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A review by chandlerainsley
Don't Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno
4.0
happy release day to this own voices excellence!
2019 is the year of good ass latinx contemporaries
this was a lot of fun! to be honest, i requested it because of the buzz i was hearing from some of my lovely latinx friends but i didn't know much about the story going in. i think had i known what the premise was i probably wouldn't have requested it. "save our town" kind of stories usually aren't for me. but i'm glad i listened to my friends because this was great!
it's a story about a cuban american girl named rosa who's in her senior year of high school. she's trying to figure out where she fits in both in terms of her heritage and in what she wants to do. she wants to go to cuba, she wants to feel a deeper connection to her family and she wants to understand where she comes from. all of this struggle is happening internally as she tries to help her town raise enough money to keep their marina from being bought by developers. and of course there's a love story.
i really enjoyed the cuban rep in this and i really enjoyed the family relationships in this. it was messy and real and even though i'm just a whitey, i could relate to the family dynamics. i also loved the town of Port Coral where this was set. everyone knew everyone and it felt like a cuban Stars Hollow.
the only thing that i didn't absolutely love about the story was the romance. it was kind of swoony at points but it didn't grip me. i think YA contemporaries are VERY hit or miss with the romance for me so this isn't too surprising. but alex was a super sweet guy and i didn't actively root against their relationship so i'll take that as a win in my book.
overall, i loved this story and getting to know rosa and port coral. would highly recommend to everyone, it would make a good ass summer read
2019 is the year of good ass latinx contemporaries
this was a lot of fun! to be honest, i requested it because of the buzz i was hearing from some of my lovely latinx friends but i didn't know much about the story going in. i think had i known what the premise was i probably wouldn't have requested it. "save our town" kind of stories usually aren't for me. but i'm glad i listened to my friends because this was great!
it's a story about a cuban american girl named rosa who's in her senior year of high school. she's trying to figure out where she fits in both in terms of her heritage and in what she wants to do. she wants to go to cuba, she wants to feel a deeper connection to her family and she wants to understand where she comes from. all of this struggle is happening internally as she tries to help her town raise enough money to keep their marina from being bought by developers. and of course there's a love story.
i really enjoyed the cuban rep in this and i really enjoyed the family relationships in this. it was messy and real and even though i'm just a whitey, i could relate to the family dynamics. i also loved the town of Port Coral where this was set. everyone knew everyone and it felt like a cuban Stars Hollow.
the only thing that i didn't absolutely love about the story was the romance. it was kind of swoony at points but it didn't grip me. i think YA contemporaries are VERY hit or miss with the romance for me so this isn't too surprising. but alex was a super sweet guy and i didn't actively root against their relationship so i'll take that as a win in my book.
overall, i loved this story and getting to know rosa and port coral. would highly recommend to everyone, it would make a good ass summer read