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A review by babbity_rabbity
Don't Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno
5.0
I don’t know if I’ve ever read a book that lived up to its comp titles so perfectly. I first saw Don’t Date Rosa Santos pitched as Jane the Virgin meets Gilmore Girls, and that’s strikingly accurate.
Sometimes OwnVoices and diverse books get comped to the nearest popular work with characters with similar identities to simplify marketing, which is why my eyebrows went up at the comparison to Jane, one of my favorite shows of all time and by no means representative for every single story featuring Latina characters.)
But Rosa Santos completely fit the bill. We’ve got the multi-generational Latina household (with characters that echo some traits of Jane, Xiomara, and Alba) in a Stars Hollow-meets-Miami tiny coastal town, complete with town meetings, resident gossips, and deliveries by bicycle. It’s sweet and clever and buoyantly youthful. One part romance, one part coming-of-age, and one part heartwrenching portrait of a child of diaspora.
My full review is here, but you should be able to tell from the cover and the… everything that this is a textbook-perfect summer read. Expect gorgeous prose, clever dialogue, mouth-watering food descriptions, a diverse cast, and a healthy dose of magical realism.
Sometimes OwnVoices and diverse books get comped to the nearest popular work with characters with similar identities to simplify marketing, which is why my eyebrows went up at the comparison to Jane, one of my favorite shows of all time and by no means representative for every single story featuring Latina characters.)
But Rosa Santos completely fit the bill. We’ve got the multi-generational Latina household (with characters that echo some traits of Jane, Xiomara, and Alba) in a Stars Hollow-meets-Miami tiny coastal town, complete with town meetings, resident gossips, and deliveries by bicycle. It’s sweet and clever and buoyantly youthful. One part romance, one part coming-of-age, and one part heartwrenching portrait of a child of diaspora.
My full review is here, but you should be able to tell from the cover and the… everything that this is a textbook-perfect summer read. Expect gorgeous prose, clever dialogue, mouth-watering food descriptions, a diverse cast, and a healthy dose of magical realism.