A review by queerafictionado
Keeping Carmen Ruiz by Alyson Root

emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 🏳️‍🌈Rep: Lesbian MCs (three), two sapphic pairings, gay SC/achillean sideship, Hispanic MC & prominent SC, other queer & Hispanic SCs, prominent SC with a prosthetic leg

📝Tropes/Themes: Multiple POVs, Family Relationships, Trauma/Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Chosen/Found Family, Quirky Old Lady, Self Discovery, Road Trip, Humor, Reconciliation, Sapphic Romance 

Grab the tissues!! This is a beautiful, emotional journey that will get those tear ducts working! Ugh! Have you ever read a book where you just wished you could scoop up all the characters and hold them and comfort them and tell them they are loved and they aren’t alone and everything is going to be okay? Because that’s what I wanted to do throughout this entire book! I knew it was going to be intense with where Finding Molly Parsons left off in the story, and I was not wrong! But interspersed throughout these heart wrenching moments of grief and trauma are moments of humor and absurdity (mostly thanks to the honorary grandma of this found family, Enid) and moments of comfort and genuine, pure, love and happiness. You will laugh. You will cry. You will get wrecked by this book in all the best ways! 

Carmen was abandoned as a baby and went through horrible experiences growing up in the foster care system. But one good thing that came out of that was Mateo. Carmen has always been the protector, caring for everyone else before herself - especially Mateo. But now she realizes that she has to face her past head on in order to be able to move forward, which includes allowing herself to lean into all those feelings that Molly Parsons stirred inside her before they’d even met. Carmen is finally ready to focus on her own needs, but she’s convinced she has to do it on her own. 

Meanwhile, at the urging of her niece Faith, Molly Parsons realizes she needs to do some of her own work and face her own past, that is if she wants to be able to keep Carmen Ruiz. Because for once in her life, Molly doesn’t want to run away, she wants to run towards something, towards someone. And she doesn’t want to do anything to mess that up. 

Two separate journeys across the country. Three individual journeys of growth and healing and confronting the past. Two stories of reconciliation. Two main love stories and a side love story. The joy of friendship. The power of finding and creating a family when you never had the family you needed or wanted growing up. Overcoming adversity and trauma and realizing you don’t have to go through it alone. Raunchy humor and a quirky old lady who can make you cringe then cry in a matter of minutes. One big beautiful found family filled to the brim with compassion, support, and love. And the most perfect ending you could hope for. 💛🥰

I received an advance copy and this is my honest review. 
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