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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
Don't Date Rosa Santos was engaging, funny, heartfelt and infused with a little magic. My 15-year-old daughter and I laughed and even cried a little. The narrator, Almarie Guerra did an excellent job (she nailed the Cuban accent)! The town of Port Coral along with its unconventional residents is sure to put a smile on your face.
3.5 stars! Though a little scattered at times, this book is so much more than I thought it would be - the romance is only a small part. Def recommend for fans of Jane the Virgin!
Cute romance with a strong Cuban/Latinx core. Three generations tortured by the sea and what it means to leave your home country. I read it in almost one sitting.
Buddy read with Kristin!
4.5 stars! This was such a wonderful YA contemporary filled with magic, culture, and a whole lot of love. I loved being able to accompany Rosa on this journey of hers from start to finish!
4.5 stars! This was such a wonderful YA contemporary filled with magic, culture, and a whole lot of love. I loved being able to accompany Rosa on this journey of hers from start to finish!
I'm of two minds about this book: I appreciated the culture, it made me miss my Cuban-American friends and the writing style was really good, it's just a little too young and innocent and slow for my particular taste. I'm left feeling guilty about not giving it a higher rating because it has such great themes about culture, family legacies, and discovering one's own course in life. I felt like it was overkill on sentimentality, but that doesn't make it a bad book, it probably just means my heart is three sizes too small or something. Cute and extremely wholesome, not my thing.
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TL;DR – This book will make you wish you had an abuela. The Cuban culture is so authentic throughout that it makes my heart hurt.
My ethnicity is a mixed bag. I’m a quarter white, half Chinese, and a quarter Hispanic. The grandparent I grew up closest to is my mom’s mother who was born and raised in Panama. Rosa’s abuela, Mimi, reminded me so much of my own grandmother. I could see her doing and saying so many of the things that Mimi did. There are more similarities as well that I’ll address later on. Seriously though, this book made me feel so much more Hispanic than I actually am. During and after reading I found myself gesturing at things to my husband with my lip/chin. I never do that!
First, I just want to say that I absolutely adored this book. It was so close to being a five star read for me! I thought Rosa was a really enjoyable character right off the bat and I loved her dynamic with all of the other characters. She was so interesting and really felt alive for me. I also loved the dynamic and tensions between Rosa, Mimi, and Liliana (Rosa’s mom). All three women were incredibly strong in different ways. I enjoyed that the author was able to portray that differing strength in women. Women can be strong, even if they’re not all strong in the same way.
Secondary characters were amazing! They all felt like they had depth to them and I felt they contributed to the story in an important way. I especially enjoyed Rosa’s best friend and the viejos. Please, I would follow their Instagram in a heartbeat!
The atmosphere of the book also felt so real. The weather was almost another character and I loved how that played into the slight magical/mystical thread throughout the book. It was all very fun. The weather also contributed to the raw emotions that came out at times. There are a few scenes throughout this book where the emotion is just so heavy. Despite that, this isn’t a heavy book and I wholeheartedly recommend it as a Summer read.
Slight spoiler ahead:
This book hit me especially hard because my grandmother just passed away last month in a way that was similar to Mimi. It was kind of sudden and like Liliana, my mom was the one there performing CPR on her own mother until the paramedics arrived. There were some other similarities as well that I won’t go into. It just felt eerily similar to me. When Rosa was dealing with Mimi’s death, I felt it so hard. I saw myself in Rosa and parts of my mom in Liliana. The emotions felt so real and it’s obvious that the author has lost someone close to her. I still forget some days that my grandma isn’t around anymore. I hope, like Rosa, that I can one day make that pilgrimage back to my grandmother’s homeland. The sacrifices that she made to come to America amaze me every day and I would literally not be here without her. I love you, Llaya.
Anyway…I highly, highly recommend this book. I appreciate the call for diversity in YA, but a lot of times I think it’s done poorly or in a way that’s inauthentic. That is NOT the case with this book. If you want to read diversity in YA, then this is the kind of thing you should be reading.
Overall Rating: 4.5
Language: Mild
Violence: None
Smoking/Drinking: Mild
Sexual Content: Mild
Note: I received a copy of this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
TL;DR – This book will make you wish you had an abuela. The Cuban culture is so authentic throughout that it makes my heart hurt.
My ethnicity is a mixed bag. I’m a quarter white, half Chinese, and a quarter Hispanic. The grandparent I grew up closest to is my mom’s mother who was born and raised in Panama. Rosa’s abuela, Mimi, reminded me so much of my own grandmother. I could see her doing and saying so many of the things that Mimi did. There are more similarities as well that I’ll address later on. Seriously though, this book made me feel so much more Hispanic than I actually am. During and after reading I found myself gesturing at things to my husband with my lip/chin. I never do that!
First, I just want to say that I absolutely adored this book. It was so close to being a five star read for me! I thought Rosa was a really enjoyable character right off the bat and I loved her dynamic with all of the other characters. She was so interesting and really felt alive for me. I also loved the dynamic and tensions between Rosa, Mimi, and Liliana (Rosa’s mom). All three women were incredibly strong in different ways. I enjoyed that the author was able to portray that differing strength in women. Women can be strong, even if they’re not all strong in the same way.
Secondary characters were amazing! They all felt like they had depth to them and I felt they contributed to the story in an important way. I especially enjoyed Rosa’s best friend and the viejos. Please, I would follow their Instagram in a heartbeat!
The atmosphere of the book also felt so real. The weather was almost another character and I loved how that played into the slight magical/mystical thread throughout the book. It was all very fun. The weather also contributed to the raw emotions that came out at times. There are a few scenes throughout this book where the emotion is just so heavy. Despite that, this isn’t a heavy book and I wholeheartedly recommend it as a Summer read.
Slight spoiler ahead:
Anyway…I highly, highly recommend this book. I appreciate the call for diversity in YA, but a lot of times I think it’s done poorly or in a way that’s inauthentic. That is NOT the case with this book. If you want to read diversity in YA, then this is the kind of thing you should be reading.
Overall Rating: 4.5
Language: Mild
Violence: None
Smoking/Drinking: Mild
Sexual Content: Mild
Note: I received a copy of this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I didn't expect the layers and complexity to this book. I didn't expect to have so much fun or emotional investment with it.
The character's voice seemed so real to me, and I super connected to her as a kid doing dual enrollment and trying to navigate college choices from a different starting point.
The character's voice seemed so real to me, and I super connected to her as a kid doing dual enrollment and trying to navigate college choices from a different starting point.
Mini review:
DNF
Trigger warning: Mention of death. Up till the point I read.
I received this E-ARC via Disney Book Group and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. When I saw this book on Netgalley I jumped to request it! Unfortunately it wasn’t for me.
As I started reading I lost interest. I thought it was just because I didn’t know the characters or the story. But this kept on happening. Eventually I realized I had no interest in the book.
Still recommend. I really believe this is an important book.
DNF
Trigger warning: Mention of death. Up till the point I read.
I received this E-ARC via Disney Book Group and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. When I saw this book on Netgalley I jumped to request it! Unfortunately it wasn’t for me.
As I started reading I lost interest. I thought it was just because I didn’t know the characters or the story. But this kept on happening. Eventually I realized I had no interest in the book.
Still recommend. I really believe this is an important book.
This was such a fun and atmospheric book about family, grief, friendship and first loves. I am surprised by how much I fell in love with it, and, how much Nina Moreno made me feel like I was with Rosa in Port Coral. She (and the narrator of the audiobook) made Port Coral into a wonderfully magical place filled with amazing food, gorgeous scenery and a marina that held so many bad memories for the Santos family. I didn't expect to fall in love so much.
Highly recommend!!
Highly recommend!!
"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."
"We try with all we have. We fight hands we can’t see. We stomp against the earth and whisper all the right prayers, but sometimes it isn’t meant to be. You believe life will always be as it is, and you make plans, but the next thing you know, you’re climbing into a sinking boat in the dead of night because the land you love is no longer safe. The sun sets, the man you love doesn’t swim above the water again, and time runs out."
"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."
3.5 stars