This was an engaging story with an ending that I didn't see coming. Very nice coming of age story that was sweet without being preachy or predictable.

The Santos women have had a hard life, and it is said that they are cursed. Both Rosa's mother and grandmother have lost their true love to the sea: Rosa's grandmother and her husband escaped the Communist regime in Cuba, but a storm claimed his life, and Rosa's father never returned from a voyage. Rosa lives with her grandmother, and she hardly ever sees her mother, so her life is lonely at times. Rosa knows she can't date a boy with a boat, but when Alex Aquino enters her life, she finds herself falling for him. When unexpected circumstances begin occurring, can Rosa still get her happy ending, or is the family curse real after all?
I really liked this book, and it was definitely different and fun in spite of some sad topics that were covered. Rosa's small town has a close and unique culture, and the characters were realistic and lovable. At certain times in the story I felt like I was seeing everything play out in real time because the writing was so descriptive. I liked most of the characters very much, especially Alex and Rosa. I found myself tearing up towards the end of the book, but I won't say why. I didn't care for the profanity or the "magic," but other than that I highly recommend this book. The culture came alive for me in a wonderful way.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. A positive review was not required, and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Great books for my students who love to read romances. I'm looking forward to adding this to my school's collection.

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*
This was a treat to read.

The writing is so well, the atmosphere of the book surrounded me and truly made me visualize the colors and sounds of the community. Everything is so colorful and held such joy, while any less than joyous moments were also detailed well.
The thing is, even though there are some sad or anxious moments, the main takeaway I have of this book is just how sweet it is. There is a huge sense of family, both those by blood and those of the community we accept.

I liked Rosa as a character as well. She thinks she has her life planned out for her, but in the face of change realizes she has to come up with new plans. She is a planner and willing to try new things. She also mentions a lack of romantic interests in the past, but does say she has crushed on both guys and gals. Her romance with Alex is adorable and sweet, while also potentially cursed making her waffle about what to do. Alex is charming though and I did wish we had more of him in the book. But more of him would have meant less time for family matters.
Because romance isn't the main part of this book, I truly think it is about family and learning how to move forward in life without having to leave your past...if that makes sense.

And while I will gush about how cute an sweet this book is, it also took my emotions for a ride. I wasn't a huge fan of the last chapter or so of the book -- I thought it dragged some-- but it rounds out the story and the topic of the curse -- another reason why I also mark this book as magical realism.

I definitely recommend this one to people looking for a summer read, or something about identity and family.

Rosa Santos is a high school senior who lives in the coastal town of Port Coral, Florida with her grandmother. She is taught that her family is cursed. Ala Practical Magic, men are doomed when it comes to loving or having feelings for a Santos woman. Most of the devastating events involve the ocean. Her grandfather and father have lost their lives to water. Rosa fears the water because of the curse.

Her grandmother, Mimi, is a healer and is well known in their neighborhood. With Cuban roots, Rosa tackles cultural identity. She wants to know more about Cuba and her Cuban roots but Abuela doesn’t open up as much to how life was in Cuba. Rose explores what she wants in life and she tries to understand how her heritage defines her. Lilliana, Rosa’s mother, along with Rosa and Abuela are close can be with a complex relationship.

Rosa ends up falling for Alex Aquino. However, Alex’s family owns the marina which puts a damper on Rosa’s feelings towards Alex. Does she follow her heart even though Alex might be doomed from the start or will she overcome the curse placed on the Santos’s women?

Nina Moreno writes a story about love, grief, finding yourself, cultural identity, and family. Moreno focuses on the relationships of the generations of the Santos’s women. Through language, traditions, food, and family dynamics, Moreno connects the readers with Cuban culture. It’s vibrant and beautiful! I enjoyed reading about Rosa. She is curious and willing to learn. After all, she managed to balance high schools courses and also college courses through dual enrollment. Rosa is also interested in a study abroad program in Cuba. Rosa is an excellent rode model for teens.

Don’t Date Rosa Santos is contemporary novel with magical realism woven within the pages. The novel is a rollercoaster full of many emotions. If you are looking for a character-driven novel with a mashup of Gilmore Girls, Practical Magic and cultural identity, definitely pick up Don’t Date Rosa Santos.

This book is light and complex and heartbreaking and fluffy all in a single package. The cultural representation was refreshing, and the romance was delightful. I read it super quickly, and found it to be a fun, summer read.

>Loved it, flew through it.
>Very cute and sweet YA romance. It felt pretty shallow to me, w/ no common bond. But it's character growth & plot movement for someone who's been stagnant & reactionary. One of the few times I can remember where I'm rooting for the main couple to amicably settle into friendship & move on eventually. I'd like to see a follow-up with that situation & college TBH.
>Love the understated mundane magical realism.
>I love the daughter, mother, grandmother dynamic. That's what my family is made of, though we're not cursed as such.
>Really felt the push/pull between the generations, the Cuban diaspora.
>The Obamas in Cuba.. WOW. I knew it was huge but Rosa describing it made me tear up.
>Ending of senior year
>Driven academic overachiever planner extraordinaire
>Best friend Girl drummer
>Sibling teasing
>A wedding
>Community action
>Small businesses
>Men baking
>Boy with a boat
>Almost drowning
>Treasure hunt
>Conquering fears
>Unpacking baggage
>Figuring out what you really want
>Going for it.
>I love the ending. Its trust and freedom, with a buoyant feeling of hope.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'll be honest, the synopsis of the book left me a little put off but I'm glad I tried this book anyway because it was so much more than what I expected.

Rosa Santos is a senior in high school in a small Florida town and the the men her family have loved have all met a terrible end at the hands of the sea. Rosa and her family believe they are cursed because of what happened back in Cuba where her grandparents had immigrated from, well let's be honest they escaped. Rosa has a strained relationship with her mother who has never stayed in one place long enough after Rosa's father died and Rosa has been raised for the most part by her grandmother, Mimi. Mimi and her mother but heads a lot, mostly because of things left unsaid.

This was a such a beautiful book. The writing immediately drew me in and of course the magical realism won me over because again I'm a sucker for that. This is a great contemporary YA novel that will appeal to so many readers.

This review will be posted on 12/9/19

Well, this was cute. I received Don’t Date Rosa Santos for review, and it’s pretty much exactly the kind of marshmallow fluff that I was expecting.

The main part of this book that I really enjoyed was the dynamic between Rosa and her family. I’m sure a lot of people have mentioned already that the family dynamics in Jane the Virgin, which is a show that I absolutely adore because of the relationship between Jane and her mother and her abuela. The author does a fantastic job of building the relationship between Rosa and her grandmother, and I got so involved in them.

As usual, I didn’t care for the romance. I didn’t hate it, and it was cute. Alex was a genuinely nice guy and I think there should be more relationships like this in YA. I’ve kind of had enough of the enemies to lovers trope because authors seem to use it as a veil for abusive relationships… but that’s a post for another time.

Apparently Don’t Date Rosa Santos has some bi rep in it, in that the main character is bisexual. To be completely honest, I can’t remember this ever being explicitly stated, and I’m not sure if it was just an off-hand comment by the main character. Correct me if I’m wrong. Either way, I guess that’s good and also a bit disappointing? On the one hand, I love that there is representation in there, but on the other I would have liked it to be a bit more obvious!

Another plus was that this book made me read up on Cuba – its history and its current situation. A colleague of mine goes to Cuba quite often, and has spoken with me about it a bit, but to be honest we don’t really hear much about it over here in the UK. I certainly didn’t learn anything about it in school, and I had no idea until reading this book that American citizens weren’t allowed over there to this day. I’m interested in doing more reading in the future so I can learn what exactly led the country to this point!

Don’t Date Rosa Santos is fluffy and cute and it’s just what you need if you’re sunning yourself by the pool.

Don't Date Rosa Santos involves a Cuban American girl who lives in a coastal town in Southern Florida and lost her father and grandfather to the sea. Abandoned by her mother, she lives with her abuela and is cautioned to stay away from anything involving the sea, because her family is cursed. Then Rosa falls for Alex, a sailor who works at the docks. Hoping to study abroad in Havana to explore her family roots, she is reluctant to date him because she is leaving. He, too, has plans to go on an extended voyage at sea. Yet the more time she spends with him, the more she wonders if he is part of her destiny. When her mother returns to town and agrees to paint a mural for the Latin Festival, Rosa wonder if she will stick around or leave her and abuela again to fend for themselves. The Latinx culture informs the action of the story with traditions, Cuban Spanish language and complex family relationships. Rosa is a compelling character who readers will root for as she navigates the turbulent landscape that is her life.

Very cute story with a creative story line. I enjoyed that it was not just a contemporary romance, it also included family relationships as well.

Overall I liked this book, however I felt that the story kept getting pulled in a lot of different directions. I do feel like there could have been a bit more backstory or character building to strengthen the story.

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 loved this book so much! It is definitely among my favorite books I've read so far this year.

The characters are what make this book so great, in my opinion. Nina Moreno was able to create a colorful cast of characters that you couldn't help but grow attached to. Being set in a small town, everyone knows everyone. And therefore, we were introduced to a plethora of characters that moved the story forward one way or another. I, of course, absolutely loved Rosa and could really see myself in her, but I also really loved her abuela, the viejietos, and everyone else in Port Coral.

The story in itself is also much deeper than what it seems at first sight. I thought I would be reading a cutesy romance contemporary, but the story had so many other levels that I hadn't anticipated. Rosa is also struggling with her identity and finding her roots, and from what I've heard, the Cuban rep is very well done. I can't really say much on the topic as I'm not Cuban myself, but I do feel like the author was really able to convey the concept of diaspora and the struggling feelings that come with it. The ending was also really moving, and though I had sort of seen it coming, it still took me by surprise and turned me into an emotional mess.

My favorite part of this book is probably the atmosphere. The story is set in a small town in Florida, not too far from Miami, and you can definitely tell. I love small-town settings, and the atmosphere of this book gave me that feeling, but it also felt very summer-ish. I know this is a debut, but I am already so impressed with Nina Moreno's writing! Not only is she able to create an atmosphere for her book, but she has also impressive story-telling skills. She can convey emotions through her writing and her characters, and that's very powerful.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I cannot wait to see what else this author comes up with!

Given the cover and the title, I expected Don't Date Rosa Santos to be your basic summery romantic comedy, but I was delightfully surprised to learn the story is so much more. Rosa Santos is Cuban American and has Cuba in her blood. Living in a seaside community in Southern Florida with her abuela, she knows only part of the family stories that tie her to Cuba where her ancestors lived, but not the actual country. Now that she is on her way to start college, Rosa's desire to learn more about her family roots, culture, and to Cuba has grown stronger and a source of tension between her mother and her grandmother. Both her mother and grandmother have experienced tragedies related to the sea, and they caution Rosa to stay away from the water at all costs.

I adored Rosa who is a driven young woman with a set of plans. It was so refreshing to see her complete high school and attend community college to set her sights further. I loved how she had a plan set forth for her future as well as saving her local community of a wide range of Latinx cultures from commercial builders. Most children of immigrants will see themselves in Rosa as wants to learn more about her roots. The relationship Rosa had with her mother, an artist who abandoned Rosa to travel the country, returns intermittently, and her abuela is complex and fascinating as each faced their own fears. The romance between Rosa and Alex, an attractive sailor who works by the docks, is incredibly sweet but it does not overwhelm the story. It was so nice to see that Alex is not the stereotypical Latinx male figure, but incredibly charming, sweet, and has a great knack for cooking. Don't Date Rosa Santos is a solid, own voices book in which the Latinx culture is celebrated and infused into a realistic fiction novel and the classic coming of age story. I love forward to reading more from this author.

Beautiful story of Rosa Santos and a colorful group of family members, friends and townspeople. They all band together to save their town's economy by planning a fundraising event. In the meantime, she falls in love and battles some long held fears. Lots of Cuban culture, food, and experiences.

I loved this book. Since I'm half Cuban, and just the culture, reminded me of growing up with my grandmother and aunts from Cuba.

I was given this book for an honest review!!

And as I say it was wonderful read, I would definitely recommend it. My first book by Nina Moreno and I enjoyed her writing. It kept me there wanting to read the book.

A quick fun read!!

I loved this so much. For the most part, it was deeply adorable - I adored Rosa and Alex and Rosa's friends and community - but I also almost sobbed through like three chapters. I'm obsessed with Rosa and need a finished copy for my shelves. Then I need whatever book Nina's writing next because her writing is stunning.

a sweeping tale that takes place over a few short weeks in the spring before Rosa Santo’s graduates and needs to determine what to do with her life. She has a complex history. Her grandmother gave birth on a boat fleeing communist Russia and her grandfather died on the same trip. Rosa’s own father was also taken by the sea when his boat didn’t come back one day. To say she has a healthy respect for the ocean would be an understatement. In fact, she’s never really ventured down to the docks. At least until the harbor in her small Florida town is threatened and Rosa and the rest of the town come together with a plan to save it. This plan introduces her to tall, dark and brooding Alex. Not only is he ridiculously attractive, but he bakes. And he owns a boat. So, whatever feelings Rosa is developing for Alex cannot be acted upon. Because a to love a boy with a boat means to lose him to sea. At least according to the family curse. So when life has a way of disrupting the best of plans, Rosa will need to decide if she’s going to live in her family’s past or forge her own future.

Plot
The story centers around Rosa’s quest to find out more about who she is. She wants to study in Cuba, but with the current administration making that all but impossible, she turns to her secretive grandmother, with whom she lives, and her mother, who pops in and out of Rosa’s life, for answers. But her grandmother has roots in the old ways, dabbling in santeria and other Cuban customs that include doling out the information slowly. Rosa becomes frustrated and endangers her relationship with her grandmother just as her relationship with Alex takes an interesting but scary twist. Strong themes include family ties, finding yourself, coming of age, and the value of community.

Characters
Rosa and her family are incredibly detailed. Rosa, her mother, and Mimi, her grandmother, are all complex with rich backstories and fully-developed arcs. The balance of the characters, with the exception of Alex who has is own arc, are merely props to support the main trio. However, they never nosedive into stereotypes. They may have been created to serve a purpose, but they come across as more than just fluff, which is an incredible feat by the author.

What I Loved About DON’T DATE ROSA SANTOS!
1. Cuban Culture. I’ll admit to not knowing much about this. My in-laws are of Spanish and Native American descent, but hail from the Southwest, which means their Hispanic culture is a mixed bag. It was fascinating to learn more about Cuba and the Florida Cuban culture. Everything from the food, to rituals, and daily life was vivid and exciting.

2. The Viejitos. The gaggle of retired men and their gossip they share via their Instagram account is both endearing and hysterical.

3. Rosa. She is so complex. The things she wants, what she values, and her desire to not rock the family boat create a deep character who was easy to cheer her on.

4. Alex. He has a bohemian spirit trapped in the body of a loyal son. A romantic at heart, I was rooting for Rosa to give him a chance.

5. The Ending. More than a little confusing at times, I liked that the author left much to the interpretation of the reader.

Bottom Line
Fantastic settings, beautiful writing, and amazing character combine for this young adult tale about discovering who you are.

Disclaimer
I was provided with a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

From the Publisher:
For fans of GILMORE GIRLS and TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE, this effervescent love story from debut author Nina Moreno will sweep you away. Rosa Santos is cursed by the sea—at least, that's what they say. Dating her is bad news, especially if you're a boy with a boat. But 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?

My Thoughts:

This is like Gilmore Girls and To All the Boys I've Loved Before, except Rosa as a character is much less irritating on paper. This is cute, cute, cute. I think the relationship with Rosa and Mimi, the complication of her mother and her very loyal friends are characters that you want to root for. Even Cuba is a magical character that pulls all of the characters in very interesting ways.

I hope this becomes a movie. I think it will do well and I would love to see another multicultural YA movie!