Kiss Me, Mi Amor… or maybe not
I love a good romance book.
Long gone are the days of covers where the shirtless men are embracing the wild-haired women.You would not catch me reading a book with that aesthetic. Yes, I was judging a book by its’ cover. But thanks to a marketing decision, now all of our romance covers are cartoon people and I am happy with the change. The cartoons, alongside Tik Tok and a new vibe of “who cares what people are thinking,” I dove deep into the genre.
Emily Henry, Ali Hazelwood, Abby Jimenez and others have appeared in my yearly recaps. There is a glaring and obvious absence in there; I don’t read a lot of romance novels about or by Latinx authors. As someone who takes a lot of pride of being Latina, the time had come to address this gap and I chose Kiss me, Mi Amor by Alana Quintana Albertson as the first book in this series.
Kiss me, Mi Amor is a modern and mexicanized retelling of William Shakespeare’s play “Taming of the Shrew.” Set in central California, it follows Carolina, a first generation Mexican-American whose parents have worked the fields for decades. At 23, she’s college educated, owns a small farm where she prioritizes workers’ right, healthy conditions and non harmful pesticides. She also bought a house where she lives with her family. What you need to know. She is the eldest of 10 daughters, her family is very catholic, very traditionalist and they abide to very strict gender norms. Opposite to Carolina, is our love interest Enrique, third generation Mexican-American, rich kid, doesn’t speak Spanish and is in search of fulfillment. This is the second book in the series Love & Tacos, I didn’t read the first book “Ramon & Julieta,” but it is another Shakespeare retelling.
If you are unfamiliar with the Taming of the Shrew, go watch “10 Things I Hate About You,”and then come back. I myself, didn’t study this play but I am familiar with the themes which are; an older sister deemed unfit for courtship, a younger sister who is perfect for dating and a plan. What follow is an attempt to trick the nonconformist, wild sister to get into a relationship so the younger sister can date.
Alberston follows this formula except Carolina is Latina. As part of a community that is very religious and where machismo and inequality run rampant, she has to subvert the expectations her family has put on her. She is looking for more agency. She doesn’t want to follow the traditional values of getting married, having kids and serving your family. (It is made clear in the book, if you choose that, that is okay) She already has changed tradition, in a way, Carolina is her father’s heir. Her self discovery is further complicated by her guilt and need to maintain her culture. I would have enjoyed this book more if it had been written better, but instead, we get a lot short, choppy sentences that don’t let the writing flow. The story in a lot of chapters ends up being written as “and then and then and next and next day,” which just made it repetitive and boring. So all this internal talk about self-realization gets stumped because it’s not an enjoyable read.
A good romance story is made up by the sentences that make you giggle and blush. If it fails at this, you end up with very cringey and corny dialogue — the death of any romance book. I am sorry but if I am side eying what you are saying to each other, I do not believe you are meant to be together. Unfortunately for this couple this was the case. Enrique is pretty weak as a love interest, he is also supposed to have a journey of self discovery but it’s unclear what it is because he is not very well developed. He is looking to meet Carolina to get her help on implementing more ethical conditions for his workers. Besides that, his personality was yoga, surfing and telling us over and over again he respected women and was not a misogynist. Great, that should be the basic characteristic of any male protagonist. However, his actions went against it from very early on like in his first meeting with Carolina, he was already talking about her skin and curves and lips. A woman he was seeking to be in business with.
Our romance which should be front and center didn’t feel real to me. The pacing of the book is my biggest issue. Everything happens so fast, there’s fake dating that turns into real dating. There is a whole thing about being a virgin and how she gave it to him and it was a gift, which I hated. Hated it! It was not supposed to be a big deal but Albertson very much made it a big deal. Next thing you know, there are 30 pages left of the book and nothing has been solved. We have a third act breakup and a family fracture. She has not made any progress on her inner happiness and I am counting the pages up thinking… “okay how are we going to deliver our happy ending. “ Again, the pacing was so poor, we get an eight month skip where Carolina now has figured it all out. She and Enrique are meant to be and she has changed her family long-held views on relationships and what it means to be a virtuous woman.
It pain me to do this, I hate to do it, but this book did not meet my expectation and I didn’t feel what I should have felt. I think my favorite part of the book the topic of farmer’s workers rights.