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mitchie 's review for:
Here to Stay
by Adriana Herrera
Rating: 3.5 stars
HERE TO STAY had everything I wanted in a book, starting with the female MC: social worker Julia is a Dominican/Puerto Rican NYC to Dallas transplant who is using her dual MSW/MPA degrees to save her non-profit program from getting axe’d. As a social worker, I squealed so hard at the social work rep in this book. Julia clearly loved her work and is very good at her job, but has yet to find her community in Dallas. So, she and some NYC-to-TX colleagues start the Gotham Exile Club. And can I just say, I would like to be a part of this club, thank you very much! The friends that Julia makes through these group gatherings are lovable and hella funny. These are the friends that would not only be up in the group friend thread, but would have separate threads to dissect the nuances of group dynamics within the main group thread.
PLUS, this book contains a large and close-knit extended Latinx family, made even more authentic with the inclusion of Spanish in discussions, sometimes without translation (even if you’ve never taken a Spanish class, you can understand the gist of the conversation without needing to google translate).
As for Rocco, he was hot, endearing, and had quite the dirty mouth on him in the bedroom! All of those qualities would’ve landed him a spot on the book boyfriend list, but it was his baggage and vulnerabilities relating to his own family that really drew me in. I appreciated that it was Rocco who didn’t have his shit together and needed Julia to snap him out of his quest for personal martyrdom. It was a refreshing twist on the usual trope.
However, this book would’ve easily landed in the four-star category for me had it not been for the mixed messages and lack of communication between Julia and Rocco. Honestly, that piece got frustrating after a while, and I found myself skimming over some parts as I found them to be repetitive. But, that didn’t detract from the overall goodness of this story.
All in all, HERE TO STAY is a love letter to Dominican/Puerto Rican culture, to mental health rep, and to found families everywhere.
This review and others can be found on my book blog: MitchiexBooks.
HERE TO STAY had everything I wanted in a book, starting with the female MC: social worker Julia is a Dominican/Puerto Rican NYC to Dallas transplant who is using her dual MSW/MPA degrees to save her non-profit program from getting axe’d. As a social worker, I squealed so hard at the social work rep in this book. Julia clearly loved her work and is very good at her job, but has yet to find her community in Dallas. So, she and some NYC-to-TX colleagues start the Gotham Exile Club. And can I just say, I would like to be a part of this club, thank you very much! The friends that Julia makes through these group gatherings are lovable and hella funny. These are the friends that would not only be up in the group friend thread, but would have separate threads to dissect the nuances of group dynamics within the main group thread.
PLUS, this book contains a large and close-knit extended Latinx family, made even more authentic with the inclusion of Spanish in discussions, sometimes without translation (even if you’ve never taken a Spanish class, you can understand the gist of the conversation without needing to google translate).
As for Rocco, he was hot, endearing, and had quite the dirty mouth on him in the bedroom! All of those qualities would’ve landed him a spot on the book boyfriend list, but it was his baggage and vulnerabilities relating to his own family that really drew me in. I appreciated that it was Rocco who didn’t have his shit together and needed Julia to snap him out of his quest for personal martyrdom. It was a refreshing twist on the usual trope.
However, this book would’ve easily landed in the four-star category for me had it not been for the mixed messages and lack of communication between Julia and Rocco. Honestly, that piece got frustrating after a while, and I found myself skimming over some parts as I found them to be repetitive. But, that didn’t detract from the overall goodness of this story.
All in all, HERE TO STAY is a love letter to Dominican/Puerto Rican culture, to mental health rep, and to found families everywhere.
This review and others can be found on my book blog: MitchiexBooks.