Tamara Contreras will never again settle for unmemorable sex. Her long-time boyfriend may look perfect to her traditional Mexican-American parents -- something Tamara has never been -- but at twenty-six she wants more from life than marriage and motherhood. So in front of everyone, Tamara does the unthinkable: She turns down her boyfriend's unexpected marriage proposal and leaves home for L.A.
Tamara thinks she's got the single-girl-in-the-city thing down, until she runs into Will Benavides, the former high school bad boy turned firefighter. If Tamara's parents had known how Will lit up her teenage fantasies, she'd have been shipped off to the nuns for sure! Now Will wants to make those fantasies come true permanently.
When an unexpected opportunity lands in her lap and Tamara has to choose between the career and the man of her dreams, she wonders if maybe la familia was right after all . . .
Reviewed by: Bela M.
Rated:
Review: FAIR WARNING: Right away in chapter one, you get hit with this confusing Spanish--"La va a pesar" and "No le veo la punta." What does that mean? Has the author even heard Spanish?The story then begins with a public proposal to Tamara, who has been living under the control and constant scrutiny of her overbearing mother. C'mon, how can anyone say "no" to a proposal with everyone watching and expecting you to say "yes?" I would've ran away from the scene too. I would've looked like the road runner and left dust trails in my speed.
Then Will enters the picture. He is so HOT! Reminds me of (fireman) Geoff Stults from 7th Heaven--that church show. And Will was an artist too! Hot!
I did not like the whole back-and-forth thing when Will and Tamara had their first kiss. It was annoying and really unnecessary to the flow. It was like listening to a song, then, half way through, stopping it and having to go back to the first part.
The whole thing is written in multi-character perspective, which is fine with me; but I just don't like it when the perspective keeps changing in the same chapter, in the same paragraph. The author should've kept that more uniform. Also, the attraction between Will and Tamara was sort've surreal--in other words, not genuine. It seemed like they were just slapped together at the last minute to make the story work. And, another thing, the book was full of awkward phrasing, like, "Her hair whispered against the pillow." Hair doesn't whisper! I don't even know what this means. No doubt about it that this book could've used some more editing.
Overall, this is an okay book if you like a fast and easy Harlequin Romance with VERY LITTLE Spanish flavor (honestly, you can hardly even taste it.)
Thank you for an honest appraisal of the book. I read three pages of this novel, on Amazon preview, and found that it wasn't written as well as one of the listed reviewers said.
ReplyDeleteThere were several 'lazy' descriptions or cliche's, many unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, and a sense of confusion.
I love that their are multicultural characters and a storyline about mothers and daughters, but it has to be well written to communicate the story.
Yes, our reviewer had a hard time reading it, but we still encourage our readers to check out some of Ms. Castillo's other work. We have actually seen her in person, and she is pretty funny!
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