Another month, another reading recap! Only managed to read three books for August, which seems to be on trend for me lately. While I am actively trying to read more, things get in the way. Grateful I managed to get through three, which are written by Latina authors too! Check out my reading recap for these three reads below:
First Comes Amor by Cynthia A. Rodriguez – This was my first romance read where pregnancy was a central theme. I know pregnancy is a little bit controversial in the bookish space on social media so I wanted to experience a read with it before I can form an opinion. Overall, I thought the story was sweet. Daniela is an independent career baddie who ends up pregnant after a one night stand with a guy whose name she didn’t even know. Now that she was faced with the choice of whether to keep the baby or not, she went through with it thinking she was going to have to go at it alone. Though she had a strong support system in her family and her badass bestie Santana, she still felt the loneliness of going through pregnancy with a partner.
That is, until she met her hot chef neighbor Quintin. The attraction between them was present on the onset but since Daniela was pregnant, she didn’t want to pursue anything but that didn’t stop Quintin. Even though it wasn’t his baby, he became the “father that stepped up” and was there through the whole process with Daniela. It was cute how down bad he was and how willing he was to actually be there for her and the baby no matter what. I did enjoy the little plot twist towards the end, true telenovela shit; especially with Santana’s lost chapter at the end. That said, this was an enjoyable read. The pregnancy plot point helped give the characters something else to focus on outside of their attraction and feelings for each other, which helped make the story engaging. It was also heartwarming to read about a self sufficient woman finding a partner that showed her that she can be soft with him because he got her – one can only hope to find love like that in real life.
Takes One to Know One by Lissette Decos – Okay, I really wanted to love this one; it had the makings of a great summer vibe read but I was unfortunately disappointed. Going to preface by saying that this book would have been better off not classified as a romance.
Takes One to Know One follows the story of Daniela, a risk averse, blazer wearing employee for a record label. She’s determined to be taken seriously at the job she loves while trying to balance her home life with her younger sister and mom. As she takes the role of family leader, she’s overwhelmed with trying to take care of everyone but continues on as if it is her duty. She’s given the opportunity at work to follow one of the newest and hottest reggaeton stars, Rene “El Rico” Rodriguez, despite her lying about her interest in him as an artist and in the genre. Part of the job means going to Puerto Rico, which her father who sadly passed away was from. As Dani works with Rene to get behind the scenes footage of his creative process, she’s also figuring out how to deal with the grief of losing her father and how she wants to move forward in life.
Despite what the summaries for this book say, this is hardly an enemies to lovers book. It even feels wrong to call it a slow burn. The romance portion took a backseat to Dani’s self discovery journey. By the time it happened, it didn’t feel authentic. Dani and Rene lacked chemistry and their romance didn’t feel believable at all. Reminds me a lot of Elissa Sussman’s book “Funny You Should Ask” where I had similar sentiments; it felt more like the FMC was delusional about whatever was going on between her and the MMC. Had this book been classified as contemporary lit and removed the romance component, it would have been a four star read.
My Train Leaves At Three by Natalie Guerrero – I went into this one knowing very little outside of the fact that the book was written by a Puerto Rican/Dominican author and that it was her debut novel, and ended up really liking the story. My Train Leaves At Three follows the story of Xiomara, an Afro-Latina singer from Washington Heights who dreams of making it big on Broadway. In the meantime, she’s working two minimum wage jobs and is fighting eviction of her Washington Heights apartment that she shares with her mother. Xiomara is saddled with grief after losing her older sister the year before, and she makes several questionable choices one after the other, no doubt in an attempt to feel something other than intense sadness. She gets a once in a lifetime opportunity to audition for Manny Santos, the hot and up and coming director, and she’s determined to make it work to make her dream come true. Soon, she sees the dark corners of the industry and has to question whether making her dream a reality is worth potentially losing herself.
I was genuinely surprised this book was classified as a coming of age story. Xiomara is pushing 30, and her actions in the book had me thinking she was in her early 20s. She makes a lot of questionable choices and decisions that someone who is almost 30 should know better about. Despite that, she’s deep in grief, which is likely why she does what she does, so I can’t fault her for that. It was rough to see her lose more and more of herself with every choice she made in an attempt to make her and her sister’s dream a reality; I was literally cringing in parts and hoped she would make different choices. That said, I was rooting for her and was content with how her story ended. I also loved that the story took place in Washington Heights. As someone born and raised there, it warmed my heart to see my neighborhood on the page, and helped me visualize her settings clearly.
