Enough. I was still trying to work that one out. I was a collection of hyphens and bilingual words. Always caught in between. Two schools, two languages, two countries. Never quite right or enough for either. My dreams were funded by a loan made long before me, and I paid it back in guilt and success. I paid it back by tending a garden whose roots I could not reach."
"To all the next-generation kids with old maps who fear they're losing something even as we create new things. You are magic. And you are enough. Viva Cuba Libre." - Acknowledgments
Nina Moreno wrote an ode to South Florida, to Cuba, to diaspora. She wrote of the feeling of knowing oneself to be Cuban even if one was born in the U.S. Of seeing and hearing and smelling Cuba everywhere you look even without stepping foot on the island. Of the urge to know this formative part of your heritage while still respecting the ways that part betrayed your elders. She wrote of the pressure to do better, be better than those before you because of the opportunities they afforded you. Of being grateful for the sacrifices made so you can succeed but also, sometimes, the resentment that you cannot simply succeed on your own merits because they're so closely tied to those sacrifices. Growing up in a Cuban household means walking a thin line between adoration for your culture and respect for the struggles your parents or grandparents endured. But if you're lucky enough to visit Cuba, rather than feeling like a tourist, you feel like home. And that's what this book felt like: home.
Favorite quotes:
"Maybe sometimes going home again could be as simple as listening to a song."
"Enough. I was still trying to work that one out. I was a collection of hyphens and bilingual words. Always caught in between. Two schools, two languages, two countries. Never quite right or enough for either. My dreams were funded by a loan made long before me, and I paid it back in guilt and success. I paid it back by tending a garden whose roots I could not reach."
"To all the next-generation kids with old maps who fear they're losing something even as we create new things. You are magic. And you are enough. Viva Cuba Libre." - Acknowledgments