Don't Date Rosa Santos

All the sweet fluffiness you could want blended seamlessly with serious, genuinely emotional moments that may have you teary-eyed.

I really appreciated that while romance is a big welcome part of this narrative, Rosa’s thoughts were as filled with family, community, college and curiosity about her Cuban heritage as they were with the worthy boy who wins her heart (their relationship’s backstory, as small a tidbit as it is, won my heart as well).

The secondary characters, the neighbors, friends and family, all felt as vividly and lovingly crafted as Rosa, as did the setting, these were very much people and a place I’d love to visit again.

One last thing, if you ordinarily skip over the acknowledgements in a book, take the time to show more read what the author’s written here, some lovely words particularly about her father. show less

I LOVE this book of heritage, hope and hanging on! “Love and Mother’s (are)n’t simple,” especially when 3 generations of women are fighting a familial curse and making borrowed sacrifices in order to try to be enough.
Rosa is a fiercely strong character whose vulnerability is hard to find, but there nonetheless. She is refreshing and sarcastic and brave. Rosa proves that even when you don’t have it all figured out anymore, you can still get back to you.
The plot is full of brightly rich culture and of stories that grow upon each other and culminate into a lifetime. Moreno’s writing is fresh, she strings words and phrases together so masterfully that they are given new perspective. Don’t Date Rosa Santos is at times heart show more wrenching, but it’s also a soul searching, spirit lifting book that will hypnotize you and you won’t want it to end.
*I received an arc from the publisher through NetGalley for an honest review show less

A lovely blend of realism and modernity with believable magic and superstition. It leaves you with a wholesome feeling, optimistic despite it all.
See the full review and more at mybookjoy.com!

Recommended: sure
For a blend of modern concerns and cultural influences, for a style of magic that might make you question your own beliefs, for perfectly timed jokes and references wound with community ties that go deep

Thoughts:
It took me a while to get through this. It also took me a while to like Rosa. The "saving the town" premise felt far too easy towards the start, and even by the end it felt like more of a footnote, a carry objective to learn about the characters. The writing kept me reading though, as the language is absolutely gorgeous, show more with startlingly powerful imagery and lines that you have to re-read a few times to savor.

There were definitely some laughs in here, as well. The reference to Pitbull from the veijos caught me off guard and totally cracked me up! The deeper exploration of identity builds towards the end, and that's what I found myself most interested in. Rosa's conflict over her family history and her unknown Cuban roots weave into every aspect of her life. Her attempted romance with a sailor is not the star of the story, but rather a well constructed foil to learn more about Rosa. I was surprised but impressed by that decision; romance typically gets shoved between the lines of a book, whether it's beneficial or not to the story overall.

The magic was such that I could accept it. It felt perfectly reasonable to imagine these charms and incantations working; that Rosa's mother truly did drag a storm with her wherever she went. This grows from a story about a girl trying to get a boyfriend and decide on a college, to a story of multiple generations and the way their shared grief affects each of them differently. The ending was absolutely perfect, and I'm grateful I got to taste it. show less

"The lullaby of my life is that to know the sea is to know love, but to love us is to lose everything. We're cursed, they still whisper, but by an island, the sea, or our own stubborn hearts, I don't know."

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

**Content Warning: Death, family member's death are brought up often.**

This was such a sweet and beautifully written book! I completely fell in love with Port Coral and it's tight knit community. It had so many general Florida references and it was so fun to read them, the town of Port Coral just felt so real. I may have also screamed a bit when the area I currently live in, and the university I went to, were mentioned.

I adored show more Rosa so so much, the second she started going on about her bullet journal I was just sold on her. The dedication she has for meeting goals was fantastic, no matter the issue she's there helping out and planning a path for success. Now Rosa and Alex absolutely killed me with every interaction they had, it was so cute!!

Rosa's relationship with the women in her family is very complicated, but despite all their differences and misunderstandings I was glad there was always that emphasis on just how much these women love each other. Mimi was such a cool and wise grandmother, she definitely made me miss my own grandmother a lot. I loved how her extensive knowledge of medicinal plants was a huge part in helping their local community. How everyone could just go to her and she would have a solution for their problems. Also Mimi's garden room is the stuff of my dreams!!!

Now when I heard about the curse I wasn't sure what to expect for that. I enjoyed the way the family curse was shown to have such a strong grip on so much of their lives. This was a serious issue for them, and I'm glad it was never downplayed. Now I also appreciate how the subject of brujería was handled so beautifully. How it was just a very normal part of Rosa's life, and doing it came so naturally to her. I loved how casually she could bring it up with her friends or others within the community, and how it was never seen in a negative light.

Overall this is such a beautiful book about family and finding yourself. Rosa takes you on such a huge adventure, and I loved every single moment. show less

Here's an own-voices Latinx romance that any one with a migrant culture will identify with:

"I was a collection of hyphens and bilingual words. Always caught between. Two languages. Two schools. Two countries. Never quite right or enough for either. My dreams were funded by a loan made long before me, and I paid it back in guilt and success. I paid it back by tending a garden whose roots I could not reach."

Rosa Santos, granddaughter of a Cuban refugee whose family is deemed to be cursed around water (her father and grandfather having died at sea), is determined to uncover her Cuban heritage. So when her Florida town of Port Coral is threatened by development, she's all over the plan to raise money through a Latin-themed Spring festival. show more Although the novel opens on Rosa's relationship to Cuba, it's this festival which holds the story together, linking a diverse cast of small town neighbours and bringing together subplots such as Jonas and Clara's wedding, Abuela's healing powers and Rosa's romance.

There's a lot in here apart from the romance - an artist mother who works away from home and arrives or disappears without warning, online learning at the local community college where Rosa has completed first and second year uni courses alongside her high school course, her part time job at the local bodega, and her ongoing relationship with the sea after she meets Alex, whose family owns the local marina. While, I'd have liked to see the ending fleshed out - it felt incredibly rushed to me - this was an enjoyable romance. I especially like the fact that the story didn't revolve around Rosa's love interest as many teen romances are wont to do.

This is a simply written story that flows easily between the multifarious aspects of Rosa's life. Only the key characters (Rosa, her mother, her greandmother nad her love interest) are fleshed out, which could be considered a flaw, if it weren't a representation of the fact that Latinx culture is so very much all about family. The judicious use of Spanish words and phrases (in contexts that render them comprehensible by non-Spanish speakers) immerses the reader in Rosa's world, and it is impossible not to fall in love with her abuela, Mimi.

Highly recommended for migrant kids and for anyone who enjoys teen romance. show less

Actual Rating: 4.25 stars

This book is deceptive but in the best way. You go into it thinking it’s going to be a sweet, lighthearted love story about a girl cursed by the sea meeting a boy who feels at home on it. And that is what you get. But you also get a view of what it’s like to be trapped between multiple cultures and how hard it can be to make either side happy. And about learning who you are outside of the grief that has shaped your entire life. This book cracked my heart in two and made me cry like a fool - I absolutely recommend it to everyone.

But - the climax of the book felt like it came out of nowhere. It didn’t even feel like it matched the tone of the first part of the book, and it made the feeling of emotional show more whiplash even worse. The ending saved the book for me, and brought it back a little closer to what it had been but dang. show less

I adored this book. I wish I had read more than 3 pages at the outset, because then I would have been hooked and it wouldn't have taken me so dang long to finish it. This book gave me a tiny taste of a family and a community and a culture, and it left me happy and wistful at the same time. I loved Rosa's voice, authentically young and melodramatic and earnest and driven all at once. I loved the relationships in this book and the descriptions of food, and the sweet romance that lifted Rosa up without asking her to change herself. This was a lovely book, and I can't wait to recommend it to the teens at my library.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley to read in exchange for an honest review.