I loved the concept of this one but the writing style felt disjointed and hard to follow and I ended up abandoning it halfway through.

I tried to finish this a few times, thinking it was my mood, but I'm just not connecting with it. It feels choppy and I am having trouble seeing who Nadia is. I didn't feel any chemistry when she and Marco met again so I have no motivation to see it through.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

I was so excited about this book when I first got approved. The title, the cover, the blurb… I honestly thought this would become my next favorite book. It had great potential, but it fell short for some reason. I can’t point out exactly what didn’t work out. The chemistry, maybe. It felt like I was trying to force myself to finish the book at some point. There were some sweet moments, though.

Ah what a book
I thoroughly loved this book and the cover gorgeous and most importantly the characters in this book they felt like family.
I particularly loved the theme of celebrating yourself, love as always, family and friendships, embracing your culture
This book should be on the tippy top of your tbr. I'm almost scared of reviewing this book because i might gush on and on about how amazing this book is and ruin it...
If i could give this book all the stars i would but for now we'll start with five.

Nadia just broke up with her long-term boyfriend/fiance after years of being unhappy with him. The problem is that they were only about one month out from the wedding - the venue was booked, everything paid for, and her family from South America is all set to come for an extended visit. Instead of just canceling everything, Nadia decides to throw a double quinceanera for her 30th birthday (which is the day after her wedding was supposed to be). She is only more shocked when her intense fling, Marcos, turns out to be running the venue now.

There were cute moments in this book, but I felt like the pacing was off. There weren't enough Nadia/Marcos moments for me to believe that they fell in love again so quickly. Maybe if there were more scenes of them when they were younger but that part is pretty short. I did like the confidence Nadia gained and overall this was a pretty cute story - just not as much chemistry and buildup with the characters as other romcoms.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Twice Quinceanera
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Romance
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 7/26/22
Author: Yamile Saied Mendez
Publisher: Kensington Books
Pages: 320
Goodreads Rating: 3.88

TW ⚠️: Death of a parent

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing a digital advanced readers copy of the book for me to read for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: One month short of her wedding day—and her thirtieth birthday—Nadia Palacio finds herself standing up to her infuriating, cheating fiancé for the first time in . . . well, ever. But that same courage doesn’t translate to breaking the news to her Argentinian family. With a wedding venue already paid for, and family from all over the world with plane tickets, Nadia is determined to create her own happily-ever-after. Since the math adds up perfectly, she’ll celebrate her treintañera, her double quinces. As the first professional in her family, raising a glass to her achievements is the best plan she’s had in years.

My Thoughts: I absolutely adored that the book explored the Argentinian and Puerto Rico culture and traditions, I loved reading and learning about this. The book is narrated by Nadia and Marco, in dual POVs, from their individual perspectives, they were both likable and relatable. I felt this was more about Nadia discovering herself, how she wants to live her life, and standing in her truth with romance as a secondary aspect. Which is not bad, as I enjoyed the book. The characters were well developed, had depth, strength, and our two MCs just worked extremely well for this book. The author’s writing was complex, creative, inventive, and brilliant. I enjoyed reading this unique concept book and would read other books by this author.

This was such a fun read, especially since I live in Utah county and could easily picture some of the locations mentioned, and definitely understood the cultural references. My only complaint is that this didn’t come out several years ago so I could have had my own treintañera!

I genuinely thought about putting this book down multiple times but in the end decided to finish it since it's relatively short. In short, I just found this book to be incredibly boring. I realize that I just don't like dual-PoV romances in general, but I seriously didn't see a point to having Marcos's PoV. He added barely anything to the narrative and his chapters just slowed the story down.

The writing and the dialogue also just felt off to me, but that's really a personal preference. I would also say nothing really happened throughout the book. Like obviously things did, but I thought some of the planning lasted way too long and then some other aspects were too short.

Also, I'm fine with having big family casts but I feel like there were too many characters introduced all at once and I couldn't keep all the different people straight. And??? Now that I'm thinking about it, Nadia's best friends show up like once at the very beginning (and only one of them in-person??) and never appear again? Or maybe I just got confused because there were sooooo many characters at the end. Again, I didn't have an issue with having her entire extended family appear, but the writing definitely made it difficult to distinguish between all the new characters, to me at least.

The only thing I did like was that Nadia having a second quinceañera reflected her journey of discovering herself and being her own person. I could talk more in detail about everything that didn't work for me in this book, but I try not to rag on books anymore...usual disclaimer that these are my own opinions, and I truly do hope this book works for you! You might like it if you like self-discovery character arcs in your romances and/or a second-chance romance.

Being a latinx woman this book was really great to read! I loved the representation of culture throughout and loved seeing the cover with bursts of color! I have to say I wish I could formed better relationships with alot of the characters throughout but its a great little romance with lots of fun threw in! Ill be ordering a paperback asap!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a story that got me from the beginning. Nadia is a smart, successful woman, but has not been able to recognize that her fiancé is not the one for her. Until she does and has to deal with canceling a wedding that was going to bring her whole family together. Instead of canceling she turns it into a celebration of her life and accomplishments. That is when she learns that Marcos, the even location owner is her long-lost college love.

I loved Nadia's journey of empowerment and how she navigates a loving family that can also be toxic at times. I also loved how much love and respect Marcos has for her the entire time. The way that their Latinx cultures are added into the story was perfection.

Romance readers should know that there is no sex in this one but there is lots of hot chemistry.

This is a light and fun story, I really liked the premise of the book and as a Latin person I loved the characters. Nadia cancels her wedding a month before it takes place and everything becomes a mess because her whole family comes, so she decides to celebrate her twice a quinceañera instead . It was so funny. I loved the connection between Marcos and Nadia, I swooned so hard. Marcos was perfect and I loved Nadia's personality.

This is a story about self-discovery, sweet, fun, and light, I need more Latin characters. I really enjoyed it!

Thank you @NetGalley and Kensington Press for the ARC of Twice a Quinceañera.

I wanted to love this book so much, but it fell flat for me. I think a good edit and republish would take this book next level. The plot was good, but the focus was off and there were some plot issues. The two main characters firmed up that he would take the pictures, but then twice over later in the book that storyline changed, but then he did end up taking the pics. I would say there needs to be less family moments and more encounters of the MCs. The dance lesson scene was great...I would have loved to read more of that! I also really wasn't expecting the Mormon subplot. Nothing against it, but I don't think it gave to the story. I feel like there were three plots going and they were fighting against each other to be the lead.

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this novel for my honest review. I was really excited to read this novel, by the author of Furia. I really liked the premise-- overachieving young woman checks all of the achievement boxes but still finds something missing in her life. If the author had kept the book to that simple storyline, she would have had more space to breathe real life into the characters.

As it is, they all feel like pictures that the main character has cut out of magazines and glued in her wedding wish book. We hear a lot about several of her "best friends" in the book, but one of them never actually makes an appearance. Why? What happened to the main character's panic attacks?
There were other characters introduced and exited in less than 5 pages with no resolution or real purpose. A lot has been made of representation in this novel-- which is great in theory, but again comes off as superficial in practice. As has been mentioned by others, the pacing also felt off -- sometimes too fast and a lot of times too slow. A great deal of these issues could have been addressed through strong editing-- which seemed sorely missing.

I would disagree that this book is an "adult" book as it read very YA to me -- there were a lot of characters seeking parental approval throughout this book.

In the end, this book has a lot going for it. It could have explored the stress and anxiety that many high-achieving girls (especially those in immigrant families) face to do and be what others think they should. Instead, it's simply an easy-breezy beach read that will be mostly forgotten in a few days.

I read Twice a Quinceanera instead of reading my book club book and I feel no guilt at all! Nadia has just dumped her no-good fiance and is deciding to take back her life and her her power in this amazing friends and family first novel. After cancelling her wedding just one month before the date, Nadia has to come clean to her family and figure out what she is going to tell everyone coming in from around the globe. They were all expecting a wedding, but perhaps now they're getting something better, Nadia. I loved the focus on loving yourself and expecting your friends and family to do the same Of course the romance is adorable, but it wasn't the point of the story and I really appreciated that. The families were complex and messy but real.

5/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books, Kensington for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Love the premise of this Latinix novel. Overall, it was a good read, but -- as other reviewers have mentioned-- could use some editing. I enjoyed the larger family narrative.

First of all thank you netgalley for the arc.
It was light, funny but well written enough that i read it in one go in afternoon. Nadia and Marcos were absolutely adorable. I just loved the spark between them. The jealous moments were *chef kisses*.
I absolutely nadia's personality how she broke up with her 13 years old boyfriend.
So overall it was a fantastic read but there were slight grammatical mistakes.

I read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was a hard book to rate. I loved the idea, and what the book stood for; being independent, surrounded by family and love.
There were just a couple of things I wanted to be different.
I think Nadia waited way too long to tell Marcos about the Uncles wanting to buy the property.
Also, there weren’t many romantic moments between the lead characters, so their love felt quite rushed.

When Nadia breaks off her engagement to longtime boyfriend (of 13 years!!) weeks before the wedding, she gets the idea to instead throw herself a Treinteñera (Quinceañera x 2). Her 30th birthday falls days after the planned wedding date so she just needs to adjust some arrangements and... break the news to her huge family, many of whom have saved up money to make the trip all the way from Argentina to Utah celebrate the nuptials.

Coming face-to-face with Marcos, the only man who's truly made her toes curl (but high tailed it for reasons unknown to her), is quite the shock when she goes to the wedding venue to sort out changes to flip this Wedding to a Treintenera. His family owns the venue?! And how is it that he still sets her skin on fire when he glances on her?

Yamile Saied Méndez brought in a fabulous cast of characters to round out a story bursting with love. Nadia's aunts, uncles and grandparents provide humor, understanding and surprise as we follow them through activities leading up to the big day. Her friends are exactly who you'd want in your corner and I wanted to hug them through the pages for the way they supported and encouraged her.

Marcos struggles with his father's dementia and doubts his ability to manage the family business while his sister is out of town, but seeing Nadia again makes everything feel lighter. When you think you're already seeing what a great guy Marcos is, his interactions with Nadia's grandmother, Bisa, come along to really melt your heart. And if Nadia's family immediately takes to him and invites him along for family soccer games, who is he to resist?

Nadia and Marcos's reconnection was incredibly enjoyable to read. I felt their chemistry sizzling through the pages and their quiet moments were jealousy-inducing at times.

There were some grammatical errors and weak word choices that hopefully will be cleaned up prior to official release, and a couple of small points that seem to be irrelevant or left hanging.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for this ARC.

Light, fluffy read. Fantastic representation. I loved the extended family, and wish they could have gotten more page time. This could use some more editing and tightening up; as noted by other reviewers, the supporting characters feel half-sketched, while at the same time having way too much detail described.
Also, no swan ever ran away from a small child. :)
Rounded up from 2.5 stars.
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC!

Yes yes and more yes! This book was everything! As a Chicana, I was excited to read this as I actually never had a Quinceanera! This book centers around Nadia, who finds out about her cheating fiancé and instead of cancelling her wedding decides to have her double 15–threintanera celebration of herself at age 30! The author has amazing character building and I absolutely loved reading about Latinx characters! This book was so much fun and it was such a quick, positive read that I needed right now!