You Had Me at Hola: A Novel: 1 (Primas of Power, 1)

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As smooth and easy as the reading was, I also really appreciated the Spanish words that not only added a nice touch to the story itself but let the readers connect with the characters’ roots. The 'Carmen in Charge' chapters were just boring and used as filler without adding anything substantial to the story- even though characters seemed to interact more on their show than they did off set. 🙃 The secret that came out had me rolling my eyes and I felt the big drama was just boring. 🙈 It's through Daria's deep and nuanced exploration of these ideas that You Had Me at Hola says hello to new risks. It's a sensual choreography of romance, feminism, and identity that harmonizes the characters' relationships on and offscreen — while making all the jefa moves. Personally, I found the male MC, Ashton, to be too closed off. I had a much harder time connecting to him, and I found him to be not vulnerable enough, even within his own head. I thought the romance felt a bit... strained? It didn't quite feel natural to me. In fact, I found the romance of their character that they were playing to be more organic. I also thought that the Ashton withheld too much information from the female MC, Jasmine, even when they were in a tentative relationship, for me to have much sympathy for him. When I read this, I had just spilled a glass of water on my laptop, my child, the love of my life, and been informed it would have cost NINE HUNDRED DOLLARS to fix. I spent the day in a malaise of TikTok and reflecting on my own suffering. Eventually I read my library ebook copy of this on my phone, instead of on my then dead computer, as nature intended.

Her self-proclaimed moniker reinforces Hola's themes of diversity, consent, and agency because it reimagines who a Leading Lady can be, and in turn, rebels against our cultural restrictions. Jasmine fights for herself but she also has the space to take risks and push the boundaries of her identity. But this story is the perfect example of how love is not made of big gestures and great gifts, but by simplicity and being there for the other person. Meaning, you should always feel free to freak out in front of your loved ones, no matter how scared you are to expose that part of yourself.Ok. Just as an example (not an actual quote!) instead of saying, "She left the room, went outside, and put on a sweater.", she would say, "She left the room (stop) went outside (stop) and put on a swea-ter." So I probably wouldn't have liked this even if it made me laugh and cry and shake my head in disbelief at its sheer magnificence. The first thing I struggled with was the writing. The writing felt very clunky to me and I feel like the author spent a lot of time telling us things instead of showing, which really took me out of the story. Some of the dialogue was clunky and unnatural, too, and I really couldn't get connected with either of the characters. Then, the storyline would switch between Jasmine and Ashton's romance and scenes of the show they were filming together. I really didn't care about the romance in the show and didn't like getting a bunch of chapters of those scenes. These more took me out of the story and made it even harder for me to care about Jasmine and Ashton's relationship. You Had Me at Hola is a fun, steamy, and sweet rom-com taking place on the set of a television show. I thought the actual story was cute. There were problems with it but nothing when compared with the terrible reading of this book.

It's a great start in the trilogy for Alexis Daria and I can't wait to read the stories of Michelle - my homonymous, lol - and Ava! the spanish? did i mention the spanish? my first language is spanish although i've learned english well since i live in an english-speaking country. but ohmygod, Ángel speaking in spanish really does it for me. it's so intimate ughh.

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and one last thing. this book did have the miscommunication trope, but this is the first time it hasn't bothered me one bit, and i daresay i enjoyed it. the whole book is driven by the conflict of Ángel being a single dad (love him sm) so this conflict should be expected. the conflict also did not last very long and i think it was solved perfectly. This book reads like a labor of love. There is so much detail put into the setting and the characters and it's done so lovingly at times that it may seem a bit corny. Thing is, that's just how Boricua love is. It's loud, it's boisterous and it's warm to its core. Well, you know what’s going to happen if you’ve read a rom-com or two, but You Had Me at Hola is really enjoyable. It was refreshing to read a book with Latinx characters, and a soap opera-esque show is the perfect setting for a story like this. It was also great to have the female protagonist really have the control in the story.