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A review by rachelbookdragon
Don't Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno
3.0
3.5 stars. The story of a girl struggling with the Cuban diaspora within her family and what that meant for their past and means for their future. The Santos women are known to be cursed to lose the people they love to the sea, and what does Rosa do in response? Well, she falls for a boy with a boat who makes incredible pastries. With her strong, small town community of Port Coral, she might actually get through this. Rosa is a dedicated student, trying to figure out her future and dreaming of Cuba, but when her community needs her when the marina threatens to be sold, she rallies the community to work to fundraise enough money with Spring Fest to protect the home she loves.
After meeting the author (twice, going on three times) I really wanted to love this book and be its greatest advocate, but it didn't make a lasting impression on me. The book was strongly written, with certain phrases and chapter endings I thought were brilliant. I really enjoyed reading about the nuances of Port Coral and the different characters within it. It seems like a tangible place, rooted in reality, though it is fictional. I enjoyed reading about the Santos women, whom, despite their curse, show incredible strength in the face of loss. I also really enjoyed the romance between Alex and Rosa. The scenes in the orange grove and their first date with Alex's entire family showing up for dinner were the most memorable in the book.
I'm not entirely sure what the disconnect was for me. I do think some significant moments were only shown 'off-screen' like the monetary results of Spring Fest or the death of a character, both of which should have had a lot of heightened emotion, but were dulled by it being told rather than shown. Some of the scene transitions weren't clear, like how a character got from one place to the next, and it took me out of the story. Ultimately, I just didn't connect in an impactful way with any of the characters in the story, and for me, that's key to taking a book from good to great in my mind, but that's also a highly subjective process.
I think this book does great things in speaking to the diaspora, politics in Cuba, and a girl searching for identity and direction and clarity on her family's past. I thought the magical realism and brujeria was a strong component of the story. I also loved hearing from the author about her personal journey in writing the book and how reflecting on Cuba was both incredibly difficult and fulfilling as she lived out her fantasy through Rosa. I love that the strong Latinx community has rallied around this book and amplified Rosa's voice and story and I hope this book finds many new readers.
After meeting the author (twice, going on three times) I really wanted to love this book and be its greatest advocate, but it didn't make a lasting impression on me. The book was strongly written, with certain phrases and chapter endings I thought were brilliant. I really enjoyed reading about the nuances of Port Coral and the different characters within it. It seems like a tangible place, rooted in reality, though it is fictional. I enjoyed reading about the Santos women, whom, despite their curse, show incredible strength in the face of loss. I also really enjoyed the romance between Alex and Rosa. The scenes in the orange grove and their first date with Alex's entire family showing up for dinner were the most memorable in the book.
I'm not entirely sure what the disconnect was for me. I do think some significant moments were only shown 'off-screen' like the monetary results of Spring Fest or the death of a character, both of which should have had a lot of heightened emotion, but were dulled by it being told rather than shown. Some of the scene transitions weren't clear, like how a character got from one place to the next, and it took me out of the story. Ultimately, I just didn't connect in an impactful way with any of the characters in the story, and for me, that's key to taking a book from good to great in my mind, but that's also a highly subjective process.
I think this book does great things in speaking to the diaspora, politics in Cuba, and a girl searching for identity and direction and clarity on her family's past. I thought the magical realism and brujeria was a strong component of the story. I also loved hearing from the author about her personal journey in writing the book and how reflecting on Cuba was both incredibly difficult and fulfilling as she lived out her fantasy through Rosa. I love that the strong Latinx community has rallied around this book and amplified Rosa's voice and story and I hope this book finds many new readers.