This was a spectacular story! I often find young adult books can feel a little silly as I get older sometimes but this one really surprised me. I felt that I still really related to the character and was super invested in the story line. This is definitely a must read!

Rafael’s family has moved to a new town right before his senior year, leaving him to start again at a new school and crushing his dreams of another first-place win in the Mariachi Extravaganza. To make things worse, he loses lead vocalist at his new school to Rey, the cute boy Rafie made out with at last year’s extravaganza. Yet even with their rivalry and competition, Rafie can’t shake his attraction to Rey.

THere was so much incredible Mexican culture that left my heart so happy - from the mariachi competition to the many references to Selena, my little Mexican heart was bursting with love. Rafie is a bit of an asshole, and I say that in the most loving of ways, so I can see where many people might not connect with him as a character. However, I had a soft spot in my heart for him and his heartbroken self. Rey is a literal ray of sunshine and balances Rafie so well. I adored Rey and how he lived to be his authentic self so boldly and with so much pride. This book didn’t rip my heart out in quite the same way Jonny Garza Villa’s other books have and I appreciated not ugly crying in this case. They have such a way with words and the writing was so beautiful and immersing.

The audio was narrated by Alejandro Antonio Ruiz. I adored the audio and found it was easy to get lost in the story - the only thing that could have made it better would be mariachi music within the story.

Thanks to Wednesday Books, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the advance copies.

The writing here, considered *as writing,* is terrific, but I'm sorry to say that Rafie alienated me completely by the time I was 20% in -- fine, he's grieving; fine, he thinks he needs to be perfect, but he acts out his grief by being such a jerk to everyone around him that I finally didn't want to spend another minute in his company.

This is my first book by Jonny Garza Villa; I'll certainly try another book by them. Just had to give up on this one.

Jonny Garza Villa's previous book, Ander & Santi Were Here, was one of my favorite reads of 2023, so I was hyped to have the chance to preview their newest work, too. To be clear, Canto Contigo is a different beast entirely than Ander & Santi. It's both angrier and warmer, a love letter to mariachi and Mexican culture. It has such a great handling of grief and anger in teenagers - especially PoC teenage boys, who so often are told they have to show these emotions in very specific ways. Genuinely, it's just a beautiful book.

Rafie is... a lot of lead character. He's so angry and cocky, yet rightfully so. He's exactly the type of student who I'd both hate and love to have in my classroom. And Rey is precious and talented and so deserving of all of the good things in life.

It holds a lot of fun similarities to Beating Heart Baby (another favorite) by Lio Min, so if you were a fan of that one, this one should be next on your list to pick up.

I really enjoyed this authors last book, Ander & Santi but I had a harder time gettting into this one, and I feel like I lost some of the meaning with the book having a mix of English and Spanish words.

This book includes so much joy, and truly embodies the angst of teenage life, dreams, and love. I LOVED the Mariachi music focus and learned so much about the art form, instruments, and competitive nature of the musical troupes. Rafie’s family unexpectedly leaves Mexico to move to San Antonia, TX right before his Senior year of high school. He’s now has to attend his rival school, and rather than being tapped as lead vocalist, he must share the spotlight with his rival Rey. This enemies to lovers plot was divine as both Rafie and Rey stoop to immature lows to one up each other. But when forced to truly collaborate, sparks fly, and they find they might actually be better when working together. This book reads like a love letter to Mexican culture; relationships with grandparents, the food, the music, the history. I adored the character growth, vulnerability, and emotion of the plot! So good!

Gosh, gosh, gosh, this book! I’ve loved every single book Johnny Graza Villa has released, so I went into this expecting to love it and woah were my expectations met and exceeded! This is so full of heart and love and the exploration of grief, it all hit so good and so hard. I love Rafie being messy and overconfident and so sure of himself, but then the ways Rey makes him soft and helps him find his way back to loving mariachi was all so good. I feel like I don’t have enough words to express how much this book hit my heart in all the best ways and how much I loved the whole cast of characters. This book feels so important and I’m so glad it exists and I continue to look forward to future stories from JGV!

5/5 stars
1/5 spice (fade to black)

Tropes:
Rivals to lovers
Musicians/Mariachis
LGBTQIA rep
Latinx rep
Forced proximity
Mutual pining
Protective hero
Single POV

I felt all the emotions with this book... anger, joy, frustration, annoyance, giddiness, sadness, and all the heartwarming feelings. I did have to remind myself that these were teenagers with hormones and big egos a couple of times (which is why I would get annoyed, lol)... but honestly, it worked so well for the setting of the story and character development.

I loved the dynamics between Rey and Rafie. No matter how annoyingly egotistical Rafie got, Rey was able to keep up and ground him. If you need your protagonist to be likable, then you'll probably have issues with this book. Because Rafie is super flawed and unlikable a lot of times. But he's obviously hurting so bad inside. I just wanted to smack him in the head a few times but then also give him a hug afterward. And a lot of characters felt this way, lol. Rey was so good for him, though, and the angst was sooooo worth the wait. Oh my goodness, did I cry and do that giggle with my feet in the air when the HEA hit. My heart...

Overall, this was a fun read that has all the angst you could expect from a rivals to lovers' story. Highly recommend for everyone...

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and offered voluntarily.

Trigger/Content warnings:
Homophobia, transphobia, grief, death of a family member, mental health topics, underage drinking, mild sexual content, and explicit language

Jonny Garza Villa just has a way with characters and words that grabs your heart and doesn't let go. I loved Ander & Santi and I loved this one just as much if not more. It was also really nice reading a queer music book immediately after a music book and a queer theatre book. It made my queer artist music & theatre loving heart very happy.

Rafie is difficult and kind of a jerk because of his ego (but also kind and sweet). Rey is a ray of sunshine. Their back and forth lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers relationship was a lot of fun. Watching them try and out-sing and out-perform one another was hilarious. Watching them learn to work together was inspiring.

Mexican culture plays a huge role in the book, and I loved learning about it. The Spanish dialogue sprinkled throughout the text isn't translated, which I kind of love. I know just enough to get the gist of what they were saying and the rest is filled in by context.

I love the way mental health is treated in this book. I also love the way queerness is treated. It's just so affirming and heartwarming and real.

We have a queer Mexican lead, a trans Black Mexican love interest, and a whole cast of dynamic, authentic supporting queer characters. And being queer is just part of who they are - it has nothing to do with the conflict of the story.

That's something that Jonny Garza Villa is fantastic at and a big part of why they have jumped directly onto my must-read list in the past couple years. They know how to inject so much love and queer joy into their stories and characters and make them feel vibrant and real.

The audiobook was performed brilliantly. The narrator's choice of voices and rhythms made it so easy to get lost in the story and feel that the characters were real.

*Thanks to NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and Macmillan Audio for providing an early copy for review.

- Jonny Garza Villa has another winner with CANTO CONTIGO. I adore their characters, these boys with soft hearts working through big events and bigger feelings.
- Rafie seems so prickly and hardheaded and first, but as we dig deeper into his experiences and feelings with him, we grow to love him just as much as Rey does.
- I loved the queering of mariachi in this book, too. I didn’t know much about the genre, but the book had me looking up songs and cheering for this super queer group of kids to live their dreams out loud.

Canto Contigo is Jonny Garza Villa's best book to date. A rivals to lovers YA romance, the story goes beyond the typical teen sex and snark (though there's plenty of both). It delves into grief and its manifestations, the consequences of unbridled ego (presented with compassion, maybe even at times admiration), and the culture, content, and joy of Mariachi.

Novels that open up rabbit trails (e.g., history of Mariachi, its notable singers & musicians, etc.) are most appealing to me; Canto Contigo offers rabbit trails I happily ran down. While I found some of the sex, language, and teen angst gratuitous, that's one adult's perspective that undoubtedly many in the target YA audience won't share.

Jonny Garza Villa has shared a beautifully written story with us, and it made me feel all of the feels along the journey. What a beautiful story indeed, as we follow along with Rafie on his quest to win the Extravaganza for mariachi once again, but ends up getting much more than he planned when he meets the most beautiful boy he has ever seen. The journey we go along with is beautiful. The character building is fantastic.

This is definitely a 5+ star read for me, and I cannot wait to dig into the next Jonny Garza Villa read!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this arc in return for an honest review.

I spent the first 40% of this book wanting to throttle Rafie, our narrator and a protagonist that I believe is meant to be fairly sympathetic for readers. But he’s a teenager, dealing with a lot, and his character arc was really satisfying to witness, even if the frustration of the first almost half of the book definitely knocked it down a rating for me.

I know almost nothing about mariachi, so being immersed in the world of it was a completely knew experience and the queer love story against the mariachi backdrop was truly unlike anything I’ve ever read. Rafie’s healing journey. and how he makes amends for hurting others along the way, is both well-told and heartbreakingly realistic.

And, as always, I love seeing the (well-done!) queer and trans rep with the characters on this story.

This story was so fun and unique. My knowledge of mariachi was pretty limited before reading Canto Contigo. You could tell how much love and care was poured into the writing of this. There were so many beautiful details about mariachi music, instruments, and members, as well as Mexican culture.
I loved how unique both Rey and Rafie were. Even though I wanted to shake Rafie and tell him to stop being a jerk, I know that was all a part of his grief - something that was tangible and extremely well done.
I can't wait to read more from Jonny Garza Villa!

Grief, accomplishment. Drive for success paired with overwhelming feelings. JGV has SUCH A TALENT for blending the highs and lows in a way that always delivers a compelling story. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

I was lucky enough to get approved for an ARC this book and boy where do I begin?
This book was a little slow to start and Rafie could be a little exhausting to read about at times, but he was totally understandable with his grief and pain. Honestly this book kind of reminded me of what it was like being a mentally unwell kid in highschool. So for that I give it props. Also it made me cry. So automatic star for that.
Overall the writing was good, the characters were great, and the book was overall a good read. I'd recommend. Also I definitely plan on reading Villa's other books after this. So yeah. Solid 4 Stars.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for a honest review.

as someone who's mexican, queer AND a fan of mariachi this was such a refreshing read! jonny garza villa was able to put the connection that you grow up having with your family in such a comforting way, i could see myself and my own family in the story so well. the biggest downside to this was that i just didn't stay connected to either of the mc's. they were nice to read about but i wasn't able to stay fully invested in them. but despite the issue with staying invested, i still enjoyed this read and will definitely be recommending it to others! plus the narrator for the audiobook did a FANTASTIC job, i may not have been 100% invested in this story but the narration definitely kept me hooked.

I loved "Ander and Santi" were here and was so excited to read Canto Contigo. I love Jonny Garza Villa's writing and the way he makes my heart aches for his characters. I love getting swept away in a book like this every once in awhile!

5 Stars
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

As soon as I saw the cover of this book, I knew I had to read it. I remembered how much I loved Ander & Santi Were Here, and to my amazement, I loved Canto Contigo even more. There are so many good things that I don't even know where to begin.

I love how Jonny Garza Villa writes emotion and feeling; it's raw and real, and I can't help but feel like I'm literally in the character's shoes. It's amazing. My other favorite thing about this book was the character growth. There were times where Rafie was driving me crazy, but I knew that his growth would be worth it, and it absolutely was. I love additionally how the author weaves so much culture into their stories. Reading about Rafie's family and their love for him, and the love for Mariachi made the story even more heartwarming.

I'd 100% recommend this, especially to anyone who loves YA romance, LGBT stories, or anyone who wants to know more about Mariachi and music in general. It was just a really great, feel-good, swoony story that at the same time packed amazing emotional punch.

ne is my favorite and I didn’t go in expecting it to be! The relationship between Rafie & Rey was so raw and beautiful and messy and real from the beginning of them just meeting to being rivals for the lead spot in the mariachi band to them being vulnerable with each other and falling in love, falling apart, and finding their way back to each other. I think the emotions of these two boys made everything feel so much more heightened and I really think that’s what made it so special! They both had so much to prove, not only to the world but also to themselves, and watching them hurt and be hurt was heart wrenching but it was so honest. In the beginning it was so hard to like Rafie but as the story unfolds, you can really see the pain that he’s in and how much he struggling with and it leads to him being harsh and determined but you can really see his heart and kindness shining through in the quiet moments with Rey and with his family as well as when he’s standing up for what’s right, unapologetically. I just really loved this so so much!!