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A review by enne
Don't Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno
4.0
Don’t Date Rosa Santos
4 stars
I’ve been meaning to read this book for over a year at this point and I’m so glad I finally got around to it because I genuinely had such a good time with this one!
Don’t Date Rosa Santos follows a small town stressed high school senior who is determined to save her small town by throwing a spring festival fundraiser. There are also family curses, complicated family relationships, and a romance (!!) involved.
I loved the character of Rosa so much. Right from the moment she steps onto the page, she feels like a fully realized character who has a lot of depth to her and who’s also incredibly easy to sympathize with because of that. She also goes through a lot of development over the course of the story and I absolutely loved the way that was executed and the way her relationships with others contributed to that.
Speaking of relationships, I think this book does a really good job of exploring the familial relationships between Rosa, her mother, and her grandmother. Rosa lives with her grandmother in Port Coral because her mother travels for work, which results in Rosa not really having a consistent relationship with her mother and relying on her grandmother most of the time. But, over the course of the story, the relationships between the three women are explored in detail and I loved how much time was devoted to it. I also really appreciated that it was acknowledged that her mother and grandmother have a relationship outside of Rosa and we got to see that explored to an extent, as well.
A lot of this novel focuses on the exploration of the experience of being a diaspora Cuban and the way that affects your relationship to yourself and to your family and I thought that was explored really well through the family dynamics, although you should definitely take my opinion on this with a grain of salt.
I also really loved the whole small town dynamic/atmosphere in this book and the way the community aspect of it was explored. It was really endearing and fun to read about!! I also thought that the plot surrounding the spring festival in said town was paced really well and it was also a lot of fun to read about!!
I would like to also gush about the romance here because I absolutely adored Rosa and Alex and the way their relationship development. Can’t believe they invented romance.
My critiques for this book are few, so I will try to keep this part short. I do wish that we had gotten a bit more depth with the side characters and especially with Rosa’s friends because I really didn’t feel like we knew them at all and I did find myself getting a couple of the side characters confused.
I also wish the last section of this book had been longer because, to me, it felt really rushed and tacked on at the end without much build-up to it. While I do think that the ending did a good job of resolving the central conflict of the story, I do wish we had gotten a bit more time to tie up the loose ends.
4 stars
I’ve been meaning to read this book for over a year at this point and I’m so glad I finally got around to it because I genuinely had such a good time with this one!
Don’t Date Rosa Santos follows a small town stressed high school senior who is determined to save her small town by throwing a spring festival fundraiser. There are also family curses, complicated family relationships, and a romance (!!) involved.
I loved the character of Rosa so much. Right from the moment she steps onto the page, she feels like a fully realized character who has a lot of depth to her and who’s also incredibly easy to sympathize with because of that. She also goes through a lot of development over the course of the story and I absolutely loved the way that was executed and the way her relationships with others contributed to that.
Speaking of relationships, I think this book does a really good job of exploring the familial relationships between Rosa, her mother, and her grandmother. Rosa lives with her grandmother in Port Coral because her mother travels for work, which results in Rosa not really having a consistent relationship with her mother and relying on her grandmother most of the time. But, over the course of the story, the relationships between the three women are explored in detail and I loved how much time was devoted to it. I also really appreciated that it was acknowledged that her mother and grandmother have a relationship outside of Rosa and we got to see that explored to an extent, as well.
A lot of this novel focuses on the exploration of the experience of being a diaspora Cuban and the way that affects your relationship to yourself and to your family and I thought that was explored really well through the family dynamics, although you should definitely take my opinion on this with a grain of salt.
I also really loved the whole small town dynamic/atmosphere in this book and the way the community aspect of it was explored. It was really endearing and fun to read about!! I also thought that the plot surrounding the spring festival in said town was paced really well and it was also a lot of fun to read about!!
I would like to also gush about the romance here because I absolutely adored Rosa and Alex and the way their relationship development. Can’t believe they invented romance.
My critiques for this book are few, so I will try to keep this part short. I do wish that we had gotten a bit more depth with the side characters and especially with Rosa’s friends because I really didn’t feel like we knew them at all and I did find myself getting a couple of the side characters confused.
I also wish the last section of this book had been longer because, to me, it felt really rushed and tacked on at the end without much build-up to it. While I do think that the ending did a good job of resolving the central conflict of the story, I do wish we had gotten a bit more time to tie up the loose ends.