Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Amor Actually by Adriana Herrera, Sabrina Sol, Diana Muñoz Stewart, Alexis Daria, Zoey Castile, Mia Sosa, Priscilla Oliveras

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emily_mh's review

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4.5

I loved this anthology! Nochebuena was effortlessly woven into ALL of the stories in a way that cemented this as a holiday romance read. It also was a great retelling of Love, Actually; I would actually say it does a better job than the original. I kind of wish there had been more intertwining of characters within each story, but this wasn’t a biggie. My favourites were All I Want for Nochebuena and Love in Spanglish; my least favourite was The Great Holiday Escape.

The following is my individual review of each story. In brackets at the end of the title of each story I’ve put the names of the MCs and which Love, Actually love story they’re retelling.

Make the Yuletide Gay by Adriana Herrera (Vivian and Leila/Billy and Joe): usually I’m not a fan of age-gap romances, but this really worked for me. The steamy scenes were phenomenal, but above all else the romance between Vivian and Leila was gorgeous. Because of the pacing and the backstory I really believed in their connection. I loved that their relationship gave Vivian the chance to be soft and vulnerable, and to learn more about herself. It was also a great choice making the story dual POV.

Only Yours by Sabrina Sol (David and Natalia/David and Natalie): while I thought more could have been done to show their connection, this was a wonderfully fun and festive story that had a nice play on the Love, Actually counterpart.

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Priscilla Oliveras (Héctor and Cristina/Daniel): this was excellent! Both MCs were such well-rounded characters who had really compelling motivations. Their love story was super sweet, and I enjoyed reading the dual POV.

All I Want for Nochebuena by Alexis Daria (Honey and Just Julie aka Helena and Juliana/John and Just Judy): this was so cute!! I loved the exploration of how Honey and Julie were being so intimate with each other, but because of the context there were still nerves and doubts about one another’s feelings. So incredibly sweet.
Santa’s Eager Little Helper by Mia Sosa (Sarita and Carlos/Sarah and Karl): this felt a little rushed, but I appreciated the spin on the original Love, Actually story which I’ve never liked. I particularly liked getting Carlos’ point of view!

The Nochebuena Dating Dare by Diana Muñoz Stewart (Eneida and Antonio/Karen): I loved this story’s take on the original. Here, Eneida/Karen has divorced Enrique/Harry, because that man was terrible to her. The love story here was sweet and there was some GREAT writing, but the ending did feel a little rushed.
Love in Spanglish by Zoey Castile (Castila and Ángel/Jamie and Aurelia): I really liked this one. Ángel is one hell of a hero and I liked seeing Zoey figure out her priorities. I did think the ending could have been drawn out a little, but this was super sweet.

To Us, You Are Perfect by Alexis Daria and Adriana Herrera (Pasquale, Yamilette and Marcelo/Peter, Juliet and Mark): this was excellent! A WAY better story than the original, full of so much love. I really understood the sense of completion that Pasquale, Yamilette and Marcelo felt as a throuple.

The Great Holiday Escape by Zoey Castile (Gigi, Pedro, and Isaac/Colin): this was unfortunately my least favourite. It was by no means bad, but for me the retelling didn’t quite work and I think Colin’s story wasn’t the best choice for the last in the anthology. I also found it hard to believe in the strength of the MCs’ connection as they had literally only known each other a few days. I did love that it was a polyamorous romance, though - that part did actually make a lot of sense with the retelling.
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