This was a cute read, I couldn't focus fully on this due to finals T_T, I will reread it asap and write a more detailed review,

The description really caught my eye, and the book didn't disappoint

The characters are adorablee

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley publishing group for the ARC.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

“Ramón and Julieta” is a romance novel by Alana Quintana Albertson. The book is part of the “Love & Tacos” series and tells the story of Ramón Montez, a billionaire, and Julieta Campos, a chef. The novel is set in the historic Chicano neighborhood of Barrio Logan in San Diego and explores themes of identity, culture, ethics, gentrification, music, family (toxic and healthy), and food

What an emotional and entertaining take on the Romeo and Juliet story. The prose is colorful, and the characters are endearing and complicated. It’s a bit of a twist on the story that we’ve known for a long time, but highly entertaining from start to finish.

This is a really cute love story. I am in awe how the author embraced her Mexican heritage in this story. I learned a lot about the rituals and the meaning of the day of the dead and also about the issue of gentrification in San Diego, why hispanic people were forced to live in Logan barrio. I liked the reference to Romeo and Juliet, it was subtile and not too much. Julieta and Ramon are magnetically drawn to each other, but unfortunately it was Ramons dad who stole the fish taco recipe from Julieta's mom. Rather difficult was for the the part where Ramon spoilt Julieta with a luxury suite and a spontaneous luxury trip to Mexico. Given the fact that Julieta barely make ends meet and Ramon is the rich multimillionaire son- still there is a strange feeling as a woman. Overall, it was a wonderful own-voice love story to read! Perfect if you love the enemies-to-lovers trope!

Ramón and Julieta is heartwarming and delicious contemporary.

Julieta is a talented chef at her family restaurant in Barrios Logan who specializes in seafood-based Mexican dishes. She has worked hard to keep the restaurant open and successful.

When she meets Ramón for the first time on the Dia de los Muertos celebration in mask, they instantly feel attracted to each other but they both hide their real name and have a lovely night until Julieta finds out who Ramón is, the CEO of Taco King fast food chain. Her mother and her entire community hate Taco King because Ramón’s father built his restaurant chain by stealing Julieta’s mother’s family recipe.

Ramón and his father buying the entire block where Julieta’s restaurant is and his father intention of turning her restaurant into Taco King and increasing the rent of other shops in the block that the community cannot afford to pay further dashes any remaining hope of love. It was interesting to see what they will choose between love and family and the community.

What I liked-

- Plot, writing and characters.
- Ramon is my favorite
- The theme of gentrification, community, culture, resilience, right the wrong, belongingness, and love
- representation of Latin-American life, the history of Chicano activists’ protest, language, food, description of Barrio Logan, and festivals.
- I anticipated lots of things from the beginning. I was surprised it didn’t go in the direction I was thinking

What I felt was okay-

- I was expecting more resistance, and more heartbreaks looking at how this is a romantic spin on the tragic Romeo and Juliet but that wasn’t the case. The real resistance they should have faced didn’t actually come until 90%.
- I feel Ramón forgave Julieta too easily and after how community treated, they didn't apologize or thanked him for making things right.

Overall, Ramón and Julieta is heartwarming, entertaining, and romantic contemporary spin on Romeo and Juliet with amazing Latin American representation.

Thank you to Netgalley and the published for giving me an advanced copy of this book to read and review.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this novel. I was not able to finish so won't be leaving a full review at this time.

In this Romeo and Juliet retelling, businessman Ramon is the son of a fast food Taco King and celebrity chef Julieta is the daughter of the woman who's recipe the Taco King stole. After a romantic - and anonymous - encounter on Dia de los Muertos, Julieta wants nothing to her new landlord Ramon...

I enjoyed this enemies-to-lovers romance. I'd highly recommend the audiobook if you aren't fluent in Spanish!

(i received an e-arc from the publisher and netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

yet another romeo and juliet retelling that hit the sweet spot for me! i enjoyed the setting update as well as the prominent cultural diversity within this version.

Alana is a new author to me, and man she is now a must go to author for me.

As a Latina myself, I have been on the look for a hispanic romance read. When I cam across Alana’s post on IG, I knew I just had to read this.

This book did NOT disappoint! I wish I could rate this more than 5 stars, because it truly deserves it.! The representation was all i needed from a romance book!!!

Romance books often promise more than they can deliver, but this is one of the few that lives up to its promise. It is dramatic like you'd expect a retelling of Romeo and Juliet to be, but also heartfelt and grounded in the contemporary like you'd want your contemporary romance to be. If you are looking for an Encanto-type movie but with more romance (and more sex) this is for you!

Very cute book! it's obviously a Romeo and Juliet re-telling, and with that you basically know the plot. Despite that notion, it was a super enjoyable read. I am a fan of re-telling like this because it's a fresh page on a story.

It was a promising debut and I'm always up for a star crossed lovers romance but I couldn't bring myself to like Ramon here that much. Ik he's supposed to have some character development by the end but it still didn't make me love him. I loved Julieta and their family and friends but I wasn't really into the romance.

BOOK REVIEW

BOOK: Ramon and Julieta
AUTHOR: Alana Quintana Albertson
FORMAT: eBook
RATING: DNF (did not finish)

MY THOUGHTS

I started this book and found that I had a lot of difficulty connecting to the story. I did not finish it, not for lack of quality of the book but more so that I felt it was a “right book wrong time” situation where I wasn’t in the right mindset for this one at this time! Hopefully will be picking it back up in the future!

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2023 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2023/01/2023-reading-list-announced-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

This was an okay read for me. A retelling of Romeo and Juliet, the romance between the two characters did not feel authentic enough to me. I did enjoy the exploration of the underlying issues though: gentrification of an ethnic area, and Ramon's feeling that he is not mexican enough.

This book was quick and rich with culture, history, and food. There was amazing cultural representation.

I’m not sure if I’d qualify this as a romance as i felt the other aspects of plot overshadowed our MCs for this. Also insta-love isn’t the easiest to do well and I think it needed a little bit more when you add in the boss/employee dynamic between the two.

So I loved the food and cultural representation, but unfortunately everything else fell flat for me which is sad because I had really high hopes for this.

I've spent a long time sitting on this one for some reason, and I finally decided to try it out. Unfortunately, I find the author's writing style off-putting and stilted. I had a difficult time with my buy-in of the story.