Skip to main content

You Had Me at Hola Book Review

Alexis Daria is proving to be a powerful force in the contemporary romance sphere. With a novel that hones in on diversity and inclusivity of Latinx people in media, as well as diving into the complexities of working as an actor, Daria has set the stage for a vibrant, thoughtful trilogy. 

Alexia Daria is a native New Yorker and an award-winning author writing stories about successful Latinx characters and their (occasionally messy) familias. Her debut, Take the Lead, was a 2018 RITA Award winner for Best First Book and was named one of the Best Romance Novels of 2017 by the Washington Post and Entertainment Weekly. Her superpowers include spotting celebrities in NYC, winning Broadway ticket lotteries, and live-tweeting her favorite TV shows at @alexisdaria. You can find more of my reviews of Daria's works here. 

After a messy public breakup, soap opera darling Jasmine Lin Rodriguez finds her face splashed across the tabloids. When she returns to her hometown of New York City to film the starring role in a bilingual romantic comedy for the number one streaming service in the country, Jasmine figures her new "Leading Lady Plan" should be easy enough to follow—until a casting shake-up pairs her with telenovela hunk Ashton Suárez. After his last telenovela character was killed off, Ashton is worried his career is dead as well. Joining this new cast as a last-minute addition will give him the chance to show off his acting chops to American audiences and ping the radar of Hollywood casting agents. To make it work, he'll need to generate smoking-hot on-screen chemistry with Jasmine. Easier said than done, especially when a disastrous first impression smothers the embers of whatever sexual heat they might have had. With their careers on the line, Jasmine and Ashton agree to rehearse in private. But rehearsal leads to kissing, and kissing leads to a behind-the-scenes romance worthy of a soap opera. While their on-screen performance improves, the media spotlight on Jasmine soon threatens to destroy her new image and expose Ashton's most closely guarded secret.

What I loved about this book was the emphasis on not just the romantic leads being famous, but watching them go about their work. Understanding the challenges and triumphs of their jobs as actors made this a more layered story than a romance—indeed, it seemed like both a love letter and a call to action aimed to the entertainment industry as a whole. Daria emphasizes the importance and necessity of diversity in Hollywood, while also demonstrating the importance of such media in people's lives. I do wish we'd gotten to know some of the crew members' stories more in detail, just because their importance was highlighted so keenly, but either way, I think Daria did a good job making their presence known. 

I was a little less sold on the romance itself. I was rather frustrated with how Jasmine and Ashton communicated with one another, because they never really had a chance to dive in deeper with one another before being interrupted or ambushed. The pacing of their relationship was also off for me—there was a lot of focus on that instant chemistry, but for me, I didn't feel that it had a chance to really evolve into something deeper. And this might be a small thing, but I don't understand why Ashton told Jasmine his real name very early on, and how she didn't use it when the two were alone. It would have gone a long way to advance the intimacy of their relationship. All-in-all, I didn't feel like the strength of this novel came from the romance.

I did appreciate the fun breaks from the story into the scenes from the show Jasmine and Ashton were filming, Carmen in Charge. These fun deviations were narrated by their TV characters, but it did good work to demonstrate how real life and fantasy were sort of blending, blurring. I also loved the conversations surrounding family expectations and the importance of diversity in TV and film media. Overall, I wish the scenes from the show and the conversations about family expectations were elaborated on more, because they felt like true strengths of the story, and could have built a firmer foundation for Ashton's and Jasmine's relationship. 

Regardless, Daria is a good writer. I was entertained by this story, and I am curious to see how she dives in Michelle's, one of Jasmine's cousins and the second of the Primas of Power, story, in A Lot Like Adiós. Stay tuned for my review.

*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Lovely Bones Book vs. Movie Review

The Lovely Bones book cover I am a firm believer that the book is always better than the movie/tv series. I could point you to multiple examples where the characters were botched on screen, or plot holes prevailed. The statement that the book is better than the movie usually holds true However, with the increased use of streaming services and the increased utilization of published book material being pulled into the movie/tv world, more and more of our familiar stories are being put to the screen, and hence being put to the test. Some pass: despite some alterations and plot changes, the story and characters remain relatively the same, which bolsters excitement from the fan base. However, others don't, and screenplays that drastically alter the storyline leave fans wishing for a do-over. I definitely have some conflicted feelings regarding The Lovely Bones  and its book-to-movie adaptation. I really did like the book. It's not my favorite, or by any means the best book...
2 comments
Read more

The Dark Artifices Series Review

I have been reading Cassandra Clare's work since I was a freshman, and have avidly followed the release dates of her Dark Artifices series. I felt like even just these past four years I could track all the amazing improvements she's made in her storytelling, world-building, and characterization. Being a writer myself, I know that there is so much that goes behind make choices for the novel or choosing the best paths for the characters. These decisions that can be extremely hard for the author, especially if you're an author as Cassandra Clare, and even more so when those decisions are made for the third book in a trilogy whose ending has been much anticipated.  Overall, I give Cassandra Clare's The Dark Artifices  series 5/5 stars. I loved the pacing of the stories and how intimate the storytelling is, even if I wasn't quite satisfied with the ending of The Queen of Air and Darkness , which is what I'll be talking about below. I enjoyed all of the plo...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Bronze Key Book Review

To be destroyed from within is more dangerous than having an outside enemy. It's easy to turn against the people you thought you knew and trusted when a mysterious spy enters the story. With this new enemy, the kids of the Magisterium face a new threat, one they can't see. The third book in the Magisterium series is cleverly crafted; the authors point readers to where they want us to look, so no one can guess what's coming. Striking and heartbreaking, with such a crazy cliffhanger, Holly Black and Cassandra Clare succeed again at writing another well-paced, action-packed, complex middle grade novel.  Holly Black and Cassandra Clare first met over ten years ago at Holly's first-ever book signing. They have since become good friends, bonding over (among other things) their shared love of fantasy. With Magisterium, they decided to team up to write their own story about heroes and villains, good and evil, and being chosen for greatness, whether you like it or not. Holly is...
Post a Comment
Read more