Oh my God, I’m in love!
The representation alone was enough to make me cry. The story was great and it was a fun read. I can't wait for more from this author.

You Had Me at Hola was a fun romance!
Our main characters had great chemistry, the plot was quick and kept me interested, and the characters themselves were interesting and had their own backstories and personalites.
I personally don't love graphic sex scenes, so I skimmed past those, but other than that I found this very enjoyable!

A sweet and sexy romantic comedy starring two telenovela actors with on and off screen chemistry. Daria balances the two storylines and parallel character arcs of the TV show and actors' lives and makes Jasmine and Ashton interesting, relatable, and very sexy. While the romantic storyline follows a predictable curve of will-they-won't-they tension, the issues of family vs career, trust vs privacy, and love vs insecurity all are handled equitably by the diverse character. I was a bit surprised by how explicit the sex scenes were, while they were well written, I had not expected so much...detail. But overall, an excellent, modern love story.

There are a lot of great things about this book - there are a lot of wonderful (and diverse!) female characters, Ashton and Jasmine have a fun meet cute and good chemistry, and the side characters feel like real people. Despite all that good stuff, this book just fell a little flat for me. The middle tended to drag, and there was often a lot of telling rather than showing. I had liked the interspersed scenes from the TV show between regular plot chapters at first, but they got a bit more muddled farther on as more of Jasmine and Ashton came through instead of just their characters Carmen and Victor. I think it would have been cool and less confusing to have those interludes be script pages rather than the narrative version we got. But overall this was a pretty fun read!

Advertised as a Telenovela Rom Com and, while it is definitely romantic and sweet, I wish the humor from the first scene/meet cute had continued throughout the novel. The main characters are likeable and their chemistry is definitely strong. Overall a good read.

Rating: 3.5

When I first heard about this book I was excited because I really liked Alexis' Dance Off series. Book 1, Take the Lead is my favourite of her books! And then I saw the cover for this one and was blown away and it's gawjusness. So I was truly grateful to get an ARC of this.

It did not disappoint. We have a meet disaster here folks! Ashton runs into Jasmine, spilling coffee all over her clothes on the day of their first table read YIIIKES but i loved that set-up.

I will say though, that I was a bit uncertain of including scenes from the show that Jasmine and Ashton are filming. On the one hand, it was interesting to see certain episodes play out but I felt like it got sort of old really quickly and I just wanted to see Jasmine and Ashton as themselves.

So whenever we got back to Jasmine and Ashton as themselves and not their characters I was invested! I love some good internal turmoil and these two have that in spades! Ashton is uncertain about getting close to his co-stars, especially Jasmine since that hasn't quite worked out for him in the past. i love a vulnerable hero and hes's got a lot of baggage. Worrying about his family and his career, and the anxieties that arise from loving what he does but wanting to keep his personal life private.

And Jasmine's got her own things to deal with. She wants to be a leading lady, and leading ladies do not make headlines for the wrong reason. Especially not where messy breakups are concerned. So she's struggling with her attraction to Ashton, worried about losing herself in him, and he's keeping secrets from her. a recipe for disaster but I love how they eventually get closer, he opens up and their relationship grows.

I used to be suuuch a soap opera fan so it was pretty fun knowing that was Jasmine's background and some of my faves (Y&Y and Passions) were mentioned and that took me back. Some of those storylines are so over the top but i loved them all the same.

I really liked The Primas of Power chat and Jasmine's relationship with his cousins and her family was a perfect juxtaposition to Ashton's lack of friends and while he does visit his fam in Puerto Rico a few times, the distance from them is so palpable. It really sort of added to how much Ashton has shut himself off from people.

the black moment made me sad and I just wanted to scream at both of them to get it together and stop saying hurtful thiiiings but the party happened and it all worked out.

I hope Jasmine's cousins are getting books too, especially since it was mentioned a few times that Michelle does not date so that's a lovely opening for someone to come wreck Michelle's liiife lol

I loved this so much! As a Latinx reader, being able to connect with a books characters because they represent our community is so refreshing and makes the experience more personal. I loved that the book goes also into the area of the soap opera since the Latinx community is all about that entertainment and their telenovelas. Daria's writing is fun and sexy, the chemistry between the two leads is latin hot and I loved it. the quirkie families was such a heartening add because that is how Latin families can be. I did also love the separation between certain chapters being the actual writing of a scene for the show-- that was something fun to read because it focuses on something else. It was a fun juxtaposition to have.

I sincerely wish I was giving this a more positive review. I was really looking forward to this one, as I really enjoy Alexis Daria's book, Take the Lead. Overall, I think this one was just not for me, but I think other people will like it. I'll start with the positives first! I love how many WOMEN there are in this book! Hands down, my absolute favorite scene was when Ashton and Jasmine were working with the intimacy coordinator for the first time. It's a really incredible thing to see a woman director, woman showrunner, woman coordinator, working to make a woman feel comfortable onset with her onscreen love interest. I also think that the overall, the romance worked fine and Ashton and Jasmine had some good chemistry once they got started.
Some of the things that I just didn't enjoy was one of the tropes- this is a light spoiler as it's not in the summary of the book, but it's also something you learn from the beginning about Ashton- he's got a secret child. It totally makes sense for him to have a secret child, as he's famous and a really private person, but as a personal preference, it's just not my favorite trope. There's more to it that I won't spoil, but just know that it only half worked for me. As for Jasmine, I wish she were a little messier! She keeps saying she's a "tabloid magnet" but it's for things she was a victim of and she had no agency in those situations. I wish that Daria had leaned just a little bit more into the tabloid mess that I wanted Jasmine to be, because I think Jasmine would have still be likeable if that was the case- she could have been a true tabloid mess with a heart of gold that men in romance novels are always allowed to be. My last gripe is that the cut scenes just did not work- there were mini chapters that described the episode that Jasmine and Ashton are working on, and they were just so strangely written. They were mixed POVs, and so sometimes they were the thoughts of Jasmine and Ashton and what they were going through, but sometimes it was Carmen and Victor. It just didn't read like a TV show that the author was going for. I think it would have been cool if we had been able to read the script, rather than trying to put it into a narrative form that was really confusing.

An awesome story of rising Latinx TV stars falling in love while filming a new show based on a telenovela. I loved the insights into the industry and getting to know the characters and their families. I’m assuming the next books in the series are about the other Primas of Power, and I have a feeling they’re going to be pretty great.

This was one of my most-anticipated reads of the year and I'm so thrilled to say that I really enjoyed it! It can be a bit rare to find books with Puerto Rican main characters, so as a Nuyorican myself I was so excited to see Alexis Daria represent that experience through Jasmine and her family AND represent the experience of growing up on the island through Ashton and his family. I loved the way Daria seamlessly wove in the filming of "Carmen in Charge" with the action that was taking place off the set, and the show was so well-developed that it felt totally real (I'd marathon watch it for sure!) The romance felt a little quick, but it's more my personal preference for a slow burn than any lack of development on Daria's part, and I nevertheless did feel a realistic connection between the main characters and I know that readers who enjoy a good steamy scene will not be disappointed. Great discussions of being a Latinx creative and performer are also included. This is the perfect sweet, escapist read with a smart and well-written backbone to prop it up. Highly recommend!