About the Book
-
Author:
- Elba Luz
- Genre:
- Boy-Girl Romance
- Voices:
- Bisexual
- Cis Girl
- Puerto Rican
Cover Story: I Had a Dream Like This Once
Drinking Buddy: ¡Salud!
MPAA Rating PG-13 (language, alcohol use)
Talky Talk: Too Many Subplots
Bonus Factors: Huge Family, 15 Minutes of Fame
Bromance Status: Until Next Time
Cover Story: I Had a Dream Like This Once
I was dressed like Joe Namath, but that’s neither here nor there.
I have to say that this is my favorite cover from the past year or so. It perfectly sums up Amelia’s struggle to be the perfect daughter/employee, the perfect girlfriend, and to be herself. My daughter assumed from the cover that we were going to get some kind of Frankensteinesque story where someone builds a girlfriend in the basement.
The Deal:
After getting dumped by her perfect girlfriend, Amelia Hernandez begins to believe in the family curse. No Hernandez woman will every find romantic happiness. Not her mother, not the three aunts who live with them, and not Amelia. But she’s determined to break the curse. She’ll arrange a date with each of her exes to find out what she did wrong, and then correct that.
But that’s not Amelia’s only problem. She lives with her huge extended family: three aunts, her mother, and three younger sisters. The family is planning on opening a bakery, and it’s just assumed that newly graduated Amelia will work there full time. But Amelia wants to take a gap year, and has been secretly saving money to join a travel program. Of course the bill comes due unexpectedly early, and she doesn’t have enough money.
On top of all that, ex-boyfriend Leon shows back up after having moved out of state. The guy who broke up with her. Via text. On her birthday. Amelia’s going to go out with him again, all right. Make him fall for her again. And then break his heart. Because she totally doesn’t still have feelings for him.
Drinking Buddy: ¡Salud!
Amelia is the kind of friend anyone would appreciate: a loyal daughter, sister, girlfriend, employee, friend, etc. But she’s not a dog, and she’s chafing at the idea that she has to live in the mold her family, or her current partner, or society wants for her. So maybe asking her exes what she did wrong isn’t that good of an idea. Also, she’s adorably accident prone, which is cute, but bad luck for her in the age of cell phone cameras and viral videos.
MPAA Rating PG-13 (language, alcohol use)
I can’t shake the feeling that in 2015, the Council on Young Adult Literature passed an edict that stated every male romantic interest in YA must have a cute dimple. Because of course Leon does. There are other unique facial features, authors! I’d love to read about a guy with something different, like a vestigial extra mouth from a conjoined twin or something.
At any rate, Leon was okay. But from chapter one, I knew there was some secret reason he’d treated Amelia so shabbily in the past that would make her forgive him without being a doormat. I wasn’t disappointed.
Talky Talk: Too Many Subplots
My agent recently declined one of my books because the subplot was a novel in itself. I think we’re seeing that here. The main plot, Amelia and Leon, is enough to hold us, and the subplot of Amelia’s worry about the future is plenty. The whole ex boyfriend focus group thing never really went anywhere. She reconnected with two other guys who didn’t have much negative to say about her. And little things like the supposed family curse or Amelia’s baby sister’s frail health were mentioned and then kind of dropped. The plot was so muddled at times that once I accidentally skipped back fifty pages and didn’t realize it for a chapter.
Bonus Factor: Huge Family
Amelia not only has a mother, but three aunts of widely different personalities, a teenage sister, an elementary age sister, and a baby sister. Everyone in the family loves Amelia. The aunts are more like bonus mothers. She’s absolutely cherished and cared for.
But sometimes that love can feel smothering. How can Amelia even bring that up to women who have sacrificed so much for her?
Bonus Factor: 15 Minutes of Fame
So during one of her dates, Amelia finds herself in an embarrassing situation. And it’s filmed. Soon, everyone and their dog is laughing at her predicament. Except for Leon. Leon doesn’t laugh at her. Though he does makes her laugh…
Bromance Status: Until Next Time
I didn’t fall in love, but I’ll certainly check out the next thing this author writes.
Literary Matchmaking
Rebecca Carvalho’s Salt and Sugar also deals with a family restaurant.
Caught Between Two Curses by Margo Dill also has a family romantic curse.
Viva Lola Espinoza, by Ella Cerón, also is about a girl chafing under her family’s expectations.
FCC Full Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, but no money or Puerto Rican pastries.
