I remember hearing a lot of buzz about this book months ago. When it showed up on my library's website I made sure to request it, when I saw it at NetGalley I requested it and hoped I would be approved and smiled when I was. This book is definitely worth the buzz it got.

At first glance it comes off as a YA coming of age type of book, but it was so much more. It's a book about 3 women, all related, hiding so much from each other, but none of them seemed to know why, but it was just the way of their family. Towards the end Mimi reaches out and starts to talk, which leads to a magical night of discovery after a magical day for the town.

You would think that only good things could happen from here, sadly that isn't what happened. I found myself holding my breath, hoping, praying what I could see coming wouldn't. After a few lost days Rosa finally figured out what needed to happen and put her plan in place. This ended up being the perfect thing, bring about some more magic. What should have been a trip filled with sadness and melancholy ended up one of love, trust and hope.

As the book ended I was happy for Rosa, while her life changed greatly, she found as much as she lost and has a good place to launch her future, which looks to be bright.

OMG. This book is EVERYTHING. I cannot begin to stress how impactful, beautiful, and important this books is. If there were more stars to give it, I would, because 5 does not seem like enough.

Rarely do we see a book with such rich and beautiful representation. Nina Moreno's writing jumps off the page. You can smell the ocean, feel the heat of the sun, taste the pastelitos, hear the music.

This book is about family, friendship, love, culture, trying to find your way when you have your two feet in two different worlds. Never has a book spoken to me as deeply as this one did. I was born in a different country, and raised between this one and another. Always feeling a sense of otherness, not quite fitting in, neither here nor there. This book takes all of those feelings and in a way, it makes sense of them. The feeling of not being "enough" is something most (if not all) immigrants and immigrant children can relate to. Not enough of this culture or that one. Not brown enough, not white enough. The feelings of needing to succeed, to do even BETTER than succeed, so that it will all be worth it. The weight of the dreams you carry on your shoulders. They're not just your dreams, but your family's as well.

And it honestly doesn't matter if your family arrived by boat, by plane, by golden helicopter, or magical unicorn. It's the same damn feeling. My experience was so different from Rosa's, and yet in so many ways, it was exactly the same.

I've heard this book be compared to Gilmore Girls, To All The Boys I've Loved, and Practical Magic. I can certainly see the comparisons. And yet... I felt this book was so much more.

Rosa Santos is a strong, fierce, determined, and beautifully flawed and pained young woman. You will fall in love with her. You will come to love yourself a little bit more, though her.

The representation in this book is perfection. It is a part of the characters, the ethnic backgrounds, the culture, the food, the sexuality, the friendships, the family dynamics. At no point is anything thrown out simply to check off a box. Instead, everything flows smoothly, everything feels authentic.

I did not expect to love this book anywhere near as much as I did. I often find myself disappointed by books that claim to have Latinx representation in them, because I never feel I can relate, or I always feel it's not authentic. So I only read this book after a friend gushed about it. I figured I'd give it a shot and maybe read a couple pages so I could say "I tried." Well, after the first couple sentences I was hooked. THIS is what representation should look like. This is authentic, and real, and powerful. I laughed out loud, I sobbed hysterically, I woke my husband up in the middle of the night to tell him I loved this book.

If you only read one book this year, it should be this one.

The book Don't Date Rosa Santos tells the story of a Cuban American teenager living in Florida. She is a senior preparing to graduate from high school, and she is trying to decide where to go to school and how to balance her relationships with her mother and grandmother. In the midst of this, she meets Alex, a boy who she is quickly attracted to. I appreciated the story of family dynamics as well as what it is like to be a Cuban exile from the perspective of someone who has never actually been to Cuba. The book did feel a little sappy at times, but otherwise, it was an enjoyable read.

First, a thank you to the publisher and author for providing me with a digital ARC of this title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoy a good YA book and a nice chick-flick beach read kind of book every now and then. This book satisfied both. It is light and easy to read but had enough substance to make it stand out as more then a YA romance beach read. Rosa's grandmother fled from Cuba with her husband while pregnant with their first child, Rosa's mother. Her grandfather did not survive the journey, leaving her grandmother to make her way and raise her daughter alone in her new home. Rosa's mother also lost Rosa's father at sea while pregnant so Rosa is born to a line of Cuban women 'cursed" to lose their loves at sea. Growing up with that story, Rosa never ventures into the ocean even though their home is in a little coastal town in Florida. Each generation of Santos women has their own curses to face and overcome before they can learn to accept who they are and where they are. This book is their journey to overcome the curse as Rosa struggles to find her own identity and place in life after high school. There's self introspect, mother-daughter relationships, friendship, romance, and the strength of community all wrapped up into a touching, sweet coming of age story. I quite enjoyed this and am excited to pass it on to my teenage daughter.

This is a special book. I thought it was just going to be a romance with a Cuban main character (which I was still super hyped for). But, this is a story about a girl trying to relate to her heritage and trying to feel more Cuban while not living there and having a grandmother who won't talk about Cuba. She is also trying to figure out where to go to college and what her future is going to look like.

I loved the small town dynamic (think Gilmore Girls, but Latinx) and how everyone is a gossip. The love interest is swoony and Rosa calls him "a Ravenclaw" so many times. Seriously, he reads, bakes, owns a boat, AND has tattoos. I loved the familial relationships. Seeing Rosa's relationship with her grandma was really special. I loved the non translated intermittent Spanish words sprinkled throughout.

This book was so much fun to read. I laughed and I cried. Even though my grandparents did not come to America from Cuban (they came from South America), I still could relate to many of Rosa's thoughts and experiences related to being Latinx.

Delightful. That’s the first word that comes to mind when I consider Don’t Date Rosa Santos, followed shortly by heartwarming and cozy, and all three are accurate descriptions for this novel. I was hooked from the very beginning; I liked Rosa from the moment I met her on the page, and was immediately confident that hers was going to be a story that I would see through till the end through all of the ups and downs (and perhaps unexpected twists). Throw in Cuban culture, the small-town Florida vibes, the eclectic cast of secondary characters, complicated relationships of all sorts (including a very cute budding attraction-slash-romance) and just a hint of magic, and you’ll basically get this novel in a nutshell. It was both entertaining and emotional, and I enjoyed it! I’d definitely recommend checking this one out, particularly if you’re looking for a new YA contemporary to devour.

Note: I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

I'm going to be introducing a new post format here, because to be completely honest, I don't really like my old one, so here goes. 

SUMMARY 

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?
THE GOOD

As you'll see in the following section, "Don't Date Rosa Santos" isn't a perfect book, but it's absolutely packed with heart. I saw that especially in its depiction of the Cuban community in Port Coral, a vibrant Florida town. It's clear that the author has a deep love of and respect for Cuban culture and communities, and that shines through again and again. The way the entire community is so supportive (and chismoso) and willing and able to band together to save its beloved marina made me hope that somewhere out there is a real Port Coral. THE VIEJITAS AND THEIR CONSTANT SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE GAVE ME SO MUCH LIFE. (I love them, and I want a bunch of old neighbors who run a gossipy Instagram page about each other now.) It almost seems like this is a love letter to Cuban culture and the value it places on relationships, and that was by far the best part of the book. It reminded me of that famous F. Scott Fitzgerald quote about "selling your heart" when you write; by infusing her own experiences (as explained in the acknowledgements, much of this novel was drawn from the author's life) into her characters' lives, Nina Moreno does just that. 

It also explored the strain that cultural and generational barriers can place on relationships with grace and sensitivity. Abuela Mimi's former life in Cuba is a subject Rosa has never really been allowed to approach, leaving her with unanswered questions that sometimes strain their relationship; Rosa's fear of repeating her mother's mistakes, which Mimi shares, puts them all through a great deal of strife; and throughout the book, it's hard for them to communicate because all have experiences that the others just do not understand. Again, in the acknowledgements, Moreno states that she wanted to shine a light on the reality of diaspora and how it impacts the Cuban community in the United States - mission accomplished. Though I'm not Cuban and I've never had any experiences like the Santos family's, I came away from "Don't Date Rosa Santos" with a greater understanding of the unique pressures that having escaped from a totalitarian regime places on immigrant communities.

(Also, on a slightly lighter note, Alex is friggin' adorable, Rosa's overcoming her fears was fantastically triumphant while being realistically messy and difficult, I wanted to eat all of the food, and every single festival scene was incredibly fun. The post-gator kiss was a highlight.) 

THE BAD

In a lot of cases, it seemed like "Don't Date Rosa Santos" succeeded more on a thematic/big-picture level than it did on a personal one. Rosa, while she was a sympathetic character, wasn't a supremely compelling protagonist, and most of the supporting cast (aside from Alex, Mimi, and Liliana), however interesting, wasn't explored in any depth. (That was understandable, even inevitable - there were so many characters that they literally could not have all been fleshed out - but it would have been nice if a few were.) 

Plus, I'm not entirely sure what was up with the witchcraft angle. It could very well be a part of Cuban culture that I've never been exposed to, but if it isn't, it was a little weird and random at times. It would come out of nowhere - almost every time something went wrong, someone was yelling for Rosa to get the materials to do a spell. Since a lot goes wrong in this book, this was frequent. And since the burgeoning popularity of witch stories is one of my least favorite trends in YA lit, that wasn't my favorite. It may well be very prominent in Cuban communities, in which case it was included for the sake of realism, but if it isn't, it was a little...gratuitous. 

RATING 

All right, guys, new system! Instead of a flat rating, I'm going to be giving the book a rating out of 5 on each of the following categories. Average score is the final rating. 

Plot: 4/5 - I didn't really get what was up with the curse, but Rosa's relationships with her family, the college decision, and the Spring Festival made for very strong sideplots.

Characters: 3/5 - meh, but not bad in any way.

Pacing: 5/5 - never too fast or too slow.

Handling of Subject Matter: 5/5 - this was the best by far, as explained already.

Writing Quality: 4/5 - it was very well-written, but the style wasn't really a standout. 

Message/Moral/Appropriateness for Audience: 3.5/5 - this book has less of a message/moral than it has social commentary, but it could certainly help readers who aren't from diaspora communities to better empathize the struggles of those who are - that's a very worthy moral in and of itself. On the appropriateness side, was pretty clean - there was scattered cursing but it was decidedly PG-13, the romance never got anywhere near steamy, and it only really got docked for the witchcraft stuff. Though it's pretty clean, I wouldn't recommend this to the younger end of the YA spectrum just because its themes are very mature - they're not in any way inappropriate, but it covers heavy subject matter that could be hard to understand/relate to for younger readers. They might not like it much, although if they shared some of Rosa's experiences, they'd probably be more likely to enjoy it.

Overall: 4.08/5

Don't Date Rosa Santos is an entertaining young adult romance. The reader will be rooting for Rosa the entire time.

This book was pitched as Gilmore Girls meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, but I felt it was more Gilmore Girls + Jane the Virgin--two shows I’ve really enjoyed so this was a good match for me! The town and its residents were the highlight of the book--definitely Stars Hollow-ish, but in Florida and much more diverse. Everything felt so real and full of life that I wanted to find this small beach town and immediately move there. I particularly loved all of the gossiping old men and Rosa’s abuela. And I would read a whole book about Rosa’s mom. The Santos women’s relationships with each other and with Cuba were complex and honest in a way that only an #OwnVoices author could do. My only complaints are that the plot felt a little bit rushed at the end and I wish Rosa and Alex’s relationship was more developed. But overall I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to see what Nina Moreno writes in the future. She is clearly a very talented writer.

My words fail me as I write this review because the love of family and of country are so hard to put into words that others may not understand! Nina Moreno poured that love into every word in this book and it’s a love that I will forever carry with me!

Rosa santos was a young woman stuck between two worlds, the world of her ancestors (Cuba) and that of her current world (America)! She struggled to find her place in both worlds and was forever caught between them! As she is getting ready to embark on her own adventure (college) she is struggling more and more with who she is and where she belongs! Her journey is filled with friends, laughter, family, pain and truths that she will forever carry with her to always remind her of where she came from! Throw in a gorgeous sailor named Alex and Rosa definitely finds herself trying to make sense of her world! She just needs to find the courage to do what needs to be done!

Being a 2nd generation American I identified so much with Rosas struggles and her trying to find her place in this world and that of her ancestors! I can’t think of any other book that brings 3 generations of woman together to show their struggles and their strengths! This is one book I will forever keep close not just for me but for my kids as well!

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This novel didn't resonate with me and I really wanted it to. I was thrilled to get approved for an advance copy and just couldn't get truly excited about the characters, plot, etc.

Cute like a Hallmark channel movie for teens. Predictable in a good way in that it delivers for the reader just that something that is needed on a gloomy, rainy Saturday afternoon. The characters were just right and the family chemistry was fantastic.

If you are a boy with a boat, a piece of advice: don't date Rosa Santos.

Rosa Santos' family history is one of tragedy. When her grandparents fled Cuba, her grandfather died in the voyage, leaving her grandmother alone in a new country with a newborn baby. The day before her mother's eighteenth birthday, the sea took Rosa's father, leaving Rosa's mother to scream and curse the sea. Now Rosa is about to graduate high school and leave her beloved hometown to attend college--particularly one with a study abroad program that goes to Cuba. But things start to go wrong really fast: the annual Spring Fest is to be canceled, the marina is about to be bought and replaced with condos, the study abroad program is cancelled, and her mother is back, causing friction in the Santos household. With her lists and help from her friends and neighbors, Rosa is determined to fight back for the Spring Fest and to save the marina. However, her lists do not help her make her college decision any easier, and no planning can prevent Rosa from continuing to bump into the tall, dark handsome young man who has recently returned to town. The only problem? You guessed it.

He's a boy with a boat.

A beautifully written masterpiece, "Don't Date Rosa Santos" is the story of loss, love, finding your happiness, finding who you are, where you belong, and what it means to be a family. Full of a cast of fantastic characters--ranging from Rosa's witchcraft practicing Mimi, to the viejitos who spread gossip through Instagram, to every last one of Rosa's friends and neighbors--and set in a delightful, vivid small Florida town bursting with life, "Don't Date Rosa Santos" is a treat from beginning to end.

Don't Date Rosa Santos reminded me of Gilmore Girls, and who doesn't love Gilmore Girls? Rosa, her mother, and her abuela have a complicated relationship characterized by fierce love, but shadowed by grief. Rosa's dream is to study abroad in Havana, but her grandmother, Mimi, refuses to speak about the country she fled decades ago. Meanwhile, Rosa's mother flits from city to city, unable to call any place 'home'.

Port Coral, a small coastal town in Florida, has real sense of community - like Stars Hollow. It's the kind of place where everyone knows your business, whether you like it or not! I absolutely loved the viejitos - a group of old men who sit around playing dominoes and post the town gossip on their Instagram page.

Another reviewer described this book as a love letter to Cuba and that's exactly what it felt like. Moreno made me want to get on a plane right away to explore the sights, sounds, and smells she described in the book. The questions about identity, belonging, and pain passed from one generation to the next were what made this book so wonderful to read.

Rosa Santos is my new fave. I love her organized planning of everything and how she's the most put together teenager you will ever meet. I love how much she cared about everyone and how she wanted to see the world but was afraid because of the curse. But I love how she never let the curse hold her back, how she went to the marina and on Alex's boat and helped him with the race.

I adored Alex and how he was such a steady and calming presence in Rosa's world as it was being turned upside down. I love how he never pushed her with the water thing, how he always asked her if she was sure, how he baked those delicious delicacies, how he was there for her with everything with Mimi. I loved the map he made for her and how he met her in Cuba and I love that they're going to go on adventures together.

I really loved Ana-Maria and Benny and Mike and how they were all such grand friends to Rosa, especially Ana. I loved Dan and Malcolm, they were the cutest. And the viejitos. And the Peños and the Aquinos. And Liliana and Mimi and the three Santos women and how much they loved one another, and how they were tied together with these tragedies and were seen as bad luck, and how Rosa is going to undo all those superstitions.

I really loved everything about this book and the discussion on diaspora communities and their yearning to go back home even when they can't. I loved watching Rosa grow and realize she didn't always have to plan everything out to the last detail. I love how they saved the marina, and found the Golden Turtle, went to Cuba, and changed everything for their community.

This is an absolutely lovely book and I definitely recommend it a great deal <3

This was a really emotional read! Based off the title and cover, I initially thought this was going to focus heavily on dating and romance. Instead, I just read a book full of so much love for home and family with a side of cute romance. Rosa's relationships with her family, including the people in Port Coral, is everything: sweet, infuriating, embarrassing, nosy, fun, magical, and loveable. Honestly those words pretty much explain the entire book. I can't really pinpoint an obvious plot or conflict other than the overarching issue of Rosa finding out who she is, where she comes from, and where she's going. Despite the lack of obvious plot, I loved this beautiful and unique exploration of self and family.

Thank you, NetGalley and publisher, for the arc!

Rosa Santos is cursed - all the women in her family are. Both her Cuban grandmother and first-generation mom lost the men they loved to the sea, so Rosa just knows. The ocean isn't for her. Neither are boats. And of course boys who sail are completely out of the question. With a college decision looming and a deep desire to understand the Cuban world of her grandmother, Rosa's Florida town and her neighbors will be the backdrop as she makes sense of how to move forward as a girl who truly knows where she belongs.

Rosa caught my heart from the beginning. I loved her open and vulnerable voice, her love for her grandma and her Cuban magic, her need for control and order while at the same time finding herself enchanted by the wild and forbidden. I really liked the role that Cuba - what it represents for her and for her family - played in this book. The magical realism in the story comes on softly, sometimes I had to stretch my suspended disbelief a bit, but I was rooting so hard for her that I was able to manage it. A few scenes left me wanting but overall the writing was strong. At one point I had tears at the tenderness of strong women who love each other and find ways to survive and thrive even as they are hurting in ways that no one may ever understand.

Don't Date Rosa Santos is whimsical. It's tender, empathetic, and heart wrenching. Tears were shed in the process of reading the book. I cried because of Rosa's feelings that she wasn't Latina enough, of her complicated relationship with her mother, and of Rosa's journey to charting her own course. It's a story of discovery, of grief, and secrets. It's one of those books that rises like a wave, building with momentum, lulling you into its waves, until it crashes over your head and your heart.

Rosa Santos is cursed or at least her family is. Everyone in her coastal town knows that when a Santos woman falls in love with a sailor he is fatally lost at sea. Rosa stays away from the ocean and sailors. A Cuba study abroad program presents itself and she must make decisions since she feels like she isn't enough.
This book is about family, culture and also how hard it is when you're being pulled into two different directions. As always the romance was my favorite part of this book but it was very well balanced within the book and didn't take over the whole story. Also, the wit and writing are what made this book what it is, GREAT. would rate a 4

The title does not do this book justice. It centers more around finding your place in the world between culture and family. The title would make you believe it is about love and breakups. I wish it had been called something else.
I feel like more people would pick up this book if it was called something else.
I enjoyed the plot and the story but it was not what I was expecting.