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A review by mafyseaofdreams
Once Upon a Quinceañera by Monica Gomez-Hira
fast-paced
3.5
[3.5/5]
Esta reseña está disponible en español en mi blog.
Thank you to Edelweiss and HarperTeen for the opportunity to read this before publishing date.
"If everyone were always obsessed about endings, there would be no beginnings."
Carmen Aguilar just wants her high school diploma, but she had no idea that to get it she would have to almost graduate and work at a company that makes Dreams Come True with her best friend Waverly to do it. Dressing up as Belle during the scorching Miami summer can be tolerated, except that her children's party job becomes a vortex of the past: her ex Mauro returns from Boston to work with them for the summer and her cousin Ariana hires them to perform at her quinceañera. If she didn't feel an atrocious hatred for her ex and his family after they canceled her own quinceañera, things wouldn't be so bad, but now she'll have to learn to work as a team and dance real tight with her new partners.
I want to start with the characters. First Carmen, diosito santo, how obnoxious she was at times. She certainly had a strong character and beware of her, but she was a bit too annoying to even read about. Her indecisiveness and whining was a stress, but you could certainly sympathize and understand her when the situation warranted it because her family did treat her like hell at times.
Then we have the love interests: Mauro and Alex. I'll talk about the two of them first, because I had the same problem when they were introduced into our story, which was that they felt flat and distant. Carmen might already know them, but we didn't and I felt that many emotions I couldn't feel or share because of that lack of information. As for Mauro alone, I must say that you are posed with a story that should make you hate him, but as I said it was impossible for me and fall for him from the beginning. Same and different with Alex, who I should have felt in love for but just pulled me out of the loop or ended up loathing.
Finally, Ariana. The pain in my eyes is not from reading on a computer, it's from every time she appeared on the scene. If Carmen had her stressful moments, Ariana didn't need them, because she was a stressful person. And I'm sorry to say it, but between you and me, the few times the situation made you want to tip the balance from family hatred to small affection I was banging my head against the wall. It's mentioned all the time in the book how words are one thing and actions are another and Ariana demonstrates this by making herself a bit of a hypocrite.
The others, Waverly, Simone, Mirella, Celia, Victor, Cesar and a few other characters, certainly gave something to the story, but I feel that too many of them were missing. Many times it was Carmen, Mauro and Ariana, who are undoubtedly the main ones, but they as secondary characters spent more time behind the curtain than on stage. Well, Tia Celia is no bother, she might as well have fallen off stage altogether. She was a good character, so good that the hatred you have for her is intense.
Speaking of the story, one tiny detail I'd like to mention before going into general context. Once in a while styles were mentioned, whether it was for a date, a dress fitting, between others, and it was brought up to you as something epic, but what I read were outfits I couldn't form in my head or too basic to say wow. I'm not the fashion police, but maybe I would have been better off rethinking either the reactions to the outfits or the outfits themselves, because they didn't seem real.
Now yes, the quinceañera stuff. There were a few tiny plot twists that might have surprised, but they were too obvious that there was no reaction at all, good or bad. Since this is about a dance company and some fifteen year olds, you'd think the book would be all about intense steps all the time, which is false and I appreciate. This could have turned into a dance guide, but Monica knew how to hold the story line.
Although the line was sometimes a little fuzzy. I try to explain as best I can without giving spoilers, so we'll see how this turns out. Just like with the characters, with Mauro and Alex, they had no depth, there were scenes that had almost no depth at all. And I don't mean emotionally, but I was saying they were leaving work, going for ice cream and boom, next day. There were several moments that could have been exploited a little more. Here we do not dislike long stories and giant books if necessary.
But the coolest part of the story was the one that was given depth: the family history. They mentioned telenovelas and no doubt this could be one and we staned this. At every turn you felt the need of a café con leche and some cookies because the gossip was good.
As mentioned in the book from the beginning, Carmen works as Belle at children's parties and another thing I liked was that the author didn't forget this. Despite rehearsing for quinces or being teenagers or whatever, they were still working to make those dreams come true and there are scenes that touched my heart with how beautiful and soft they were. They were the perfect balance to the gossip of La Rosa de Guadalupe ("Mexican telenovela" with a huge audience and variety of memes).
And the ending, I have mixed feelings about that ending. It wasn't bad but things got so chaotic that I can't decide if it was a good ending or just what was expected of it. Mind you, the last sentence? That one we absolutely adored.
For someone like Carmen, who was going to have her quinces party and in the end it didn't come together, this story certainly makes you realize the craziness you missed out on and the drama you were spared.
Esta reseña está disponible en español en mi blog.
Thank you to Edelweiss and HarperTeen for the opportunity to read this before publishing date.
"If everyone were always obsessed about endings, there would be no beginnings."
Carmen Aguilar just wants her high school diploma, but she had no idea that to get it she would have to almost graduate and work at a company that makes Dreams Come True with her best friend Waverly to do it. Dressing up as Belle during the scorching Miami summer can be tolerated, except that her children's party job becomes a vortex of the past: her ex Mauro returns from Boston to work with them for the summer and her cousin Ariana hires them to perform at her quinceañera. If she didn't feel an atrocious hatred for her ex and his family after they canceled her own quinceañera, things wouldn't be so bad, but now she'll have to learn to work as a team and dance real tight with her new partners.
I want to start with the characters. First Carmen, diosito santo, how obnoxious she was at times. She certainly had a strong character and beware of her, but she was a bit too annoying to even read about. Her indecisiveness and whining was a stress, but you could certainly sympathize and understand her when the situation warranted it because her family did treat her like hell at times.
Then we have the love interests: Mauro and Alex. I'll talk about the two of them first, because I had the same problem when they were introduced into our story, which was that they felt flat and distant. Carmen might already know them, but we didn't and I felt that many emotions I couldn't feel or share because of that lack of information. As for Mauro alone, I must say that you are posed with a story that should make you hate him, but as I said it was impossible for me and fall for him from the beginning. Same and different with Alex, who I should have felt in love for but just pulled me out of the loop or ended up loathing.
Finally, Ariana. The pain in my eyes is not from reading on a computer, it's from every time she appeared on the scene. If Carmen had her stressful moments, Ariana didn't need them, because she was a stressful person. And I'm sorry to say it, but between you and me, the few times the situation made you want to tip the balance from family hatred to small affection I was banging my head against the wall. It's mentioned all the time in the book how words are one thing and actions are another and Ariana demonstrates this by making herself a bit of a hypocrite.
The others, Waverly, Simone, Mirella, Celia, Victor, Cesar and a few other characters, certainly gave something to the story, but I feel that too many of them were missing. Many times it was Carmen, Mauro and Ariana, who are undoubtedly the main ones, but they as secondary characters spent more time behind the curtain than on stage. Well, Tia Celia is no bother, she might as well have fallen off stage altogether. She was a good character, so good that the hatred you have for her is intense.
Speaking of the story, one tiny detail I'd like to mention before going into general context. Once in a while styles were mentioned, whether it was for a date, a dress fitting, between others, and it was brought up to you as something epic, but what I read were outfits I couldn't form in my head or too basic to say wow. I'm not the fashion police, but maybe I would have been better off rethinking either the reactions to the outfits or the outfits themselves, because they didn't seem real.
Now yes, the quinceañera stuff. There were a few tiny plot twists that might have surprised, but they were too obvious that there was no reaction at all, good or bad. Since this is about a dance company and some fifteen year olds, you'd think the book would be all about intense steps all the time, which is false and I appreciate. This could have turned into a dance guide, but Monica knew how to hold the story line.
Although the line was sometimes a little fuzzy. I try to explain as best I can without giving spoilers, so we'll see how this turns out. Just like with the characters, with Mauro and Alex, they had no depth, there were scenes that had almost no depth at all. And I don't mean emotionally, but I was saying they were leaving work, going for ice cream and boom, next day. There were several moments that could have been exploited a little more. Here we do not dislike long stories and giant books if necessary.
But the coolest part of the story was the one that was given depth: the family history. They mentioned telenovelas and no doubt this could be one and we staned this. At every turn you felt the need of a café con leche and some cookies because the gossip was good.
As mentioned in the book from the beginning, Carmen works as Belle at children's parties and another thing I liked was that the author didn't forget this. Despite rehearsing for quinces or being teenagers or whatever, they were still working to make those dreams come true and there are scenes that touched my heart with how beautiful and soft they were. They were the perfect balance to the gossip of La Rosa de Guadalupe ("Mexican telenovela" with a huge audience and variety of memes).
And the ending, I have mixed feelings about that ending. It wasn't bad but things got so chaotic that I can't decide if it was a good ending or just what was expected of it. Mind you, the last sentence? That one we absolutely adored.
For someone like Carmen, who was going to have her quinces party and in the end it didn't come together, this story certainly makes you realize the craziness you missed out on and the drama you were spared.