Rubi Ramos’s Recipe for Success by Jessica Parra dives into the Cuban culture, parental expectations, and what it means to be a child of immigrants who only want the best for you. This was a great young adult read and understand the pressures for a child of an immigrant to succeed in school and go to college. It's eye opening and a good read for all ages.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this novel. 4/5 stars.

Not going to lie, I got about 1/4 in and thought about DNFing it because Rubi's internal monologue is almost TOO teenage girl like, especially when she's around Ryan (crush...tutor....more?). BUT then I decided to keep reading, and I fell in love with Rubi's story and the impact baking has on her.

It's definitely a first-gen story where Rubi is tasked with accomplishing the dreams of her Cuban parents at the cost of her own dreams. Her parents own bakeries, but Rubi's passion of baking gets pushed aside to conquer her parents' dreams - and the stress that follows with her not wanting to waste their sacrifices. After a slight fib causes chaos and Rubi enters a baking competition -- after basically being banned from baking by her mom -- Rubi discovers more about herself and what it means to represent her family's dreams.

There are some beautiful cooking puns in the book, but there's also beautiful language about Rubi wishing for her homeland she's never experienced -- and how she finds it through baking.

This was a fun YA book about Rubi and her senior years and it is perfect for the young adult that is from an immigrant family and is feeling overwhelmed by the desires their family has for them. The story felt fairly authentic for a teenager without being overburdened by pop culture references. For me, it blends the elements of a YA contemporary with a dash of romance and some other plot points well, creating a wonderful story. The best part of this book in my opinion was Rubi herself, both her character and her story. She felt well developed without coming off as too old, or like she was above being a real human character. While the romance certainly wasn’t the biggest aspect of the book, I overall thought it was pretty cute and straddled the line of young relationships just being what they are supposed to be. This book was definitely well worth the read!

Thank you to Wednesday Books for the arc in exchange for review.

This was such a cute fun read perfect for summer, i loved Rubi and related to her alot.

What's it about (in a nutshell):
Rubi Ramos's Recipe for Success by Jessica Parra is a heartfelt love letter to Cuban culture and a fun romcom about a Cuban American teenager who is the daughter of bakers, personally loves to bake, and has a sure-fire plan/recipe to get into the college of her dreams.

My Reading Experience:
Wow! Just wow! When I picked up this book, I only expected it would be a fun story about a girl who experiences her first love, fights to get into the college of her dreams, and enters a baking contest. Sounds like the recipe for a light and fluffy fun read, doesn't it?

Oh, but it delivers so much more, as the tears of joy I cried at the end will attest to (and I rarely cry happy tears). The story of a Cuban couple and their first-generation daughter fighting to live the American dream was so authentic that it touched my heart in all the right places. And the love shown to the Cuban culture, particularly the baked goods, was the perfect love letter to those who share that heritage and those who want to know it better.

I loved everything about this story. It is so fun and so entertaining on the surface that it's easy to immerse yourself in and enjoy doing it. But underneath the fun lies the heart of the story – what it's like for immigrants and their children in this country:
The subtle and not-so-subtle bias and discrimination.
The pressures on the kids to be more.
The need to feel connected to one's roots.
It's all in there and then some.

I loved the Bake-Off angle, also. I'm a big fan of cooking competitions, especially The Great British Bake-Off, and this local bake-off had all the fun comparisons to that show right down to the judges and hosts. It added that relatable component I could grab onto and expand from.

Characters:
Rubi Ramos is smart and determined, and I love that she must see things through to the end, always. She is not a flighty or angsty teen at all; as a matter of fact, she is the opposite of those types. If you don't fall in love with Rubi by the end of the book, I would be surprised. She is a character I found easy to get behind and root for.
The romance is cute and innocent, and I always love a more innocent romance in a YA story. The chemistry between Ryan and Rubi is fun, lively, and supportive. As are Rubi's friendships. It's a cast full of characters to love for their unique qualities and their passion for their dreams.

Narration & Pacing:
The book is told in first-person narration, and I don't believe it could be told effectively any other way. This narration style made the story flow and kept a fast pace that I enjoyed. It is such a deceptively easy read with so much in it to enjoy.

Setting:
The setting is my ideal setting. The Ramos family lives in Pelican Point, California, a coastal town where you can see Catalina Island in the distance. The location is critical to the story, but you don't realize the importance until further into the tale. I think a setting should be chosen for a reason, and this one was.

Read if you like:
Fun heartwarming romcoms
Romcoms with meat
Relevant and important stories that will expand your cultural awareness

Rubi Ramos is the perfect daughter. She's got the grades, the extra-curriculars, and the passion to be the best. As long as she follows her parents 'recipe for success' she'll achieve everything she's ever dreamed of. That is until Alma waitlists her. With pressure coming from every direction and parental expectations weighing her down, the one white light she can still see is the amateur baking competition she has managed to enter herself in. Now she's keeping secrets from her parents, friends, and even the cute, surfer boy she's been talking to. With all of the lies she's been telling, Rubi begins to get lost and forget who she truly is, and what truly matters to her.

Rubi Ramos's Recipe for Success is a YA coming-of-age story with a splash of romance tossed in. Rubi has lived her whole life trying to meet her immigrant parents expectations of her They want everything they never had for her; opportunities, education, stability, but Rubi is not so sure that the things her parents want, match what she truly desires. There is a lot of heart to this story. Rubi goes through many changes from receiving her rejection letter until the end of the story. She grows a lot, learns a lot about herself and her loved ones, and figures out what it means to truly follow her own dreams, not the expectations of others. A great read for fans of YA and baking/food competitions!

Rubi Ramos is the child of immigrants, Cubans who left their country with nothing and have worked very hard to give her the life they couldn't have. They have 2 bakeries that take up their whole life and Rubi loves nothing more than to be in the kitchen baking with her dad. Still, her mom has forbidden her from baking out of fear that it will ruin her chances of being accepted into the prestigious Alma University. So it's an onslaught of pressure when the acceptance letter doesn't arrive just as Rubi has the chance to participate in an amateur bake-off that promises to let her live a dream she had never acknowledged she has.
Rubi has great friends, supportive mentors, a very confusing rival, and a cute redheaded tutor to help her navigate the hard choices she needs to make. Will she take the road to make her parents proud by ignoring all her dreams and passions to follow the 'recipe' for success her mom has? Or will she follow her heart and show everyone just how great her baking can be?
I had to really think about how to rate this one. On the one hand, it's a solid story of a child of immigrants trying to live up to their expectations over what she really wants, but on the other hand, I'm burned out on stories like this. Even the baking angle has been done to death. So I confess to not really getting into it at first, but Parra does an excellent job of making this overdone, basic plot her own and writing a story full of heart and perseverance that will no doubt give a younger reader a much-needed dose of hope and inspiration.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the early read!

Rubi is in her senior year at an all-girls private school. She is nearly top of her class and captain of the debate team but what she really wants is to be at her parent’s bakery concocting her latest culinary delight. Except her immigrant parents instituted what Rubi refers to as the “ban” and would prefer to see her far away from the bakery and the culinary world. Things get messy when Rubi enters a baking competition while being waitlisted for university.

Rubi’s sole personality trait is that she wants to bake but her parents want a better life for her and they want her to go to university… Is she kind? Is she funny? You get small glimpses but nothing concrete.

I needed more depth from the characters. Her BFF coming out to her on the phone in a quick phone call felt performative because the only interactions they ever had was when Rubi was calling her in crisis about baking/university until the BFF tried to help her save the day.

I needed more complexities in order to feel something. I didn’t relate to Rubi’s experiences and I hate miscommunication which could have solved the biggest problem that seemed to serve as a catalyst for all other problems. . I also thought the ending wasn’t all that satisfying. Was Rubi really happy? I’m not so sure.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rubi Ramos's Recipe for Success is an adoring coming to age YA novel! This is another YA book I wish I had read growing up! It follows Rubi, a mixed Cuban senior in high school dealing with the frustrations of following in the footsteps her immigrant parents, specifically her mom, had planned for her. In order to follow this "recipe for success", Rubi is expected to get accepted into the prestigious Alma University focusing solely on academics and extra circulars, causing her to be banned from baking and assisting with her family's bakeries. The only problem is that Rubi is waitlisted for the program and might have sneakily entered a bake-off without her parent's knowledge.

We get to see Rubi navigate the life of being a first-generation daughter, trying to keep her parents proud and unaware of the lies that she tells. We also see Rubi experiencing her first relationship, dealing with an annoying privileged nemesis, and being a good friend. There were times in this book I really felt the pressure for Rubi, at times I saw a high school version of myself trying to wear so many hats as well. My only con of this book is that Rubi does go through so much not leaving enough time to truly "feel" the gravity of some situations. For instance, her best friend comes out to her but I feel like the magnitude of this moment is a bit rushed. The romance in this book also felt a bit insta-lovey, but honestly, in high school, I was in love with someone new every other month so I didn't mind that much lol! Major pros for this novel are the family dynamics, Latine representations, the family growth, and the food! Holy crap, did I search for bakeries in my area once I started reading this.

Overall, I think Rubi's story would be great for any reader in high school, even middle school! For any readers like me, that enjoy reading YA to heal my teenage soul, I definitely recommend it!

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the arc in exchange for my honest review!

Where to start? Oh yeah…I loved this book! I gave Rubi Ramos’s Recipe for Success 4.75 stars.

I loved reading about Rubi's story as a first generation Afro-Cuban American born to Cuban immigrant parents. She feels this pressure to strive for her parents expectations because of everything they have done and sacrificed to get her to where she is. They want what's best for her and in doing so places a Ban on one of things she's most passionate about. Rubi lives breathes and eats baking and I love how the writing reflects that with it's baking metaphors describing how she feels in the moment or how she views things through the baking lens. You could really see Rubi's passion for baking! It practically lept from the page! And the recipes themselves sound delicious. I loved the relationship she had with her dad, the relationship she was forming with her mom getting better and how the Ban on Baking affected and shaped them! Rubi was a very well developed character in my eyes. The only thing I didn't like was the romance. Ryan was meh and boring and the way they got together felt weird, somewhat rushed and disjointed but I’m not too put off by it because the romance is not a big part or remotely the point of the book. We could have also gotten a little more background from other characters like her friends Devon or Torie.

Overall I really enjoyed this and am likely to purchase a copy when Rubi Ramos comes out on May 16th and I highly recommend it!

This is a beautiful coming of age story about Rubi discovering what she really wants in life. I really enjoyed seeing her love for baking and how she really wants to be connected to her Cuban roots. The recipes she made sound so good. I do think that having Ryan on the cover is a bit misleading because the romance is definitely a side plot but it's pretty so it's fine.

I received an arc through netgalley.

The sweetest book!

Literally. You will want all the sweet desserts while reading this book. And be inspired to bake.

And Rubi! The sweetest daughter who wants to please everyone. She struggles trying to please everyone and be the best and not crumble under the pressure.

Go on this journey with her while she finds the right balance between chasing and her dreams and doing what’s expected of her.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read and review.

I love reading a book that just feels fun to read, and this book definitely hit that check mark. The story follows Rubi as she tries to navigate reaching the goals her parents have for her, while allowing her passion for baking to finally break free. She's definitely got a lot of pressure and high standards that she is trying to live up to, yet from the beginning Rubi has a bright and creative personality that shines through. And it does so through my favorite thing – food. While this book does not honor us with fully written out recipes for all of the wonderful things Rubi makes throughout, it does give us a Great British Baking Show style competition that almost feels like watching the show itself, with a lot of the same fun and pizzazz. I loved seeing what Rubi would come up with next, and this story really celebrated the joy and connection that food and cooking bring to people.

The story also touches on family and friendship, and I personally like the fact that while romance exists, it is not the sole focus of the book or even the main source of conflict. Rubi simply meets a nice guy who cheerleads her and can also relate to her in important ways. There is definitely struggle and growth for Rubi, who tells a few lies in trying to balance all the different parts of her. But overall it's a fun, light and celebratory story that I really enjoyed reading.

The other big aspect that I loved is the cultural element. Rubi is Cuban-American, a first-generation kid who loves her culture, but sometimes has struggles connecting to it fully because of the things her parents have been through. Her experience is unique but also relatable, and it makes her such a strong and interesting protagonist. I especially loved the way that her food and baking connected her to her culture, and through food she got to express a passion for her heritage in such a beautiful way.

Come for the baking, stay for the cute romance, the competitive streak, the big dreams, and everything else in this wonderful book! Rubi Ramos is supposed to get into a prestigious university and become a lawyer. What she’s not supposed to do is bake (a distraction from academics) and especially not get waitlisted at that university instead.

Amid all the fast, fun competition and debate scenes and delicious-sounding bakes, there’s a heartfelt exploration of what it means to have a dream that your parents might not fully support. For Rubi, this comes with the socio-political layers of being one of the few brown, working class people at her private school and the first in her family to aim so high academically. A sweet treat of a read, to the very last bite.

This was a cute little teenage romance. I loved all the references to baking, but was a little confused sometimes, not being particularly familiar with Cuban pastries. One thing that did kind of bug me about the whole thing was Rubi's obsession with Cuba. I just didn't understand it. She wasn't born or raised there and her parents fled there because of awful things happening so I just didn't understand her obsession with it and wanting to go there so badly. Also all her lying was getting irritating. Overall it was cute, but I never really felt compelled to read more of it and I'll honestly probably have forgotten a lot of it in a year or so.

While RUBI RAMOS’S RECIPE FOR SUCCESS was giving me Emma Lord & A CUBAN GIRLS GUIDE TO TEA & TOMORROW (which I absolutely loved & you should read 😉) vibes it unfortunately missed the mark for me.

My thoughts:
-YA dealing with family dynamics
-this book will make you hungry & have you craving Cuban pastries
-not a fan of teenage insta love

Overall, I was just underwhelmed and this isn’t one that will stick with me.

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.
I was not able to read the book. Unfortunately, this one wasn’t for me and I had to DFN.
This is my opinion, purely a personal thing.

*I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this ARC!*

What a sweet story! (pun fully intended 😉) I went into this book expecting it to be mainly a romance. I was incredibly satisfied when I found that it was mostly about finding who you want to be, even when it goes against the wishes of those you love.

Rubi was such a great character to get to hang with! I loved how passionate she was about baking, but also how passionately she loves. She loves her parents so much, and wanted to make them proud of her. She was willing to push her own dreams aside in order to make her parents happy. She reminded me, a bit too much, of myself as a teen. She was fun and funny and stressed and anxious. Just a tornado of emotions haha

I loved Rubi’s relationship with her Dad. She had this really sweet bond with him over the ‘baking ban’ where he would allow her to stretch it just enough to keep her sane. I loved how supportive he was of her in all things. Her best friend, Devon, and her potential boyfriend, Ryan, were great supporting characters.

The star of this book though, was the baking! I loved how vivid the descriptions of all the things Rubi baked for the competition were. It made me so hungry! I even looked up Hispanic bakeries in my area (I found one, and I will absolutely be visiting it soon). It is rare that a book makes me want to try a new food, and this one achieved that rarity.

I loved seeing Rubi grow as a person, and as a baker throughout the novel. It was such a lovely coming-of-age story with some family drama, overcoming racist behaviors and sweet romance thrown in. And baking, we can never forget the baking!

My Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I gave Rubi Ramos’s Recipe for Success 4 Stars!

Wow!! I cannot believe that this book was a debut novel—it was so well-written. Rubi’s story has so much heart, from falling in love for the first time, navigating her parents’ high expectations, trying to find her Cuban roots, and most of all, discovering who she is and what she wants from her future.

As someone who is currently in law school myself, I definitely resonated with the pressure that Rubi felt to get into a law program, as well as her desire not to let that overcome other parts of herself. I was expecting this just to be a cute YA romance (which it definitely still was), but it was also a wonderful story about family and personal growth. I would definitely recommend it as a summer read!

Pub date: 5/16/23
Genre: YA ownvoices, coming of age with romantic elements
Quick summary: Rubi's parents want more for her than their professional bakery lifestyle, and Rubi decides to do all she can to get into Alma University off the waitlist. Mix in a baking competition (don't tell mom) and a super cute math TA to help raise her trig grade, and this recipe is going to get complicated.

I love coming of age stories and baking competitions, and I was an ambitious high schooler, so this book was a perfect match! I loved getting to know Rubi - narrator Karla Serrato did a great job bringing her to life. I felt for Rubi as she struggled with her love for baking and her lack of parental support for this endeavor. Rubi also longed for Cuba, the land her parents left behind, and Parra explored this theme well. The romance was super cute too - but make no mistake, this is Rubi's coming of age story, not Rubi's romance story. I was rooting for her 100%.

If you enjoy YA reads, this is a really fun one on audio! Just don't listen to it hungry :)

Thank you to Wednesday Books for my e-ARC and Libro.fm & Dreamscape Media for my ALC.