Don’t Date Rosa Santos is a heartfelt, beautifully crafted story that blends magical realism, culture, and a coming-of-age journey. It’s a love letter to Cuba and the diaspora experience, with themes of family, love, and grief. Rosa’s world is richly drawn, from her quirky community to her deep connection with her roots. The story balances romance, heartbreak, and humor, making it both emotionally resonant and utterly charming. While the Spanish language enhances the authenticity, some readers may find it challenging without translation. Overall, this novel is a touching, vibrant celebration of identity and belonging, highly recommended for YA contemporary fans.

This book is beautiful and I love it! This book is heartwarming and sometimes heart-wrenching. I fell in love with Moreno's characters and the community she created. Reading this felt like reading a love letter to Latinx diaspora.

Love this! Very fun and quick!

Thanks to NetGalley / Edelweiss and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

Utterly perfect. I am an emotional mess. Beautifully written familial relationships and the sweetest romance I've read recently. I am enchanted.

A beautifully poignant story about family, heritage, and finding your way, Don't Date Rosa Santos is a story I have already passed on to friends and family to read, and they all came back with the same sentiment: it is a beautifully immersive story with a strong heart that runs throughout. Rosa's journey of understanding her heritage and culture, and the generational discrepancies between it, is something that so many can relate to. Mixed with the setting of Port Coral, Florida (which almost feels like its own separate character) makes for a book that is equal parts fun, romantic, and heartfelt, and I thoroughly enjoyed riding the waves along with it.

Strong debut for fans of Jane the Virgin or Lee's The Secret of a Heart Note. Set in a charming close-knit community coming together to save the harbor from developers, this is a powerful story of family, identity, and a hint of magic.

Teen-age angst multiplied by family drama and the legend of a curse in this well-written YA romance. Morena weaves in Cuban-American culture and the Florida setting as Rosa learns about healing herbs and bruja ceremonies from her beloved abuela in a book that wanders into magical realism, with a rather predictable yet unrealistic ending. Still, Rosa is an appealing character and teens will enjoy her story.

This was cute. A little bit forgettable and the pacing was sometimes off but overall, I enjoyed this book a lot.

A very cute read about an adorable seaside town and a bi Cuban girl trying to learn more about her families heritage while falling for a boy.

I received a copy of this arc from NetGalley for an honest review. An angsty teen read that kids may connect with better than I did

Cute, quirky book about a girl with a curse on her and the females in her family. If you love YA books with humor and ‘doomed’ romance, you’ll like Don’t Date Rosa Santos.

This one was really hard to get into, and the ending was completely baffling. Not sure I'll return to this author.

Rosa is a teen from a Cuban-American family and lives together with her mom and her abuela. The women in her family believe they are cursed by the sea. This especially counts when it comes to love, as it seems all their love interests are doomed. This all because of something tragic that happened in the past: Rosa's er grandparents migrated from Cuba when her mother was just an infant, a terrible storm hit their boat, and the only ones that survived where Rosa's mom and grandmother . Eighteen years later, Rosa's father left on his boat for a routine day of work and never returned.
Rosa feels more caught than cursed. Caught between cultures and choices. Between her abuela, a beloved healer and pillar of their community, and her mother, an artist who crashes in and out of her life like a hurricane. Between Port Coral, the quirky South Florida town they call home, and Cuba, the island her abuela refuses to talk about.

As her college decision looms, Rosa collides - literally - with Alex Aquino, the mysterious boy with tattoos of the ocean whose family owns the marina. With her heart, her family, and her future on the line, can Rosa break a curse and find her place beyond the horizon?

Don't Date Rosa Santos is a cute and somewhat mystical read with a Latin touch. The story starts nice, and stays that way untill halfway of the book. Then the story at multiple point get losts in some supernatural mystic things that start to happen, which for any reader who are not into that are somewhat difficult to follow, which has a domino effect on the rest of the book. The characters where okay, a bit flat and one dimensional, just average. What really would have helped is if Rosa went to Cuba earlier and had some fun time there which really would have give the story a boost, and which I somewhat expected when I saw the lovely book cover. She does go to Cuba though in the end, which is by far the best part of the book

Overall the idea for the story is nice,with some sweet moments, and a nice end.

Cuban culture, for the win! This was a delightful YA contemporary, filled with awesome family dynamics, friendships, and a very sweet love story. What a breath of fresh air. I bought a copy for my friend this past Christmas!

A siren’s call of poetry and curanderismo, ghosts and gossips, lost treasure and found memories. Featured as the Best Debut Novel on the 2019 Latinidad List.

I loved this book. It felt like family, like home, like my childhood. I ran out to eat bistek empanizado at the first mention of it because I hadn't had it in so long, likely since before my bisabuela passed away. She's the only one that used to cook it for me. Forgive me for getting lost in my own memories, but that's what it was like reading Don't Date Rosa Santos. Nostalgic and familiar.

The relationship dynamic between Rosa, her mother and her grandmother reminded me a bit of Jane the Virgin. They were three strong and stubborn women, loving, supporting, and communicating with each other, across generations, in the only way they each knew how.

Don't Date Rosa Santos filled me up and made feel seen in as a Cuban-American, though at times it felt like the story was trying to accomplish a little too much. There was preparing for college, summer romance, a family curse, saving Spring Fest, planning a wedding, AND a search for the long lost golden turtle. It was a lot!

Even still, I was captivated from the first page and I can't wait for Nina Moreno's next book.

Really sweet book, great characters! Complicated families make for great drama but it wasn't angsty, really enjoyable read that I'd recommend!

By the time I hit the line "This was my date-with-the-Head-Boy-of-Ravenclaw fantasy come to life." I was thoroughly enamored with this fantastic YA novel. This book is filled with determination, the importance of community, live, family, and the complications between culture, generations, immigration, and so many other things. But at its heart this is a book about discovering who you are while learning who you have come from, freedom from unspoken ghosts and spoken fear, and it is warm and inviting.

I highly recommend this for young adults and inclusive collections. It was genuinely just a delight to read.

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy.

I’m a huge fan of young adult contemporary books that have just a hint of “magic” in them, especially when it has to do with a different culture than my own. The whole curse aspect of the story was done so well I was enthralled every time it was mentioned. There’s not much to do other than gush at how cute the town sounds. I wish it was a real place because I would live to visit.

Rosa was one of those characters I couldn’t help but fall madly in love with. She was just such a pure, sweet, person. I loved reading from her perspective and seeing things through her eyes. Her families culture was so fun to learn about, again I wish I could visit them. The romantic aspects of her story were not the most prominent, but were definitely fun and enjoyable to read about.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one, and was definitely in the mood for a cute contemporary when I read it. If you are looking for something lighthearted and enjoyable I would absolutely give this one a go. Also, if you want a bit of culture, look no further.

Rosa Santos is a Cuban American book that shows the intricacies of immigrant pasts, family bonds, and how many paths we have to walk in our futures when we look for them.