This sexy rom-com of the summer delivers an enviable romance with a side of drama.
Dates Read: 16/07/2022 to 03/08/2022
Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Word to describe: Sexyy (Two Y's for the extra sexiness)
Genre: Romantic Fiction
You Had Me At Hola, gives readers a love story to envy and a colourful list of characters to push back against the typical white mass in romance books. Every single character (I think...) in this book was Latinx and it was a beautiful change from the typical blonde hair blue-eyed characters that romance books gravitate towards. The culture represented and family-orientated characters felt like a breath of fresh air. And I couldn't possibly leave out the dabbling of the Spanish language that was carefully sprinkled throughout. Everything about this book screamed home proud and even Alexis Daria herself wrote in the final section that this book has been heavily inspired by her family in Puerto Rico. I sincerely hope that Alexis Daria creates more stories with more sexy Latinx men to fill up an entire shelf in the romance genre.
Now picture this - you've just been publically humiliated by your now ex-boyfriend who broke up with you via the press and now you have to deal with some moody co-star who won't come less than six feet close to you but somehow still manages to give you fanny flutters. Have a hard time picturing it? Try no more and introduce yourself to the lovely (and scarily beautiful) Jasmine Lin Rodrigues. She has it all money, fame, the best friends, except she doesn't have love. But that doesn't matter, right?
Jasmine runs headfirst into her co-star Ashton after her public downfall (thanks to her fame-hungry rock star ex-boyfriend). Ashton proceeds to spill coffee all over her. Yikes. Despite the rocky start, these two characters hold a special place in my heart. They are both family and career driven and above all else are determined to live their happily ever after. Ashton is a single father who has been hiding his son from the public since the day he was born and falling for co-star Jasmine is simply not an option.
Romance books always seem to have a knack for pairing the most unlikely duo and turning them into couple goals. Jasmine and Ashton's relationship is one that is both sweet and spicy. From little moments of revealing their hopes and fears to hot passionate lovemaking on the sofa of Jasmine's hotel room. I really liked how this relationship developed. Unlike other romance books I have read in the past I found that these two characters were naturally drawn together and are humanised by their relationship. Jasmine becomes less of an anxious mess and Ashton learns to let his fears go. This slow development from friends to lovers is one of my favourite tropes and it is executed brilliantly in this book.
I especially loved the inclusion of the scripted scenes in which Jasmine and Ashton play their on-screen characters. It adds to the realness of Jasmine and Ashton's relationship off screen where the passion is not residual from their acting scenes and comes from a place of pure carnal desire. At first, I was unsure why the scenes were added or what they brought to the book. But just as I become hooked on the characters of Ashton and Jasmine, I also fell in love with Carmen In Charge (go figures).
Alexis Daria has created one for the ages. A sultry, sexy romance with all the drama of a telenovela and all the sexiness of erotica. We beg you to write more!
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