I wish I had not purchased this. The only saving grace were the cultural elements and the extremely cute cover. I would say it’s a 2.5 stars but I rounded down because I was upset so frequently reading this.

This book had so much potential: I love a food-based romance, characters solidly aware of their cultural identity, and discussions of class (esp gentrification/gentefication in this book). But this missed the mark on literally all of those.

There was a lot of discussion of Ramón’s wealth and spending habits, so that was quite clearly covered. What was not covered: his corresponding privileges. He seemed to have no awareness of his privilege or that other people had less than him.

The two protagonists barely talk about anything. Julieta would say “I’m not sure about this, we come from such different backgrounds idk if it will work” and then Ramón would said “All I care about is you.” And that was the end of the discussion. Problem solved then!!!! No solutions offered, merely one statement issued one time, no need to worry anymore!!

Also, the writing itself wasn’t great. I was quite surprised to hear this was not the author’s debut novel. Here’s one strangely alliterative and judgmental sentence to give you a taste: “Julieta focused her attention back on the sorority sisters and immodest Instagram influencers mingling with the muscular military men and blasé beach bros spilling out of bars and onto the busy sidewalk.” Several times in the first 100 pages I wondered about the amount of alliteration.

I have several more criticisms of this book but don’t want to spend any more time thinking about it.